Students derive many other benefits from pursuing such a minor, as they do from taking courses in medieval cultures, languages, and literature generally.  The Medieval Studies Program houses a lively undergraduate association, Quodlibet, that arranges frequent lectures on medieval topics and an annual celebratory Reading of prose and poetry in many medieval languages.  Cornell’s students and scholars pursuing varied interests in these many realms constitute a strong and supportive community.  Coursework in Medieval Studies enhances the student’s enjoyment and understanding of the artistic and material relics of the Middle Ages: Gregorian chant, manuscripts and stained glass windows, Gothic cathedrals, Crusader castles, and picturesque towns cramped within ancient walls.  The student will discover the serious realities involved in, and shaped by, Arthurian tales of knights and ladies, dungeons, dragons, and other marvels.  Students can analyze and appreciate the horrors of the Black Death, triumphs in courtly love and pitched battle, swords and scimitars, caliphs and popes, fear of demons and djinns, and angels.  The period saw many of the foundational choices that have, for good and ill, made the world what it is today.  Many of our current challenges in the fields of law, human rights, attitudes toward power, authority, gender relations, and sexual mores derive from the ways in which these and other questions were formulated a millennium ago.  Many of the courses listed by Medieval Studies pertain specifically to these fields, as well as to the interdisciplinary combinations for which the Program is noted.