cleve callison’s blog

Isti Mirant Stellam

Here’s a link to a presentation prepared for Miami University’s Institute for Learning in Retirement. Anglo-Saxon England was the period of my dissertation at the University of Wisconsin, but after getting into public radio I left teaching behind for several years. A trip to England with friends from Oxford awakened my interest in doing something with a subject I love, so I volunteered to teach for ILR in 2004. Here’s the PDF of my presentations.

The illustration (from Wikipedia Commons) is from a panel in the Bayeux Tapestry, woven by the Normans to celebrate their victory over the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Those of us who love the period realize that this was as much a disaster as it was a triumph. Be that as it may . . . the tapestry caption reads “ISTI MIRANT STELLAM” (the line over the last A signifies an M), or ‘they wonder at the star.’ The star in this case was Halley’s comet, which appeared in 1066. Comets were frequent portents of dread.