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Information to Users INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy subm itted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UM I directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 RULING WOMEN; POPLTLAR REPRESENTATIONS OF QUEENSHIP IN LATE ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Stacy S. Klein, B.A., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1998 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Nicholas Howe, Advisor Professor Lisa J. Kiser Advisor Professor Karen A. Winstead Department of English UMI Number: 9900858 Copyright 199 8 by Klein, Stacy S. All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9900858 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyright by Stacy S. Klein 1998 ABSTRACT My dissertation examines how Anglo-Saxon literary and historical narratives worked to construct public attitudes toward queenship during the late ninth through early eleventh centuries. This period witnessed dramatic changes in the social and symbolic power of royal wives, including the establishment of new titles for queens and queen- mothers, the increasing use of public anointing ceremonies for queens, the formal appointment of a queen as the official patron of female monasteries, the regular attendance of queens at meetings of the royal council, and queens’ participation as patrons and staunch supporters of the Benedictine reforms. Focusing on vernacular writings composed in Wessex—which was the home of the royal family and the intellectual hub of the Benedictine reforms— I examine how textual depictions of royal wives worked to create popular ideals of queenship and how these ideals were in turn used to propagate reformist ideologies of gender and family among the Anglo-Saxon laity. Chapter one examines representations of queenship in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Asser’s Life of Alfred. Both texts demonstrate that ninth-century Wessex queens were valued mainly for their ability to create dynastic connections through marriage. Asser’s Life concomitantly shows that public attitudes toward queenship in ninth-century Wessex were far more complex than mere wholesale acceptance of the actual roles available to queens within that culture. Chapter two focuses on Cynewulfs Elene. reading the poem in the context of new titling practices for late Anglo-Saxon queens and changing attitudes toward royal concubinage. My third and fourth chapters investigate Ælfric's discussions of the Old Testament queens Jezebel and Esther in his Old English biblical translations. I argue that Ælfric uses Jezebel to offer a veiled critique of late tenth-century royal counsel, while Esther functions as a means for him to address the problem of royal divorce and to examine the relationship between physical beauty and inner virtue. Throughout my dissertation, I argue that changing ideals of queenship were met with a profound ambivalence on the part of early medieval writers, who sought both to laud the accomplishments of queens as well as to prescribe limits over their spheres of influence. m ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to express my warmest thanks to the many people who have supported me during the writing of my dissertation. I am very grateful to Professor Lisa Kiser for serving on my dissertation committee and for generously sharing with me over the past six years her deep knowledge of medieval literature and culture. I want to express my appreciation to Professor Karen Winstead, who has been an insightful reader of drafts and an extremely supportive committee member. It is a pleasure to acknowledge Professor Katherine O ’Brien O ’Keeffe, who has welcomed me into the community of Anglo- Saxonists at large and written letters on my behalf. So, too. Professors Roberta Frank and Christopher Highley have written on my behalf and helped me to secure funding for research. My dissertation research was supported by a Ohio State University Presidential Fellowship and GSARA Grant from the Graduate School, an Elizabeth Gee Fellowship from the Ohio State University Department of Women’s Studies, and a Summer Fellowship from the Department of English. I am very grateful for the funding that allowed me to pursue my research. I read parts of chapters-in-progress at the Modem Language Association and International Congress for Medieval Studies at Western Michigan and would like to thank the audiences at these events for their interest and responses. I am grateful to Sandra MacPherson, who provided helpful comments on chapter four. I also want to acknowledge Robin Norris, Maureen Novak, and Cynthia Wittman-ZoUinger for reading iv and providing comments on various chapters and for offering sustaining intellectual support and friendship. I thank my parents, Dorothy and Marc Klein, for their support during my graduate studies. I am also deeply grateful to Paula Dayhoff, who has shared ideas with me about gender studies and very much enriched my life. Above all, I would like to thank my dissertation director. Professor Nicholas Howe, who has given me valuable critical advice, practical assistance, and encouragement at every stage of the project. I was privileged to have been able to work with such a wise scholar and teacher, and I owe an incalculable debt to him for all that he has done for me. VTTA April II, 1967 ....................................................Bom, Syosset, New York 1989.................................................................. B.A. English, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 1992 .................................................................. M.A. English, University of Sussex, Palmer, England 1992-94..............................................................Teaching Associate, Department of English, Ohio State University Spring, 1995 .................................................... Teaching Associate, Department of Comparative Studies, Ohio State University 1995-97 ..............................................................Editorial Assistant to Lisa J. Kiser (editor). Studies in the Age of Chaucer 1997-98 ..............................................................Presidential Fellow, Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS ‘Ælfnc’s Sources and his Gendered Audiences,” Essavs in Medieval Studies: 1996 Proceedings of the Illinois Medieval Association. Vol. 13(1997): 111-19. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: English VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract .......................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... iv Vita.................................................................................................................................... V List of Tables ................................................................................................................ ix List of Figures ................................................................................................................. x Introduction ......................................................................................................................1 Chapters: 1. Queenship Remembered .............................................................................................13 1.1 Queenship in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ..........................................17 1.2 Low Times for Wessex Queens ......................................................... 26 1.3 The Wicked Queen of Wessex ..............................................................36 1.4 Female Genealogies and Authorial Fictions ..................................... 41 1.5 The Marriage of a Twelve-Year-Old Frankish Princess ................... 51 1.6 Judith’s Coronation ............................................................................. 60 2. Queenship in Cynewulfs Elene .............................................................................. 65 2.1 Figuring Elene. 2.2 Elene as an Exemplar for Empresses and Queens...........................
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