Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Things They Didn’t Carry: Female Materiality in the Middle Ages

ww2

This isn’t really a post per se, but rather an off shoot of my research which I stopped to explore only to find myself writing a paper. I am actually kind of pleased with how it turned out, but I am not sure what to do with it. Of course it needs more editing before I can even consider anything major, but as of right now I have nothing at school I can use it for and I can’t teach from it (at least not this semester). So, since it is just kind of sitting here I figured I would blog the abstract and hope for some feedback on the idea should anyone have any thoughts on it. Good? Needs work? I would love to hear what you think.

Much can be gleaned about a woman by rifling through her purse. Unfortunately such access is denied when a woman passed away over seven hundred years ago. While certain artifacts from the Middle Ages remain, the everyday lives of medieval women are often rebuilt piecemeal from whatever records are recovered from obscurity. However, the majority of the documents generally serve to uncover familial affiliations, or perhaps women’s relationships to books in the form of marginalia and even scribal transcription. Even though all of these facets are interesting to explore, another equally exciting fragment of women’s history can be found among their possessions, which here will be discussed in terms of their wills and testaments. Such research is not new to medieval studies, but has often focused on the manifests from manor houses and other notable women. Here the discussion will focus primarily, but not exclusively on women in Eastern Europe, and specifically those lesser known and with more modest possessions. By tracing their belongings in order of importance and examining those to whom these goods were left, a clearer portrait of the everyday medieval woman can be drawn. Even in cases where it is uncertain as to who wrote the will, purpose can be devised through close analysis of the catalog, along with the intended recipients. Moreover, this study can shed some light on the more trivial, but not less important aspects of existence where the endowment of a favorite dress, too ragged to be considered an asset is in fact found valuable enough to bestow upon another, and thus hinting at unsuspected forged friendships. One such example could be found in Elisabeta Blasiu from Oradea, in 1339, who bestowed her everyday cloak to the stonecutter’s daughter. First, the alliance between these two women from quite different socioeconomic classes raises several questions about female bonds, but also charity. Secondly, it allows a glimpse into the extent of detail many of these documents went into, accounting for every parcel of property, including the clothes these women were literally wearing at the time of creating their wills. Essentially this paper will explore the various manifestations of medieval women’s lives in the form of lists that enumerated their sundry possessions with an emphasis on the underlying significance of what these articles tell us today.

The Female Scribe III

About a month ago I wrote another section outlining my female scribe research where I ended with the following observation:

To wrap this up, my findings on the town of Douai along with my speculation that the Lancelot scribe could have been a nun could lead to an investigation into what being a nun at the time, and in that region meant. This is a rather large leap that will require quite a bit more research, but in looking at what it meant to be a woman in the Middle Ages I found a reference to Aethelberht’s laws. I won’t go into too much detail here since this post is already running far longer than I intended, but I promise another one soon which will better address my connection between the significance of these laws, being a nun, and the ramifications of partaking in scribal endeavors. However, briefly, the laws are concerned with defining a woman’s worth, and notably “maegpbot sy swa friges mannes” (a maiden’s worth is equal to that of a man), and a “friwif” is, as her name indicates, independent for one reason or another. A nun would fall under either of these conditions, either a maiden from the start, or released from relations with men at a later time. In the hierarchy of worth, according to Aethelberht, these would be the highest ranked women. Basically I want to explore how (or if) perceiving themselves according to this value system would imbue these women with the necessary assurance to commit words to paper (or parchment, or vellum) in a mode uncharacteristic of women in different stations or spheres.

Since then I have looked further into what it meant to be a “friwif” or “maegpbot.” First, this is a complete tangent that has far digressed from the scope of my research, but I think it is important to understand the environment in which females operated in order to better understand their motivations for the words they chose on paper. For example (briefly returning to the Lancelot scribe), she maintained anonymity the length of the manuscript only to identify herself as female at the end as she asked for the reader to pray for the scribe while using the feminine pronoun. This was not an accident – the difference between the male and female pronouns in gendered languages is a very deliberate and conscious difference. In fact the male endings are typically the default and female forms are the difference in which extra characters must be added. While she did not identify herself by name as other females have done, she clearly used that one phrase, “ce li ki lescrist” as an identifier (and I will get back to this shortly).

aethelbertslaw

(The first page of the only manuscript copy of Aethelberht’s Law, Textus Roffensis)

However, what I found interesting in regards to Aethelberht’s Laws, is their focus on the physical. Arguably this is the same construction under which gender is created, and within the laws we can see how males and females in Anglo-Saxon times (without arguing that this same arrangement didn’t extend into the modern period) were emphatically characterized as “mund” (property) and their “wergeld” (man-price) denoted their position in society. While Aethelberht may be considered the first Christian king within Britain, his stance was less concerned with the soul as with the physicality of the body, and the ways in which the body could be categorized, starting with the distinction between men and women. Without reiterating my aforementioned conclusion, I looked at the ways in which a nun would be considered a “maegpbot” or “friwif,” and what the implications would be.

What I have managed to find (with limited resources so far, and in need of a trip to the library), was that nuns during this time period were often considered genderless. However, in their genderlessness they were able to receive many of the same freedoms males enjoyed – consequently they were offered many of the same opportunities for scholarship that were often relegated to men. A large part which concerns me most has to do with the types of materials they were given and/or allowed to copy. In fact, Anglo-Saxon nuns were given a high number of important works to copy not only for patrons, but also for themselves and their abbesses. While currently this is going to be a short post due to the need for more research, I am curious to find out to what extent these works were amended to suit the needs of these female commissioned works. So, were the traditional texts manipulated in any way for female readers?

One source I did find convinces me that they were. De Laudibus Virginitate (circa 705) is commented on by Michelle Brown who notes that “its complex literary style gives an indication of the standards of learning expected … of abbess Hildeligh and the nuns of Barking, to whom it was addressed.”

Further, Bede wrote that Anglo-Saxon princesses often frequented convents to pursue or continue their education before marriage, suggesting that convents served at the milieu of female education for both religious and lay women – with the implication that these locales were the locus of book production for a variety of texts. In other words, “simple” women would not have been allowed such breadth of activity, meaning that these women were highly regarded intellectually.

Lastly, I looked at the works of M.B. Parkes for whom I have an unbelievable amount of respect and somehow find a way to finagle into every research project. I won’t go into too much of the history since it is not completely relevant to this project, but King Alfred’s daughter, AEthelgifu was abbess at the convent of Nummaminster of St. Mary’s in Winchester. Parkes identified a series of manuscripts associated with Nummaminster as having been copied by female scribes including the Book of Nummaminster, the Trinity Isdore, the Parker Manuscript of Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and the Junius Psalter. The first of these, according to Parkes, preserves the forms of confession and absolution associated with female grammatical forms. However, what I found most interesting is that these books were not simply produced for in-house usage, but rather for wider circulation, fit for the general literate pubic.

Honestly, I am not entirely sure how any of this is going to help me with what I originally set out to do (for those of you who have not been following my blog, it is to decipher the meaning – if any – behind the female scribe of one of the first Lancelot MSS), but I have had a lot of fun with all the research and while I am not completely convinced that I will reach any sort of conclusion about the Lancelot manuscript, I am sure I will find tons of interesting information along the way and will fully enjoy the process. I hope you do too!

Sources:

Brown, Michelle. P. Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts. 

Haines-Eitzen, Kim. “‘Girls Trained in Beautiful Writing’ : Female Scribes in Roman Antiquity and Early Christianity.

Johnson, Aaron, et. al. (eds). Eusebius of Caesarea: Traditions and Innovations (Hellenic Studies Series).

McKitterick, Rosamond.  ”‘Nuns’ Scriptoria in England and Francia in the Eighth Century.” 

Parkes, M.B. “A Fragment of an Early Tenth-Century Manuscript and Its Significance.”

Robinson, P. R.  “A Twelfth-Century Scriptrix from Nunnaminster.”

Assassin’s Creed: A Connection to the Past and Its Significance Today

assassins-creed-52

Years ago my husband was playing a video game, and one night I was terribly annoyed at all the shooting/lancing noises that ricocheted through our living room and into my study while I was trying to write a paper. I didn’t think it would be fair to ask him to turn it off, and I knew the volume was way down – its not his fault our halls echo so much. But I did poke my head out and issue a slight glare in the general direction of the screen. In an attempt to engage me in the game he explained that it was set in medieval times, and was loosely based upon the history of the Crusades. Well, I remained thoroughly unconvinced that this game was any good.

A month ago I was perusing sites looking at various CFPs, and one theme that I saw reemerging at a couple of conferences was medievalism in popular culture. The most prevalent example, and one which I think many will jump on was Game of Thrones. However, I am not suited to really discuss that as I am well behind on the books and series. But I thought it just sounded like such a fun presentation idea I didn’t want to give up on it so I began enumerating all the medieval inspired shows/games/etc. I could write about and that perhaps wouldn’t be as prominently featured elsewhere. Hrm….

Oh wait, didn’t the husband say something or other years ago about that one game set in the Middle Ages?

After a bit of research (some of which involved actually playing the game) I couldn’t really find anything extraordinary about it. It is set in the Middle Ages… ok… so what?

I reread about the premise of the game, and looked at various characters portrayed. I mulled it over, and while ignoring it altogether this idea came to me (which required further research and more mulling over). In short, this is the proposal I just submitted for the topic of medievalism in popular culture to the PCA/ACA conference (hopefully it will get accepted):

The popular video game, Assassin’s Creed, is a modernized and highly embellished  built upon version of the feud between the medieval Assassins of the east the the Crusaders of the west. However, what is most noteworthy about the premise is the context in which it is used. The Crusades, ubiquitously associated with Western culture and Christianity become inverted within the video game as the players (typically westerners) take on the role of the Assassins, literally placing themselves in the role of the “other.” Large portions of the game take place in medieval milieus, notably Masyaf in Syria, a land that has had great global consequence today. This paper would like to argue that through the violence in the video game’s premise, it brokers pacifism, understanding, and tolerance.

Arguably the road towards pacifism is not a conscious undertaking the players participate in, but it nevertheless opens the line of communication between the past and present. Moreover, it familiarizes the general population with these past events, cultivating a curiosity for further research into the history behind the video game as is made apparent by the numerous websites which have sprouted up in recent years that are dedicated to separating out fact from fiction within the plot.

The medieval conflict between the Knights and Assassins in Assassin’s Creed is sufficiently distanced from the modern period to allow dissociation while nevertheless providing the impetus necessary to learn about points in history that have shaped our culture today from the perspective of another.