The Fantasy of the Middle Ages: An Epic Journey Through Imaginary Medieval Worlds

Since the mid–19th-century Gothic revival promulgated by Englishman Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, the rich history and art of the medieval period (ca. 500–1500) has been endlessly “interpreted... exploited, and revitalized” by generations of creators, according to this fascinating survey from medievalists Grollemond and Keene. As Game of Thrones costume designer Michele Clapton writes in the preface, iconography from the Middle Ages—knights and princesses, swords and armor—has long been imbued with magical elements to tell human stories with “boundless possibilities.” In addition to dissecting the era’s cinematic reimaginings in GoT (whose fictional worlds are inspired by such real-life happenings as the 15th century Wars of the Roses), Grollemond and Keene illuminate medieval echoes in pop cultural creations as disparate as Cinderella’s castle at Disney World, role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, and the epic Middle-earth of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings franchise, which draws inspiration from, among many other things, motifs from the late 1400s version of Arthurian Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Giving each analysis the devotion of rigorous detectives, Grollemond and Keene reveal how, in modern retellings, these symbols and stories of the past represent timeless concerns. By turns informative and captivating, this will enchant historians as much as it will reenactors of the Renaissance Faire stripe. (July)