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The Walking Dead in Medieval England: Literary and Archaeological Perspectives

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THE WALKING DEAD IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND: LITERARY AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Faculty of Humanities 2013 STEPHEN R GORDON SCHOOL OF ARTS, LANGUAGES and CULTURES Contents List of Figures 4 Abbreviations 6 Abstract 11 Declaration 12 Copyright Statement 12 Acknowledgements 13 1. Introduction 14 Ghost Belief: An Overview 15 Defining the Walking Dead 18 Chronological Boundaries 19 Chronological Boundaries: The Twelfth Century 24 Geographical Boundaries 27 Literature Review 29 Aims of Study 38 Methodology 39 Interdisciplinarity: the ‘Anti-Method’ 41 Designing a Method: ‘Texts’ and the Illusory Divide 47 Designing a Method: Orality, Aurality, and Book 48 Theory of Practice 54 Sources 61 Chapter Overview 63 Conclusion 66 2. Pattern and Performance in Medieval Attitudes to Death 69 Aim of Chapter 70 Labyrinths and Knots in Christian Exegesis 72 Christian Funerary Rite: Origins 77 Christian Funerary Rite: Late Medieval 80 Preaching and the Maintenance of the ‘Pattern’ 89 Untangling the Knot: The Dance of Death 92 Conclusion 99 3. The Walking Dead and the Historia Rerum Anglicarum 101 The Northern Church: A Historical Review 103 Cultural Networks and the Truthfulness of Ghosts 105 Revenants and Wonders 109 The Revenant Stories in Context 112 The ‘Buckingham Ghost’ in Context 120 Conclusion 130 2 4. Disease, Nightmares and the Walking Dead 132 Contagion, Decay and the Body 133 Humours and Ill-Health 137 Sin and Ill-Health 141 Nightmares: An Introduction 144 Canonical Nightmares 147 Insular Tradition and the Nightmare 155 Nightmares and Revenants 162 Conclusion 165 5. The Archaeology of the Walking Dead: The Grave 167 Charcoal and Ash Burial 169 Pillow-Graves 173 Grave Goods 176 Positive Burial Innovations: A Synthesis 181 Archaeology and the Dangerous Dead 183 Liminal Burials 185 Staking/Weighing the Body/Prone Burial 194 Cremation and Decapitation 200 Apotropaic Grave Goods 203 Stones 204 Metal 209 Conclusion 211 6. Conclusion 213 Appendix 219 Bibliography 234 Figures 265 Word Count: 85, 510 3 List of Figures 1. Office for the Dead, c.1470s (Latin MS 21, fol. 147v, John Rylands Library, Manchester). 2. Temptation to Avarice and its remedy, Ars Moriendi, c.1490–1491 (Bibliothèque National de France, Paris). 3. Funerary Procession, c.1487 (Latin MS 39, fol. 249r, John Rylands Library, Manchester). 4. Bernt Notke, The Dance of Death, c.1463–1493 (Gertsman, ‘Revel (Tallinn)’, fig.1). 5 Location of the revenant encounters in the Historia Rerum Anglicarum (ArchGIS). 6. Ash-lined coffin burial, graveyard of St. Peter’s, Leicester, c.1300s (Gnanaratnam, fig. 92). 7. Lead wrapping found upon abdomen of adult female, graveyard of St. James’s Priory, Bristol, c.1200s–1300s (Jackson, fig. 82). 8. ‘Vampire’ skull from a Lazzauetto Nuovo plague pit, Venice, c. 1500 (Nuzzolese and Borrini, ‘Vampire Remains’, fig. 2a). 9. Crossroad burial from Broad Town, Wiltshire, c.600s (Clarke, figs. 2, 4). 10. The dead trapped in a barrow, c.1030 (MS Harley 603, fol. 72r, British Library, London). 11. Skeletons with boulders on torso, graveyard of St. Peter’s, Leicester, c.1250 (Gnanaratnam, figs. 89, 90). 12. Prone Burial, Hexham Abbey, Northumberland, c.1000 (Cambridge and Williams, figs. 7, 8). 4 13. Jet Pendant, graveyard of St. James’s Priory, Bristol, c.1300 (Jackson, fig. 85). 5 Abbreviations: Primary Sources Ælfric, Hm Homilies of Ælfric: A Supplementary Collection, ed. by J. C. Pope, 2 Vols. EETS OS, 259–260 (London: Oxford University Press, 1967–68). Ælfric, LS Ælfric, Lives of Saints, ed. by W. W. Skeat, 2 Vols. EETS OS, 76, 82, 94, 114 (London: Oxford University Press, 1966). Anglo-Saxon Glossary A Late Eighth-Century Latin-Anglo-Saxon Glossary, ed. by J. H. Hessels (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1906). Armburgh The Armburgh Papers: The Brokholes Inheritance in Warwickshire, Hertfordshire and Essex c.1417– c.1453, ed. by C. Carpenter (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1998). Autobiography Guibert of Nogent, Autobiography, ed. and trans. by C. C. Swinton Bland (London: Routledge, 1925). Book of Minerals Albertus Magnus, Book of Minerals, ed. and trans. by D. Wyckoff (Oxford: Clarendon, 1967). Byland A. J. Grant, ‘Twelve Medieval Ghost Stories’, The Yorkshire Archaeological Journal 27 (1924), 363-379. Care for the Dead On Care to be had for the Dead, in Seventeen Short Treatises of S. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, ed. and trans. by C. L. Cornish and H. Brown (Oxford: Parker, 1847), pp. 517–542. Christian Teaching Augustine, On Christian Teaching, trans. by R. P. H. Green (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). City of God Augustine, The City of God, trans. by H. Bettenson (London: Penguin, 1984). Confessions Augustine, Confessions, ed. and trans. by R. S. Pine- Coffin (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1961). Consolation Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, trans. by V. Watts (London: Penguin, 1999). 6 De Nugis Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium, ed. and trans. M. R. James; revised by C. N. L. Brooke and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford: Clarendon, 1983). Devizes Richard of Devizes, The Chronicle of Richard of Devizes of the Time of King Richard the First, ed. and trans. by J. T. Phillips (London: Nelson, 1963). Dialogue Caesarius of Heisterbach, The Dialogue on Miracles, 2 Vols., ed. and trans. by E. von H. Scott and C. C. Swinton Bland (London: Routledge, 1929). Edmund Memorials of St. Edmund’s Abbey, 3 Vols. ed. by T. Arnold (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1890). Etymologies Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, ed. and trans. by S. A. Barney (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). Eyrbyggia The Story of the Ere-Dwellers (Eyrbyggia Saga, with the Story of the Heath-slayings (Heiðarvíga saga) as Appendix, ed. and trans. by W. Morris and E. Magnusson (London: Quaritch, 1892). Festial Mirk’s Festial: A Collection of Homilies, ed. by T. Erbe, EETS Extra Ser., 96 (London: Kegan Paul, 1905). Homilies St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, ed. by Philip Schaff (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1964). GW, EH Gerald of Wales, Expugnatio Hibernica, ed. and trans. by A. B. Scott and F. X. Martin (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1978). GW, JW Gerald of Wales, The Journey through Wales, ed. by L. Thorpe (London: Penguin, 1978). GW, SE Gerald of Wales, Speculum Ecclesiae, in Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, Vol. 4, ed. by J. S. Brewer (London: Longman, 1873). GW, SH Gerald of Wales, The Life of St. Hugh of Avalon: Bishop of Lincoln 1186–1200, ed. and trans. by R. M. Loomis (New York: Garland, 1985). 7 Genesis Augustine, The Literal Meaning of Genesis, in On Genesis, ed. by J. E. Rotelle (New York: New York City Press, 2002). Gervase The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury, in The Chronicle of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard, Vol. 1, ed. by W. Stubbs (London: Longman, 1879). Golden Legend Jacob de Voragine, The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints, 2 Vols. trans. by W. G. Ryan (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993). Gregory, Dialogues Gregory the Great, The Dialogues of Saint Gregory, surnamed the Great, ed. by E. G. Gardner (London: Warner, 1911). Grettir The Saga of Grettir the Strong, ed. and trans. by G. A. Hight (London: Dent, 1978). Imitation of Christ Thomas á Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, trans. by G. F. Maine (London: Aldine, 1977). Lanercost The Chronicle of Lanercost, 1272–1346, ed. and trans. by H. Maxwell (Glasgow: MacLehose, 1913). Laxdaela Laxdaela Saga, ed. and trans. by M. A. C. Press (London: Dent, 1906). Leechdoms Cockayne, O., Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft, 3 Vols (London: Longman, 1864–66). Macrobius Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, ed. and trans. by W. H. Stahl (New York: Columbia University Press, 1952). Malmesbury, GP William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, ed. and trans. by D. Preest (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2002). Malmesbury, GR William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum, ed. and trans. by R. A. B. Mynors; completed by R. M. Thompson and M. Winterbottom (Oxford: Clarendon, 1998). Newburgh William of Newburgh, Historia Rerum Anglicarum, The Church Historians of England, Vol. 4, part II, ed. by J. Stevenson (London: Seeley, 1861). 8 Otia Imperialia Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia: Recreation for an Emperor, ed. and trans. by S. E. Banks and J. W. Binns (Oxford: Clarendon, 2002). Policraticus John of Salisbury, Policraticus: Of the Frivolities of Courtiers and the Footprints of Philosophers, ed. and trans. by C. J. Nederman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). Saxo Grammaticus Saxo Grammaticus, The History of the Danes: Books I–IX, trans. by P. Fisher, ed. by H. Ellis Davidson (Brewer: Cambridge, 1979). SL Three Eleventh-Century Saints’ Lives: Vita S. Birini, Vita et Miracula S. Kenelmi and Vita S. Rumwoldi, ed. and trans. by R. C. Love (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996). St. Guthlac Felix, Life of Saint Guthlac, trans. by B. Colgrave (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956). St. Modwenna Geoffrey of Burton, Life and Miracles of St. Modwenna, ed. and trans. R. Bartlett (Oxford: Clarendon, 2002). Travels The Travels of Three English Gentlemen, in The Harleian Miscellany, ed. by W. Oldys (London: White & Murray, 1808). 9 Abbreviations: Secondary Sources AHR American Historical Review ANS Anglo-Norman Studies ASE Anglo-Saxon England BAR British Archaeological Reports EETS OS Early English Text Society, Original Series EHR English Historical Review FMLS Forum for Modern Language Studies JBAA Journal of the British Archaeological
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