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Exegetical Theory and Textual Communities in Late Anglo-Saxon England

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Exegetical Theory and Textual Communities in Late Anglo-Saxon England Exegetical Theory and Textual Communities in Late Anglo-Saxon England By Jacob Eli Hobson A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English and Medieval Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe, Chair Professor Emily V. Thornbury Professor Jonas Wellendorf Spring 2017 1 Abstract Exegetical Theory and Textual Communities in Late Anglo-Saxon England by Jacob Eli Hobson Doctor of Philosophy in English and Medieval Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe, Chair This dissertation, a study in political hermeneutics, claims the practice of biblical interpretation as one of the primary shaping forces of Anglo-Saxon literature and society. From the educational reforms of King Alfred (r. 871-99) through the end of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom (c. 1066), anyone who received an education in England began by memorizing the Psalms and progressed to the study of biblical exegesis, a method of reading that moves from the historical analysis of scripture to the figurative description of moral action in the present and eternal punishment or reward in the future. Exegetical theory inscribes human action in the morally charged temporalities of Christian salvation history, encompassing all historical time from Creation to Judgment Day. It provides a foundational method by which Anglo-Saxons read texts, but it also becomes a powerful structuring principle of sacred and secular society as a whole. The practice of scriptural interpretation interpellates individual subjects as historical actors, and it frames social institutions, from monasteries to the kingdom itself, as agents in the unfolding progress of world history. The chapters that follow study its role in the Alfredian translations, Ælfrician liturgy, hermeneutic Latin diplomas, and classical verse of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Although land conveyances and the heroic Battle of Brunanburh might be the last places we would expect to find the effect of exegetical reading, I show that it is precisely such texts where exegetical theory makes its influence known most effectively. These texts frame real politics and warfare as moments in the progress of salvation history, and they place contemporary individuals at the center of the action. In late Anglo-Saxon England, salvation history provides the absolute and universal horizon of present action, subsuming the lives of individuals and the developing history of the kingdom. At the same time, individual writers saw this horizon approaching at different rates, and no two writers perceived the shape of its curve in quite the same way. My dissertation reveals how the exegetical interpretation of texts and events produces the Anglo-Saxon political subject as an actor in salvation history, one who is shaped by it at the same time that he or she works to further its progress. i Table of Contents Acknowledgements ii Abbreviations iii Introduction: The Anglo-Saxons in World History 1 Chapter 1: The Teaching of History at King Alfred’s Court 10 Chapter 2: Liturgical Subject Formation and Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies 42 Chapter 3: Tenurial Exegesis in the Tenth-Century Anglo-Latin Diplomas 70 Chapter 4: Typological Convention in the Classical Verse of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 100 Conclusion 133 Bibliography 134 ii Acknowledgements This dissertation relied on the support of several institutions and individuals. I thank the Leifur Eiríksson Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies for their generous financial support. I thank the members of the Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, especially the director Guðrún Nordal, for their hospitality during the year I spent there. My advisor Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe has been an incredible (and incredibly patient) source of wisdom and advice throughout the dissertation process—indeed, throughout graduate school. I thank her deeply. Emily V. Thornbury and Jonas Wellendorf kindly sat on my committee, and I am grateful for their contributions to this study. I thank Jonas particularly for his scholarly generosity even when not strictly related to this dissertation. Although he retired before I began writing this project, John Lindow played a valuable role in my development as a scholar. Evan Wilson and Marcos Garcia spent countless hours discussing the ideas, arguments, and materials considered in this dissertation. Their openness and friendship have contributed much to this dissertation’s development, doubtless in more ways than I am aware. I also wish to thank, or perhaps to blame, Shaun Hughes, whose wide reading and love of learning remain an inspiration. For personal and professional support in various forms and at various stages of writing, I thank Oliver Arnold, Margaret Cormack, Jenna Coughlin, Aubrey Gabel, Marcial Gonzalez, Haraldur Bernharðsson, Marian Homans-Turnbull, Steven Justice, Russell Keck, Ryan Kiesel, Margaret Kolb, Kristín Bragadóttir, Serena Le, Mikael Males, Christopher Mead, Andrew Rabin, Benjamin Saltzman, Erika Sigurdsson, Max Stevenson, Sveinn Magnússon, and Elizabeth Walgenbach. No doubt there are others whose absence here will mortify me later. I thank finally my family and especially my parents. I couldn’t have done it without you. iii List of Abbreviations Used AEOLO Amalarii episcopi opera liturgica omnia ANQ American Notes & Queries ANS Anglo-Norman Studies ASE Anglo-Saxon England ASPR Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records CCCM Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Medievalis CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina CH Catholic Homilies CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum DOML Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library EETS Early English Text Society EHR English Historical Review ELH English Literary History EME Early Medieval Europe ES English Studies JEGP Journal of English and Germanic Philology JEH Journal of Ecclesiastical History JMH Journal of Medieval History MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica MLN Modern Language Notes MP Modern Philology NLR New Left Review NM Neuphilologische Mitteilungen N&Q Notes & Queries OEN Old English Newsletter PBA Proceedings of the British Academy PL Patrologia Latina PMLA Proceedings of the Modern Language Association RB Revue benedictine RES Review of English Studies SB Saga-Book of the Viking Society for Northern Research SN Studia Neophilologica SP Studies in Philology SS Scandinavian Studies TRHS Transactions of the Royal Historical Society ZKT Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie 1 Introduction: The Anglo-Saxons in World History This dissertation, a study in political hermeneutics, claims the practice of biblical interpretation as one of the primary shaping forces of Anglo-Saxon literature and society. From the educational reforms of King Alfred (r. 871-99) through the end of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom (c. 1066), anyone who received an education in England began by memorizing the Psalms and progressed to the study of biblical exegesis, a method of reading that moves from the historical analysis of scripture to the figurative description of moral action in the present and eternal punishment or reward in the future. Exegetical theory inscribes human action in the morally charged temporalities of Christian salvation history, encompassing all historical time from Creation to Judgment Day. It provides a foundational method by which Anglo-Saxons read texts, but it also becomes a powerful structuring principle of sacred and secular society as a whole. The practice of scriptural interpretation interpellates individual subjects as historical actors, and it frames social institutions, from monasteries to the kingdom itself, as agents in the unfolding progress of world history. The chapters that follow study its role in the Alfredian translations, Ælfrician liturgy, hermeneutic Latin diplomas, and classical verse of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Although land conveyances and the heroic Battle of Brunanburh might be the last places we would expect to find the effect of exegetical reading, I show that it is precisely such texts where exegetical theory makes its influence known most effectively. These texts frame real politics and warfare as moments in the progress of salvation history, and they place contemporary individuals at the center of the action. In late Anglo-Saxon England, salvation history provides the absolute and universal horizon of present action, subsuming the lives of individuals and the developing history of the kingdom. At the same time, individual writers saw this horizon approaching at different rates, and no two writers perceived the shape of its curve in quite the same way. My dissertation reveals how the exegetical interpretation of texts and events produces the Anglo-Saxon political subject as an actor in salvation history, one who is shaped by it at the same time that he or she works to further its progress. Scholars within the larger discipline of medieval studies have lauded exegetical interpretation as a genuinely historical criticism, derided it as simplistic and predictable, or, in recent decades, often forgotten about it. D. W. Robertson, the best-known of the mid-twentieth- century exegetical critics, drew on the four senses of scripture when he insisted that medieval literature was fundamentally about the theological virtue of charity.1 In Old English studies, R. E. Kaske argued in a classic essay that Beowulf exemplified the tropological virtues of sapientia et fortitudo [wisdom and bravery],2
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