Killing and Being Killed: Bodies in Battle. Perspectives on Fighters in the Middle Ages ed. by Jörge Rogge (review)

Violence fascinates and killing is standard fare in virtually all contemporary media, and a prominent feature in literature from the Bible right on down to the sources under consideration in this book. In it, Guido Berndt points out that violence contributes to a sense of community and can function as a form of identification (p.19). However, while there is plenty of information about the nature of medieval combat, there is little about how war affected the medieval warrior. How did fighters feel? We know almost nothing about the psychological effects of medieval combat. Fortitude is a virtue that sits between fear and courage. How is it assessed? Braccio da Montone was killed in 1424 and though his body perished, one source insisted that 'he felt undefeated in his soul' (p.184). Individuals and indeed entire geographical areas were profoundly shaped by war, and this volume attempts to explicate the claim. Its chapters are based on papers delivered at a conference convened at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz in 2015.