Gavin Davis

Professional Bio

I am a third-year Ph.D. candidate who researches the literary functions of swords in early medival England. I study how the sword as a textual object can affirm or contest the cultural values associated with the material, metal objects that hung from the belts of medieval warriors. My dissertation will focus on heroic poetry, ecclesiastical writing, historical poetry, and the early Arthurian legends as they exist in the manuscript record from the tenth to thirteenth centuries.

Additional research interests include the study of popular medievalisms, especially those that illustrate post-medieval idealizations of medieval martial culture. For example, I have presented on the cyclical history suggested by the repeated use of woodcuts of Holinshed's Chronicle, as well as the evolution of medievalism represented by the different editions of Dungeons & Dragons.