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From the beginning of time, humans have created sports and games that teach skills, promote leisure, and encourage friendly competition, passing them on through the generations. By studying these histories, we can learn much about the culture and traditions of our ancestors. From gladiatorial combat to knightly tournaments and from hunting to games and gambling, sport and games have been central to human culture. We have brought together a carefully curated collection of eBook chapters, encyclopedia entries, and digitised primary sources from across the Bloomsbury Medieval Studies platform, dedicated to this fascinating area of study.
This Topic in Focus is your guide to step into the global Middle Ages and learn more about the games, tournaments and sports enjoyed by the peoples of the medieval world.
A Cultural History of Sport in the Medieval Age covers the period 600 to 1450. Lacking any viable ancient models, sport evolved into two distinct forms, divided by class. Male and female aristocrats hunted and knights engaged in jousting and tournaments, transforming increasingly outdated modes of warfare into brilliant spectacle. Meanwhile, simpler sports provided recreational distraction from the dangerously unsettled conditions of everyday life. Running, jumping, wrestling, and many ball games - soccer, cricket, baseball, golf, and tennis – had their often violent beginnings in this period. In this chapter, Grant A. Gearhart explores how Athletic competition played an important role in shaping identity in the medieval age.
From the Greenwood Encyclopedia of Global Medieval Life and Culture, discover the board and strategy games that were enjoyed by the peoples of the global middles ages. From the early sixth century c.e., Indians played a parlor game called Chaturanga, a direct ancestor to the modern game of chess which mimicked the ancient Indian battlefield. In Pre-Columbian Mesoamérica, Patolli is the Nahuatl term for a board game that was widely played in central and southern Mesoamérica by such civilizations as the Classic Maya (250–909) and the Aztecs (1325–1521). Played on an X shaped board with tokens and beans, patolli involved a great deal of luck—provided by the god of patolli, Macuilxochitl.
The Middle Ages have provided rich source material for physical and digital games from Dungeons and Dragons to Assassin’s Creed. Playing the Middle Ages addresses the many ways in which different formats and genre of games represent the period. It considers the restrictions placed on these representations by the mechanical and gameplay requirements of the medium and by audience expectations of these products and the period, highlighting innovative attempts to overcome these limitations through game design and play. Click here to read this chapter, which delves into the representations of medieval gender archetypes in modern fantasy role-playing games.
Bloomsbury Medieval Studies offers a rich collection of digitised images from the Metroolitan Medieval World, providing access to objects from across the medieval globe. Learn more about this game piece from late-twelfth century Cologne, Germany. A walrus ivory carving, the piece is inspired by the story of Apollonius of Tyre, showcasing the burial of his wife at sea. Or explore this Folio from an illuminated manuscript created in Isfahan, Iran, during the first half of the fourteenth century. Depicting a scene from the Book of Kings (Shahnama), it shows the Persian vizier Buzurgmihr challenging an ambassador to a game of chess.
Since the time of Charlemagne, knights had sometimes staged mock battles for training. When there was no war, young knights had to be toughened up by facing danger and being injured. Tournaments made training into a sport. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the main feature was a large mock battle, the melee. Far more than any other sport, tournaments were violent and caused severe injuries. Knights went into the field as well armored as they were in battle, and although they often used blunt weapons, the violence was still savage. Click here to discover more about medieval tournaments from All Things Medieval: An Encyclopedia of the Medieval World.
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