Melissa Ivanco-Murray

Link to my full dissertation, Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy : Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore : https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/r207tq787 Time for Slavic Warrior Women, installment number 12! Today we’ll be talking about the Maidens’ War, a fascinating and bloody part of Czech legendary history. Incidentally, the story has been turned into a manga (which, alas, I cannot find in English translation, only French) but is

Link to my full dissertation, Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy : Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore : https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/r207tq787 Time for Slavic Warrior Women, part 11! Today we’ll discuss one of my favorite figures from medieval literature, who really deserves more attention than she gets outside the Czech spheres: Libuše. Enjoy! Libuše pointing the way to Přemysl The origin myth of the Czech people establ

Link to my full dissertation, Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy : Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore : https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/r207tq787 Time for Slavic Warrior women, part 10! Today we’ll discuss an introduction to the Viking Age as described in medieval Scandinavian & Slavic literature. A quick note: this is a longer section, but I felt there was more information that might be relevant to next discussions (also it’s

Link to full dissertation, Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy : Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore : https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/r207tq787 Time for Slavic Warrior women, part 9! Today we’ll discuss Amage, a lesser known Sarmatian queen. Sarmatians (not at all historically accurate) Another historical Scythian queen is Amage, who ruled over the Sarmatians during the third or second century BCE . Although she appears in f

Link to full dissertation, Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy : Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore : https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/r207tq787 Time for Slavic Warrior women, part 8! Today we’ll discuss Tomyris, the queen of the Massagetae (one of the nomadic steppe tribes that fell under the Scythian umbrella). One of these days—whenever I finish writing the current series I’ve got going on—I’d love to turn her biography into

Link to full dissertation, Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy: Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore: https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/r207tq787 Time for Slavic Warrior women, part 7! Today we’ll be talking about my personal favorite Amazon, none other than Penthesilea, who fell defending the walls of Troy against the invading Greeks. Alongside Hippolyte and Antiope, Penthesilea is one of the Amazons most well-known in contempora

Link to full dissertation, Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy : Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore : https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/r207tq787 Time for Slavic Warrior Women, part 6! Today we’ll talk about Antiope, an Amazon who is often confused for Hippolyte because of the overlap in their respective narratives...and overlap that, incidentally, traces all the way back to their earliest portrayals in Greek literature. Abduct

Link to full dissertation, Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy : Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore : https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/r207tq787 Time for Slavic Warrior women, part 5! Today we’ll start talking about the mythological Amazon queens whose narratives are best known, starting with—you guessed it—Hippolyte! Mosaic of Amazon fighting Greek Warrior As is often the case with heroic figures from bygone eras, several con

Link to full dissertation, Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy : Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore : https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/r207tq787 Time for Slavic Warrior women, part 4! Today we’ll be tackling an introduction to the Amazons and Scythians of Ancient Greek Literature, and then I’ll be going into some of the case studies I actually used for the extraordinary women whose narratives formed the backbone of my dissertat

Link to full dissertation, Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy : Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore : https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/r207tq787 Time for Slavic Warrior women, part 3! Today we’ll be talking about the Spirit of the Warrior, and what happens when women get involved. For funzies, I’ve included an old picture of me in uniform, for I remain a grumpy veteran. This post will probably piss off everyone, on either side

Link to full dissertation, Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy : Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore : https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/r207tq787 It's time for part 2 of my Slavic Warrior Women series! This time, we'll be delving a little deeper into the concept of genre, which is integral to understanding how history becomes literature. Put on your academic hats, and let's dive into how historical Scythians became fictional Amazo

Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy : Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore Last May, I graduated with my PhD from the University of Virginia in Slavic Languages & Literatures. Over the course of my research (almost seven years from my first day of grad school through defending my dissertation), many many MANY folks told me my topic sounded fascinating. Obviously, I’m biased, but I agree. Since I get so many questions and requests to read it, ge