Anglo-Saxon Appetites: Food and Drink and Their Consumption in Old English and Related Literature

Abstract

Anglo-Saxon Appetites: Food and Drink and their Consumption in Old English and Related Literature. By Hugh Magennis. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 1999. 195 pp. 40 [pounds sterling]; $55. It is often more difficult, as well as more provocative, to notice what is absent from a text or corpus of texts than to describe what is in it. Magennis's initial observation that `food is not mentioned with reference to feasting in Old English poetry' (p. 11) launches him into an insightful study of the vernacular corpus of Old English literature, in which he evaluates the social and religious significance of eating and drinking imagery. Given how important we know feasting was in early Germanic societies, why is there no direct reference to people eating food in a normal social context in Old English poetry? Given the significance of passing the mead cup, why do we never see anyone actually drinking? Magennis explores the tension between the social customs of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and the religious strictures of the Church, as they are played out in the narrative portrayals of eating and drinking in the vernacular tradition. The book begins with a survey of the cultural significance of the feast in Germanic society, drawing from a wide range of Latin, Old English, Old Saxon, Old Norse, and Old Welsh sources. The Homeric and Virgilian background provides a welcome perspective, and helps to distinguish epic convention from cultural archaeology. Magennis concludes that virtually every instance of eating in Old English poetry is a sign of depravity, animalism, or monstrosity (p. 12). Beasts of battle, Mermedonians, and Grendelkin are the sorts of beings who eat in Old English poetry, while the civilized discreetly enjoy their repasts off stage, outside the range of the narrative eye. The physical act of eating `is expressive of individual rather than group identity' (p. 61). Likewise, the symbolic rite of drinking is civilized, while the act of drinking itself is barbaric (p. 26). The social dimension of eating (the conventions of sitting down to eat together and the serving of food) is kept carefully distinct from the biological dimension (the contact of food with the teeth and tongue). Magennis draws responsibly from anthropology and theology to explain the culinary reticence characteristic of Old English literature. He implies that anxiety over basic food production and transport, virtually unknown in the modern West, underlies some of the disparity between heroic literature (in which food is abundant) and historical sources (in which famines are frequent). Magennis's discussion of the power of hunger, anthropomorphized and even bestialized with such verbs as slitan (`cut, tear'), ahypan (`plunder, destroy'), bindan (`bind'), and hienan (`fell, bring low') drives the point home vividly (p. …