A research residency at York University must surely be heaven. She no doubt delights in the carved details of buildings and monuments that natives of the ancient city perhaps take for granted; waking up each morning in an apartment in the heart of town, she probably pinches herself.

"It is exciting, stimulating, very special to be here. To be honest, having grown up in New England where so much is done in imitation of England, I actually feel more at home here than in the Midwest of America, where everything is so big and flat and people talk strangely. Add to that the fact that York represents so much of what I have studied, well yes, I feel lucky."

Symes, who along with an exhausting and exhaustive academic CV that includes postgraduate study at Oxford, is also a professional actress trained at Bristol Old Vic. She is in Yorkshire to do research and also exchange information with other academics, students and thespians.

She's also in the early stages of a book which will link the imagery, symbolism and history of medieval times with modern warfare.

It will shape material gathered from wide avenues of study to be explored over the next few years. The finished product should be published in 2014, in time for the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War.

Following from a previous book on medieval communities in Europe and their theatrical traditions, this next one steps forward into a world that was gearing up for confrontation, the "war to end all wars". Symes says the romanticised concepts and language of chivalry and heroism from medieval legends and poetry were used during the First World War to sell the idea of the conflict to the public.

Her research draws on wartime propaganda images of French soldiers depicted as knights in shining armour and ghostly vistas of medieval cathedrals hovering over the battlefields of Europe.

The British officer class was particularly wont to speak in terms of "sacrifice", and refer to England as a lady who must be rescued by a knight.

She also argues that soldiers including JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis were profoundly affected by these images and their interpretations used during the war, and the use of medieval symbolism was a great influence on their writing.

"Tolkien, for example, went on to create a medievalistic universe, using concepts from Celtic literature," says Prof Symes.

"He wanted to create an alternative universe in which forces of darkness and mechanisation are defeated by goodness, humility, elves and hobbits. I don't think he would have written as he did without his experience of war."

Symes says she is trying to pull together for the first time a wide range of disparate phenomena, looking at how medievalism was used in different ways in different countries.

The symbol of Joan of Arc, the sacrificial Maid of Orleans, who had been dead for 500 years, was pressed into service on posters as the totem of France's grace and goodness. When she was finally canonised by the Catholic Church in 1920, it was probably as much about her importance as a latter-day symbol of French identity than for her martyrdom.

Such was the public attachment to the symbolism of the medieval past, as represented in cathedrals and other iconic buildings, that enemy destruction of such monuments was used to stir up patriotic fervour and support for the war, says Prof Symes.

When the British Tommy sent a postcard home from the trenches of northern France, it often showed a burned-out cathedral, such as that of Reims, or the vestiges of a medieval town like Arras or Ypres.

"When a building of such importance was damaged or destroyed, pictures of that destruction were also used in propaganda during the war and afterwards, to raise money for the rebuilding.

"And in America and other former colonies, where there was a deep-rooted appreciation of the history of Europe and a feeling of a shared past felt by many of the immigrants, there was outrage and sadness when news came that medieval cathedrals were attacked. In part, this helped bring the US into the war."

When French towns were later being rebuilt, tourists were encouraged to come and view the devastation and help to pay for the rebuild. One area of research Prof Symes is particularly interested in is how medieval cathedrals and "murdered towns" in northern France were rebuilt in almost exact replica, rather than replacing the old with new.

"The French impulse was to replace towns as though the war had never happened, such was the attachment to the medieval past and the romantic, uncomplicated time it represented – a time when nation states did not exist and therefore issues of policing borders did not really exist. With this spooky and fascinating recreation of the medieval, the French seemed to be trying to erase the war."


Carol Symes will deliver a public lecture entitled Modern War and the Medieval Past at King's Manor, Exhibition Square, York, at 5.30pm on Thursday, February 28.