Fully illustrated with over fifty photographs, this book describes the ancient fighting styles and mythical self-images of Germanic warriors from 200 BC - AD 1000 and presents vivid and fascinating survey that adds a colourful new dimension to our understanding of the history of Europe.

Presenting a range of evidence for these diverse styles, from Roman art to early medieval bracteate amulets, and from classical texts to Beowulf, the Edda and Icelandic sagas, Professor Speidel here details seventeen different Germanic warriors styles, including berserks, wolf-warriors, club-wielders, long-hairs, ghost warriors and horse-stabbers, and how they indicate an unbroken continuity of customs, beliefs and battle-field tactics. Ancient Germanic warriors played a decisive role in historical events from 200 BC, when Germanic culture first became identifiable, to AD 1000 when Christianity swept through the Nordic countries. Arising from beliefs and states of mind, a variety of warrior styles manifested themselves in differences of dress, weaponry and fighting technique. Fully illustrated with over fifty photographs, this vivid and fascinating survey adds a colourful new dimension to our understanding of the history of Europe.

Any reader of scholarship on the ancient and early medieval world will be familiar with the term 'Germanic', which is frequently used as a linguistic category, ethnonym, or descriptive identifier for a range of forms of cultural and literary material. But is the term meaningful, useful, or legitimate? The term, frequently applied to peoples, languages, and material culture found in non-Roman north-western and central Europe in classical antiquity, and to these phenomena in the western Roman Empire’s successor states, is often treated as a legitimate, all-encompassing name for the culture of these regions. Its usage is sometimes intended to suggest a shared social identity or ethnic affinity among those who produce these phenomena. Yet, despite decades of critical commentary that have highlighted substantial problems, its dominance of scholarship appears not to have been challenged. This edited volume, which offers contributions ranging from literary and linguistic studies to archaeology, and which span from the first to the sixteenth centuries AD, examines why the term remains so pervasive despite its problems, offering a range of alternative interpretative perspectives on the late and post-Roman worlds.

From the very beginning, music has helped us create our world – everything from language, to technology, to philosophy and religion. The Art of Ancient Music discusses the important role music has played in shaping human development. While emphasizing shared human themes, the text has a special focus on the rise of Western music in the ancient Near East, the Bible, and the Classical worlds. A final chapter provides a discussion of the way music helped bridge the gap between the ancient world and the Middle Ages, especially in the guise of Church music.

This book aims to reconceptualise the Graeco-Roman military phenomenon of the "war cry"; the term itself is inadequate for defining an ancient military practice that has been misrepresented in modern media and understudied by contemporary scholars. Gersbach introduces the term and paradigm "battle expression" to replace "war cry", which acknowledges the variety of undertakings, visual and sonic, that military forces from the Graeco-Roman world presented on the battlefield before, during or after battle. The "battle expression" was sophisticated in nature; it could include significant cultural song or dance that required high levels of rehearsal and execution. Conversely, battle expression types demonstrated spontaneous wit and humour on the part of a military force that aimed to capitalise on the experiences of a battle. These performances served a variety of purposes outside of instilling group cohesion among the participants and to intimidate the onlooking enemy. This book associates the psychological dimension of warfare, religious identity and military strategy supported by the High Command to this practice. In addition, the author draws comparisons with later historical periods, as well as the actions of modern-day European football supporters in stadiums, to reconstruct the atmosphere created by ancient military forces on the battlefield. The War Cry in the Graeco-Roman World is suitable for students and scholars of Classical Studies, particularly those interested in ancient warfare and military history, as well as those studying the history of warfare more broadly.

Otto Höfler (1901–1987) was an Austrian Germanist and Scandinavist. His research on ‘Germanic culture’, in particular on Germanic Männerbünde (men’s bands), was controversial and remains a topic of academic debate. In modern discourse, Höfler’s theories are often fundamentally rejected on account of his involvement in the National Socialist movement and his contribution to the research initiatives of the SS Ahnenerbe, or they are adopted by scholars who ignore his problematic methodologies and the ideological and political elements of his work. The present study takes a comprehensive approach to Höfler’s research on ‘Germanic culture’ and analyses his characterisation of the ‘Germanic peoples’, contextualising his research in the backdrop of German philological studies of the early twentieth century and highlighting elements of his theories that are still the topic of modern academic discourse. A thorough analysis of his main research theses, focusing on his Männerbund-research, reveals that his concept of ‘Germanic culture’ is underscored by a belief in the deep-seated religiosity of the ‘Germanic peoples’ formed through sacred-daemonic forces.

Michael Cowan presents a study of modernity's preoccupation with willpower. From Nietzsche's 'will to power' to a fantasy of the 'triumph of the will' under Nazism, the will - its pathologies and potential cures - was a topic of urgent debate in European modernity.

Historians of modern German culture and church history refer to "the Awakening movement" (die Erweckungsbewegung) to describe a period in the history of German Protestantism between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the Revolution of 1848. "The Awakening" was the last major nationwide Protestant reform and revival movement to occur in Germany. This book analyzes numerous primary sources from the era of the Awakening and synthesizes the current state of German scholarship for an English-speaking audience. It examines the Awakening as a product of the larger social changes that were re-shaping German society during the early decades of the nineteenth century. Theologically, Awakened Protestants were traditionalists. They affirmed religious doctrines that orthodox Protestants had professed since the confessional statements of the Reformation-era. Awakened Protestants rejected the changes that Enlightenment thought had introduced into Protestant theology and preaching since the mid-eighteenth century. However, Awakened Protestants were also themselves distinctly modern. Their efforts to spread their religious beliefs were successful because of the new political freedoms and economic opportunities that the Enlightenment had introduced. These social conditions gave German Protestants new means and abilities to pursue their religious goals. Awakened Protestants were leaders in the German churches and in the universities. They used their influence to found many voluntary organizations for evangelism, in Germany and abroad. They also established many institutions to ameliorate the living conditions of those in poverty. Adapting Protestantism to modern society in these ways was the most original and innovative aspect of the Awakening movement.

The Roman foundation myth has been the subject of classical scholarship for centuries. But much in the story of Romulus and Remus remains unexplained. This is the first English language book-length study of the Lupercalia, a religious festival central to understanding both the Roman foundation myth and the history of Rome. The festival of the Lupercalia was a male initiation ritual and shares a number of traits with similar rituals across the world. The agonistic elements in the story of Romulus and Remus and the Lupercalia can be compared to a number of Vedic rituals and traced back to a common Indo-European prehistory. The Lupercalia celebration remained a central annual event throughout the history of Rome and reflected political and social life in the city. Caesar used it to stage a refusal of kingship and Augustus restored its initiatory aspect, which continued in the period of the Empire. It survived all attempts of Christian prohibition to appear in the form of a carnival that criticized the pope in the late 5th century. In sum, the book offers a new interpretation of the Roman foundation myth and the Lupercalia. It follows the transformation of a unique ritual from its Indo-European roots through Roman history to late antiquity.