Despite denoting one of the fastest growing approaches of academic inquiry within a number of fields, the term “medievalism” remains somewhat slippery. It may describe the use of medieval themes, stories, characters, or even styles in the fiction, art, or film in any period following the close of the Middle Ages. Politically, it frequently denotes the recreation or refashioning of historical figures or events to justify the ideologies or national identities of a subsequent age. It has been applied to the adoption and adaptation of medieval philosophies to illuminate the issues of a later time. It may even describe the revival of early medical or other scientific practices. One thing, however, that underlies all such endeavors, is the reliance on the medieval past to lend authority to contemporary thought. Consider, for example, that the Tudors rested their claim to the English throne partly on an invented lineage leading back to the fabled King Arthur, even going so far as to manufacture and “discover” his Round Table. Or, on a more modern note, consider that most New Age Wicca adherents believe they are reviving an ancient Celtic spirituality somehow secretly kept alive for 1500 years, despite the fact that the very name of their cult derives not from early Welsh but from Anglo-Saxon and that much of their supposedly arcane knowledge has no documented existence prior to the nineteenth century. Yet, in the popular imagination, to be rooted in the medieval is to have unquestioned tradition and authority, to be legitimized.