The North Sea World in the Middle Ages: Studies in the Cultural History of North-Western Europe. Edited by Thomas R. Liszka and Lorna E. M. Walker. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2001. Pp. 302. $45 (cloth).

This volume consists of twelve studies arising from an international exchange, in 1996, between the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and Penn State University, U.S., with all but one of the contributors being from one or other of the two universities. the theme of the resulting volume is, to some extent at least, evidently determined by the individual interests of the contributors. though the editors make an explicit comparison with "Mediterranean studies" as a model in forming their concept of the North Sea World as a theme (p. 11), this is a conference volume with a fairly disparate set of papers which vary greatly in approach and scale of detail. Notwithstanding this disparity, most of its contributions are notable for their sophistication of approach to problems in "northern" studies.

Johnathan M. Wooding
University of Wales, Lampeter