Gay love

[frualeydis]

I'm working on my lecture on same sex sexuality in the middle ages at this year's medieval week; it's coming along nicely. I need to read some more though and yesterday I borrowed a heap of books and articles on the history of homosexuality.

Comments

[fool000.livejournal.com]

That's interesting! I had no idea there was any information available on the subject.
By the way, what do you mean by middle ages? You plan to cover the whole era from 500 to 1500 AD, or a shorter period within that era?

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

It will be an overview with most focus on the period after 1100 since whe have more sources, but also because in Sweden the Middle Ages start around 1000. Here's (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/gayhistbib.html) and extensive bibliography on the history of homosexuality - I've only read a small part of this though.

/Eva

[fool000.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link.

Middle ages starting in 1000? That sounds weird to me, but maybe it is not so weird.
Where I live, in the Netherlands, the start of the middle ages is usually marked by the fall of the Roman empire.
But in Scandinavia there never was a Roman empire, so the fall of the the roman empire doesn't mean much. I get that.

But why 1000? Is that the point in time where most vikings had become Christians?

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

Here, before the middle ages there was the viking age. In many of the northern and eastern countries the Middle Ages are seen as starting with the conversion to christianity, which makes sense since being a (western) christian is what to people in the Middle Ages defined what it was to be a european.

/Eva