The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature has awarded the Medium Ævum Essay Prize since 2008. The competition is run annually, with postgraduates and those recently graduated with a higher degree invited to submit an essay on a topic that falls within the range of the interests of Medium Ævum in the medieval period (loosely defined as the fifth to the fifteenth century, in the Western calendar).
The value of the prize is £500. An entry declared proxime accessit will be awarded £100. The winning essay and other entries of sufficient quality and promise may be considered for publication in Medium Ævum.
The annual deadline for submissions for the Essay Prize is 12 noon on the first Monday of December of the preceding year. For the 2025 Essay Prize, the deadline is 12:00 midday (GMT), Monday 2nd of December, 2024. The rules of the competition, and an online entry form, are available under the links Essay Prize Rules and Submit an Entry, under the Essay Prize tab in the main menu bar of the Society website. Any queries can be directed to the Executive Officer of the Society.
| Winner |
Christopher G. Lu University of Oxford |
Learned humour, humorous learning: John Free’s Latin translation of Synesius’s Economium Calvitii (1461) and its transmission | ||
| Proxime Accessit |
Rowan Wilson University of Oxford |
Feeling “aliene”: reimagining affectivity in the works of Walter Hilton |
| Winner |
Miguel Fernandes The University of Chicago |
Numbers, words, and gestures: Grammar and the medieval tradition of finger-counting |
| Winner |
Viktoriia Krivoshchekova Maynooth University |
Vice and Virtue as Cognitive Experiences in Early Irish Tradition | ||
| Proxime Accessit |
Nia Moseley-Roberts University of Oxford |
Crafted Voices: Utility and Fluidity in Ancrene Wisse |
| Winner |
James Parkhouse University of Oxford |
Legends in the Landscape: The Revenge of Weland in Southern English Toponymy | ||
| Proxime Accessit |
Aylin Malcolm University of Pennsylvania |
All Dogs Go to Heaven: Reason, Literary Style, and Animal Cognition in Adelard of Bath’s Questiones naturales |
| No Award Made |
| Winner |
Claudio Cataldi University of Bristol |
The Medieval Tale of the Eight Hellhounds |
| Winner |
Julia Mattison University of Toronto |
Line-Fillers in Chaucer's Verse | ||
| Proxime Accessit |
Gillian Redfern University of Manchester |
Knowing Me Knowing You: Three Knowingly Northern Plays by the Wakefield Master |
| Winner |
Georgia Henley Harvard |
Reading Geoffrey of Monmouth in Wales: the Basis of the Welsh Brut y Brenhinedd in Latin Commentaries, Glosses and Variant Texts |
| Winner |
Robert Gallagher University of the Basque Country |
Latin Acrostic Poetry in Late Anglo-Saxon England: Reassessing the Contribution of John the Old Saxon |
Published in MÆ 86/2/249 |
| Winner |
Elizabeth Wright University of York |
Marian Hymns and Sacred Vocal Music in London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian D. vi. : Five Previously Unpublished Anglo-Latin Texts |
||
| Proxime Accessit |
Megan Murton Xavier University |
The Prioress's Prologue: Dante, Liturgy and Ineffability |
| Winner |
Christine Wallis University of Sheffield |
‘Unpublished Drypoint Annotations in Oxford, Corpus Christi College 279B’ |
Published in MÆ 85/1/15 |
| Winner |
Jill Fitzgerald University of Illinois |
‘Angelus Pacis: A Liturgical Model for the 'fæle friðowebba' in Cynewulf's 'Elene'’ |
Published in MÆ 83/2/189 | |
| Proxime Accessit |
Aisling Byrne Merton College, Oxford |
A Lost Insular Version of the Romance of Octavian |
Published in MÆ 83/2/288 |
| No Award Made |
| Winner |
Jennifer Jahner University of Pennsylvania |
Altera Natura: Conduct, Craft and Nature in The Owl and the Nightingale |
| Winner |
Thomas Hinton Jesus College, Oxford |
New Beginnings and False Dawns: A Reappraisal of the Elucidation Prologue to the Conte del Graal Cycle |
Published in MÆ 80/1/41 | |
| Proxime Accessit |
Eliza Zingesser Princeton University |
Speaking as One: Linguistic Diversity and Moral Unity in Troubadour Chansonnier Y (Bibliothèque Nationale de France MS. fr. 795) |
| Winner |
Elizabeth Boyle Corpus Christi College, Cambridge |
Neoplatonic thought in medieval Ireland: the evidence of Scéla na esérgi |
Published in MÆ 78/2/216 |
| Winner |
Kathleen Palti University College, London |
An Unpublished fifteenth-century carol collection: Oxford, Lincoln College MS Lat. 141 |
Published in MÆ 77/2/260 |
