Lady with a mead cup
Subtitle: ritual, prophecy, and lordship in the European warband from La Tène to the Viking Age
By: Michael J. Enright.
Publisher: Portland, OR; Four Courts Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Blackrock, Co. Dublin
Language: eng
Number of pages: 340
Subjects: Civilization, Germanic.; Civilization, Celtic.; Germanic peoples -- Religion.; Celts -- Religion.; Drinking customs -- Europe -- History -- To 1500.; Europe -- History -- To 476.; Europe -- History -- 476-1492.
Description: Lady with a Mead Cup is a broad-ranging, innovative and strikingly original study of the early medieval barbarian cup-offering ritual and its social, institutional and religious significance. Medievalists are familiar with the image of a queen offering a drink to a king or chieftain and to his retainers, the Wealhtheow scene in Beowulf being perhaps the most famous instance.

Drawing on archaeology, anthropology and philology, as well as medieval history, Professor Enright has produced the first work in English on the warband and on the significance of barbarian drinking rituals. Lady with a Mead Cup will be of interest to students of Germanic or Celtic culture and kingship, anthropology and Dark Age religion.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 288-335) and index.