HA is now the Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe

We have changed our name to Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe (JEMNE). We've updated our domain to jemne.org and our mission statement. Links to articles published under The Heroic Age will continue to function without change.

We hope you share our excitement as we transition!

Mission

JEMNE is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal dedicated to the exploration of all aspects of early medieval Northwestern Europe from c. 300–c. 1400. Our mission is to provide a forum for the investigation of the histories, cultures, and peoples of the medieval North Atlantic and North Sea regions in their local, intercultural, and global contexts. We seek to publish work using a variety of methodologies and frameworks both emergent and traditional. We welcome innovative approaches to the field.

Issue 22

03-Feb-2026

A Stemma of Sigurgarðs saga frækna, and a Case Study of Saga-Anthologization

Alaric Hall (University of Leeds), Alaric Hall (University of Leeds), Sheryl McDonald (University of Copenhagen), Hervin Fernandez-Aceves (Universidad Panamericana / El Colegio de Jalisco), Katelin Marit Parsons (University of Iceland and Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies), and Ian Simpson (Independent Scholar)

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18475600

Abstract: This article publishes the first stemma of the manuscripts of the fifteenth-century Icelandic romance Sigurgarðs saga frækna, taking in 58 of the 61 known witnesses. It capitalizes on digitally-native publication to publish all underlying data, presenting a fully open-data approach to stemmatics. The article shows how the post-medieval transmission of the saga supports previous claims about how Icelandic sagas in this genre circulated but also takes manuscripts containing Sigurgarðs saga frækna produced in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries in the Dalir region of Iceland as a case study for a methodologically novel investigation of how scribes went about anthologization. Refining previous work on the manuscript filiations of Ambrósíus saga og Rósamundu, Sigurðar saga turnara, Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar, Nítíða saga, and Konráðs saga keisarasonar, and making the first outline of a stemma of Nikulás saga leikara, the study gives our first systematic insight into how the scribes of the eighteenth-century manuscript Rask 32 assembled their anthology, and how their work influenced subsequent anthologies that drew material from that manuscript.

03-Feb-2026

“The Ancient Tradition of our Elders”: A Structural Analysis of the Historia Brittonum

Edwin Pace (Independent Scholar)

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18475808

Abstract: Analysis of the structure of the Historia Brittonum suggests that an extended, very early account of British history is embedded therein. This account began with Britain’s founding by Britto, included at least seven Roman emperors, and ended with the military exploits of the Post-Roman figures Arthur and Guorthemir. In the Ninth century the historian Nennius then dismantled this original account and dispersed its various parts to their present positions. The HB56 citation about an alternate victor for the battle of Badon, which refuted the earlier historians Gildas and Bede, fully explains Nennius’ frustration with Insular historians in the Historia Brittonum’s Prologue. Most important, reassembling these narratives into their original sequence provides one of the earliest Insular accounts of events in Post-Roman Britain.

Featured Article from Issue 10

Boniface's Booklife: How the Ragyndrudis Codex Came to be a Vita Bonifatii

Michel Aaij (Auburn University Montgomery)

Abstract: For over a millennium, Bonifacian iconography has been dominated by the image of a sword piercing a book. Originating in the eighth-century Utrecht vita, the standard account of Boniface trying to ward off the Frisian sword with a book was consolidated in the eleventh century by Otloh of St. Emmeram, who connected the Utrecht narrative to the Ragyndrudis Codex, a valuable codex now in Fulda, close to the saint's cult center. The codex's outside, though, does not correspond with standard hagiography; neither do its (mainly anti-Arian) contents correspond with Boniface's dual goal of conversion and church reform. Nonetheless, the tortured book is a fitting image of a man devoted to his mission; the questionable identification is appropriate since so many questions remain on Boniface's life and death—whether he lived the life of an effective missionary who indeed was the Apostle of the Germans, whose many letters allow us to glimpse the interior life of a radically different man, whether he died as the result of a heathen robbery, Frisian guerilla, or even Frankish conspiracy. The Ragyndrudis Codex has become a Bonifacian vita, and if this metonymy is a clever ploy by an eleventh-century monk to strengthen Fulda's legal and financial status, it has proven no less effective to the believer.

Featured Article from Issue 17

Sub-kingdoms and the Spectrum of Kingship on the Western Border of Charles the Bald's Kingdom

Fraser McNair (University of Cambridge/Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)

Abstract: Carolingian kingship was not an all-or-nothing proposition. This article compares three border regions of Charles the Bald’s kingdom, Neustria, Aquitaine and Brittany, all operating at a variety of removes from central authority, examining their rulers to see the extent to which they participated in the aspects of kingships. In doing so, it argues that there was a spectrum of kingship, in which ruler’s status could be higher or lower, partaking of different aspects of regality so as to be only semi-royal.

Call For Papers
General Submissions

Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe welcomes and encourages papers on topics unrelated to themed sections at any time. Please refer to the Submission Instructions for more information.

International Congress on Medieval Studies 2026

Archaeology in the Medieval Past

This session invites contributions focused on archaeological approaches to the medieval past. We hope to broaden the conversation around the unique insights archaeological methods provide into the material culture and lived environments of medieval societies. We welcome all proposals, including updates and insights emerging from current projects, applications of innovative methodologies (both theoretical and applied), and fresh approaches to traditional methods.

Submissions are due September 15, 2025 through the ICMS Confex System.

Connections in and through Early Medieval Northwestern Europe

This session seeks submissions that explore any type of connection with or within Northwestern Europe in the Early Middle Ages from any disciplinary approach (linguistic, historical, literary, archaeological, artistic, economic, theological, etc.). JEMNE examines the place of Northwestern Europe in a wider context, exploring connections among the cultures within and beyond the region, including the Mediterranean, Byzantine, Arabic, and global contexts. We particularly encourage submissions using innovative methods or bringing fresh approaches to traditional methods.

Submissions are due September 15, 2025 through the ICMS Confex System.

Legal Notices

All files in this issue are offered to users free of charge for educational or personal purposes. Authors retain intellectual ownership of copyrighted material. Permission is not granted for commercial use.

All artwork on this site is copyrighted to the credited artist, and permission must be obtained from that person before the art may be used elsewhere. All uncredited artwork is believed to be in the public domain. If this is incorrect, please email the Editor-In-Chief and proper credit will be given or the artwork will be removed at once, whichever is the preference of the artist and/or the artist's legal representatives. If an image is in the public domain, feel free to download it and upload it to your own site. Please do not link directly to the image.