Dying and Death in Later Anglo-Saxon England (Anglo-Saxon Studies)

240 Pages·2004·1.8 MB·English

by  Victoria Thompson

DYING AND DEATH IN LATER
ANGLO-SAXON GLANDEN

Victoria Thompson

Anglo-Saxon Studies
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1 Anglo-Saxon Studies 4
2 DYING AND DEATH IN LATER
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ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
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Pre-Conquest attitudes towards the dying and the dead have major impli-
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cations for every aspect of culture, society and religion of the Anglo-Saxon
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period; but the death-bed and funerary practices of this period have been
0 comparatively and unjustly neglected by historical scholarship. In her wide-
11 ranging analysis, Dr Thompson examines such practices in the context of
12 confessional and penitential literature, wills, poetry, chronicles and homilies,
13 to show that complex and ambiguous ideas about death were current at all
14 levels of Anglo-Saxon society. Her study also takes in grave monuments,
15 showing in particular how the Anglo-Scandinavian sculpture of the ninth to
the eleventh centuries may indicate not only the status, but also the religious
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and cultural alignment of those who commissioned and made them.
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18 VICTORIA THOMPSON undertook her postgraduate work in English and
19 Medieval Studies at the University of York and currently lectures in
20 medieval history for New York University’s London Program.
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1 Anglo-Saxon Studies
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ISSN: 1475-2468
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General Editors
5 John Hines and Catherine Cubitt
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8 Volume 1: The Dramatic Liturgy of Anglo-Saxon England
9 M. Bradford Bedingfield
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Volume 2: The Art of the Anglo-Saxon Goldsmith
11 Fine Metal work in Anglo-Saxon England: its Practice and Practitioners
12 Elizabeth Coatsworth and Michael Pinder
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Volume 3: The Ruler Portraits of Anglo-Saxon England
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Catherine E. Karkov
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17 ‘Anglo-Saxon Studies’ aims to provide a forum for the best scholarship
18 on the Anglo-Saxon peoples in the period from the end of Roman Britain
19 to the Norman Conquest, including comparative studies involving
20 adjacent populations and periods; both new research and major re-
21 assessments of central topics are welcomed.
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Originally founded by Professor David Dumville as ‘Studies in Anglo-
23 Saxon History’, the series has now broadened in scope under new
24 editorship to take in any one of the principal disciples of archaeology, art
25 history, history, language and literature, and inter- or multi-disciplinary
26 studies are encouraged. Proposals or enquiries may be sent directly to the
27 editors or the publisher at the addresses given below; all submissions will
28 receive prompt and informed consideration.
29 Professor John Hines, School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff
30 University, Cardiff, Wales, UK CF10 3XU
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Dr Catherine Cubitt, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York,
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The King’s Manor, York, England, UK YO1 2EP
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34 Boydell & Brewer, POBox 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, UK IP12
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DYING AND DEATH IN LATER
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9 ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
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Victoria Thompson
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46 THE BOYDELL PRESS
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1 © Victoria Thompson 2004
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3 All Rights Reserved.Except as permitted under current legislation
4 no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
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transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,
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without the prior permission of the copyright owner
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First published 2004
0 The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
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13 ISBN 1 84383 070 1
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31 The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
32 PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
33 and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
34 PO Box 41026, Rochester, NY 14604-4126, USA
35 website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
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A catalogue record for this book is available
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from the British Library
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40 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
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This publication is printed on acid-free paper
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44 Typeset by Keystroke, Jacaranda Lodge, Wolverhampton
45 Printed in Great Britain by
46 St Edmundsbury Press Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
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7 Contents
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11 List of Illustrations vi
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Acknowledgements vii
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14 Abbreviations ix
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Introduction 1
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17 1 Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians 8
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2 Dying and Death in a Complicated World 26
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20 3 Dying with Decency 57
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4 The Body under Siege in Life and Death 92
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23 5 The Gravestone, the Grave and the Wyrm 132
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6 Judgement on Earth and in Heaven 170
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26 Conclusion 207
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Bibliography 209
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29 Index 229
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7 Illustrations
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11 1. The Quinity, from Ælfwine’s Prayerbook (London, BL Cotton Titus
12 D xxvii, fol. 75v) 00
13 2. The Newent Stone Gospel Book, Last Judgement 00
14 3. The keys of St Peter gravestone (Cambridge Castle 1) 00
15 4. Noah’s raven pecking a human head (London, BL Cotton Claudius
16 B iv, fol. 15r) 00
17 5. The ring-headed warrior/dragon cross from Middleton (N. Yorkshire) 00
18 6. The cross-shaft with naked men and serpents from Masham
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20 7. York Metropolitan School grave-slab (York Minster 38) 00
21 8. St Peter embodying intercessory prayer from the New Minster
22 Liber Vitae(London, BL Stowe 944, fols 6v–7r) 00
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7 Acknowledgements
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11 In writing this book I have incurred debts of many kinds, to friends and family
12 as well as to those who have helped and guided me intellectually (and these
13 categories are by no means mutually exclusive). I have been greatly assisted by
14 the staff of the British Library, the Bodleian Library, and the faculty of the Centre
15 for Medieval Studies at the University of York. I am more grateful than I can say
16 for the emotional and intellectual support of Chris, Alison (and Matthew) Daniell,
17 Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, Katherine Lewis, Noel James, Joanna
18 Huntington, Susie Holden, Lucy Hunter, Jessica Haydon and Sophie Holroyd. I
19 am also indebted beyond measure to Helen Gittos, John Blair, Sarah Semple,
20 Andrew Reynolds, Sam Turner, Howard Williams, Felicity Clark, Jane Hawkes,
21 Kellie Meyer, Alice Cowen, Philip Shaw, Simon Trafford, Aleks Pluskowski and
22 Nick Orchard for their patience in hearing me out and their unstinting generosity
23 with their own ideas. Aleks Pluskowski was equally generous in illustrating the
24 sculpture from Masham, Middleton and Newent. Ben Whitworth rescued me at
25 the eleventh hour from much stylistic awkwardness. Thanks are due to the British
26 Library and Dr Aleks Pluskowski for permission to reproduce images in this book.
27 My deepest debts are to my father, my sisters and my brother, and above all my
28 mother, to whom this book is dedicated.
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SHEILA MARY THOMPSON (NÉE GUISE-MOORES)
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18 JUNE 1927 – 26 MARCH 2002
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Study to be like her
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7 Abbreviations
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11 ASE Anglo-Saxon England
12 Assmann B. Assmann (ed.), Angelsächsiche Homilien und Heiligenleben
13 (reprinted Darmstadt, 1964)
14 BAR British Archaeological Reports
15 BL British Library
16 Bodl. Bodleian Library
17 CASSS Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture
18 CBA Council for British Archaeology
19 CCCC Cambridge, Corpus Christi College
20 CCSL Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina
21 CH Comm. M. Godden (ed.), Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies: Introduction,
22 Commentary and Glossary, EETS SS 18 (Oxford, 2000)
23 CHI P. Clemoes (ed.), Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies, the First Series, Text,
24 EETS SS 17 (Oxford, 1997)
25 CHII M. Godden (ed.), Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies, the Second Series,
26 Text, EETS SS 5 (Oxford, 1979)
27 Councils D. Whitelock, M. Brett and C. N. L. Brooke (eds), Councils and
28 Synods of Great Britain with Other Documents Relating to the
29 English Church. Volume I. Part 1, 871–1066; Part 2, 1066–1204
30 (Oxford, 1981)
31 CSASE Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England
32 EEMF Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile
33 EETS Early English Text Society
34 EHD English Historical Documents
35 EHR English Historical Review
36 HBS Henry Bradshaw Society
37 HE Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. B. Colgrave
38 and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1969)
39 JBAA Journal of the British Archaeological Association
40 JEGP Journal of English and Germanic Philology
41 LSI W. Skeat (ed.), Ælfric’s Lives of Saints, Volume I, EETS 76 and 82
42 (reprinted in one volume, Cambridge, 1999)
43 LSII W. Skeat (ed.), Ælfric’s Lives of Saints, Volume II, EETS 94 and
44 114 (reprinted in one volume, Oxford, 1966)
45 Napier A. S. Napier (ed.), Wulfstan: Sammlung der ihm zugeschriebenen
46 Homilien nebst Untersuchungen über ihre Echtheit(Zürich, 1967)
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