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Sarah Mc|Dougall wrote: 'I am looking for medieval/Biblical moments where one person submitted to another by embracing them around the legs. I was told of one in Dante, but haven't found it yet. Any other ideas?' This is a gesture commonly found in antiquity: there are plenty of instances in Homer (see e.g. the meeting between Achilles and Priam in the Iliad, and that between Odysseus and Nausicaa in the Odyssey- here Odysseus is specifically said to refrain from this gesture in order not to frighten the young girl). Tacitus (Annals I, 13) has a lovely story where a disgraced senator visits the emperor Tiberius in his palace and in begging his pardon grabs his knees; Tiberius, never one for the spontaneous gesture, starts back violently and goes flying; the senator only narrowly escapes being killed by the palace guard. I am sure plenty more examples could be found if one went looking. I have less info on medieval practices, but I do remember reading as part of my Latin course at school a story about Rollo the Viking, the first duke of Normandy. According to the chronicler (I think it may have been Dudo, but cannot remember for sure), when Rollo had been given his lands in Normandy, it was pointed out to him that he should now kiss the king's foot as a sign of vassaldom. Rollo didn't fancy this at all - Real Men Don't Kiss Feet! - , so delegated the job to one of his men. This unnamed Viking was equally unimpressed, but managed to find his own solution: he grabbed the king's foot and lifted it to his mouth without bending his own knee- so of course the king went sprawling. Hope this is helpful, Lena Wahlgren-Smith