Heroic Slaughter and Versified Violence: A Reading of Sacrifice in Some Early English and Carolingian Poetry of War Anthony Adams A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Medieval Studies University of Toronto © Anthony Adams 2008 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-39882-1 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-39882-1 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada 'Heroic Slaughter and Versified Violence: A Reading of Sacrifice in Some Early English and Carolingian Poetry of War' Ph.D. 2008 Anthony Adams Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto ABSTRACT This thesis explores the function and expression of sacrificial violence in a group of texts on heroic themes that were composed in the ninth and tenth centuries in England and France. The introduction offers a preliminary survey of theories of sacrifice, specifically those that have proven most useful in analyzing literary texts. It also presents an overview of how the metaphors of the 'sacrificial' and the 'traumatic' have been used by both classical and medieval scholars. It is one of the assertions of the thesis that medieval authors actively looked (and called) for signs of heroic sacrifice in their own times, and this is reflected in certain poems on contemporary events. Chapter one traces the development of heroic poetry from Vergil's Aeneid and Lucan's Bellum civile through the adaptation of the form by Christian poets, and the 'rediscovery' of secular and historical subjects in the early medieval period. Chapter two looks briefly at sacrifice in Classical literature before turning to its re-interpretation by Christian writers, including St Paul and St Augustine; Christian sacrifice was influenced by the language of military service and heroic action, resulting in poems that blended the language of martyrdom and militancy, such as Prudentius' Liber Peristephanon, Fortunatus' hymns on the Cross, and the Old English Dream of the Rood. Chapter three analyzes the development of heroic sacrifice and its concomitant violence in the Paderborn Epic, the Old English Judith, the Bella Parisiacae urbis of Abbo of Saint- Germain-des-Pres, and The Battle of Maldon. The chapter closes with an analysis of how heroic sacrifice is appealed to in one major event in the life of Otto I. Chapter four looks at the need to interpret the times experienced by some observers of ninth- and tenth-century warfare, and at the elements of horror and trauma that occur in literature when sacrificial violence fails, including readings of Lucan, Beowulf, the Bella Parisiacae urbis, and the Latin rhythmical poem 'The Battle of Fontenoy'. A conclusion provides a glance ahead into the later period through the Middle English Havelok, and some remarks on sacrificial violence and modes of literature. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Gratitude should first be offered to the members of my doctoral thesis committee. I offer thanks to George Rigg, under whose meticulous tutelage I first learned Latin, and who consistently stressed (and nearly proved) the mere adequacy of perfection; it was he who first suggested that I work on the Bella Parisiacae urbis for my thesis, and with whom I began translating its enigmatic verse. I also offer thanks to Ian McDougall, who repeatedly and patiendy proffered his immense learning and brilliant criticism throughout my early years at the Centre for Medieval Studies. Finally, I offer immense thanks to my supervisor Andy Orchard, whose effortless genius and generous enthusiasm has encouraged a wellspring of learning and life in all whom he has met—always a mentor, ever a mensch. I would also like to thank Suzanne Akbari and Bob Hasenfratz for their participation in my diesis defense, and for their many helpful suggestions for improving my manuscript. I offer grateful thanks as well to Toni Healey, John Magee, Dave McDougall, and David Townsend, all of whom have taught me much. Thanks also to Rosemary Beattie and Grace Desa, who make life run so smoothly for everyone at the Centre. I owe special gratitude to both Jan Ziolkowski and Dan Donoghue, who introduced me to medieval topics, encouraged my graduate schooling, and inspired my studies at their origin. My friends and colleagues who have been wonderful throughout the years are too numerous to name completely, but I would like to single out the following for thanks and special affection: Tuija Ainonen, Kirsty Campbell, Joanna Carraway, Kelli Carr, Aidan Conti, Sarah Downey, Irina Dumitrescu, Damian Fleming, Nicole Fougere, Lindsay Irvin, Aden Kumler, Patrick McBrine, Brent Miles, Jennifer Pangman, Sylvia Parsons, Jen Reid, Elly Sheahan, Amy Tanzer, Stacie Turner, Dina Westenholz, and Hilary Wynne. Kudos—I could not have done it without you. Finally, I want to remember my family—my sister Cheryl, and my parents Walter and Dympna. Their love has made anything possible, and everything worthwhile. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract Acknowledgments 111 Introduction Chapter One An Epic Background to Sacrificial Topoi: 38 The Conventiones and Renovationes of Heroic Verse Chapter Two The Function and Meaning of Heroic Sacrifice 82 and Sacrificial Topoi Chapter Three Heroic Sacrifice Performed: Paderborn to Paris to Mai don 121 Chapter Four Discors machina: Gruesome Violence, Grotesquerie, 177 and Chaos in Anglo-Carolingian Poetry of War Coda 213 Bibliography 221 IV INTRODUCTION This dissertation presents a reading of the theme of sacrifice in selected early medieval poetry of war, a claim that will require several definitions and qualifications. Through a close reading of Anglo-Saxon and Carolingian literary texts chiefly from the ninth and tenth centuries, I am seeking to provide a reading of scenes of violence that are either presented ostensibly as comprising a scene of sacrificial violence, or that fit comfortably within a framework of sacrificial violence established by earlier texts. Thus, both explicit and implicit scenes of sacrifice will be considered. The texts I have chosen, which are mostly poetic, involve as their central theme martial conflict, although in some cases the fragmentary state of the text remaining to us has left only a strong suggestion of the impending violence in the textual material preceding the lost sections. Scholarship on the ninth and tenth centuries in England and France has identified a number of trends related to the development of historical writing, a category which includes both annalistic endeavors such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, freer versions involving a significant re-reading of history such as Notker's Gesta Karoli, as well as poetry. The very real crises of these years—the threat from foreign peoples, the struggle between kingdoms and between families for control over political power, and the numerous claims to the thrones and questions over rightful succession—all contributed to the efforts to record and interpret those events, in the light of the writers' knowledge and sense of historical progress. These interpretations therefore were deeply imbued with both historical, religious, and literary hues, and it is acknowledged that even the driest of annals might contain a flicker of misprision brought on by the writer's Biblical background, and also that the most purple patch in heroic verse possibly contains a dram of truth concocted along the numerous allusions to the Bible and classical lore. No less than at other times, early medieval reading and writing worked together to produce interpretations and records of the events of these turbulent centuries, when the very idea of national identity and cohesion was yet within the crucible, working to create, in 1 2 Jennifer Neville's words, 'imagined communities' of readers.' The work of Coupland,