scholarly journals The Irish in Mercia: A Cultural Context for the Earliest Anglo-Saxon Prayer Books

2012 ◽  
pp. 52-56
Author(s):  
Kirsty March
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
King Arthur ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Holy Grail ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
Terry Gilliam ◽  
Prayer Books ◽  
Monty Python

1st soldier: You’re using coconuts! King Arthur: What? 1st soldier: You’ve got two empty halves of coconut and you’re bangin’ ‘em together. King Arthur: So? We have ridden since the snows of winter covered this land, through the kingdom of Mercia, through . . . 1st soldier: Where’d you get the coconuts? King Arthur: We found them. 1st soldier: Found them? In Mercia?! The coconut’s tropical! (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975, directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones) Mercia is a county in the English midlands, and its foundation dates to the sixth century. In studies of the Anglo-Saxon period, Mercia is overshadowed by its neighbour Northumbria as famous works of art such as, the Cuthbert Cross and Lindisfarne Gospel Book were manufactured in Northumbria. However, Mercia produced manuscripts which are thought to be the earliest surviving European devotional prayer books. My research focuses on these Mercian manuscripts ...

GOT GRAIL? MONTY PYTHON AND THE BROADWAY STAGE

2007 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie A. Finke ◽  
Susan Aronstein
Keyword(s):  
Mass Culture ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
King Arthur ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Holy Grail ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Broadway Musical ◽  
Political Conservatism ◽  
Ticket Prices ◽  
Monty Python

Money matters. In Act 2 of Spamalot, Eric Idle's Broadway musical based on the 1975 cult classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the show's star, Tim Curry, as King Arthur, comments that the characters are running around in a “dark and very expensive forest.” The joke, it turns out, is entirely on us. Monty Python and the Holy Grail was an inexpensive independent film, costing $250,000 to make, a bargain compared to the same year's The Rocky Horror Picture Show ($1,200,000) and Python's own 1979 Life of Brian ($4,000,000). From its release, Holy Grail ran continuously in many theatres, and large numbers of people could afford the price of a ticket; it still circulates widely in relatively inexpensive DVD and VHS editions. Fast-forward thirty years to March of 2005. Production costs for Spamalot, Eric Idle's Broadway musical “lovingly ripped off” from the film, top $14 million (not atypical start-up costs these days on Broadway). Playing in a single theatre that seats only about 1,600, the show commands ticket prices that begin around $100 and can cost $350 and up. According to the Wall Street Journal, Spamalot is setting the pace for the spiraling costs of Broadway entertainment. Many fewer people will see the musical than the film, and those who can will tend to be more affluent; Spamalot's target audience is Holy Grail's first audience “all grown up,” prosperous, middle-aged Monty Python fans (like the authors of this article). In their youth, Holy Grail denied this audience the pleasures of narrative cinema. It made fun of film, relentlessly disturbing the seamless illusion of reality that is the cornerstone of Hollywood cinema, refusing narrative coherence and narrative closure. A parody of the clichés of mass culture, it exposed the political conservatism of the various forms of nostalgia for a medieval past that never was, a past in which strange women lying around in ponds distributing swords could be a basis for a political system. Spamalot, on the other hand, adapts its cinematic original, repackaging the youthful rebellion of the 1975 film and offering the pleasures of nostalgia remarkably free from political consequences.

Cristóbal Balenciaga. Explorations in Traditional Spanish Aesthetics

Costume ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-185
Author(s):  
Ana Balda Arana
Keyword(s):  
Creative Process ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Doctoral Thesis ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Religious Iconography

This article investigates how the traditional attire and religious iconography of Cristóbal Balenciaga's (1895–1972) country of origin inspired his designs. The arguments presented here build on what has already been established on the subject, provide new data regarding the cultural context that informed the couturier's creative process (with which the Anglo-Saxon world is less familiar) and conclude by investigating the reasons and timing of his exploration of these fields. They suggest why this Spanish influence is present in his innovations in the 1950s and 1960s and go beyond clichéd interpretations of the ruffles of flamenco dress and bullfighters’ jackets. The findings derive from research for the author's doctoral thesis and her curatorial contribution to the exhibition Coal and Velvet. Balenciaga and Ortiz Echagüe. Views on the Popular Costume (Balenciaga Museum, Getaria, Spain, 7 October 2016–7 May 2017).

Human faces with pointed ears: exploring lycanthropy in Early Anglo-Saxon England

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Lisa Brundle ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Contextual Information ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
East Anglia ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
Human Element ◽  
Human Faces ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Literate Society

In Early Anglo-Saxon England, Style I anthropomorphic and zoomorphic motifs played a key role in shaping identity and communicating ideas in a non-literate society. While the zoomorphic designs are well discussed, the meaning of the human element of Style I remains underexplored. This paper addresses this imbalance by examining a rare and overlooked group of anthropomorphic images: human faces with small, pointed ears depicted on fifth- to sixth-century female dress fittings recovered from archaeological contexts in eastern England. This paper identifies quadrupedal creatures as a stylistic parallel within the menagerie of Style I, including equine, lupine and porcine creatures. Although it is difficult to identify the character/s depicted with ears, there are notable affinities between the anthropomorphic masculine face with pointed ears and the ancient Germanic practice of warriors donning wolf and bear pelts. The facial motif with pointed ears appears on feminine metalwork within East Anglia, the historic region of the sixth-century Wuffingas (Little Wolf) dynasty – Wuffa being Wolf and the -ingas suffix meaning ‘people/descendants of Wuffa’. This paper explores this rare design with contextual information from pictorial and historical texts of shapeshifting and considers the relationship between this motif, the object, and the wearer/user.

The Junius Psalter gloss: its historical and cultural context

2000 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 85-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mechthild Gretsch
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Bodleian Library ◽  
Latin Text ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Benedictine Reform ◽  
The Individual

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 27 (S.C. 5139), the Junius Psalter, was written, Latin text and Old English gloss, probably at Winchester and presumably during the reign of King Edward the Elder. Junius 27 is one of the twenty-nine complete or almost complete psalters written or owned in Anglo-Saxon England which have survived. (In addition to these twenty-nine complete psalters, eight minor fragments of further psalters are still extant.) This substantial number of surviving manuscripts and fragments is explained by the paramount importance of the psalms in the liturgy of the Christian church, both in mass and especially in Office. Junius 27 is also one of the ten psalters from Anglo-Saxon England bearing an interlinear Old English gloss to the entire psalter. (In addition there are two psalters with a substantial amount of glossing in Old English, though not full interlinear versions.) Since our concern in the first part of this article will be with the nature of the Old English glossing in the Junius Psalter, and its relationship to other glossed psalters, it is appropriate at the outset to provide a list of the psalters in question. At the beginning of each of the following items I give the siglum and the name by which the individual psalters are traditionally referred to by psalter scholars. An asterisk indicates that the Latin text is a Psalterium Romanum (the version in almost universal use in England before the Benedictine reform); unmarked manuscripts contain the Psalterium Gallicanum. For full descriptions of the manuscripts, see N. R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon.

Terry Gilliam

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Don Quixote ◽  
Set Design ◽  
No Production ◽  
Brothers Grimm ◽  
Terry Gilliam ◽  
The Face ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Monty Python

With a directorial career spanning over forty years, Terry Gilliam (b. 1940) remains rooted in the sensibilities of his early work in animation. Born in Minnesota and raised in the Los Angeles area, Gilliam, sometimes classified as a British filmmaker, has lived in England since the 1960s, renouncing his US citizenship in 2006. As the resident animator of Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969–1974), Gilliam created surreal and absurd vignettes from cutout images that complemented the live sketches. After partnering with fellow Python Terry Jones in directing Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Gilliam struck off on his own with Jabberwocky (1977). Many films followed in which one or more members of Monty Python appeared as actors under his direction. Though Gilliam’s works ostensibly cover diverse subjects—bureaucracy, virus outbreaks, and the gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, to name only a few—all engage with questions of the power and problems of the imagination in the face of an often-grim or oppressive reality. The overall look of a Gilliam film is unmistakable as well, with off-kilter shots meant to disorient the viewer and crowded mises-en-scène. His use of wide-angle lenses is so extensive that the 14-millimeter lens has been nicknamed “the Gilliam.” Deeply involved not only in camerawork but in many other aspects of production such as costuming, set design, and scriptwriting, Gilliam would seem to fit the definition of an auteur. However, in numerous interviews, Gilliam resists that label, stressing his collaborative approach and openness to suggestions. Indeed, the process of making and distributing his films has sometimes garnered as much, if not more, attention than the films themselves. Brazil (1985), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), The Brothers Grimm (2005), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2014) all faced disruptions and setbacks of various kinds. No production was bedeviled so long and in so many ways as The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018), taking nearly thirty years to reach the screen. Frequently identifying with the main characters of his films in progress, Gilliam perhaps most resembles Don Quixote in his unstinting commitment to his vision, whether commercially successful or not, whether brilliant or baffling to critics or audiences.

‘A Spectacular Mess’: Synopsis

12 Monkeys ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 7-12
Author(s):  
Susanne Kord
Keyword(s):  
Blade Runner ◽  
Terry Gilliam ◽  
Monty Python

This chapter talks about the film 12 Monkeys from 1995, which was written by the co-author of Blade Runner in 1982 and author of Unforgiven in 1992, David Peoples, and his wife and collaborator Janet Peoples. It mentions Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame, who directed 12 Monkeys. It also discusses how 12 Monkeys was made on an extremely modest budget of slightly under $30 million, resulting in the film's stars working for far less than their usual fee. The chapter recounts how 12 Monkeys defied expectations by raking in $170 million worldwide and receiving a number of nominations and awards. It describes the critics' response to 12 Monkeys, calling it a spectacular mess, a convoluted film with too many ideas for its own good, and a film with an involving, occasionally baffling storyline.

Parody and the Role of Song in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

2021 ◽  
pp. 125-155
Author(s):  
Megan Woller
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Full Length ◽  
Holy Grail ◽  
Arthurian Legend ◽  
Valuable Addition ◽  
Sketch Comedy ◽  
Monty Python

This chapter deals with the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. As Monty Python’s first full-length film, Holy Grail combines the sketch comedy style of the troupe with a loose interpretation of Arthurian legend. Although chock-full of anachronisms and outright mockery, Monty Python’s version of Arthurian legend nonetheless represents a valuable addition to the retellings of the story in the twentieth century. While the literature on the Holy Grail offers a foundation for considering the film as an adaptation of Arthurian legend, little work has been done on the film’s music and how it enhances the story. This chapter will emphasize the role of the music, especially the songs written by Neil Innes, arguing that they not only provide atmosphere but augment the narrative (such as it is). In this way, this chapter will also lay the groundwork for examining Holy Grail as the basis for Eric Idle’s later musical, Spamalot.

The Animation of Marginal Decorations in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Arthuriana ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 45-58
Author(s):  
Martine Meuwese
Keyword(s):  
Holy Grail ◽  
Monty Python

Performative aspects of late medieval English wills

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriella Del Lungo Camiciotti
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Legal Enforcement ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Literate Culture

This paper presents a case study of the fifty earliest English wills in the Court of Probate, London, with a view to contributing towards highlighting the historical development of this legal genre. By analysing these documents from a pragmatic perspective and setting them in a diachronic framework, I show how the realisation of the act of bequeathing is highly dependent on the socio-cultural context of production and use. Late medieval wills are utterly different from Anglo-Saxon ones in that they are the product of a relatively literate culture in which drafters followed the format of Latin testaments; in this sense late medieval wills are similar to modern ones because they conform to the model of autonomous, formal text. However, they do not fulfil all the felicity conditions necessary to achieve their full constitutive potential as the authority validating these documents remains rooted in religious practices rather than in legal enforcement. This paper offers evidence in favour of the view that a proper pragmatic analysis of medieval documents can only be achieved by taking the historical context into account.

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