Early Medieval English Life Courses

Cultural-Historical Perspectives
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-90-04-49929-4
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 20, 372 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 907 g

Reihe: Explorations in Medieval Culture

How did the life course, with all its biological, social and cultural aspects, influence the lives, writings, and art of the inhabitants of early medieval England? This volume explores how phases of human life such as childhood, puberty, and old age were identified, characterized, and related in contemporary sources, as well as how nonhuman life courses were constructed. The multi-disciplinary contributions range from analyses of age vocabulary to studies of medicine, name-giving practices, theology, Old English poetry, and material culture. Combined, these cultural-historical perspectives reveal how the concept and experience of the life course shaped attitudes in early medieval England.

Contributors are Jo Appleby, Debby Banham, Darren Barber, Caroline R. Batten, James Chetwood, Katherine Cross, Amy Faulkner, Jacqueline Fay, Elaine Flowers, Daria Izdebska, Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Thijs Porck, and Harriet Soper.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Porck, Thijs

Soper, Harriet

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Vor- und Frühgeschichte, prähistorische Archäologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

List of Illustrations and Tables

Abbreviations

Notes on Contributors

Introduction: Conceptualizing the Life Course in Early Medieval England

Thijs Porck and Harriet Soper

Part 1: Defining and Dividing the Life Course

1 The Ages of Man and the Ages of Woman in Early Medieval England: From Bede to Byrhtferth of Ramsey and the Tractatus de quaternario

Thijs Porck

2 Weapon-Boys and Once-Maidens: A Study of Old English Vocabulary for Stages of Life

Daria Izdebska

3 Alcuin and the Student Life Cycle

Darren Barber

part 2: The Life Course and the Human Body

4 Treating Age in Medical Texts from Early Medieval England

Jacqueline Fay

5 ‘Lazarus, Come Forth’: Pregnancy and Childbirth in the Life Course of Early Medieval English Women

Caroline R. Batten

6 The Theology of Puberty in Early Medieval England

Elaine Flowers

Part 3: Intergenerational Dynamics

7 Naming and Renaming: Names and the Life Course in Early Medieval England

James Chetwood

8 Moving On from ‘the Milk of Simpler Teaching’: Weaning and Religious Education in Early Medieval England

Katherine Cross

9 Treasure and the Life Course in Genesis A and Beowulf

Amy Faulkner

part 4: Life Beyond the Human

10 The Life Course of Artefacts

Gale R. Owen-Crocker

11 From Field to Feast: The Life (and Afterlife) Course of Cereal Crops in Early Medieval England

Debby Banham

12 Afterword: History, Archaeology and Osteology in Conversation

Jo Appleby

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Thijs Porck, Ph.D. (2016), Leiden University, is Assistant Professor of Medieval English at that university. He has published on Old English textual criticism, Beowulf, medievalism, and old age, including Old Age in Early Medieval England: A Cultural History (Boydell Press, 2019).

Harriet Soper, Ph.D. (2018), University of Cambridge, is Simon and June Li Fellow in English at Lincoln College, Oxford. She has published on various aspects of Old English poetry, and her research focuses especially on its representation of the life course.