This volume questions the extent to which Medieval studies has emphasized the period as one of change and development through reexamining aspects of the medieval world that remained static. The Medieval period is popularly thought of as a dark age, before the flowerings of the Renaissance ushered a return to the wisdom of the Classical era. However, the reality familiar to scholars and students of the Middle Ages that this was a time of immense transition and transformation is well known. This book approaches the theme of stasis in broad terms, with chapters covering the full temporal range from Late Antiquity to the later Middle Ages. Contributors to this collection seek to establish what remained static, continuous or ongoing in the Medieval era, and how the periods political and cultural upheavals generated stasis in the form of deadlock, nostalgia, and the preservation of ancient traditions.

Michael D.J. Bintley is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. His works includeTrees and Timber in the Anglo-Saxon World(ed. with Michael Shapland);Trees in the Religions of Early Medieval England;Representing Beasts in Early Medieval England and Scandinavia(ed. with Tom Williams);Andreas: an Edition(ed. with Richard North); andSensory Perception in the Medieval West(ed. with Simon Thomson).

Mary Wellesleyworks in the Department of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts at the British Library in London. She was educated at Lincoln College, Oxford, before moving to University College London for her Masters' and PhD. She has published on aspects of codicology, literary criticism, on medieval drama and on Lydgate's religious verse. Also a freelance writer, her work has appeared inApollo,Archipelago, Laphams Quarterly.

1 Introduction: Stasis in the Medieval West? Questioning Change and Continuity, Victoria Symons, Mary Wellesley, Michael D. J. Bintley.- 2  Beacons of Belief: Trees and Religion in Britain from Prehistory to the Later Middle Ages, Michael D. J. Bintley.- 3  The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Decorative Continuity in Early Anglo-Saxon England, Melissa Herman.- 4 Art History in the Dark Ages: (Re)considering Space, Stasis and Modern Viewing Practices in Relation to Anglo-Saxon Imagery, Meg Boulton.- 5 Set in Stone or Food for Worms: the Stasis of Writing in the Exeter Book Riddles, Victoria Symons.- 6 Stitched Up? Cynewulf, Authorial Attribution and Textual Stasis in Anglo-Saxon England, Tom Birkett.- 7 The House of Stilled Time: Stasis and Eternity in Anglo-Saxon Churches, Michael Shapland.- 8 There and Back Again: Creating the Pilgrimage Experience in Text , Martin Locker.- 9 But that will not be the end of the calamity: Why Emphasize Viking Disruption?, Katherine Cross.- 10 Configuring Stasis: the Appeal to Tradition in the English Reign of Cnut the Great, Simon C. Thomson.- 11 Sleeping Dogs and Stasis in the Franklins Tale, Richard North.- 12 Static Menyng and Transitory Melodye in LydgatesSeying of the Nightingale, Mary Wellesley.- 13 Dress, Fashion and Anti-Fashion in the Medieval Imagination, Louise Sylvester.- Index.