The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature has awarded the Medium Ævum Essay Prize since 2008. The competition is run annually, with postgraduates and those recently graduated with a higher degree invited to submit an essay on a topic that falls within the range of the interests of Medium Ævum in the medieval period (loosely defined as the fifth to the fifteenth century, in the Western calendar).
The winner of the Essay Prize will receive a cash prize of £500. The winning article is also eligible to be considered for publication in Medium Ævum, subject to the usual editorial procedures of the journal.
The annual deadline for submissions for the Essay Prize is 12 noon on the first Monday of December of the preceding year. Please read the rules of the competition before submitting your entry online. Any queries can be directed to the Executive Officer of the Society.
Essay Prize Winners
Winner
|
Miguel Fernandes University of Chicago |
Numbers, words, and gestures: Grammar and the medieval tradition of finger-counting Published as: 123456 |
Proxime
|
Nia Moseley-Roberts University of Oxford |
Crafted Voices: Utility and Fluidity in Ancrene Wisse |
Winner
|
Viktoriia Krivoshchekova Maynooth University |
Vice and Virtue as Cognitive Experiences in Early Irish Tradition |
Winner
|
James Parkhouse University of Oxford |
Legends in the Landscape: The Revenge of Weland in Southern English Toponymy |
Proxime
|
Aylin Malcolm University of Pennsylvania |
All Dogs Go to Heaven: Reason, Literary Style, and Animal Cognition in Adelard of Bath's Questiones naturales |
| No Award Made |
Winner
|
Claudio Cataldi University of Bristol |
The Medieval Tale of the Eight Hellhounds |
Winner
|
Julia Mattison University of Toronto |
Line-Fillers in Chaucer's Verse |
Proxime
|
Gillian Redfern University of Manchester |
Knowing Me Knowing You: Three Knowingly Northern Plays by the Wakefield Master |
Winner
|
Georgia Henley Harvard University |
Reading Geoffrey of Monmouth in Wales: the Basis of the Welsh Brut y Brenhinedd in Latin Commentaries, Glosses and Variant Texts |
Winner
|
Robert Gallagher University of the Basque Country |
Latin Acrostic Poetry in Late Anglo-Saxon England: Reassessing the Contribution of John the Old Saxon |
Winner
|
Elizabeth Wright University of York |
Marian Hymns and Sacred Vocal Music in London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian D. vi. : Five Previously Unpublished Anglo-Latin Texts |
Proxime
|
Megan Murton Xavier University |
The Prioress's Prologue: Dante, Liturgy and Ineffability |
Winner
|
Christine Wallis University of Sheffield |
Unpublished Drypoint Annotations in Oxford, Corpus Christi College 279B |
Winner
|
Jill Fitzgerald University of Illinois |
Angelus Pacis: A Liturgical Model for the 'fæle friðowebba' in Cynewulf's 'Elene' |
Proxime
|
Aisling Byrne Merton College, Oxford |
A Lost Insular Version of the Romance of Octavian |
| No Award Made |
Winner
|
Jennifer Jahner University of Pennsylvania |
Altera Natura: Conduct, Craft and Nature in The Owl and the Nightingale |
Winner
|
Thomas Hinton Jesus College, Oxford |
New Beginnings and False Dawns: A Reappraisal of the Elucidation Prologue to the Conte del Graal Cycle |
Winner
|
Eliza Zingesser Princeton University |
Speaking as One: Linguistic Diversity and Moral Unity in Troubadour Chansonnier Y (Bibliotheque Nationale de France MS. fr. 795) |
Winner
|
Elizabeth Boyle Corpus Christi College, Cambridge |
Neoplatonic thought in medieval Ireland: the evidence of Scéla na esérgi |
Winner
|
Kathleen Palti University College, London |
An Unpublished fifteenth-century carol collection: Oxford, Lincoln College MS Lat. 141 |