DYING AND DEATH IN LATER ANGLO-SAXON GLANDEN Victoria Thompson Anglo-Saxon Studies Anglo-Saxon/00/p 30/3/04 11:52 AM Page i 1 Anglo-Saxon Studies 4 2 DYING AND DEATH IN LATER 3 ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND 4 5 6 7 Pre-Conquest attitudes towards the dying and the dead have major impli- 8 cations for every aspect of culture, society and religion of the Anglo-Saxon 9 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 16 and cultural alignment of those who commissioned and made them. 17 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. 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Anglo-Saxon/00/p 30/3/04 11:52 AM Page ii 1 Anglo-Saxon Studies 2 ISSN: 1475-2468 3 4 General Editors 5 John Hines and Catherine Cubitt 6 7 8 Volume 1: The Dramatic Liturgy of Anglo-Saxon England 9 M. Bradford Bedingfield 0 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 13 Volume 3: The Ruler Portraits of Anglo-Saxon England 14 Catherine E. Karkov 15 16 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. 22 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 31 Dr Catherine Cubitt, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, 32 The King’s Manor, York, England, UK YO1 2EP 33 34 Boydell & Brewer, POBox 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, UK IP12 35 3DF 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Anglo-Saxon/00/p 30/3/04 11:52 AM Page iii 1 2 3 4 5 6 DYING AND DEATH IN LATER 7 8 9 ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND 0 11 12 13 14 15 Victoria Thompson 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 THE BOYDELL PRESS Anglo-Saxon/00/p 30/3/04 11:52 AM Page iv 1 © Victoria Thompson 2004 2 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, 5 transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, 6 without the prior permission of the copyright owner 7 8 9 First published 2004 0 The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 11 12 13 ISBN 1 84383 070 1 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 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 36 37 A catalogue record for this book is available 38 from the British Library 39 40 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 41 42 This publication is printed on acid-free paper 43 44 Typeset by Keystroke, Jacaranda Lodge, Wolverhampton 45 Printed in Great Britain by 46 St Edmundsbury Press Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Anglo-Saxon/00/p 30/3/04 11:52 AM Page v 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Contents 8 9 0 11 List of Illustrations vi 12 Acknowledgements vii 13 14 Abbreviations ix 15 Introduction 1 16 17 1 Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians 8 18 2 Dying and Death in a Complicated World 26 19 20 3 Dying with Decency 57 21 4 The Body under Siege in Life and Death 92 22 23 5 The Gravestone, the Grave and the Wyrm 132 24 6 Judgement on Earth and in Heaven 170 25 26 Conclusion 207 27 Bibliography 209 28 29 Index 229 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 v Anglo-Saxon/00/p 30/3/04 11:52 AM Page vi 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Illustrations 8 9 0 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 19 (N. Yorkshire) 00 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 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 vi Anglo-Saxon/00/p 30/3/04 11:52 AM Page vii 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Acknowledgements 8 9 0 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. 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 vii Anglo-Saxon/00/p 30/3/04 11:52 AM Page viii 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 SHEILA MARY THOMPSON (NÉE GUISE-MOORES) 8 18 JUNE 1927 – 26 MARCH 2002 9 Study to be like her 0 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 viii Anglo-Saxon/00/p 30/3/04 11:52 AM Page ix 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Abbreviations 8 9 0 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) ix