Lady With a Mead Cup. Ritual, Prophecy and Lordship in the European Warband from La Tene to the Viking Age.

Aus dem Nachlass von Michael Richter. Mit Namensstempel auf Vorsatz. Ein gutes und sauberes Exemplar. - Inhalt: Ritual, Group Cohesion and Hierarchy in the Germanic Warband -- Warlords, Hetzerinnen and Sibyls -- The Liquor Ritual and the Basis of the Lordly Power to Command Followers -- The Archaeology of Intoxication and the Continuity of Transalpine History -- From L�bsow to the Vikings -- From Hochdorf to the Gaels -- Aspects of Continuity and Oral Culture -- Warband Religion and the Celtic World -- Druids, Female Magic and Weaving Beams -- Wealhtheow -- The Celto-Germanic Warband and the Rise of the Warlord -- Governmental Forms -- Mercury, Wodan and the One-Eyed Warlord -- Rosmerta and Veleda -- Mercury, Rosmerta and a Concept of Rhineland Kingship -- The Inauguration of the Warlord. - Lady with a Mead Cup is a broad-ranging, innovative and strikingly original study of the early medieval barbarian cup-offering ritual and its social, institutional and religious significance. Medievalists are familiar with the image of a queen offering a drink to a king or chieftain and to his retainers, the Wealhtheow scene in Beowulf being perhaps the most famous instance. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology and philology, as well as medieval history, Professor Enright has produced the first work in English on the warband and on the significance of barbarian drinking rituals. Taking Beowulf as his point of departure, he studies these rituals in the Germanic warband, their importance in terms of status creation, and the role of women in their administration. The cultural roots of the comitatus and the origins of warband religion are then explored through the use of archaeological evidence from Iron Age central Europe to the Viking age. This study demonstrates that considerably more continuity existed in European history from La Tene through the Viking period than is commonly supposed. Lady with a Mead Cup will be of interest to students of Germanic or Celtic culture and kingship, anthropology and Dark Age religion. (Verlagstext). ISBN 9781851821884