UNIVERSITY of WINCHESTER Viking 'Otherness' in Anglo-Norman Chronicles Paul Victor Store ORCID: 0000-0003-4626-4143 Doctor
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UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER Viking ‘otherness’ in Anglo-Norman chronicles Paul Victor Store ORCID: 0000-0003-4626-4143 Doctor of Philosophy June 2018 This Thesis has been completed as a requirement for a postgraduate research degree of the University of Winchester. Declaration and Copyright Statements First Declaration No portion of the work referred to in the Thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. Second Declaration I confirm that this Thesis is entirely my own work. Copyright © Paul Victor Store, 2018, Viking ‘otherness’ in Anglo-Norman chronicles, University of Winchester, PhD Thesis, Page range pp 1 - 221, ORCID 0000-0003-4626-4143. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the author. Details may be obtained from the RKE Centre, University of Winchester. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the author. No profit may be made from selling, copying or licensing the author’s work without further agreement. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from this source may be published without proper acknowledgement. 1 Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my Director of Studies, Ryan Lavelle, for his continuous support of my study, for his encouragement, challenges, and knowledge. His guidance has helped me in all the research and writing of this thesis. I have been very lucky to have encountered such a guide for my studies. Dr. Lavelle has been ably supported by Dr. Katherine Weikert, who has added her considerable variety of academic skills to my work and has greatly enhanced both my thinking and writing of this subject topic. I have also had the support of several other academics. Besides my current Director of Studies, I would like to thank my previous support network of Prof. Patricia Skinner, Prof. Trevor Dean, Dr. Andrew Wareham, and to my upgrade assessor Dr. Leonie Hicks, for their insightful comments and encouragement. Prof. Skinner guided my undeveloped ideas towards the Monster Theory, and the many and various derivates which have flowed from this insightful direction. My sincere thanks also go to Prof. Jay Paul Gates, who provided me with an opportunity to contribute to a volume he is currently preparing. Although I was not able to contribute, his assistance has greatly helped with my case study. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Holly Store, for supporting me throughout the writing this thesis, and my life in general. She has sacrificed her time, so I can have some time for myself on too many occasions to count. 2 UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER Abstract Viking ‘otherness’ in Anglo-Norman chronicles Paul Victor Store ORCID Number: 0000-0003-4626-4143 Doctor of Philosophy February 2018 This thesis deals with the presentation of largely pre-conquest history in the works of five Anglo-Norman historians writing in the early twelfth century. The works of chroniclers have been used to interpret and analyse forms of ‘otherness’ descriptions used in their accounts of the history of England. The main purpose of this study is to discover what forms of ‘otherness’ were applied to the Vikings by the Anglo-Norman chroniclers and whether there was a common purpose which linked these ‘otherness’ descriptions together. This thesis has revealed there were three main areas of ‘otherness’ descriptions over the period the Vikings were active in England. This period ran from their first recorded engagement with Wessex in 789 until Cnut IV’s abandoned invasion attempt of 1085. During the first of the three periods of ‘otherness’ from the first encounter until the time of King Cnut the area of ‘otherness’ most associated with the Vikings was that of monstrous behaviour. Although the Vikings were not represented as monsters, their behaviour was firmly linked to being monstrous. This monstrosity changed almost overnight when the former monstrous pirate Cnut became king of England and changed into a just and Christian king. In this second period of ‘otherness’ Cnut was reflected in terms of the ‘other’ as ‘self’ as he changed into a person the chroniclers could associate with. After the end of his short-lived dynasty, the third period of Viking ‘otherness’ appeared in the post- conquest period where the Vikings were perceived as a latent threat to England, even though their actual threat no longer existed after 1085. This thesis takes its place in research literature as the first study to have investigated the treatment of the Vikings in terms of their ‘otherness’ profile by chroniclers who could be categorized as first-generation ‘English’ writers of English history. Keywords: Otherness, Vikings, Danes, Anglo-Norman, Chroniclers, Monster Theory 3 Abbreviations ANS Anglo-Norman Studies ASC Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ASC (D) The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a Collaborative Edition, Volume 6, MS D, ed. Cubbin, G. P. (Cambridge, 1996) ASC (E) The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a Collaborative Edition, Volume 7, MS E, ed. Irvine, S. (Cambridge, 2004) ASC trans The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a revised translation, ed. Whitelock, D., with Douglas, D. C., and Tucker, S. I. (London, 1961; rev. 1965) Bede, HE Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum: Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, eds. and trans. Colgrave, B., and Mynors. R. A. B. OMT (Oxford, 1969) EHD 1 English Historical Documents, vol. 1, c. 500-1042, ed. Whitelock, D. (London, 1955) EHD 2 English Historical Documents, vol. 2, 1042-1189, eds. Douglas, D., and Greenaway, G. (New York, 1953) GG Geffrei Gaimar, Estoire des Engleis, ed. and trans. Short, I. (Oxford, 2009) GPA William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, the History of the English Bishops: Volume I, eds. Winterbottom, M. and Thomson, R. M. OMT (Oxford, 2007) HH Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, The History of the English People, ed. and trans. Greenway, D. OMT (Oxford, 1996) JW, 2 John of Worcester, The Chronicle of John of Worcester, Volume 2: The Annals from 450 to 1066, eds. Darlington, R. R., and McGurk, P. OMT (Oxford, 1995) JW, 3 John of Worcester, The Chronicle of John of Worcester, Volume 3: The Annals from 1067 to 1140 with the Gloucester Interpolations and the Continuation to 1141, ed. and trans. McGurk, P. OMT (Oxford, 1998) OMT Oxford Medieval Texts OV, [volume number] The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, 6 vols., ed. and trans. Chibnall, M. OMT (Oxford, 1969-1980) TRHS Transactions of the Royal Historical Society VSNR Viking Society for Northern Research WM William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum, Volume I eds. and trans. Mynors, R., Thomson, R., and Winterbottom, M. (OMT, Oxford, 1998) 4 Notation usage Within this study Vikings have been denoted with a capital ‘V’. Where the term ‘otherness’ is used, it is denoted in its lower-case form and between inverted commas. Likewise, the concept of ‘self’ has also been denoted in inverted commas. This study will use the term ‘otherness’ in preference to ‘alterity’ by interpreting the use of ‘otherness’ as applied to the use of the sense of the past, or to a past which has been created, as distinct from that of the present as defined by alterity. This study has been organised to reflect the interdependency of types of ‘otherness’ spread across a broadly chronological perspective. When referring to the English King Cnut, he keeps the spelling of his name this way, whilst the later Cnut IV becomes Knut to avoid confusion. The references herein to Anglo-Normans are used to identify those living in the period from the Norman Conquest to the death of King Stephen. The definition of who or what an Anglo-Norman is has proven to be a difficult issue. Hirokazu Tsurushima has called the term Anglo-Norman an ‘invented phrase’.1 Tsurushima compared the term Danelaw with the other terms with the Anglo prefix such as Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Saxon, as ‘modern constructs’.2 He also cited John Gillingham whose views about Norman cultural assimilation with the English have resulted in questioning whether those of Norman descent were ‘simply confused’ during a period of two generations. Gillingham’s conclusion used the identity argument as: Since the days of David Hume historians have happily written of ‘Anglo-Norman’ government, the ‘Anglo-Norman’ language, the ‘Anglo-Norman society’, ‘Anglo- Norman England’ and ‘the Anglo-Norman realm’, they have shied away from the notion of an ‘Anglo-Norman’ national identity, doubtless for the very reason that there is no extant evidence that anyone in the eleventh or twelfth centuries ever used the term ‘Anglo-Norman’. In the absence of some such term, it is clearly not easy to argue for the existence of an ‘Anglo-Norman’ nationality.3 1 Hirokazu Tsurushima, ‘What Do We Mean by “Nations” in Early Medieval Britain?’, in ed. Tsurushima, H., Nations in Medieval Britain (Donington, 2010), 7. 2 Tsurushima, ‘What Do We Mean by “Nations”’, 18. 3 John Gillingham, The English in the Twelfth Century, Imperialism, National Identity and Political Values (Woodbridge, 2000), 124. 5 Contents Page Number Declaration and Copyright Statement 1 Acknowledgements