Fémina

The Middle Ages are considered a bloody age populated by Vikings, knights, monks and kings: a patriarchal society that oppressed and excluded women. But, if we look a little more, we see that those centuries were anything but "dark". Janina Ramirez, an Oxford historian specializing in the Middle Ages, has discovered in historical records a large number of women's names crossed out with the annotation "female" next to them. Our vision of history, then, is not complete: we lack them. Only now, through close examination of the objects, writings, and possessions they left behind, do the influential and multifaceted lives of the women of that time emerge. "Fémina" goes beyond the official history to discover the true impact of women like Jadwiga, the only woman to rule as "king" in Europe; Hildegard of Bingen, the greatest sage and polymath of the Middle Ages, or the Viking warrior from Birka, whose skeleton, originally attributed to a man, contradicts the belief that medieval women did not engage in war. In a vibrant journey that spans the whole of Europe, the voices that emerge in this volume offer us a glimpse into a deeply original and exciting new Middle Ages.