Gift-Giving: Colloquium Report

Posted on 05 December, 2010

A beautiful if chilly Saturday saw the society re-convene for our autumn colloquium.  Unfortunately, Michael Gledhill, who was to present a paper entitled 'Peter Damian, Fonte Avellana and the Giving and Receiving of Gifts', came down with flu shortly before the conference, and this led to some rapid rearrangements of the programme by members of the committee. 

Alixe Bovey opened proceedings with a discussion of precious objects and miracles.  In a humorously presented and beautifully illustrated paper, Alixe discussed the symbolic differences between gifts and commodities.  She paid particular attention to the tomb of St. Thomas Beckett and the miracles and votive offerings related to it.

Lars Kjaer followed discussing the relationship between gift-giving and lordship.  He considered both the emotional aspects of gifting and the range of roles a gift might fulfil within a hierarchical society such as thirteenth century England.  He also discussed the relationship between ingratitude and treachery and gave an interesting insight into the dysfunctional family of Gerald of Wales.

Lively informal discussion took place over lunch and this was followed by Stephanie Downes' paper on the books produced by Charles d'Orleans.  Her paper showed how books and poems, and books of poems were used as gifts.  They were personal tokens often mirroring dramatic life experiences. 

There followed three brief discussion papers: Robert Ellis on the value of a flying horse that does not fly in The Squire's Tale, followed  by Diane Heath on the precious objects mentioned in the inventory of the Canterbury monk Richard Stone.  Miri Rubin ended the presentations (and tied up a number of loose ends) with a brief discussion of the theory of gifting.

After a final coffee break, there followed a short discussion which ranged across themes including the gift that keeps on giving, the inherent problem of misinterpretation and the danger of rejection.  At just after 16:00 the meeting concluded.

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