Twenty-first-century popular culture has a fascination for the medieval. Its imagery, tropes and settings have become an integral part of the epic fantasy genre across different media, demon­strated by and following the success of such globally acclaimed television shows as Game of Thrones and Vikings. This volume studies this pheno­menon, aiming to establish a broader under­standing of why the Middle Ages have become so popular in an era of trans­media produc­tions; it argues that concepts of accuracy and “authenticity” are key to this popularity, alongside engage­ment with contem­porary debates about identity, race and gender, and agile responses to fan-community and media critiques.
The essays address a variety of topics, from world­building and narrative structures to female agency and the reception of Vikings, across a wide range of media, including film, television, literature, video games and manga. It also explores how contem­porary fantasy engages with both academic knowledge and develop­ments in imagination more widely, responding to ever-changing ideas about how an “authentic” Middle Ages may be created.

See the volume on the publisher’s website here.

Larrington, Carolyne, Hans Rudolf Velten, and Helen Young (Eds.) (2026): Popularising the Middle Ages in Modern Fantasy. Neomedievalism, Video Games, and Vikings. Cambridge (Medievalism, 32).