“And on a time there came a woman over the bridge with her lap full of eggs, and a reckless fellow struggled and wrestled with her, and brake all her eggs. And it happed that this holy bishop came that way the same time, and bade the woman let him see her eggs, and anon he lift up his hand and blessed the eggs, and they were made whole and sound, ever each one, by the merits of this holy bishop, and being then glad she thanked God and this holy man for the miracle that was done to her.”

I find the juxtaposition between the lofty bishop and saint and the mundane woman with her broken eggs to be highly funny. The saint not only makes the time to stop for a woman with some broken eggs, but even uses his divine connection to God to restore them!

Oddly enough, this is not the only medieval account I’ve read in which broken eggs are miraculously restored. In the Life of Margaret of Ypres, by Thomas of Cantimpré (the same hagiographer who wrote the Life of Christina the Astonishing), the willful teenage ascetic is so busy meditating on God that her mother becomes angry with her for neglecting the housework. One day, in order to make it look like she helped out, she dumps out a bowl of what she believes to be broken eggshells into the yard. Of course, the eggs were whole rather than broken, and Margaret’s mother is furious. Margaret, however, prays to God and he deigns to restore them whole.

It just goes to show you–no problem is too small for divine intervention!

Thereupon snatching up a spade of but indifferent sharpness of edge, and hastening to the cemetery, they began to dig; and whilst they were thinking that they would have to dig to a greater depth, they suddenly, before much of the earth had been removed, laid bare the corpse, swollen to an enormous corpulence, with its countenance beyond measure turgid and suffused with blood; while the napkin in which it had been wrapped appeared nearly torn to pieces. The young men, however, spurred on by wrath, feared not, and inflicted a wound upon the senseless carcass, out of which incontinently flowed such a stream of blood, that it might have been taken for a leech filled with the blood of many persons. Then, dragging it beyond the village, they speedily constructed a funeral pile; and upon one of them saying that the pestilential body would not burn unless its heart were torn out, the other laid open its side by repeated blows of the blunted spade, and, thrusting in his hand, dragged out the accursed heart.

William tells several other stories of corpses rising and attacking the living. Perhaps a future research project?

The Fordham Medieval Sourcebook has a translation of some of these tales.

You can read the interview at NYU local.

Mackenzie Kircher-Smither, New Albany, Ind., 19, was dressed up as a Star Trek cadet for a college course. She came here to Denver with her classmates on a mission to interview other trekkies and Starfest attendees about the importance of Star Trek. “It is a folklore class and we are doing our own examining of the Star Trek culture.” They interviewed other trekkie fans and writers of fan fiction to see the influences and affects Star Trek had on their lives.

The full article can be found here: Nerds Unite at StarFest.

Students seemed to have a great time. 10 out of the 13 were there to conduct fieldwork on some aspect of fan culture, such as science-fiction tattoos, convention stories, and  cosplay. Some students had managed to make contact with people before the convention and arrange to meet. Others had to find people to work with during the convention itself. I warned them all beforehand that their fieldwork could be haphazard because of the limited time period (the convention was only 3 days long) and that they should think of backup plans should things go wrong. And of course, for some students, things did indeed go wrong–a contact never called them back during the convention, they had trouble meeting people during the convention, their tape recorder malfunctioned. I was on-call throughout the convention and held office hours in my hotel room, and there were several times I had to make an ad hob research plan with a student. Still, despite these setbacks, I was impressed with how the students took charge of their own research, bravely approached strangers to ask about their fan folklore, and adapted their topic as necessary. I anticipate great final papers!

I have never been to a fan convention so I was unsure what to expect. The hotel was teeming with attendees when we arrived, garbed in elaborate costumes from all sorts of television shows and movies: Star Wars and Star Trek, Firefly, StarGate, Doctor Who, and many, many others that I just didn’t recognize. I had warned the organizer that a group of folklorists-in-training were descending on her convention, so after we checked in at the desk, I introduced myself to the convention organizer, thanked her for accommodating us, and picked up our badges. Once we were in our rooms, I looked at the program and saw a notice forbidding the use of recording devices in the hotel. Since most of the students were interviewing fans and documenting folklore, this was a major concern and one that I hadn’t even thought of. Thankfully, a trip back down to the organizer resulted in press badges for my students.

My husband Keith has traveled with us to help out with the organization and act as another chaperone for all the travel portions of the trip. He’s a much bigger Star Trek fan than I am anyhow, so it only makes sense he would come along. We’ve attended several of the events so far, including a panel on “Klingon Kulture,” a bat’leth tournament, and the modeling room. We’ve seen several of the star guests just wandering the hotel or giving autographs (for a price, of course): Morena Baccarin (Firefly, V) is just as stunning in person as on television; Mark Sheppard (Battlestar Galactica) looks just as grumpy as most of the characters he plays, and LeVar Burton (Geordi of Star Trek: The Nest Generation and the host of Reading Rainbow) looks just strange without his VIZOR. We noticed a very, very tall man smoking outside and only later realized it was Peter Mayhew, the man inside the Chewbacca costume. Many students have taken pictures with the stars and gotten their autographs, but I just can’t justify paying $25 for a 30-second experience.

At this late hour, I hear the thumping of bass as the StarFest bal l continues late into the night. My students, many decked out in steampunk gear, tried to convince us to attend, but frankly I just feel too old and worn out to attend! One half-day of convention activities left before we head back to Indiana. Here’s hoping for no travel disasters!

On the one end is a convention like Kamping Kon, which seems to be organized entirely by fans who are not professional conference planners. The convention takes place at an RV park and attendees camp there for the duration. The events are low-key, there are no celebrity guests, and the festivities seem to emerge during the convention itself, depending on the interests of participants. Folklore at its finest.

A similar small-scale convention is TrekFest, which I attended this past June; Keith and I took a trip to Iowa for our official, legal wedding and the timing just happened to work perfectly. TrekFest takes place in Riverside, Iowa, whose claim to fame is its status as future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk, a designation recognized by Roddenberry (Star Trek’s creator) himself. The event is more a Trek-themed county fair than a convention, but it has a long, 26-year history. This “convention” is interesting because it arises out of the collaboration of local residents and the town government. Its attendees are locals–who may or may not be fans–and “trekkies” who travel to the event. The event did boast two Star Trek guests, Walter Koenig (Chekov from The Original Series) and Barbara Luna, from one episode I don’t even remember. It was interesting to see the insider-outsider dynamic during the event. The parade was a bizarre mix of Star Trek floats and marchers, and local things you’d see in any small-town parade (firetrucks, the Dairy Princess, Shriners). At the costume contest and fair, we saw many people in Star Trek costumes, but at the evening rodeo, which I suspect was more a local thing, almost none. The dynamic was strange, but it worked.

Next, I talked about StarFest, the convention some of the class will attend in late April. This conference is bigger, hosts several big-name guests (but not the biggest), and takes place in a convention hotel. The organizers makes her living from this convention and related venues, but this is the only convention she organizes; it is more an expression of her commitment to fandom and the community of the convention than her aspirations as an entrepreneur.  I chose this convention to visit because the appeal of celebrity guests for my students, but its fan-run status makes it more folkloric than the mega-conventions.

Finally, I ended with conventions organized by Creation Entertainment, which hosts the huge conventions that get the biggest stars. Creation is the official convention venue for many science-fiction shows and hence have licenses to sell exclusive merchandise unavailable at other conventions. Creation events are run primarily by professional event planners (who may or may not be fans themselves). Although fans likely use the venue as spaces for folklore behavior (primarily cosplay), there is little room for fans and amateurs in the planning itself.

The discussion was spirited, to say the least. I asked one of my students about his reactions during the viewing and he clarified that he was surprised by how graphic the affection was, not that it was between two men. Boy, did the class react to that! Students brought up examples of heterosexual affection displayed in previous episodes of the actual show; others argued that the fan episode could be more graphic because it didn’t have to worry about censorship from the studio. Two students, who identified themselves as gay, discussed how straight people don’t always notice heterosexual affection because it is normalized. This class always surprises me with how mature and respectful they when discussing controversial issues, and today’s class was no exception.

When the males fight for the females, the victors trample on the vanquished and mate with them, and, as the experimentor says, their lust is so vehement that they forget which sex it is. . . . The hens are said to be so lustful that they conceive merely by smelling the male. For at that time they stick their tongues out from sexual desire. When they mate, they exhale a nasty smell.

That’s one fertile bird!