Since time immemorial, people have been screaming, crying, and throwing up over their faves. Today we swoon over anime characters, Lady Gaga, our K-Pop bias, etc. But many of the hallmarks of fandom — effusive emotion, cults of celebrity, fan fiction, and the proliferation of merch — have synergies with popular Western European literary and religious culture during the period between roughly 800 and 1500. In truth, fandom is as medieval as jousting on feast days and parading around in tights.