Storytelling

A large central area in the exhibit featured changing images on its walls, which surrounded a round set of display screens. This first shot features one of those wall images- a statue of Joan of Arc.

Several of the display screens featured legends and stories that rose up during the medieval period from various parts of Europe. Robin Hood, Beowulf & Grendel, King Arthur and his knights of Camelot, and the tragic Tristan and Isolde are some of those stories. Somewhere in the back of my mind is a one-off tale of Camelot from Merlin's point of view, but instead of the old man we see him as, I'd write him as a warlock who stops aging in his early twenties and lives into the current day.

Here we have another of these shifting wall images.

And yet another. Cathedral architecture is another legacy of the medieval period, and several different examples were shown on these walls.

Here we have two more of the display panels on thematic areas.

This stone grave marker is from the 9th century, giving the name of Ugoid, an Anglo-Saxon in northern England who had been baptized a Christian.

Three items are in this case. The figurine is alabaster, made in France at some point in the 15th century, meant to be a tomb decoration. The ivory panels at left date from the 14th century, also from France, and are a diptych, depicting images of the Resurrection and serving as a worship aid. The plaque at the right is gilded copper from France, also 14th century, and depicts the entrance of Hell as the mouth of a gigantic monster.

I'm not certain as to if this was a reproduction or not, but this was a common sight throughout the exhibit. Stone capitals are a signature element in medieval architecture, carved by masons to top columns, and often using nature as a motif. Some of them included faces- the 'green men' of the style. One of the more famous examples of Green Men can be found at Winchester Cathedral in Britain.