The Crisis of the Oikoumene
View publication
Book Series
Studies in the Early Middle Ages, vol. 47
Meanings of Water in Early Medieval England
Carolyn Twomey, Daniel Anlezark (eds)
- Pages: 289 p.
- Size:156 x 234 mm
- Illustrations:16 b/w, 2 col.
- Language(s):English
- Publication Year:2021
- € 80,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-58888-9
- Hardback
- Available
- € 80,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-58889-6
- E-book
- Available
An interdisciplinary approach to the complex meanings of water in the early medieval cultural landscape of England.
Subject(s)
Review(s)
“The result is a volume that is an excellent companion to the many extant histories of water technologies and water systems, and is, quite frankly, a must-read for scholars of medieval water and environment.” (Ellen Fenzel Arnold, in The Medieval Review, 22.12.04)
“In providing both broad contexts in the landscape and deeply focused studies, this is one of the best volumes to represent the burgeoning interdisciplinarity of landscape study and ecocriticism.” (Kelley M. Wickham-Crowley, in Speculum, 98/4, 2023, p. 1328)
“This is a very interesting book that centres on a topic that literally surrounded the inhabitants of early England as it does today, while river systems and fenlands would have covered a much greater area at the time. It contributes to a growing number of spatial or ecocritical studies in medieval Europe, (…) the editors skilfully use the space to thread each chapter together by highlighting their shared continuity—I suspect deliberately—to mimic a flowing current. The chapters on art were particularly engaging, fully acknowledging my bias as an art historian, especially given the very tactile nature of water and the history of teaching through images than runs through European culture.” (Manu Braithwaite-Westoby, in Parergon, 40/1, 2023, p. 277)
BIO
Carolyn Twomey is a Visiting Assistant Professor of European History at St. Lawrence University in northern New York, USA. She researches and teaches the history of medieval religion and the material world. Daniel Anlezark is the McCaughey Professor of Early English Literature and Language at the University of Sydney. He teaches medieval literature and language, and researches on biblical poetry, and medieval science and literature.
Summary
Water is both a practical and symbolic element. Whether a drop blessed by saintly relics or a river flowing to the sea, water formed part of the natural landscapes, religious lives, cultural expressions, and physical needs of medieval women and men.
This volume adopts an interdisciplinary perspective to enlarge our understanding of the overlapping qualities of water in early England (c. 400 – c. 1100). Scholars from the fields of archaeology, history, literature, religion, and art history come together to approach water and its diverse cultural manifestations in the early Middle Ages. Individual essays include investigations of the agency of water and its inhabitants in Old English and Latin literature, divine and demonic waters, littoral landscapes of church archaeology and ritual, visual and aural properties of water, and human passage through water. As a whole, the volume addresses how water in the environment functioned on multiple levels, allowing us to examine the early medieval intersections between the earthly and heavenly, the physical and conceptual, and the material and textual within a single element.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Figures
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Colour Plates
Introduction: Worlds of Water
Carolyn Twomey and Daniel Anlezark
The Sacred Nature of Rivers, Wells, Springs, and Other Wetlands in Anglo-Saxon England
Della Hooke
Rivers and Rituals: Baptism in the Early English Landscape
Carolyn Twomey
Swimming in Anglo-Saxon England
Simon Trafford
Sensing the Sea: Sounds of Sailors in Anglo-Saxon Literature
Rebecca Shores
The Sailors, the Sea Monster, and the Saviour: Depicting Jonah and the Ketos in Anglo-Saxon England
Elizabeth A. Alexander
Pearls before Paradise: Considering the Material Associations of Heavenly Water/s, Precious Stones, and Liminality in the Art of the Medieval West
Megan Boulton
‘Streams of Wholesome Learning’: The Waters of Genesis in Early Anglo-Saxon Exegesis
John J. Gallagher
Aquas ab Aquis: Aqueous Creation in Andreas
Michael Bintley
Water, Wisdom and Worldliness in the Anglo-Saxon Prose Lives of Guthlac
Helen Appleton
Drawing Alfredian Waters: The Old English Metrical Epilogue to the Pastoral Care, Boethian Metre 20, and Solomon and Saturn II
Daniel Anlezark
Modor is monigra mærra wihta: Watering the World
Jill Frederick
Index
