Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon England (The New Middle Ages)

176 Pages·2000·0.58 MB·English

by  Mary Dockray-Miller

MOTHERHOOD AND
MOTHERING IN
ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
Mary Dockray-Miller
MOTHERHOOD AND MOTHERING
IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
THE NEW MIDDLE AGES
BONNIE WHEELER
Series Editor
The New Middle Ages presents transdisciplinary studies of medieval
cultures. It includes both scholarly monographs and essay
collections.
PUBLISHED BY ST.MARTIN’S PRESS:
Women in the Medieval Islamic World:Power,Patronage,and Piety
edited by Gavin R.G.Hambly
The Ethics of Nature in the Middle Ages:On Boccaccio’s Poetaphysics
by Gregory B.Stone
Presence and Presentation:Women in the Chinese Literati Tradition
by Sherry J.Mou
The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard:
Perceptions of Dialogue in Twelfth-Century France
by Constant J.Mews
Understanding Scholastic Thought with Foucault
by Philipp W.Rosemann
For Her Good Estate:The Life of Elizabeth de Burgh
by Frances Underhill
Constructions of Widowhood and Virginity in the Middle Ages
edited by Cindy L.Carlson and Angela Jane Weisl
Listening to Heloise:TheVoice of a Twelfth-Century Woman
edited by Bonnie Wheeler
Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon England
by Mary Dockray-Miller
MOTHERHOOD AND
MOTHERING IN
ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
Mary Dockray-Miller
MOTHERHOODANDMOTHERINGINANGLO-SAXONENGLAND
Copyright © Mary Dockray-Miller,2000.All rights reserved.Printed in the
United States of America.No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.For information,address St.
Martin’s Press,175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010.
ISBN 0-312-22721-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dockray-Miller,Mary,1965-
Motherhood and mothering in Anglo-Saxon England / Mary Dockray
-Miller.
p. cm.(The New Middle Ages)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-312-22721-3
1. Mothers—England—History—To 1500. 2. Motherhood—England-
-History—To 1500. 3. Great Britain—History—Anglo-Saxon period,
449–1066. 4. Mothers in literature. 5. Motherhood in literature.
6. English literature—Old English,ca.450–1100—History and
criticism. I. Title.
HQ759.D63 1999
306.874’3’09420902—dc21 99–39680
CIP
Design by Letra Libre,Inc.
First edition:March 2000
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For the Hawk,
Edith Weatherby Dockray
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CONTENTS
Series Editor’s Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xi
Preface: Looking for Anglo-Saxon Mothers xiii
1. Maternal Performers 1
2. Matrilineal Genealogy and Mildrib’s
Maternal Legacy 9
3. The Maternal Genealogy of Æbelflæd,
Lady of the Mercians 43
4. The Mothers of Beowulf 77
Afterword: The Politics of Motherhood 117
Appendix: Family Trees 121
Notes 125
Bibliography 149
Index 159
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SERIES EDITOR’S FOREWORD
The New Middle Agescontributes to medieval cultural studies through its
scholarly monographs and essay collections.This series speaks in a con-
temporary idiom about specific but diverse practices,expressions,and ide-
ologies in the Middle Ages;it aims especially to recuperate the histories of
medieval women.Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon Englandby Mary
Dockray-Miller is the thirteenth book in the series.This,the first mono-
graph on maternity in Anglo-Saxon England,uses a large range of diverse
evidence culled from saints’lives,chronicles,and charters to demonstrate
modes of medieval maternal nurturance. Not surprisingly, given its
grandeur and interpretive importance,Dockray-Miller uses Beowulf as her
central text.Grendel’s mother,then and now,models ways in which mater-
nity can be both powerful and thwarted.
Bonnie Wheeler
Southern Methodist University