Cannibalism in High Medieval English Literature

207 Pages·2007·22.827 MB·English

by  Heather Blurton (auth.)

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CANNIBALISM IN HIGH
MEDIEVAL ENGLISH
LITERATURE
Heather Blurton
palgrave
macmillan
* CANNIBALISM IN HIGH MEDIEVAL ENGLISH LITERATURE
© Heather Blurton, 2007.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007978-1-4039-7443-3
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2007 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-73724-6 ISBN 978-1-137-11579-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-11579-9
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First edition: June 2007
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This book
is dedicated to my parents
Patricia Blurton & Keith Blurton
with love and gratitude
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments Xl
Cannibal Narratives: An Introduction 1
1. Self-Eaters: The Cannibal Narrative of Andreas 15
2. Eotonweard: Watching for
Cannibals in the Beowulf-Manuscript 35
3. Cannibal Kings: Communion and
Community in Twelfth-Century England 59
4. Tartars and Traitors: The Uses of
Cannibalism in Matthew Paris's Chronica majora 81
5. The Flesch of a Sarazeyn: Cannibalism,
Genre, and Nationalism 105
Postscript 133
Notes 139
Bibliography 183
Index 199
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T
his book began as a PhD dissertation at Columbia University, and so
it is with renewed gratitude and pleasure that I thank the members of
my dissertation committee-Professors R. W. Hanning, Joan M. Ferrante,
Robert M. Stein, Haruko Momma, and Carmela Vircillo Franklin for their
scholarly example and especially for their friendship. I would now like to
thank the Department of English at the University of York as well, for the
generous research leave that allowed me to finish this book.
For their generosity with their time, advice, copyediting skills, and good
humor, I still owe thanks to my friends Lisa Hollibaugh, Suzanne Laizik,
Alison McDonald, and Brian Donnelly, and most of all Ben Robinson for
his patience in reading every word of this project in its earliest stages at least
twice and then telling me what I meant to say.
For being the guiding force behind this project, and for continuing to
offer advice and friendship, I am especially grateful to Professor Robert M.
Stein.
Most of all I want to thank my parents, to whom this book is dedicated.