History Departments

HIST 3015 Medieval Europe in a Global Perspective, Winter 2015

Several accounts of medieval Europeans who came into contact with the populations of the European peripheries or of other continents have been preserved. This course will study some of these accounts. It will investigate the roles of long-distance travel, exploration, and encounters with foreign societies in medieval European history. Participants in the course will inquire into the reactions of medieval Europeans who migrated, traveled, and encountered distant and little known civilizations (including that of the dog-headed people). A special emphasis will be put on the Norse settlement of Iceland and Greenland, on the subsequent exploration in North America, as well as on travel accounts of Europeans who sojourned in Asia in the age of the Mongol Empire. Students will be requested to read translations of the Vínland Sagas and of the account of William of Rubruck, a Franciscan friar who traveled to the court of the Mongol Khan in the thirteenth century, and to write analytical commentaries on these sources. Lectures and discussion will provide background and methodological information necessary for the critical analysis of the sources, with the aim of facilitating individual reflection. 

Instructor: Dr. S. Rossignol