FEMALE CHARACTERISATION IN OLD ENGLISH POETRY ANNE LINGARD KLINCK MA, Oxon ...

277 Pages·2009·13.58 MB·English

FEMALE CHARACTERISATION IN OLD ENGLISH POETRY
by
ANNE LINGARD KLINCK
M.A., Oxon., 1969
M.A., British Columbia, 1970
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in
THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES/
(Department of English)
We accept this thesis as conforming
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THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
© A n ne Lingard Klinck, 1976
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ABSTRACT
A survey of Old English poetry suggests that greater
originality is to be found in the presentation of situations
involving female, rather than exclusively male, characters.
This phenomenon can be related to a double background of
social and literary conditions. An investigation of the
social position of Anglo-Saxon women on the basis of con
temporary historical records reveals that, contrary to the
received opinion, the status of Anglo-Saxon women was mainly
a subordinate and passive one. However, there are certain
exceptions to the general rule, and the position of women
improved in the course of the era. An examination of the
techniques of characterisation in Old English poetry shows
that they are based on a series of contrasting and inter
locking stereotypes, which, allowing for a degree of archaism
and selectivity, for the most part correspond to the typical
conditions of actual life. Almost a ll the examples of
significant departures from the stereotypes occur in
association with women characters.
The proverbial poetry and the poems treating
traditional Germanic subjects present some rather sketchy
portraits of women based on the stereotype of the good queen.
However, the highly skilled Beowulf poet takes this standard
type and uses it for his own ends: as a vehicle of pathos and
tragic irony in the poem. The poems belonging to the "saint's
i ii
l i f e" genre utilise the other main female stereotype: the
saint. Because the outlines of this type are rigid and
unnatural, l i t t le individual characterisation is to be found
within this category. The two Old English love lyrics, The
Wife's Lament and Wulf and Eadwacer, take the traditional
subject of exile, and, with considerable psychological
insight, apply it to a new situation: the separation, not of
a warrior from lord and comrades, but of a woman from
husband or lover. The most striking examples of originality
are to be found in the temptation scene of Genesis B and in
Division VII of Christ I. Here, the encounters between Adam
and Eve, and Joseph and Mary, respectively, are treated with
freedom, and a realism most unusual in Old English poetry.
The explanation for the greater originality present
in the treatment of female characters, and situations
involving them, lies in the passive roles to which women were
normally confined, both in Old English poetry and in
Anglo-Saxon society. This passivity led the poets into a
deeper exploration of thought and feeling, and into a
portrayal of intimate relationships not provided for by the
ready-made traditions of the poetry. Paradoxically, the very
category of female characters which is not restricted to a
passive role, i.e., that containing the saints, is the most
rigid and least lifelike.
If we leave out the saints' poems, it is possible to
show a chronological development in the pattern of female
characterisation. The proverbial poetry and the poetry on
iv
traditional Germanic themes constitute an early stratum, the
two love poems are somewhat later, and Genesis B and Christ I
latest of a l l. A corresponding increase in psychological
insight can be traced in these three groups. A growing
humanism in the Anglo-Saxon era is, thus, reflected in the
poetry in an increasing interest in the situation of passive,
female characters. This development foreshadows wider
movements in medieval Europe, notably, the rise of the lyric,
and the growth of the literature of courtly love.
V
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
Chapter
I. THE SOCIAL STATUS OF WOMEN IN ANGLO-SAXON
ENGLAND 19
II. CHARACTER-TYPES IN THE POETRY 67
III. FROM THE PROVERBIAL POETRY TO BEOWULF: THE
TRADITIONAL FIGURE OF THE IDEALISED WOMAN
AND ITS EXTENSION 93
IV. THE POEMS IN THE SAINT'S LIFE TRADITION . . .. 129
V. LYRICAL POEMS FEATURING WOMEN: WULF AND
EADWACER AND THE WIFE'S LAMENT 169
VI. DRAMATIC SCENES 'INVOLVING WOMEN: GENESIS B
AND CHRIST I 203
CONCLUSION 234
BIBLIOGRAPHY . 250
1
INTRODUCTION
Probably the f i r st observation that springs to mind
in connection with the female characters of Old English
poetry is that they are few. In the corpus of Old English
poetry as a whole, women characters play a distinctly minor
part. However, it has struck me that some of the more
interesting effects created in that poetry in fact involve
female figures: the Beowulf poet makes an evocative use of
his female characters, especially Wealhtheow and Hildeburh,
in showing the tragic effects of feud; the temptation of
Adam by Eve in Genesis B is a highly dramatic and strikingly
heterodox presentation of the Fall of Man; the dialogue
between Joseph and Mary in Division V II of Christ I is a
miniature drama presented with a great deal of human
sympathy; the two love lyrics with female narrators, Wulf
and Eadwacer and The Wife's Lament are unique in Old English
poetry in dealing seriously with sexual love.-*- It looks as
i f, in these cases, the treatment of female characters has
inspired the poets to greater inventiveness. One is l ed to
ask how and why this may be so. Is there indeed a greater
originality in the creation of female figures? What general
tendencies l ie behind this trend? Is the relatively minor
role of women characters in the poetry a contributing
factor? What historical circumstances might be relevant?
2
And' how can the pattern of female characterisation in Old
English poetry be related to the broader trends of European
literature in the Middle Ages?
The following thesis aims to answer these questions.
Since the pattern emerging from female characterisation in
the poetry is to be related to broader influences, it is
important to establish the immediate historical and literary
background. This study, then, begins in Chapter I with a
thoroughgoing analysis of the social position of women i n.
Anglo-Saxon England. The conclusions which emerge in this
preliminary investigation form the basis of my final
inferences about the nature and significance of trends in
the poetic treatment of women. The broad outlines of the
literary background are subsequently presented, in Chapter
II. That i s, the characterisation of women implies a
comparison with the characterisation of men, and, therefore,
the general techniques of character-drawing, mainly seen in
the creation of male characters, are summarised in this
chapter. The remaining chapters focus directly on the poems
and passages which make significant use of women characters.
Chapter III deals with what we may call the traditional
poetry, i.e., the poetry rooted in native, Germanic material.
The subject of Chapter IV is the Christian poems which
depict the career of a saint or holy woman. Chapter V is
devoted to the two love lyrics, and Chapter VI to the
passages from Genesis B and Christ I. In arranging the
chapters in this way, I follow a development from a sketchy
3
presentation of women, very much indebted to traditional
Germanic conventions, to a more extended presentation, as
evinced in the succeeding chapters. Also, there is a
movement towards greater individuality, noticeable
expecially in Chapters V and VI. The Conclusion defines
the pattern established and suggests i ts implications. The
reasons for originality in female characterisation are here
set forth, and the question of a chronological development
in female characterisation is discussed. Finally, this
development in Old English poetry is related to wider
trends developing in European literature. But, to begin
with, the scope of this study should be defined a l i t t le
more precisely, both with reference to previous scholarship,
and to the connections that might be made beyond the limits
of Old English poetry.
The volume of criticism devoted to female
characterisation in Old English poetry is very small, and,
as far as I have been able to discover, no work has
focussed specifically on the subject of my own investigation:
an explanation of the greater originality to be found in
the creation of female, as opposed to male, characters. The
works that have been written on women in an Anglo-Saxon
context have more frequently been historical than literary
in approach. Thus, in the first chapter of her book, The
English Woman in History,2 Doris Mary Stenton stresses the
independence of the Anglo-Saxon woman, which she later
contrasts with the subordinate position of the woman in
4
post-Conquest England. George Forrest Browne, in "The
3
Importance of Women in Anglo-Saxon Times," describes the
prominent women associated with the Christianisation of
England, and with the double monasteries in the seventh
and eighth centuries. Other studies, such as F. T.
4
Wainwright1 s ".ZEthelflaed, Lady of the Mercians," and Miles
W. Campbell's "Queen Emma and JElfgifu of Northhampton:
Canute the Great's Women,have been devoted to individual
women who influenced the secular course of Anglo-Saxon
history. A recent study which combines the specific and
the general approach is Carole Elizabeth Moore's "Queen
6
Emma and the Role of Women in Anglo-Saxon Society." Moore
regards Emma as epitomising the influential position of
women in Anglo-Saxon society, a position which she finds
distinctively Germanic and non-Christian in origin. The
vindication of the Anglo-Saxon woman's independence which
appears in a ll these works is a point of view which I shall
find occasion to question in Chapter I.
Several studies have been concerned with social
attitudes to women, rather than with historical women in
themselves. Betty Bandel, in "The English Chroniclers'
7
Attitude toward Women," argues that in Anglo-Saxon times
it was regarded as normal for women to take an active part
in the organisation of society. A similar position is
adopted by J. A. Crawford in "The Position of Women in
Q
Anglo-Saxon England." Crawford treats Old English poetry,
along with the prose, as a direct record of social custom,