post-Conquest England Research Articles

Magic and the Supernatural in Medieval English Romance (review)

Reviewed by: Magic and the Supernatural in Medieval English Romance Carolyne Larrington Corinne Saunders , Magic and the Supernatural in Medieval English Romance. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2010. Pp. 312. ISBN: 978-1-84384-221-7. $95. Corinne Saunders' substantial new study of medieval English romances comprises two short books in one volume: an introduction to medieval magic and an analysis of the functions of magic and the supernatural across a wide range of English romances. The book's central premise is that however 'rich and strange' magic might be, 'it is always grounded in cultural reality' (2). The first half of the volume—the two chapters concluding on p. 116—offers a condensed but lucid history of magic in the West. The first chapter examines classical evidence for different kinds of beliefs and magicians, and the Old and New Testament treatments of magic and its practitioners. The second chapter covers medieval thinking about magic and the supernatural, from Augustine, via Isidore of Seville to evidence from Anglo-Saxon and post-Conquest England. The high medieval period essentially distinguishes between natural magic, a magic which harnesses the unseen powers of plants, stones and other God-created objects in a pseudo-scientific analysis of causes and effects, and 'nigromancy,' understood as derived from Latin niger (black) rather than the Greek necros (dead) and thus not, as in classical sources, the re-animation of the dead for divinatory purposes. Saunders includes the operations of the supernatural, both divine and diabolical, thus making analytical space for the activities of demons and for God's countervailing interventions in the form of angelic messages and of miracles. After establishing the main outlines of the understanding of 'nigromancy' as contained in books and made operational in incantation and ritual, and of natural magic, inhering in stones and plants, the book examines magical technology. Building on Helen Cooper's crucial insight into the importance of 'magic that doesn't work'— supernatural assistance which the hero must discard or disregard if he is to achieve [End Page 131] heroic status—the third chapter culminates in astute readings of Chaucer's Squire's Tale and Franklin's Tale, noting that the Franklin himself seems to take a more conservative view of magic than Chaucer, whose interest in astrology has strong affinities with natural magic. These tales, and the Canon's Yeoman's Tale, invite the audience of The Canterbury Tales to debate the morality and limitations of magic. The next chapter investigates 'nigromancy,' the darker aspect of magic, used to effect the manipulator's will, to interfere with destiny. Here the distinction between the two types of magic is usefully complicated by reference to intention: enchantresses and other practitioners achieve diametrically opposed effects by broadly similar methods. What matters is the intended outcome, whether the romance's hero is helped or hindered by such interventions. Shape-shifting and other transformations, even, in late texts such as Valentine and Orson, the summoning of demons, can be licit if the ends are justifiable. Chapter five deals with the Other World, with Avalon and with faery, contrasting the operation of fairy mistresses who shower riches on their chosen lovers and fairy knights whose methods include rape and abduction. The main discussion of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a text with marvelous objects as well as Other World settings, occurs here. The following chapter examines the interventions of the demonic and the divine in romances as various as Amys and Amylion, Havelok, and the various romances labeled as 'penitential' by Andrea Hopkins. Discussion here of the demonic siring of Merlin introduces the book's final chapter, an examination of Malory's treatment of magic and the supernatural. There is an illuminating discussion of Hallewes the Enchantress and the episode in which she figures and thoughtful consideration of Balin and Balan and of the Grail. Saunders effectively refutes the view that Malory is not interested in magic and the supernatural simply because he reduces what occurs in his French sources, by showing how 'the supernatural lightens and shifts within the narrative of [Malory's] world, which is coloured and challenged by the powers of magic and enchantment, human and otherworldly' (260). The epilogue shows...

Word Accent Position and Language Contact in English and German

This paper deals with the ways in which English and German have incorporated Latin and French loan words into their Germanic accentual systems. In their earliest attested stages, English and German assigned word accent in the same way. Accent was placed on the first syllable of the word or on the first syllable of the stem, and this Germanic initial accent was also applied to Latin loans and hybrids. But later on, under strongly increased Latin and French influence, both languages developed additional accent patterns which applied to a large number of foreign loans and loan formations. Many of these new patterns are suffix-oriented in both recipient languages. But whereas medieval and early Modern German basically adopted the foreign patterns, Middle English and early Modern English gradually adapted French and Latin loans and loan formations to newly-developed types of patterns which were neither Romance nor Germanic yet more Germanic-like than the Latin and French ones. These diverging reactions to strong foreign influences in English and German are shown to be due to the fact that in Germany, French and Latin influence remained largely restricted to the language of scholars and upper ranks of society for a long time, whereas in post-Conquest England, the strong superstratal French influence affected the basic vocabulary of a much larger proportion of the population.

III The Central Middle Ages (900–1200)

III The Central Middle Ages (900–1200)

Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England: Orthodox Preaching in the Age of Wyclif (review)

Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England: Orthodox Preaching in the Age of Wyclif. By Siegfried Wenzel. [Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature.] (New York: Cambridge University Press. 2005. Pp. xxiv, 713. $170.00.) This impressive study is the culmination of more than forty years of Siegfried Wenzel's scholarly investigation of sermon manuscripts and, more generally, preaching in late medieval England. In it he sets out to build on, but also to modify the seminal works of G. R. Owst (Preaching in Medieval England and Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England) by identify[ing], describ[ing], and analyz[ing] surviving collections of Latin sermons that were produced in England between c. 1350 and c. 1450, the period that Owst himself had identified as the golden age of preaching in post-Conquest England. The need for such a study of Latin and orthodox sermons had long been recognized but had become more compelling as, ironically, the study of sermons in English from the same period, especially Wycliffite or Lollard sermons, had advanced significantly in recent years. Wenzel's study can be divided into several parts: First, he defines a variety of terms (model sermon collections, de tempore/de sanctis sermon cycles, etc.) and discusses issues (sermon structure, audience, occasion, etc.) that will be pertinent throughout the remainder of the volume. Those unfamiliar with sermon studies will find here a clear summary of basic information, while those knowledgeable in the field will appreciate Wenzel's careful discrimination in matters that can be all too easily generalized. Second, he surveys more than thirty manuscripts that contain collections of Latin sermons, providing technical information about each of the manuscripts (codicology, palaeography, provenance) and brief analyses of the principal features of the structure and content of the sermons. Included are discussions of the work of prominent figures such as bishops Richard FitzRalph, Thomas Brinton, and Philip Repingdon, less familiar individuals such as Robert Rypon, John Felton, and John Dygon, as well as anonymous sermons from monastic, mendicant, and parochial milieux. Wenzel offers detailed information, especially about the interrelationships of texts and manuscripts. In the course of this analysis, Wenzel calls attention to many issues that will be of interest to scholars of sermons. For example, the continued popularity of preachers from earlier periods (such as Jacobus de Voragine and Nicholas of Aquavilla) and the emergence of sermons that combine the exegetical strategy of the ancient homily with the structural principles of the scholastic (thematic) sermon. As an appendix to this survey, Wenzel has compiled an inventory of the basic information-theme, occasion, incipit/explicit, etc.-for all the sermons in these collections (more than 2000 total). The survey and appendix have been prepared with the thorough and meticulous scholarship for which Wenzel has long been admired-and to which a brief review can scarcely do justice. They will be invaluable for those studying the sermons and the network of manuscripts in which they are found, and will, no doubt, spark further scholarly inquiry. …

Inverse Invasions: Medievalism and Colonialism in Rolf Boldrewood's A Sydney-Side Saxon

Rolf Boldrewood's forgotten 1894 novel, A Sydney-Side Saxon, merits re-examination as a fascinating nineteenth-century medievalist vision of Australian national identity. The novel's vision of pastoral Australia depends on idiosyncratic notions of Saxon and Norman ethnicity derived from Scott's Ivanhoe. While Scott's portrait of post-conquest England dramatizes the ethnic and political conflict between Norman conquerors and subjected Saxons, Boldrewood consistently presents Norman and Saxons as two complementary sides of an English 'type' that is perfectly fitted to achieve the colonial settlement of Australia. Boldrewood's racialized vision of England's medieval past informs not only his novel's celebration of colonial meritocracy in Australia, but also its apologia for colonial violence and indigenous dispossession. As in Ivanhoe, however, the dispossessed Others of Boldrewood's novel continue to haunt the margins of its narrative.

Anglo-Saxon Perceptions of the Islamic World (review)

Reviewed by: Anglo-Saxon Perceptions of the Islamic World Brannon Wheeler Anglo-Saxon Perceptions of the Islamic World. By Katharine Scarfe Beckett. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. viii+276 pp. $65.00. In this surprising and wonderfully-written study, Beckett introduces the reader to a world of Latin, Anglo-Saxon, and Old English sources filled with unusual perceptions of Muslims, their history, culture, practices, and beliefs. The book is carefully noted, argued in detail, and is written in a readable style accessible to specialists and non-specialists alike. The crux of Beckett's book is the reception and use of various terms applying to Muslims, Arabs, and others closely associated with Muslims and Arabs by the literary sources read in Anglo-Saxon England. Among the overlapping terms found in the sources and examined in detail by Beckett are Arabs, Ismaelites, Saracens, and other biblical nomenclatures such as Midianites, Ammonites, and Moabites. As Beckett notes, most of the contact between Muslims and Anglo-Saxon England came indirectly, through literary engagement rather than first-hand experience. The literary context into which the Muslims were placed was a Christian biblical framework provided primarily by Jerome and later Bible exegetes. Contemporary information about Muslims was introduced into Anglo-Saxon England by travellers and traders, but Beckett shows that much of this also was colored by the literary sources into which they were eventually incorporated. One account, unique according to Beckett, offers eye-witness information on contemporary Muslims. This is the pilgrimage account of Arculf who journeyed to Jerusalem in the late seventh century (679-82 CE). The account of his travels, which focused on a description of holy places, was put into writing by Adomnan, bishop of Iona, and later presented to the king of Northumbria. Beckett outlines how this work, entitled De locis sanctis, served as a template for the later work of Bede with the same title. Beckett also presents some unusual documentary evidence of contacts between Muslims and Anglo-Saxon England. This includes a single gold dinar of Offa, king of Mercia, now held in the British Museum (obverse featured on the front cover of the dust-jacket though nowhere else in the book). The dinar contains garbled Arabic inscriptions on the obverse and reverse apparently in imitation of the Muslim "shahadah" or statement of faith found on contemporary coins from the Middle East. Beckett compares this unique coin with other gold dinars uncovered in Sussex, London, [End Page 232] and Oxford, and silver dirhem hoards brought to England and Ireland through raids and settlers from Scandinavia. Another unusual piece of documentary evidence comes as the ninth item in a list of decrees recorded from synods in Mercia and Northumbria. The list of decrees dates from the late eighth century (786 CE) and mentions a "Saracen" practice of consuming food in secret. According to Beckett, this could refer to a memory or second-hand report concerning the Muslim practice of ritual fasting during the month of Ramadan. Beckett crafts these sorts of isolated reports into a web of cultural references that epitomized the Anglo-Saxon perception of Muslims and Arabs. They also provide the historian with a priceless window onto the earliest of Muslim practices which are otherwise unattested at such early dates. The heart of Beckett's book is a thorough review of the mention of Muslims in literary sources read in Anglo-Saxon England. This is divided into six chapters: "Arabs and Arabia in Latin"; "Ismaelites and Saracens in Latin"; "Arabs, Ismaelites and Saracens in early Anglo-Latin"; "Pseudo-Methodius and the sons of Ismael"; "Arabs, Ismaelites and Saracens in Old English"; and "Persisting theories about Saracens in post-Conquest England." Each of these chapters provides a careful survey of the major literary sources and their references to the various groups associated with Muslims including the Bible exegesis of Jerome, Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae, Canterbury commentaries, Bede, Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, Old English notes on Genesis, poetry, Old English gloss of the Durham Ritual, and vernacular translations of Latin texts like the Historiae Adversum Paganos of Paulus Orosius. Throughout the book, Beckett returns to the theories of Normal Daniel and Edward Said regarding the relationship between perceptions of...

Book Reviews: Virginity as a Role Model in the Hagiographic Literature of Post-Conquest England

Book Reviews: Virginity as a Role Model in the Hagiographic Literature of Post-Conquest England

The study of history: a bibliographical guide

Part 1 General works: bibliographies and reference works philosophy of purpose and methods in quantification historiographical surveys particular countries - Africa, Australia, Canada, China, eastern Europe, France, Germany, Iberian Peninsula, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jewish studies, Latin America, Middle East, Scandinavia, south east Asia, Turkey, former USSR, USA. Part 2 Ancient history: general Greece Rome. Part 3 Medieval history: general preconquest England postconquest England late middle ages Europe. Part 4 The Renaissance. Part 5 16th century: England and Scotland Europe. Part 6 17th century: England Europe colonies. Part 7 18th century: Britain Europe colonies. Part 9 19th century: Britain - trends and tendencies, individual historians Europe -general, France, Germany USA other countries. Part 9 20th century: general and other disciplines annals school Marxist political economic business local church and religion urban social history from below gender studies black oral psychohistory historians and film individual British and European historians individual American historians.

Before History, Before Difference: Bodies, Metaphor, and the Church in Anglo-Saxon England

Before History, Before Difference: Bodies, Metaphor, and the Church in Anglo-Saxon England Clare A. Lees (bio) and Gillian R. Overing (bio) . . . she was thrust—despoiled of her own clothes, to the infamous disgrace of her family—into the loathsome harlotry of a brothel, where the detestable wantonness of prostitutes runs wild and the shameless impudence of whores is disgustingly flaunted, nevertheless, walled about by the shining splendour of a mighty light, she gazed on angelic faces and was covered with her Lord’s robes. —Agnes, Aldhelm’s prose De Virginitate They dragged then the maiden to the harlot’s house, but she at once met there an angel of God shining, such that no man was able to look on her or touch her because of that mighty light, for that house all shone like the sun in day, and the more eagerly they gazed on her, the more their eyes were dazzled. —Agnes, Ælfric, Lives of Saints Few cultural historians, and even fewer cultural theorists, would place the study of Anglo-Saxon England at the heart of contemporary debates about the role of history within cultural studies. Indeed, Anglo-Saxon England has been characterized as different from other periods of English history in that it is most frequently located “before history.” Narratives of Western history often elide the early medieval period; its history, compressed beyond recognition or simply omitted, is downplayed in favor of that of Greek and Roman worlds and that of the more modern West, beginning with the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, historians recognize the emergence of the individual (and the heretic), as well as familiar clerical and secular institutions (Gregorian reforms, Lateran councils, clerical celibacy, marriage, the universities, towns, a money economy). The medieval world starts to resemble, however precariously, the modern. Although much work has recently loosened the hold of this master paradigm on the analysis and writing of medieval history after the Anglo-Saxon period,1 the period itself remains emphatically pre-historical—at the origin, though not at the beginning.2 Whether from simple ignorance of this earlier period or for reasons largely unconscious and/or disciplinary, debates in medieval studies on the nature of subjectivity and identity, gender, the body, and sexuality, representation and power continue to operate from, or are conditioned by, the premisses of this master paradigm.3 Cultural history before the twelfth century is thus alienated, offering a history different [End Page 315] from later periods, yet one whose difference goes unrecognized and uncontested. The continuing processes of differentiation that construct the Anglo-Saxon period can be seen in a variety of contexts, whether in terms of origins (and their connections to European and North American nationalism), periodization (that is, not post-Conquest England), social formations (tribal to civil state), language (not Latin, not Middle English), religion (pagans and/or Christians), gender (the so-called “golden age” of Anglo-Saxon women), or sexuality (no sex please, we’re Anglo-Saxon).4 From the more conventional standpoint of a developmental model of history, Anglo-Saxon England is originary—inescapably different from and often irrelevant to subsequent medieval periods. Commonly held distinctions for periodization (to which we do not necessarily subscribe) are that the Anglo-Saxon period traditionally ends around 1066: excluding the problem of when to locate the “early medieval,” the medieval period itself usually extends either to 1400 or 1500, depending on one’s views on when “high medieval” begins and ends, and on where and when one locates the Renaissance; the newer term, “Early Modern” can encompass late medieval through to the late seventeenth century and beyond. The Anglo-Saxonist working within the field might find these continually asserted and often commutable distinctions as puzzling and arbitrary as the Modernist. What such periodic gradations do elucidate, however, is an ongoing process of dependent differentiation, where one period defines itself against another, and where each preceding period is necessarily constructed as “pre-historical.” Definition by means of difference, therefore, is not limited to the Anglo-Saxon period. The long view, moreover, elucidates a further analogy: that of the larger processes by which history constructs difference and difference is constructed historically to those...

Women and Literature in Britain, 1150–1500 ed. by Carol M. Meale

STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER plains how knowledge of the position of the moon and other bodies in the zodiac will aid the physician in determining both fortunate and perilous days not only for medical treatments but also for the initiation of such endeavors as a journey. The division of "Horticulture" displays one text: "A Middle English Treatise on Horticulture: Godfridus super Palladium," edited by David G. Cylkowski from Bodleian Library manuscript e Musreo 116, part 1, folios 49vb-61vb. The text, which is a translation of the fourth-century Opus agriculturae of Paladius Rutilius Taurus }Emilianus and which instructs a gardener how and when to plant, to harvest, and to make good wine, like others in this volume depends strongly on the zodiacal placements of the moon and other major heavenly bodies. The final division is "Navigation," and its single text bears the title "The Earliest English Sailing Directions." Edited by Geoffrey A. Lester mainly from the fifteenth-century Pierpont Morgan Library manuscript 775, folios 131-138v, with guidance from three other manuscripts, the text is con­ cerned with sailing directions along the coasts ofEngland, Brittany, Spain, and Ireland. The diversity of the many scientific disciplines contained in the manu­ scripts examined in this volume must have been a challenge to the general editor, who has wisely insisted that each editor make a point of describing the particular science under consideration as well as his, her, or their base manuscript and other manuscripts used for collation or comparison pur­ poses. Each text has been given line numbers, and the uniformity among the twelve entries is welcome. Yet the various sciences presented here, although differing in their purposes, have a common root in their depen­ dency on astrological configurations. The book is valuable in that it gives a boost to our knowledge of medieval science and as such should be wel­ comed by all those with an interest in medieval texts. SIGMUND EISNER University of Arizona CAROL M. MEALE, ed. Women and Literature in Britain, 1150-1500. Cam­ bridge Studies in Medieval Literature, vol. 17. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Pp. x, 223. $49.95. This collection of chapters on aspects of the relationships between women and books in post-Conquest England and Wales represents the pioneering 236 REVIEWS work being done in the field by a generation of women scholars in British universities, all in one way or another committed to feminist research into medieval culture. Unlike most of the medieval feminist scholarship ema­ nating from North American literature departments, with its focus on sophisticated readings of texts, the emphasis in most chapters here is on primary research of a traditional historicist kind, where issues of literary or feminist theory seldom raise their heads. But if the frequent appeals to "women's experience," a "female perspective" and "independence" can be problematic in their expression of unexamined assumptions about the ex­ tent to which such categories can be reified, the results are on the whole well worth it. Many of these chapters succeed in combining impressive amounts of detailed archival work with suggestive analyses both of medi­ eval culture itself and of problems of historical methodology. If this is not quite a landmark book, it is surely a harbinger of the way our thinking about literary culture in the Middle Ages is destined to be transformed by the kind of painstaking exhumations of women's lives and roles attempted here. After a brief introduction, the book contains nine chapters, two of them on Anglo-Norman romance and hagiography (respectively), two on Middle English romance, three on religious women as readers and book owners, and two on surviving works by women (respectively) in English and in Welsh-the inclusion of Welsh and the proper emphasis given to Anglo­ Norman being especially welcome. The three studies of romance with which it begins-"The Power and the Weakness of Women in Anglo­ Norman Romance," by Judith Weiss; "Women as Lovers in Early English Romance," by Flora Alexander; and "Mothers in Middle English Ro­ mance," by Jennifer Fellows-are in some ways the least innovative in the book, usefully mapping out the fields with which they are concerned but not asking hard enough...

The continuance of Aldhelm Studies in Post-Conquest England and Glosses to the Prosa de Virginitate in Hereford, Cath. Lib. MS. P.I.17

Aldhelm de Malmesbury (640-710) fait partie des hommes de lettres les plus influents de l'Angleterre anglo-saxonne. Sa Prosa de Virginitate, un traite theorique sur la virginite, fourmille de figures rhetoriques complexes et a engendre de nombreux imitateurs. Ainsi, les frequentes gloses attestent de la lecture et de l'etude intensives du manuscrit; elles sont d'ordre lexical, morphologique, verbal. Le manuscrit Hereford P.I.17 montre que l'etude du traite d'Aldhelm s'est largement poursuivie aux X e et XI e siecles a Canterbury et Winchester; elle s'est etendue a Abingdon durant les XII e et XIII e siecles

English Ecclesiastical Vacancies During the Reigns of William II and Henry I

The Church of post-Conquest England experienced a number of ecclesiastical and administrative changes brought on, in part, by the Normans’ implementation of Gregorian reform. Despite the growing fervour for non-lay intervention in ecclesiastical matters, many of the Norman innovations actually increased the king’s involvement with the Church. For example, a new practice emerged whereby the king appropriated a church's revenues upon the death of its abbot or bishop. Before this time, vacant houses were apparently cared for by their priors or other ecclesiastics and the king played little or no role in their administration. William the Conqueror altered forever this custom when he took direct control of vacant churches and placed their administration, although generally not their revenue, in the hands of royal officials.

Fiction and History in the Song of Dermot and the Earl

Fiction and History in the Song of Dermot and the Earl 'Facts are indispensable servants but blind guides; they do not speak for themselves, and historians w h o suppose they do are either too boring to be readable or gutity of unconscious ventriloquism. Historical research has suffered, I suspect (in value if not in volume) from hitching itself to a conception of scientific method which scientists themselves have not always followed and are now ready to abandon'. These remarks preface W.L. Warren's article on 'The Interpretation of Twelfth Century Irish History'.1 Warren goes on, to pursue the ventrilocutory metaphor, to put his intellectual currency where his mouth is by challenging the generally held view that early medieval Ireland, Scodand and Wales can be described as 'Celtic' societies and he characterises Ireland as a society in which a Celtic military ascendancy, comparable to the Normans in post-Conquest England, were 'ligurianised' by the conquered pre-Indo-European indigenes in the same way that the Normans in England were eventually anglicised. It was this matrix that produced early medieval Ireland's distinctive 'social conservatism [and] lack of centralised political and administrative institutions'. This lack of cohesion is seen as one explanation for the apparent absence of resistance to the Norman invaders. Warren is thus able to challenge established views of history, represented by the imperialist Orpen on the one hand and the nationalist M a c Neil on the other by attacking their shared premise. According to this perspective, Diarmuid mac Murchadha (Diarmuid na nGall) is neither the traitor of nationalist demonology nor the decent native of British imperialism, but a 'moderniser' in conflict with the traditionalists of his day. This example from the writings of a respected Irish historian, serves to tilustrate the proposition that even a well-documented, ostensibly clear-cut set of historical 'facts' is susceptible of different interpretations especially if it involves issues like conquest and subjugation, colonialism and independence struggles. Nor can it be assumed that the passing of time tempers the acerbity of conflicting judgements and lends a Jovian detachment to the pronouncements of later observers. Professional historians, among them the most reputed of specialists, are still debating the significance of the nucleus of facts which constitutes the historical event known as the Norman Conquest of Ireland. N o less an authority than F.X. Martin in the long awaited second volume of the New History of Ireland,2 admits that his own view of these events has changed historical Studies 1, 1969, 1-19. 2 F.X. Martin et al., edd., New History of Ireland, Oxford, 1987; F.X. Martin, 'Diarmait mac Murchada and the coming of the Anglo-Normans', in vol. 2, 43-66 (Medieval Ireland 1169-1534, ed. A. Cosgrove). 124 WA. Trindade over the last fifteen years. H e no longer sees thefirstNorman arrivals as invaders but as 'an auxiliary force ... to restore a displaced local king'. Henry II's arrival a couple of years later was not primarily to establish conquest but to curb his over-ambitious Anglo-Norman (or Cambro-Norman) subjects and, Martin concludes, 'he was, if anything, an ally of the native Irish rulers'. Other commentators reject the term invaders and see the Cambro-Norman forces as freebooting adventurers with little political interest in or understanding of the situation. These brief examples must surely encourage caution on the part of anyone approaching either of the two 'inside accounts' of the events of 1169 and following. These two accounts, one from the pen of a well-known contemporary chronicler, 'a wayward but trained historian' and the other from an otherwise unknown poet 'a skilful but naive craftsman'3 complement each other and together present a detailed and on the whole factually accurate picture of the external events, names, places and to some extent, dates. The former, the Expugnatio Hibemica of Giraldus Cambrensis4 is the second of the author's works dealing with Ireland. It has often been compared favourably with our second text, the Song of Der mot and the Earl5 as being a more accurate historical record, though the prejudices of its author - his partisan treatment of his own kinsman, the powerful and influential...

Presidential Address: Feudal Society and the Family in Early Medieval England: II. Notions of Patrimony

Notions are potent but nebulous, often direct and determining in their effect but themselves indeterminate in origin and structure. My title is designed to circumvent two lines of thought which have largely circumscribed the study of inheritance in the eleventh and twelfth centuries hitherto. First, I shall say something here and there about succession, but it will be only a subsidiary part of the argument. Heritable title was not diminished by unsettled rules of succession. On the contrary, in the eleventh century as in the thirteenth, it was emphasised and nourished by the claims and counter-claims of competitors. In such disputes the opposing arguments were couched in a common language; it is the language, therefore, that will be my first concern. Second, for this same reason I shall also pay scant attention to the jurisdictional aspects of inheritance. To be sure, in post-Conquest England inheritance amounted not to a title but to a claim upon a lord; heritable title was realised when the lord admitted it; no concession by a tenant was as secure as it could be made until his lord had confirmed it.

New Perspectives in Chaucer Criticism ed. by Donald M. Rose

STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER account of the procedures he carried out, and, except for the implications of his commentary, the reader has no way of knowing whether the exam­ ples given are complete, representative in their numbers, the most striking instances, or a mere random selection. This absence of scholarly rigor will make it difficult for others to use the frequently interesting material that Roscow assembles. What we have in the book is a set of observations on a number of syntactical features, some of which contribute to Chaucer's style. We also have a series of critical comments on Margaret Schlauch's exemplary PMLA article published in 1952, "Chaucer's Colloquial Eng­ lish: Its Structural Traits." At one point (p. 47) Roscow quotes half of Schlauch's discussion of a syntactic feature as if it were the whole. At no point does he do justice to the balance, sensitivity, and scholarly control of her presentation. The book includes a general index and a useful "Index of Chaucer Quotations." The bibliography, confined to references in the book, shows somesurprisingimbalancesandomissions.Spearingappearsfivetimes;J.A. Burrow and]. A. W. Bennett, twice each. The Tatlock-Kennedy Concor­ dance and Muscatine do not appear. Medieval poetics and modern stylistics have each a single item. CHARLES A. OWEN,JR. University of Connecticut DONALD M. ROSE, ed., New Perspectives in Chaucer Criticism. Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1982. Pp. x, 248. $21.95. This volume comprises a collection of revised papers, originally read at the conference of the New Chaucer Society in New Orleans in April, 1980, and here organized into three broad thematic sections. But first, George Kane, in an opening paper ("Langland and Chaucer: An Obligatory Compari­ son"), compares aspects of Chaucer and Langland and modern reactions to them, justly remarking on the extent to which critics of either poet, by ignoring the existence of the other, miss some illuminating comparisons. Kane points out some shared elements in the two poets' education: "rigorous inculcation of Christian doctrine," some experience of the "alle202 REVIEWS gorizing activities ofthe classicizing friars," and some knowledge ofthat "old system ofmoral categorizing,estates satire," together with the com­ mon basis of their education in Latin grammar. Kane speculates on Langland's knowledge of profane rhetoric or of courtly and Arthurian literature,as well as on Chaucer's knowledge ofFrench religious allegories or ofantifraternal literature.An interesting comparison follows on the two poets' conception ofthemselves as artists.Along with a self-consciousness about their art and a common tendency to invoke modesty topoi, there is also aself-confidence approaching arrogance discernible in both poets,and that this emerges in two poets in comparable degrees at this period "bespeaks a new condition of poetry in post-conquest England." Both poets also register in their poems their personal problems of art and morality, and Kane compares the implications of Chaucer's Retractions with Langland's allusions within his poetry to doubts about his own poetic activity ("The poet sees,ifonly momentarily,the act ofcomposition as self­ gratifying and therefore, to the extent that it fails in charity, sinful notwithstanding its ostensible pious objectives ofspiritual understanding and moral reform. Here is the real abjectness.... By contrast Chaucer's 'retracciouns' seem serene,almost confident."). Part 2 of the book consists of five essays on various aspects of literary theory,modern and medieval,as applied to Chaucer.In his essay "Con­ temporary Literary Theory and Chaucer," Morton W.Bloomfield discusses "what aspects of modern disciplines are...useful in interpreting and evaluating literature," and he reviews the claims ofsemantics,semiology, literature and philosophy, the concept of speech acts, psychology, and sociology.On the study ofsocial aspects ofliterature Bloomfield comments that "audience and reader are not to be limited to the 'real' author and reader, but may include the internal audience and reader who are both presupposed in and even brought into Chaucer's poetry." Little has yet been said on that internal audience to whom the so-much-discussed author-persona is presumably speaking.And in an interesting comparison of MLT and the tale of Alatiel in Decameron, Bloomfield himselfantici­ pates those advances in the study ofnarratology and literary structuralism he predicts in Chaucer criticism.His concluding...

Anglo-Saxon women and the law

Scholarly investigations of Anglo-Saxon social history have usually drawn the conclusion that women during that period enjoyed a favourable position in comparison with their successors in post-Conquest England. The following study aims to qualify this view, by demonstrating that the position of women was more complicated than is usually acknowledged. An examination of the Anglo-Saxon legal documents shows that the position of women varied according to circumstances such as rank, marital status, and geographical location. However, an overall improvement between the early and late period is clear. In fact, this improvement is so considerable that there is a much closer resemblance between the situation obtaining in late Anglo-Saxon England and post-Conquest England than there is between the early and late Anglo-Saxon period. Thus, to describe Anglo-Saxon E England as a time when women enjoyed an independence which they lost as a result of the changes introduced by the Norman Conquest is misleading.

In Pursuit of Aristocratic Women: A Key to Success in Norman England

Marriage has been a means of climbing the social ladder in most societies, and post-conquest England was no exception. The Conquest had provided a sweeping opportunity for men of all strata of the feudal hierarchy to gain lands and wealth in England, but high social status and prestige remained the prerogative of magnate families who had constituted the aristocracy of Normandy and northern France before 1066. Most of these families had themselves risen only recently to wealth and power through ducal patronage, but by 1066 they were firmly entrenched in their Norman estates and in the duke's inner circle of advisors. Many magnates possessed comital titles and ties of kinship with the Norman duke-kings, and all profited greatly from the Conqueror's victory at Hastings and his subsequent redistribution of English lands. Families such as the Beaumonts, Montgomerys, Clares, Mandevilles, and Warennes continued to enjoy the highest aristocratic honors in Anglo-Norman society.In the second generation after the Conquest, a number of men of lower social standing amassed land and political importance through service to William Rufus and Henry I, desiring to be accepted as peers by the great magnates. Their striving for social success is illustrated by William of Malmesbury in his History of the Kings of England. In recounting the plan of William fitz Osbern to marry the widow of Count Baldwin of Flanders, the chronicler ascribed his motives to a desire “to increase his dignity.” Many men also wanted to impress the lower orders of society with their rank. Orderic Vitalis's contemptuous tale of one of Henry I's “new men,” Richard Basset, suggests that acquisition of social prestige was a possible motive for marriage. Having married a daughter of the earl of Chester, Basset returned to Normandy “and made a show of superiority to all his peers and fellow countrymen by the magnificence of his building in the little fief he had inherited from his parents.…”

Women's Names in Post-Conquest England: Observations and Speculations

Women's Names in Post-Conquest England: Observations and Speculations

People and languages in post-Conquest Canterbury

The balance between French and English in post-Conquest England is still being discussed. One line of investigation not often followed hitherto is analysis of individual communities; and a start is made here with Canterbury, further subdivided into the cathedral priory of Christ Church, St Augustine's abbey, and the town. Evidence is taken, first of all, from the hands and languages of manuscripts, from references by contemporary writers, and from literary work in general. The core of the argument, however, consists of onomastic evidence. From the second half of the twelfth century there survives a considerable corpus of citizen's nicknames; and these show that French forms, although in widespread use and even at times coupled with Anglo-Saxon personal names, were on the whole less original and less picturesque than English ones. The dominance of English is confirmed by its almost exclusive use for topographical names. The linguistic bias of some of the scribes is also investigated: although French is ever-present behind the Latin, Old English traditions are far from forgotten. In conclusion, English, although subject to great and varied competition from French, cannot be regarded as superseded for any function, or even much discouraged. Some of the apparent weaknesses in twelfth-century English material from Christ Church may be due not so much to French influence as to uncertainty resulting from the decline of the former standard literary language based on the West-Saxon dialect.

The Family and the Feudal System in Twelfth Century England

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Family and the Feudal System in Twelfth Century EnglandSidney PainterSidney Painter Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Speculum Volume 35, Number 1Jan., 1960 The journal of the Medieval Academy of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2850172 Views: 58Total views on this site Citations: 12Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1960 The Mediaeval Academy of AmericaPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Tiffany A. Ziegler Just Another Day in the Neighborhood: Collective Female Donation Practices at the Hospital of Saint John in Brussels, (Jan 2019): 157–176.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01346-2_8Richard F. Rakos Capitalism, Socialism, and Behavioral Theory, Behavior Analysis and Social Action 6, no.22 (Oct 1988): 16–22.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03449123Sue Sheridan Walker The feudal family and the common law courts: the pleas protecting rights of wardship and marriage, c. 1225?1375, Journal of Medieval History 14, no.11 (Jan 2012): 13–31.https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-4181(88)90014-0Janet Senderowitz Loengard Legal History and the Medieval Englishwoman: A Fragmented View, Law and History Review 4, no.11 (Oct 2011): 161–178.https://doi.org/10.2307/743718RaGena C. DeAragon In Pursuit of Aristocratic Women: A Key to Success in Norman England, Albion 14, no.33 (Jul 2014): 258–267.https://doi.org/10.2307/4048516Stephanie L. Mooers Familial Clout and Financial Gain In Henry I's Later Reign, Albion 14, no.33 (Jul 2014): 268–291.https://doi.org/10.2307/4048517Charlotte A. Newman Family and Royal Favor in Henry I's England, Albion 14, no.33 (Jul 2014): 292–306.https://doi.org/10.2307/4048518Richard Mortimer THE FAMILY OF RANNULF DE GLANVILLE, Historical Research 54, no.129129 (Oct 2007): 1–16.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2281.1981.tb02034.xColin Creighton Family, property and relations of production in Western Europe, Economy and Society 9, no.22 (Aug 2007): 129–167.https://doi.org/10.1080/03085148008538589 Cecily Clark Women's Names in Post-Conquest England: Observations and Speculations, Speculum 53, no.22 (Oct 2015): 223–251.https://doi.org/10.2307/2853397 Bibliography, (Jan 1978): 299–313.https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-701250-6.50020-0 C. Warren Hollister The Strange Death of William Rufus, Speculum 48, no.44 (Oct 2015): 637–653.https://doi.org/10.2307/2856221