While I work with medieval chronicles, I'm a literature teacher rather than a historian. That being said, I always try to make connections between fields apparent for students to help them integrate their learning. As I read these selections, I found myself having to look up some background on the traditions. I would not be shy, however, about showing students that I'm learning this information, too. I've found that they appreciate that candor and enjoy the shared experience of helping me and their classmates learn as a group -- it's great for building community and rapport.

To help contextualize these readings in the classroom, I would likely draw on my comparatist and folklore training to help situate the readings to others that may be more familiar to some students, and encourage them to do the same. I'd also pose a question I often use: what did reading this make you wonder about? Then I ask them to chase down that question and share their findings so we all benefit.

As a textual scholar, I'd also dig into various translations of the texts to assess commonalities and differences -- something that's always thought-provoking.