Sharan Newman
Author of Death Comes as Epiphany
About the Author
Sharan Newman is a medieval historian and author. She took her Master's degree in Medieval Literature at Michigan State University and then did her doctoral work at the University of California at Santa Barbara in Medieval Studies, specializing in twelfth-century France. She is a member of the show more Medieval Academy and the Medieval Association of the Pacific. Newman has done research at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, the centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France Meridionale et Espagne at the University of Toulouse and the Institute for Jewish History at the University of Trier, as well as many departmental archives. show less
Image credit: Whitney Hall
Series
Works by Sharan Newman
The Real History of the End of the World: Apocalyptic Predictions from Revelation and Nostradamus to Y2K and 2012 (2010) 78 copies, 3 reviews
Defending the City of God: A Medieval Queen, the First Crusades, and the Quest for Peace in Jerusalem (2014) 61 copies, 18 reviews
The Queen's Man 2 copies
Sir Gerard in Charge 1 copy
Associated Works
Malice Domestic 05: An Anthology of Original Traditional Mystery Stories (1996) — Contributor — 86 copies, 2 reviews
The Deadly Bride and 21 of the Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories: Volume II (2006) — Contributor — 29 copies
Left Coast Crimes: A Collection of Short Stories — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Newman, Sharan Elizabeth
- Birthdate
- 1949-04-15
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of California, Santa Barbara
Michigan State University (MA ∙ Medieval Literature)
Antioch College (AB ∙ 1971) - Occupations
- historian
novelist - Organizations
- Medieval Academy
Medieval Association of the Pacific - Awards and honors
- Career Achievement Award for Historical Mystery (1999)
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
- Places of residence
- Oregon, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
Defending the City of God: A Medieval Queen, the First Crusades, and the Quest for Peace in Jerusalem by Sharan Newman
This was an excellent book for me because I know next to nothing about the Crusades and about the Latin States in the Levant in the 12th and 13th Centuries; I was bored to tears by Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered because I had no context. Newman's writing is clear and unravels a lot of the complex machinations behind conflict in the Near East at the time, and her depictions of the political leaders of the times are compelling, they bring them to life.
My one quibble with it is Newman's lack of show more force when describing what she does not know. She could be firmer in making suggestions, but instead whimsically asks what further research can do and doubts her ability to know anything that is not already known. I appreciate it when an author hints towards information without asserting knowledge, and would not have been offended had she done that, but an author who weakly laments a lack of knowledge brings questions of motivation and conviction. show less
My one quibble with it is Newman's lack of show more force when describing what she does not know. She could be firmer in making suggestions, but instead whimsically asks what further research can do and doubts her ability to know anything that is not already known. I appreciate it when an author hints towards information without asserting knowledge, and would not have been offended had she done that, but an author who weakly laments a lack of knowledge brings questions of motivation and conviction. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Defending the City of God: A Medieval Queen, the First Crusades, and the Quest for Peace in Jerusalem by Sharan Newman
Sharan Newman has decided to write about a fascinating and still little known about period in history - when a Frankish set of Christian rulers joined the Byzantine Greeks and Egyptian, Turkish and other Muslims, as power players in the middle East in the early mediaeval period. We are familiar with the narrative of the Crusades but, as all too often, unaware of the political responsibilities left once the glamour boys had gone back to Western Europe. Newman conveys this world of small time show more rulers fighting and politicing, forming alliances of convenience, and rampaging over the land and the livelihood of the small farmers. Alliances shift and turn on a sixpence; new heroes come from the west or east (depending on whether you're a Christian or a Moslem) and against this backdrop, a rackety ruling class tries to create a new, Christian Jerusalem. It's complex territory, and Newman does very well at portraying this landscape, tracking its recurrent characters from city state to monastery, under the orbit of the Pope and emperors and the shadow of the gathering tide of Arab triumph under Saladin. What I think works less well is her use of Queen Melisende of Jerusalem as the thread to hold the book together. It is clear that little or nothing is known about her early life or her personal life. Newman is scrupulous in declaring where she speculates, so the book is constantly being held up by Newman imagining emotions or personal motivations and essentially creating a feminist icon out of nothing. As far as I could tell, most of what is left of Melisende is the records of her donations to religious causes and her mark to a number of contracts and treaties. Yet religious faith is backgrounded to a very speculative account of Melisende's relationship with her son (again seen through modern western secular eyes). Despite these awkwardnesses, this is an interesting and informative book, clearly written and well researched. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
I think this is one of the best portrayals of Guinevere I've ever read. It may have been written for a young adult audience due to the point of view of the title character: we arrive at the end of the book when she marries Arthur, and do not go into Guinevere's queenship.
Guinevere is introduced as a child with an affinity for nature, and her parents, Leodegrance and Guenlain maintain their home in the style of the Romans who left nearly 200 years ago. But they also left behind a sense of show more order and running water, and Guinevere's parents know the value of both these things!
Making a prominent place in this re-telling are the incursions of the Saxon invaders as well as hints of an earlier religion. Flora, Guinevere's nurse is one of the practitioners of this Old Way, as are many of the house servants with their darker hair and slighter build. New characters are Geraldus, a traveling priest beset by an invisible chorus that only he can hear (though Guinevere can see several of them), and three older brothers to Guinevere: Matthew, Mark, and John. And Guinevere's mother, Guenlian, is mentioned by name and given a great deal of character. She is also cousin to Merlin.
As Guinevere grows, her affinity with nature includes her finding and bonding with a unicorn who is the most beautiful creature Guinevere has ever seen. It is while she is spending time with her unicorn that a young Arthur and several of his early band, including Gawain, come riding up. While the unicorn runs away from this armed band of men, Guinevere is still in her trance and the aura that surrounds her enraptures Arthur and he thinks he has seen the Virgin Mary.
Other adventures occur in Guinevere's life, fleshing her out as a whole person during her earlier years. It is well-written, full of detail, and describes this time in British history and develops this famous young woman's life. show less
Guinevere is introduced as a child with an affinity for nature, and her parents, Leodegrance and Guenlain maintain their home in the style of the Romans who left nearly 200 years ago. But they also left behind a sense of show more order and running water, and Guinevere's parents know the value of both these things!
Making a prominent place in this re-telling are the incursions of the Saxon invaders as well as hints of an earlier religion. Flora, Guinevere's nurse is one of the practitioners of this Old Way, as are many of the house servants with their darker hair and slighter build. New characters are Geraldus, a traveling priest beset by an invisible chorus that only he can hear (though Guinevere can see several of them), and three older brothers to Guinevere: Matthew, Mark, and John. And Guinevere's mother, Guenlian, is mentioned by name and given a great deal of character. She is also cousin to Merlin.
As Guinevere grows, her affinity with nature includes her finding and bonding with a unicorn who is the most beautiful creature Guinevere has ever seen. It is while she is spending time with her unicorn that a young Arthur and several of his early band, including Gawain, come riding up. While the unicorn runs away from this armed band of men, Guinevere is still in her trance and the aura that surrounds her enraptures Arthur and he thinks he has seen the Virgin Mary.
Other adventures occur in Guinevere's life, fleshing her out as a whole person during her earlier years. It is well-written, full of detail, and describes this time in British history and develops this famous young woman's life. show less
The book is a series of more or less disconnected short chapters with no chronological or probably any other order; as such, it reads as a poorly written high school textbook. It could still be valuable though if it were a trustworthy, well-researched work - but is it? I have my doubts. [a: Sharan Newman|50581|Sharan Newman|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1412689005p2/50581.jpg] stresses throughout the work the importance of footnotes and critical reading. Well so she gets it.
She claims, for show more instance, that:
Completely wrong. This "works" in Medieval French, spoken if not written, and this false etymology is not a recent invention. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 is well aware thereof, as are several books. OTOH, this "misprint" does not work in modern Spanish, the Spanish word for blood is sangre and not sang as she seems to assume.
Granted, this still is a false etymology, and it wasn't probably invented (at least no earlier evidence survived) until very late in the Middle Ages, but still, it does work in Medieval French, it does not work in modern Spanish, and it is far from being a modern invention by conspiracy theorists, who are simply parroting (or perhaps reinventing) this centuries old mistake.
But this is not even the worst blunder she had made in the book.
The following is, quoted verbatim, the footnote 23 from the 48th chapter:
Rough? Well, no, not rough, completely nonexistent (I am a native speaker, btw). I don't believe that she had taken as much as a lesson of Polish. And not just that, she has failed to comprehend the text so miserably that she has started the quotation worse than in midsentence. Now for a more complete quotation (the article is now found here):
and my translation (a rough one, I admit):
(Both in the quote and the translation, the fragment quoted by Newman is in italic)
As can be seen, she completely misunderstood the text, so much so that she thought Moguncji to be a personal name (I think it says that Moguncji was preceptor) when it is the Polish name of the German city of Mainz (more precisely, Moguncja is the name; Polish nouns are inflected), and the fragment means that Hugo von Salm, who was preceptor from Grumbach, appeared in person at the council in Mainz to defend the order, accompanied by 20 armed knights. She's so incompetent in the Polish language that she inadvertently split the city name from the preposition - w Moguncji meaning exactly in Mainz.
Obviously, she doesn't need to know Polish, and no book is free from mistakes, so it may feel like I'm making much ado about nothing. But I don't think so. I would not be writing this if I thought this to have been a simple mistake. But, frankly, it doesn't look as one. It looks as if she googled the name Hugo von Salm, copied the offending fragment (perhaps directly from search results, or else how did she manage not to notice that she was splitting a name from a preposition?!) and without so much as trying to ask someone with even a passing knowledge of Polish she inferred that the mysterious Mr. Moguncji was a preceptor in Grumbach, and - since it's written on a Polish website - von Salm must have been in Poland to defend the order.
In short, it appears that she completely made this one up on the basis of one badly misunderstood fragment of a sentence from a Polish website.
This might look as gratuitous nitpicking, but I don't think it is. I am not an expert in Templar History, and I wanted to read a book by one. But, now aware of the reckless abandon Sharan Newman treats her sources with, I am sure this is not a book I can trust. show less
She claims, for show more instance, that:
recently some imaginative writers have decided that “Holy Grail”—San Greal—is simply a misprint for Sang Real, “Royal Blood,” and that medieval writers were using it as a code for a hidden secret. This is cute but there are a number of problems in the theory, the most important being that this only works in modern Spanish. Old French, the language of the first Grail poems, would write it Saint Graal, Grel, or even Gresal
Completely wrong. This "works" in Medieval French, spoken if not written, and this false etymology is not a recent invention. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 is well aware thereof, as are several books. OTOH, this "misprint" does not work in modern Spanish, the Spanish word for blood is sangre and not sang as she seems to assume.
Granted, this still is a false etymology, and it wasn't probably invented (at least no earlier evidence survived) until very late in the Middle Ages, but still, it does work in Medieval French, it does not work in modern Spanish, and it is far from being a modern invention by conspiracy theorists, who are simply parroting (or perhaps reinventing) this centuries old mistake.
But this is not even the worst blunder she had made in the book.
The following is, quoted verbatim, the footnote 23 from the 48th chapter:
http://www.templariusze.org/artykuly.php?id=27 “Moguncji zrobił to osobiście preceptor z Grumbach, Hugo von Salm wraz z dwudziestoma uzbrojonymi rycerzami.” Okay, my Polish is rough. He might have been the preceptor of Grumbach, but I think it says that Moguncji was preceptor. For more see chapter 35, The Trials outside of France.
Rough? Well, no, not rough, completely nonexistent (I am a native speaker, btw). I don't believe that she had taken as much as a lesson of Polish. And not just that, she has failed to comprehend the text so miserably that she has started the quotation worse than in midsentence. Now for a more complete quotation (the article is now found here):
W Niemczech na żądanie papieża zwołano w kilku prowincjach synody mające sądzić templariuszy. Na niektórych z nich jednak w obronie zakonu stanęli życzliwi mu biskupi, w Moguncji zrobił to osobiście preceptor z Grumbach, Hugo von Salm wraz z dwudziestoma uzbrojonymi rycerzami. Przybyli ostro zaprotestowali przeciwko oskarżeniu zakonu o herezję, a przerażony arcybiskup zawiesił prace synodu na okres dwóch miesięcy.
and my translation (a rough one, I admit):
In Germany, at the pope's request, in several provinces councils were convened to try the Templars. In some of them friendly bishops stood in the order's defence, in Mainz the preceptor from Grumbach, Hugo von Salm did it himself, with twenty armed knights. They contested strongly the charges of heresy against the order, and the terrified archbishop suspended the council for two month's time.
(Both in the quote and the translation, the fragment quoted by Newman is in italic)
As can be seen, she completely misunderstood the text, so much so that she thought Moguncji to be a personal name (I think it says that Moguncji was preceptor) when it is the Polish name of the German city of Mainz (more precisely, Moguncja is the name; Polish nouns are inflected), and the fragment means that Hugo von Salm, who was preceptor from Grumbach, appeared in person at the council in Mainz to defend the order, accompanied by 20 armed knights. She's so incompetent in the Polish language that she inadvertently split the city name from the preposition - w Moguncji meaning exactly in Mainz.
Obviously, she doesn't need to know Polish, and no book is free from mistakes, so it may feel like I'm making much ado about nothing. But I don't think so. I would not be writing this if I thought this to have been a simple mistake. But, frankly, it doesn't look as one. It looks as if she googled the name Hugo von Salm, copied the offending fragment (perhaps directly from search results, or else how did she manage not to notice that she was splitting a name from a preposition?!) and without so much as trying to ask someone with even a passing knowledge of Polish she inferred that the mysterious Mr. Moguncji was a preceptor in Grumbach, and - since it's written on a Polish website - von Salm must have been in Poland to defend the order.
In short, it appears that she completely made this one up on the basis of one badly misunderstood fragment of a sentence from a Polish website.
This might look as gratuitous nitpicking, but I don't think it is. I am not an expert in Templar History, and I wanted to read a book by one. But, now aware of the reckless abandon Sharan Newman treats her sources with, I am sure this is not a book I can trust. show less
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