Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians
- 2 Dying and Death in a Complicated World
- 3 Dying with Decency
- 4 The Body under Siege in Life and Death
- 5 The Gravestone, the Grave and the Wyrm
- 6 Judgement on Earth and in Heaven
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
4 - The Body under Siege in Life and Death
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians
- 2 Dying and Death in a Complicated World
- 3 Dying with Decency
- 4 The Body under Siege in Life and Death
- 5 The Gravestone, the Grave and the Wyrm
- 6 Judgement on Earth and in Heaven
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
Summary
THE LIVING AND DYING BODY
The Newent Stone Book (discussed at the end of Chapter Three) represents one means of trying to protect the vulnerable body and soul. In this chapter we look at many others, ranging from medical recipes and charms to coffins and grave structures. A wide range of sources represent the body and soul as under constant attack from a host of invisible assailants, whose effects are perceived as sin, disease and decay. However, contemporary literature often shows a reluctance to assume that disease is the direct consequence of sin. In the poem Christ III, the narrator bewails the fact that we cannot see in our bodies the effect of sin on our souls, which would prompt us to repentance: Eala, þær we nu magon wraþe firene geseon on ussum sawlum, synna wunde, mid lichoman leahtra gehygdu, eagum unclæne ingeþoncas (Alas, if only we could see in our souls the terrible crimes, the wounds of sin, in the body the evil thoughts, with our eyes the unclean inner thoughts). The body is sometimes the soul's ally, and sometimes its worst enemy. It can be inherently treacherous on multiple levels, in its refractory, unpredictable nature and its concealment of sin when alive, as well as in its sudden revelation of unconfessed sin on the Day of Judgement.
The body endangered from without
Judging by the vernacular medical texts, the Anglo-Saxons never really embraced the humoral theory of disease, preferring to look outside the body for the sources of illness.
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- Information
- Dying and Death in Later Anglo-Saxon England , pp. 92 - 131Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2004