In AD 1103, in the central lands of the Rus and the Siberian plains, the earth quaked as it was rent and torn asunder for hundreds of miles southward. Spilling forth from this deep abyss, chasm, was a deluge of enchanted energies and a series of interlocking deities who, having been trapped within the forming of the Earth, now ascended up, residing upon Luna, overlooking the world below. The dark and light energies of magic leaking into the atmosphere, encasing Earth and altering the civilizations upon her forever. Having learned to incorporate these new magical energies into restricted priesthoods, the militaries and daily life of all Europeans and Asians had, by AD 1337, changed wildly. And yet it was also at this time that Europe began to face a new and wholly daunting threat of a unified Lithuania, being the largest landmass kingdom in all of Europe, which was ruled over by the quasi-immortal Undeath Aristocracy. The Teutonic Order, having been invited by the Polish crown into the Baltic for their protection, was now Europe’s, and, even more dire, Christianity’s, last bulwark and defensive line against the encroaching corruption and vile taint of nature that was wrought by the undeath and their monstrous legions of Norr, the rank-and-file infantry who enforced the dark and enslaving rule of the undeath. The coming events and the newly arrived Teutonic member, Ludwig, would change, with steel, anger, and magical spells, not just the course and shape of events in the Baltic, but the very face and future of not just Christianity but humanity as a whole.

For millennia people have travelled to religious sites for worship, initiatory and leisure purposes. Today there are hundreds, if not thousands, of religious pilgrimage routes and trails around the world that are used by pilgrims as well as tourists. Indeed, many religious pilgrimage routes and trails are today used as themes by tourism marketers in an effort to promote regional economic development. An important resource for those interested in religious tourism and pilgrimage, this book is also an invaluable collection for academics and policy-makers within heritage tourism and regional development.

Values-rich journeys can be described as pilgrimage, spiritual travel, personal heritage tourism, holistic tourism, and valuistic journeys. There are many motivations for undertaking these journeys; the most important being personal values, life experience, personal and social identity, lifestyle, social and cultural influence. This book presents contributions that address pilgrim motivation, identity and values as they are shaped by the broader sociological, psychological, cultural and environmental perspectives. The focus of the book is the travellers themselves and their inner world through the lens of their pilgrimage. The research presented focuses on the typology of pilgrim journeys as ways in which identity and values are presented to a post-modern consumer society, providing interesting and challenging perspectives on the identity of pilgrims in the 21st century.

There is a vigorous debate on the exact beginnings of the Crusades, as well as a growing conviction that some practices of crusading may have been in existence, at least in part, long before they were identified as such. The Prehistory of the Crusades explores how the Crusades came to be seen as the use of aggressive warfare to Christianise pagan lands and peoples. Reynolds focuses on the Baltic, or Northern, Crusades, an aspect of the Crusades that has been little documented, thus bringing a new perspective to their historical and ideological origins. Baltic Crusades were distinctive because they were not directed at the Holy Land, and they were not against Muslim opponents, but rather against pagan peoples. From the Emperor Charlemagne's wars against the Saxons in the 8th and 9th centuries to the Baltic Crusades of the 12th century, this book explores the sanctification of war in creating the ideal of crusade. In so doing, it shows how crusading ultimately developed in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Prehistory of the Crusades provides a valuable insight into the topic for students of medieval history and the Crusades.

Medieval pilgrimage was, above all, an expression of religious faith, but this was not its only aspect. Men and women of all classes went on pilgrimage for a variety of reasons, sometimes by choice, sometimes involuntarily. They made both long and short journeys: to Rome, Jerusalem and Santiago on the one hand; to innumerable local shrines on the other. The routes that they followed by land and water made up a complex web which covered the face of Europe, and their travels required a range of support services, including the protection of rulers (who were themselves often pilgrims). Pilgrimage left its mark not only on the landscape but also on the art and literature of Europe. Diana Webb's engaging book offers the reader a fresh introduction to the history of European Christian pilgrimage in the twelve hundred years between the conversion of Emperor Constantine and the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation. As well as exploring this multi-faceted activity, it considers both the geography of pilgrimage and its significant cultural legacy.

Exploring what does and what does not constitute pilgrimage, Redefining Pilgrimage draws together a wide variety of disciplines including politics, anthropology, history, religion and sociology. Leading contributors offer a broad range of case studies from a wide geographical area, exploring new ways of approaching pilgrimage beyond the classical religious model. Re-thinking the global phenomenon of pilgrimages in the 21st century, this book offers new perspectives to redefine pilgrimage.

Engramma 204 collects researches and findings of several Italian and European scholars who have dealt with aspects related to ancient, Medieval and Modern pilgrimage along the main three European Routes (Via Romea Francigena, Via Romea Strata, Via Romea Germanica), or along other routes to the Holy Land. The issue is divided into three sections. The first one is dedicated to the European project rurAllure by Martín López Nores, José Juan Pazos Arias, Susana Reboreda Morillo, Óscar Penín Romero, which focuses on the enhancement of minor sites along the pilgrimage routes of Europe, and it is accompanied by an overview on the development of promotional activities for some Italian cases supervised by Alessia Mariotti. The second section presents a series of studies related to some contexts that are close to mineral springs or important waterways and were frequented by pilgrims throughout the centuries: these are articles by Paola Zanovello and Andrea Meleri's on the Euganean Hills (Padua), by Maddalena Bassani's on the sanctuary of Minerva Medica in Val Trebbia (Piacenza) and that at Timavo’s Sources (Monfalcone), by Jacopo Turchetto on the centuriation between Padua and Altino. Furthermore, the articles by Silvia González Soutelo, Miguel Gómez-Heras, and Laura García Juan on the Bagno Vignoni area (Siena), and by Alessia Mariotti and Mattia Vitelli Casella on the Argenta site (Po Delta). In the third and final section one can read two important contributions, the first by Ludovico Rebaudo, devoted to the study of manuscript evidences recorded during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land about archaeological remains in Anatolia; the second by Jacopo Tabolli, who presents an exhibition on votive bronzes left by pilgrims in the sanctuary at the ‘Sorgenti di San Casciano ai Bagni’ (Siena) that recently opened at the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome.