IT IS A paradoxical time for pre modern studies: we live in a moment in which the distant past has as much currency as it perhaps has ever had, for better or worse. It's a moment in which Texas is renegotiating reproductive freedoms in a move that many in the media have labelled “medieval” (implying barbaric or unenlightened). And universities in the UK, Europe, and North America have tried to close down medieval sections on the grounds that they don't “speak to” contemporary concerns. But it's also a moment in which scientists who had previously mocked medieval and early modern ideas about “airborne” plagues are learning ever more about the mysterious and inventive ways disease can spread itself, and medieval medical texts have inspired new and effective pharmacological innovations. It is a moment where a translation of Beowulf (Maria Dahvana Headley) can win major literary prizes and in which Shakespeare and other early modern plays continue to be re presented in ever new adaptations and languages. Millions of readers, viewers, and gamers continue avidly to interact with medievalist and early modern icons and ideas: through media as diverse as Assassins Creed and Quake, or the Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and Marvel franchises. Noteworthy, too, are the recent diverse re envisionings of the Arthurian legends by novelists like Nicola Griffith or Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy. And that's not to mention the pre modern material and cultural artifacts on display in old and new collections around the world, presented in ever new cultural and conceptual contexts. On the whole, I think we have grounds for optimism—to believe that our subject will continue to be of interest despite the best attempts of some to limit its scope and relevance, or to corral it and insert a boundary between the pre and the - modern.

One of the things that unites the essays in this inspiring collection is a refusal to accept traditional limits or boundaries. They show that binaries such as the creative and the critical, the objective and the subjective, the serious and the playful cannot be sustained as mutually exclusive, bounded categories, but rather these areas interrelate and productively inform each other. The essays range over the medieval and early modern periods, crossing another (frequently) perceived temporal and cultural division, and bring academic and practitioner together into fruitful dialogue.