Dying and Death in Later Anglo-Saxon England by Victoria Thompson.
Victoria Thompson (PhD, English & Medieval Studies) is a lecturer at the Centre for Nordic Studies. In Dying and Death in Later Anglo-Saxon England she elaborated on her doctoral thesis. The book covers not just an extensive time period (9th to 11th century), but a broad area of interest from gravestones to bedside practices prior to death. Each Chapter takes a different theme, ranging from ‘Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians’ to the ‘Judgement on Earth and in Heaven’. In spite of the apparently random themes, Thompson successfully guides the reader through this depth study.
Notwithstanding choosing to focus on the theme of Dying and Death, Thompson actually suggests that she is studying life and ‘the whole of Anglo-Saxon culture’[1] and that through greater, in-depth study she is able to analyse, ‘society’s heart’[2]. I believe that Thompson does exactly that in Dying and Death. It is not just an account of funerals, death-beds and burials, she also pulls together numerous written and archaeological primary sources to develop a picture of what surrounded death in this period. For example, the iconography on a cross in St Andrews Church, Middleton, depicting the symbol of fate. Whether that be the involvement of, the actions of people surrounding the death bed or the ideas of an afterlife. The study of all of these things enables Thompson to consider the culture of the Anglo-Saxon people.
A good example of her study of society is in Chapter One: ‘Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians’, which focuses on Æthelflæd as an individual, ‘representative of her class and gender’[3]. Building on Æthelflæd’s experience of losing two children, Thompson refers to a homily by Ælfric’s (The Abbot of Eynsham) to understand people’s feelings towards infant death at that time – that it was a a ‘bitter death’[4], very much in keeping with our perception of infant death today. There is one problem with Thompson’s focus on Æthelflæd and it is something she highlights herself. Æthelflæd was a, ‘study of one unusual individual’[6]. Can her story then be taken to be representative of the ‘society’s heart’[7]?
Dying and Death presents a different way of documenting the social history of Anglo-Saxons. If we were to see this as a book studying society alone you could see it overshadowed by a number of other more wide-ranging texts such as Higham and Ryan’s The Anglo-Saxon World, van Houts’ Medieval Memories: Men, Women and the Past, 700 – 1300 and Scragg’s The Battle of Maldon, AD 991. All these draw on a much broader array of primary sources. The Anglo-Saxon World explores themes like, ‘The Origins of England’[8] and the movement from, ‘Tribal Chiefdoms to Christian Kings’[9]. Medieval Memories studies gender in society and how, ‘women are featured extensively as wives and mothers caring for their husbands and sons’[10]. The Battle of Maldon refers to the acceptance of a, ‘unified realm’[11] and the recognition of, ‘unity under a single king’[12]. It also references the primary source, The Battle of Maldon poem to explain attitudes to heroism at this time with people’s, ‘intention to stand and fight’[13], as seen in, ‘an earl of unstained reputation, who intends to defend this homeland,’[14]. This popular primary source work is evidence of what differs in Thompson’s more narrow study.
Yet, Dying and Death should be read, and read carefully, by both scholar and student. It is a valuable text because it sees things from a different angle. By focusing on dying and death and not society itself, Thompson has filled a void where information in the past was lacking. Books like The Anglo-Saxon World and Medieval Memories both explore the theme of death and dying, but in much less depth. The Anglo-Saxon World takes a more ceremonial approach by referencing ‘shrines such as the Tomb of St Cuthbert’ and their importance for, ‘pilgrimage’[15]. Medieval Memories covers the Christian Church’s involvement in, ‘defining the rituals that accompanied death and burial’ and how women played such an importance role in regards to the dead[16]. Neither of these combine the study of society with death and thus do not unearth the same information that Thompson does so well.
Thompson’s book has been reviewed as ‘bold’[17], ‘distracting’ and inaccurate at times[18]. In spite of its shortcomings, however, some academics have come to the conclusion that the book studies something that hasn’t been detailed before[19]. This makes Thompson’s work valuable because it looks at things from a new perspective and adds a richness of detail that did not already exist.
- Emily Storey Walker
Mistress of Hounds and Horses
[1] Victoria Thompson, Dying and Death in Later Anglo-Saxon England (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2004), 3.
[2] Ibid., 7.
[3] Ibid., 7.
[4] Æflric, quoted in Victoria Thompson, Dying and Death in Later Anglo-Saxon England (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2004), 10.
[5] Thompson. Dying and Death, 10.
[6] Ibid., 25.
[7] Ibid, 7.
[8] Nicholas Higham and Martin Ryan, The Anglo-Saxon World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015), 70.
[9] Ibid., 126.
[10] Elisabeth van Houts, ed., Medieval Memories: Men, Woman and the Past, 700 – 1300 (Harlow: Pearson, 2001), 61.
[11] Donald Scragg, ed., The Battle of Maldon, AD 991 (Hoboken: Blackwell, 1991), 81.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid., 91.
[14] Unknown, quoted in Donald Scragg’s, The Battle of Maldon, AD 991 (Hoboken: Blackwell, 1991), 12.
[15] Higham and Ryan, The Anglo-Saxon World, 216.
[16] van Houts, Medieval Memories, 26.
[17] Blair, John, ‘Dying and Death in Later Anglo-Saxon England. By Victoria Thompson’, History 91.3 (2006): 444-445.
[18] Anlezark, Daniel, ‘Reviewed Work: Dying and Death in Later Anglo-Saxon England by Victoria Thompson’, Medium Ævum 75.1 (2006): 143.
[19] Martin Welch, ‘Reviewed Work: Dying and Death in Later Anglo-Saxon England by Victoria Thompson’, Speculum 81.2 (2006): 619-620.
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