Medieval times is a period of time in the history of Western Europe, from circa 500 to 1500 A.D - but it is also something more. It functions as a mirror for the present to define itself - for good and for bad - as the time when everything began, or the time which thankfully is history.

National features developed during the medieval times, but so did European institutions such as universities, banks, parliaments, literature, and the beginning of a separation of religious and worldly spheres. The medieval period has been viewed as dark, barbarious and supersticious, the time before the Renaissance or before the Enlightenment.

Since the 1990s, the understanding and depiction of medieval times have been renewed as a reference point for discussions about national and Western values and ethics, as well as for international politics, regulations of war, and more.

Medieval Studies cover a wide scope themes and subjects. The study of medieval times is interdisciplinary and occurs within over twenty disciplines within Stockholm University. Themes vary greatly: linguistic studies on medieval practices of translation, syntax, lexicography, rethoric, diplomacy, paleography and edition philology; literal and philosophical investigations of medieval theory of fiction, prose and poetry, logic, theology and political thinking; studies of medieval art, art theory and architecture; questions on medieval landscape, its organization and utilization of resources.