Portraits of Medieval Eastern Europe provides imagined biographies of twenty figures from all walks of life in Eastern Europe from 800 to 1250, giving an insight into medieval life from Scandinavia to Byzantium. Accompanied by an interactive companion website, it is the perfect teaching aid to support and excite students of medieval Eastern Europe.

Donald Ostrowski is Research Advisor in the Social Sciences and Lecturer in History at the Harvard University Extension School. His previous publications include Muscovy and the Mongols: Cross-Cultural Influences on the Steppe Frontier 1304-1589 (1998) and over 100 articles and review essays. He is also the editor of The Povest' vremennykh let: An Interlinear Collation and Paradosis, 3 vols. (2003), and a co-editor of four collections of studies.

Christian Raffensperger is Associate Professor of History at Wittenberg University, as well as an associate of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. He has published multiple books including Reimagining Europe: Kievan Rus' in the Medieval World (2012) and Ties of Kinship: Genealogy and Dynastic Marriage in Kyivan Rus' (2016). He is also the series editor for Beyond Medieval Europe, a book series published by ARC Humanities Press.

List of figures

List of maps

List of contributors

Acknowledgements

Introduction - Donald Ostrowski

PART 1: Rus' and Northern Europe

1. "The Widow Princess of Minsk" - Inés García de la Puente
2. "Anna, A Woman of Novgorod" - Eve Levin
3. "Prince Vladimir of Pskov" - Anti Selart
4. Mother of a Tribal Häme Warrior - Kuutamo Hyväneuvo - Mari Isoaho
5. "From Butcher to Saint: The Improbable Life and Fate of VaiSvilkas/VojSelk/LavryS/Elisej of Lithuania and Black Rus' (? -1267)" - David M. Goldfrank

PART 2: Eurasian Steppe

6. "The Rare and Excellent History of Konchak (A Polovtsian Chieftain)" - Donald Ostrowski
7. "Sübedei Ba'atar: Portait of a Mongol General" - Timothy May

PART 3: Byzantium and Southeastern Europe

8. "Anna Komnene: Princess, Historian, & Conspirator?" - Leonora Neville
9. "Angel on Earth and Heavenly Man-St. Sava of Serbia" - Florin Curta
10. "Paulus de Breberio banus Croatorum dominus et Bosne" - Neven Budak
11. "King Miliutin and His Many Marriages" - Vlada Stankovic

PART 4: Central Europe

12. "Henry Zdík, Bishop of Olomouc and Premonstratensian" - Lisa Wolverton
13. "King Béla IV of Hungary: A Monarch in a Period of Crisis and Recovery" - Balázs Nagy
14. "Zalava, Slave in the Kingdom of Hungary" - Cameron Sutt
15. "Jan Dlugosz on King Wladyslaw Jagiello's Master Chef and the Invention of Bigos" - Paul Milliman

PART 5: Travelers to Strange Lands

16. "The Travels of Gorm in Eastern Europe" - Heidi Sherman-Lelis and Arnold Lelisx
17. "Anna Porphyrogenita, Byzantine Princess and Queen of the Rus'" - Susana Torres Prieto
18. "The Journeys of My Soul in the Land of Canaan, by Yitshak ben Sirota" - Isaiah Gruber
19. "Agent of Change: Evpraksia Vsevolodovna between Emperor and Papacy" - Christian A. Raffensperger
20. "Fotii, a Rus' Pilgrim to Constantinople" - Monica White

Conclusion - Christian A. Raffensperger

Index