The Idea of Anglo-Saxon England in Middle English Romance (Studies in Medieval Romance)

189 Pages·2005·0.76 MB·English

by  Robert Allen Rouse

The Idea of Anglo-Saxon England
in Middle English Romance
Asthepointoforigin,bothrealandimagined,ofEnglishlawandgroup
identity, the Anglo-Saxon past was important in the construction of a
post-ConquestEnglishsocietythatwasbothawareof,andplacedgreat
stock in, its Anglo-Saxon heritage; yet its depiction in post-Conquest
literaturehasbeenverylittlestudied.Thisbookexaminesawiderange
of sources [legal and historiographical as well as literary] in order to
reveala‘socialconstruction’ofAnglo-SaxonEnglandthatheldasignif-
icantplaceintheliteraryandculturalimaginationofthepost-Conquest
English.Usingavarietyoftexts,buttheMatterofEnglandromancesin
particular, the author argues that they show a continued interest in the
Anglo-Saxonpast,fromthelocalisedEastSussexlegendofKingAlfred
thatunderliesthetwelfth-centuryProverbsofAlfred,totheinstitutional
interestintheGuyofWarwicknarrativeexhibitedbythecommunityof
StSwithun’sPrioryinWinchesterduringthefifteenthcentury;theyare
part of a continued cultural remembrance that encompasses chronicles,
folk memories, and literature.
DrROBERTROUSEteachesintheDepartmentofEnglish,Universityof
Nottingham.
Studies in Medieval Romance
ISSN 1479–9308
Series Editors
Corinne Saunders
Roger Dalrymple
This series aims to provide a forum for critical studies of the medieval
romance,agenrethatplaysacrucialroleinliteraryhistory,reflectsmedieval
secular concerns, and raises complex questions regarding medieval reading
andwriting,socialstructures,humanrelationships,andthepsyche.Thescope
oftheseriesextendsfromtheearlyMiddleAgesintotheRenaissanceperiod,
and although its main focus is on English literature, comparative studies are
welcomed.
Proposalsorqueriesshouldbesentinthefirstinstancetooneoftheaddresses
givenbelow;allsubmissionswillreceivepromptandinformedconsideration.
Dr Corinne Saunders, Department of English, University of Durham,
Durham, DH1 3AY
Boydell & Brewer Limited, PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 3DF
Already published
Volume I: The Orient in Chaucer and Medieval Romance, Carol F. Heffernan,
2003
VolumeII:CulturalEncountersintheRomanceofMedievalEngland,editedby
Corinne Saunders, 2005
The Idea of Anglo-Saxon England
in Middle English Romance
ROBERT ALLEN ROUSE
D. S. BREWER
© Robert Allen Rouse 2005
All Rights Reserved.Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner
The right of Robert Allen Rouse to be identified as the editor of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published 2005
D. S. Brewer, Cambridge
ISBN 1 84384 041 3
D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA
website: www.boydell.co.uk
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Rouse, Robert Allen, 1971–
The idea of Anglo-Saxon England in Middle English romance / Robert
Allen Rouse.
p. cm. – (Studies in medieval romance, ISSN 1479–9308)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1–84384–041–3 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Romances, English – History and criticism. 2. English literature –
Middle English, 1100–1500 – History and criticism. 3. Great Britain –
History – Anglo-Saxon period, 449–1066 – Historiography.4. Literature
and history – England – History – To 1500. 5. Anglo-Saxons in literature.
6. England – In literature. I. Title. II. Series.
PR327.R68 2005
821'.033093242 – dc22 2004022269
This publication is printed on acid-free paper
Printed in Great Britain by
Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wiltshire
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
1 Anglo-Saxonism: The Remembrance and Re-Imagining of the 1
Anglo-Saxon Past
2 Remembering Alfred in the Twelfth Century 11
3 The Romance of the Anglo-Saxon Past 52
4 The Romance of English Identity 70
5 In his time were gode lawes: Romance and the English Legal Past 93
6 Literary Terrains and Textual Landscapes: The Importance of 134
the Anglo-Saxon Past in Late-Medieval Winchester
Conclusion 157
Bibliography 161
Index 177
For
Neil and Bernice
and
Karen
‘. . . love doth hold my hand, and makes me write’.
Acknowledgments
Manydifferentpeoplehaveinfluencedthewritingofthisbook–someknow-
inglyandothersnotso–anditisherethatIfinallyhavethechancetothank
them for their help, support, friendship, and scholarly fellowship.
This book began its life as far from medieval England, in a geographical
sense,asitispossibletotravel.AsagraduatestudentworkingattheUniver-
sity of Auckland in New Zealand, I began to formulate some of the central
questionsthatthisbookaddresses:howweretheAnglo-Saxonsremembered
aftertheconquest, andwhy?Intheseinitial investigations Iwasencouraged
by two of the most generous and inspiring of teachers, Stephanie Hollis and
Michael Wright. It was within Auckland’s community of medieval scholars
that I developed my passion for our subject.
The majority of the research for the book was a product of my doctoral
studiesattheUniversityofBristol,inwhichIwasfortunateenoughtoreceive
the generous support of a University of Bristol Scholarship and an ORS
award. My doctoral supervisor, AdPutter, mustbe thanked forhis profound
and far-reaching influence upon the study, without which this would have
beenaverydifferentkindofbook.TheDepartmentofEnglishandtheCentre
forMedievalStudiesatBristolprovidedmewithbothresearchfacilitiesanda
welcoming community of medieval scholars in which to write. My thanks
must go to Elizabeth Archibald, John Burrow, Myra Stokes, and the many
other Bristol medievalists who contributed to my wonderful and profitable
time there. Of especial note is Cory Rushton, who has taken on the various
rolesofcolleague,scholarlycollaborator,travelcompanion,devil’sadvocate,
and most importantly, friend.
Various sections of this book have stemmed from a number of papers
deliveredattheMedievalRomanceConferences(Durham2002andUniver-
sity College Dublin 2004), the British Branch of the International Arthurian
Society(Bristol2001),theInternational MedievalConferenceatKalamazoo
(2001and2002),andtheInternationalMedievalCongressatLeeds(2001and
2003).Mythanksareduetothemanyscholarswhoposedprobingquestions
and provided profitable leads during these conferences.
Allwritersrelyheavilyupontheirrelationshipwiththeirpublishers,andI
oweagreatdebttoCarolinePalmer,EditorialDirectorofBoydell&Brewer,
whohasencouragedmeinthewritingofthisbooksinceaveryearlystagein
itsconception.AlsotobethankedisCorinneJ.Saundersinherroleasgeneral
editor of the series in which this book finds itself, Studies in Medieval
Romance.
To the many dear and valued friends that I have made among the medi-
vii
Acknowledgments
evalistcommunityIowemythanksforthewayinwhichtheyhavewelcomed
meintothecommunityofmedievalscholars,bothintheUnitedKingdomand
elsewhere. Finally, I owe the greatest debt of all to Karen Higginson, for
whose selfless patience and love I remain eternally grateful.
viii
Anglo-Saxonism
1
Anglo-Saxonism: The Remembrance and
Re-Imagining of the Anglo-Saxon Past
THENormanConquestbroughtabouttheassimilationofEnglandintothe
burgeoning Norman Empire and the destruction of a ruling elite,
producing what some scholars have viewed as a cultural watershed. John
Gillingham has written that ‘the devastating experience of 1066 had meant
that the correspondence between a kingdom and a people, a community of
tradition, custom, law and descent . . . nolonger applied in England’. 1 The
extent to which this ‘community of tradition, custom, law and descent’ was
displaced under Norman rule is a much-debated issue, but the conquest is
generally agreed to have been the end of what we now call Anglo-Saxon
England.Thisisnottosay,however,thatAnglo-SaxonEnglandceasedtobe
vitalasaculturalconstructinpost-conquest England.Theremembranceand
re-imagining of Anglo-Saxon England in the post-conquest period is part of
an ongoing cultural process that began from the first moment that William
stood among the slain Anglo-Saxon nobles after the battle of Hastings.
ThefocusofthisstudyistheremembranceofAnglo-SaxonEnglandinthe
literature of post-conquest England and its appropriation for various social
and ideological purposes. In the post-conquest representation of the
pre-conquest English past the Anglo-Saxon era is characterised by two
distinctperiods:theperiodofthearrivalofthepaganSaxons,2andtheperiod
oftheChristianisedAnglo-Saxonkingdoms.Thisstudyisconcernedwiththe
representation of the later period.
Central to my approach to this process of remembrance are two concepts
1 JohnGillingham,‘HenryofHuntingdonandtheTwelfth-CenturyRevivaloftheEnglishNation’,
ed.SimonForde,LesleyJohnsonandAlanV.Murray,LeedsTextsandMonographs,14(Leeds:
Leeds Studies in English, 1995), pp. 75–102 (p. 128).
2 The post-conquest representation of the invading pagan Saxons in such texts as Geoffrey of
Monmouth’sHistoriaRegumBrittaniaeandLa(cid:1)amon’sBruthasbeenthesubjectofmuchschol-
arlyinterest,whichhasexaminedthereligiousandonomastictransformationoftheSaxonsintothe
English.Foradiscussionofthisdebate,seeI.J.Kirby,‘AnglesandSaxonsinLa(cid:1)amon’sBrut’,
StudiaNeophilologica,36(1964),51–62;N.Wright,‘AnglesandSaxonsinLa(cid:1)amon’sBrut:A
Reassessment’,inTheTextandTraditionofLa amon’s‘Brut’,ed.F.LeSaux(Cambridge:D.S.
Brewer,1994),pp.171–82;andCaroleWeinberg,‘VictorandVictim:AViewoftheAnglo-Saxon
PastinLa(cid:1)amon’sBrut’,inLiteraryAppropriationsoftheAnglo-SaxonsfromtheThirteenthtothe
TwentiethCentury,ed.DonaldScraggandCaroleWeinberg(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity
Press, 2001), pp. 22–38.
1