BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Date iCal//NONSGML kigkonsult.se iCalcreator 2.20.2// METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Toronto BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20241103T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250309T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:calendar.2431.events_uoft_date.0@www.medieval.utoronto.ca CREATED:20241015T170007Z DESCRIPTION:\nWhen and Where: \nFriday, March 21, 2025 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm \n 3rd Floor \n Lillian Massey \n 125 Queen's Park, Toronto, ON, M5S 2 C7 \n\nSpeakers \nRebecca Stephenson (University College, Dublin) \n\nDes cription: \nRebecca Stephenson (she / her) Associate Professor of Old and Middle English, School of English, Drama, and Film at University Colleg e, Dublin visits CMS for the March 21 Convivium. The Convivium is a hybri d event, with the option to attend either in person or virtually via Zoom .**RSVP REQUIRED TitleThe End of the World or merely another Viking raid? Vikings, the Apocalypse, and Byrhtferth’s Scientific Writing around the year 1000 AbstractStarting in 991 at the Battle of Maldon, England experi enced a wave of Viking attacks that began as intermittent pillaging but ex panded into a full-scale military takeover of the country. By 1016, Cnut\ , a Danish king, sat on the throne of England. A range of literary works preserve responses to this historical cataclysm, from tragedy-infused nar ratives in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the poem The Battle of Maldon to eschatological interpretations in Archbishop Wulfstan’s famous Sermo lupi ad anglos (The Sermon of the Wulf to the English) and numerous saints’ liv es. During the same period, and frequently among the same writers, anoth er kind of literature blossomed: scientific writing, particularly of the sort related to computus, that is the medieval method for calculating dat es. My book project, The Science of Apocalypse, argues that these two ve ry different kinds of writings share common ground in their use of apocaly ptic narratives and motifs. While the apocalypse might seem to be a religi ous, rather than a scientific, issue, the main sources for apocalyptic information for these writers were scientific tracts like Bede’s De tempor um ratione (On the Reckoning of Time).   A similar overlap occurs in Byrht ferth of Ramsey’s Enchiridion, a lengthy scientific textbook ending with apocalyptic homilies. The scale of Viking attacks in 1012, when Byrhtfert h was writing, spurred a belief that the apocalypse was imminent and lent urgency to scientific questions such as calculating the dates for Christi an observances and establishing the events of the end times. The Science o f Apocalypse demonstrates that the apocalyptic motifs in Old English liter ature referencing the Viking attacks are in fact related to the contempora ry production of scientific literature and vice versa. The concern for sci entific writing was a weapon that a monk could use to fight the spiritual causes of the Viking invasion, in a similar manner to how the Sermo Lupi called for repentance.  This talk will interpret Byrhtferth’s Enchiridion\ , which is ostensibly a scientific work uninfluenced by contemporary event s, as a work deeply informed by the Viking invasion. Read more about Rebe cca Stephenson, her research, and her visit at CMS through the Craig Dob bin Legacy Scholarship in the January Chronica (pg. 9). \n\nContact Inform ation: \n Centre for Medieval Studies medieval.communications@utoronto.ca \n125 Queen's Park, Toronto, ON, M5S 2C7 \n\nCategories \n Lectures \n \nAudiences \n Alumni and FriendsCommunityFacultyFirst-Year StudentsGradua ting StudentsProspective Graduate Students DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20250321T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20250321T163000 LAST-MODIFIED:20250320T155048Z LOCATION:125 Queen's Park, Toronto, ON, M5S 2C7 SUMMARY:Convivium: Rebecca Stephenson, The End of the World or merely anot her Viking raid? URL;TYPE=URI:https://www.medieval.utoronto.ca/events/convivium-rebecca-step henson-end-world-or-merely-another-viking-raid END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR