Women and writing in medieval Europe : a sourcebook

296 Pages·1995·7.285 MB·English

by  Larrington, Carolyne

WOMEN AND WRITING IN MEDIEVAL
EUROPE
Carolyne Larrington has gathered together a uniquely comprehensive collection
of writing by, for and about medieval women, spanning one thousand years and
Europe from Iceland to Byzantium. The extracts are arranged thematically,
dealing with the central areas of medieval women’s lives and their relation to social
and cultural institutions. Each section is contextualized with a brief historical
introduction, and the materials span literary, historical, theological and other
narrative and imaginative writing. The writings here uncover and confound the
stereotype of the medieval woman as lady or virgin by demonstrating the
different roles and meanings that the sign of woman occupied in the imaginative
space of the medieval period.
Larrington’s clear and accessible editorial material and the modern English
translations of all the extracts mean this work is ideally suited for students.
Women and Writing in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook also contains an
extensive and fully up-to-date bibliography, making it not only essential reading
for undergraduates and postgraduates but also a valuable research tool for
scholars.
Carolyne Larrington is Lecturer in Medieval English at Lady Margaret Hall,
Oxford. Her main research interests are in Old Icelandic literature and
mythology, and in women’s history and writing. Previous publications include
The Feminist Companion to Mythology and A Store of Common Sense.
WOMEN AND WRITING IN
MEDIEVAL EUROPE
A sourcebook
Carolyne Larrington
London and New York
First published 1995
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection
of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1995 Carolyne Larrington
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Larrington, Carolyne
Women and Writing in Medieval Europe: A sourcebook/Carolyne
Larrington.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
1. Literature, Medieval—History and criticism. 2. Women in
literature. I. Title.
PN682.W6L37 1995
809'.89287'0902–dc20 94–30485
ISBN 0-203-35824-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-26657-9 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-10684-2 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-10685-0 (pbk)
For Vicky Licorish and for Louise Elkins
CONTENTS
List of illustrations ix
Acknowledgements x
Introduction 1
1 MARRIAGE
Introduction 7
The good wives 19
The malmariée 20
Marriages in romance 23
A rash wooing: unusual events at a wedding feast 25
The disobedient wife 28
A forward young woman 30
Duties of the bourgeois housewife 31
Caring for a sick husband 34
A clandestine marriage 36
2 LOVE, SEX AND FRIENDSHIP
Introduction 39
An early woman’s song 53
Sexual passion recalled 54
Two later love-lyrics 55
The Trobairitz 56
About love 60
The writing of love letters 62
Love between women 64
vi
The Archpriest of Hita 65
Il Dolce Stil Nuovo 67
An alba (dawn-song) 70
A woman poet celebrates the female genitals 72
The dangers of courtly love 73
A thwarted affair 75
A Valentine letter 76
A Spanish woman poet 77
3 MOTHERHOOD AND WORK
Introduction 79
Fredegund and Rigunth 92
Old English pregnancy charms 93
Taking in an orphan child 94
Trobairitz lyric on child-bearing 97
Mothers in Montaillou 98
The horrors of motherhood 99
Margery and her children 101
On the motherhood of Christ 104
Freydis’s trading venture 106
Women in retail 108
Margery’s business ventures 109
The division of labour 111
4 WOMEN AND CHRISTIANITY
Introduction 115
The life and death of Abbess Hild 128
The Nun of Watton 130
Hildegard’s vision of Ecclesia, the Church 135
Rannveig’s vision 140
The women of Helfta 143
vii
Letters of St Clare of Assisi 150
5 WOMEN AND POWER
Introduction 155
Fredegund 166
Sigrid the Strong-minded 171
Anna Dalassena and imperial power 175
Alvild the Pirate 177
Queen Philippa and the burghers of Calais 179
A noble lady known to Christine de Pizan 180
The way of life of the wise princess 181
Joan of Arc 183
6 EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE
Introduction 187
The learning of Anglo-Saxon nuns 196
The teaching of girls 200
A wise woman prophesies 200
Women’s physiology 203
Héloise and Abélard 206
Women’s education and Christine’s own experience 209
The foolishness of fashion 211
Selling one’s soul for knowledge 213
7 WOMEN AND THE ARTS
Introduction 217
The first western dramatist: Hrotsvit’s Dulcitius 233
Some Norse women poets 236
Hildegard and music 238
Marie de France 243
The poetry of Hadewijch 244
Isolde and her music-making 250
viii
An embroidered praise-song 252
Christine and the problem of representation 253
Becoming textual: how Margery got her book written 256
Bibliography 259
Index 273
ILLUSTRATIONS
Cover: Dido writing to Aeneas
1 A bride, accompanied by her male kin, maidens, musicians, and a 11
married woman at the rear approach the church door, where the priest,
the bridegroom, his kin (one of whom is listening out for the musicians)
wait
2 A detail from the Malterer Tapestry c. 1310–20, illustrating the story of 18
Iwein (Yvain)
3 Ivory writing tablets in diptych form, depicting a pair of lovers hawking 43
and exchanging roses for a wreath
4 Shield of Parade: a knight kneeling in homage to his lady 48
5 Devils lurk near gossiping women, waiting to carry off their idle words 52
to weigh against them on Judgement Day
6 A pregnant woman undergoing treatment with coriander 82
7 Woman selling fish from a basket 90
8 A Franciscan nun has her hair shorn 119
9 The enclosure of an anchoress by the bishop 121
10 The seal of the Queen’s College, Oxford, depicting the founder Queen 163
Philippa, wife of Edward III
11 Aldhelm presents his work Carmen de Virginitate to Abbess Hildelith 189
of Barking, for whose nuns the poem was written
12 St Anne teaches the Virgin to read 192
13 Guta, a nun, on the Virgin’s left and Sintram the priest and canon, on the 219
Virgin’s right, collaborators on the Codex Sintram—Guta c. 1154
14 Thamar, an illustrious classical figure, paints the Virgin Mary while her 220
male assistant grinds the colours