Topic description and stories

Epic issues: epic poetry from the dawn of modernity

02 Aug 2018

Epic poems telling of cultures colliding, deeply conflicted identities and a fast-changing world were written by the Greeks under Roman rule in the...

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Volcanic eruption influenced Iceland’s conversion to Christianity

19 Mar 2018

Memories of the largest lava flood in the history of Iceland, recorded in an apocalyptic medieval poem, were used to drive the island’s conversion to...

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Thought

Project seeks nation’s most memorised poems to investigate power of poetry ‘by heart’

02 Oct 2014

By aiming to discover the UK’s most memorised poems, a new research project – backed by a former Poet Laureate – will explore the poems that live in...

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Early surviving copy of The Brus conserved for Bannockburn anniversary

22 Jun 2014

One of the two oldest surviving copies of 'The Brus' – a medieval poem famous for its vivid, early description of the Battle of Bannockburn – has...

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Enter Zahhák, Dragon King of Persia

25 Oct 2013

To be performed in Cambridge on Monday 28 October Zahhák, Dragon King of Persia is the retelling of a myth taken from the Shahnama or ‘Book of Kings...

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