Chapter 9

1 Chapter 9: The Meanings of lfeChapter 9 The Meanings of lfeA close analysis of our Old English texts, with due reference to analogous material frommedieval North-West Europe, has enabled me to reconstruct a fairly full image of lfe inthe elite cultures of Anglo-Saxon England. Beliefs in lfe were not, of course,monolithic: limited though our evidence is, it is possible to trace the rise of a demonisedconception of lfe, and its competition with traditional concepts of lfe whichcontinued for over eight centuries.

2 It also is possible to see the arrival of female lfe inAnglo-Saxon beliefs, once more attesting to variation and change. I have summarisedthese conclusions above ( 7:0). But comparative evidence also shows the likelihood thatmost of lfe s various associations were part of a coherent and significant construct ( 7,8). The associations of lfe with dangerous seductiveness and causing ailments, which Ihave reanalysed, need not compromise earlier evidence aligning them with the interestsof the in-group: rather, comparable medieval narratives suggest that these threats can beunderstood to have been ordered, generally threatening only those members of the in-group who transgressed certain boundaries (spatial or social).

3 Wider and later evidenceconsolidates the lexical associations of lfe with seduction, illness and the magicdenoted by siden, suggesting that these features could occur together in coherentnarratives, of seduction or of revenge for failed seduction. The associations of lfe withfemininity which are also apparent in the Old English material are well-paralleled bythese narratives, since the best comparisons for the lexical evidence involve femaleotherworldly beings, while similar Scandinavian narratives concerning male otherworldlybeings involve their transgression of masculine gender boundaries in ways which we maytake to have provided paradigmatic examples of socially abnormal is gratifying to have been able to reconstruct these beliefs for a period where theirattestation is so marginal.

4 Several themes, however, demand further development nowthat all of the evidence, primary and comparative, has been assembled. Narrowing myapproach to meaning to a broadly functionalist one, I conclude by examining therelationship between the beliefs I have identified and the society which maintained them,interpreting their change and survival in terms of responses to changing social andcultural structures. This is by no means the only valid approach to these issues;moreover, beliefs may be productively functional for a group smaller than that whichholds the beliefs, and may exist in ways in which functions seem more likerationalisations of beliefs which owe more to other social forces.

5 But functionalismnonetheless affords one powerful way of using the new data assembled 9: The Meanings of lfeMost pertain to Anglo-Saxon group identity which has enjoyed considerable interestin the context of the recent scholarly debates concerning ethnicity in the A free man was liable to have a large number of complementary, overlappingand sometimes conflicting group identities, based on his household, settlement and kin;lords and clients; status, gender, dialect, language, and so forth (see Kleinschmidt 2000,89 119).

6 Although the study of monsters in medieval thought, and their relationshipswith identity, is now well-established,239 this research has been largely limited tointellectual traditions whose significance for the less learned sections of early medievalsociety, and especially for the migration period, is The present study,however, provides a viable set of evidence. Additionally, models of early medievalconstructions of group identities have generally been based on processes of inclusion:groups, in these models, are formed through individuals shared characteristics.

7 In earlierscholarship, ancestry and language were emphasised; more recently, material culture andshared origin-myths have gained prominence. But my evidence suggests a model ofidentity based on exclusivity: individuals were members of a given group because theywere not from outside it, in specific and historically traceable of a given Anglo-Saxon in-group belonged because they were not monsters:monsters were fundamentally opposed to the in-group in a fairly straightforward binarydivision. Combining the Anglo-Saxon data with models based on Scandinaviancomparative evidence ( 2 ) suggests that, traditionally, lfe were mythologicallyallied with humans in the cosmological struggle of men against monsters attestedparticularly by Beowulf.

8 I have examined these themes already in detail. They could bedeveloped further in various ways. One possibility would be the use of untapped place-name evidence to facilitate their mapping directly onto Anglo-Saxon conceptuallandscapes (cf. Appendix 2). What I will focus on here, however, is how our Old Englishtextual evidence as well as the Norse material also suggests that lfe had associationswith behaviour which was normally considered transgressive of proper behaviour oncemore helping to define the in-group by what it was For prominent examples see the articles in Hines 1997; in Frazer Tyrrel 2000; in Gillet 2002;Smyth 1998; Higham 2002; Howe 1989; cf.

9 More generally Kleinschmidt 2000, 89 119; thearticles in other volumes in the series Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology and TheTransformation of the Roman World published respectively by Brewer in Cambridge and Brill Williams 1996; Cohen 1999; Friedman 2000; cf. 2:4. On Anglo-Saxon England seeespecially Austin 2002; Lionarons 2002; Orchard Excepting Scandinavia and Ireland, on which see the essays in Olsen Houwen 2001; Borsje1996; Carey 2002; and above 2 9: The Meanings of lfe1. lfe as sources of danger and powerThe evidence that lfe had roles in Anglo-Saxon cultures as sources of danger isextensive.

10 I have studied the significance of this construct in detail in chapters 6 8,arguing that beliefs in lfe encoded supernatural threats to those who would crossimportant social boundaries whether spatial or behavioural. In our evidence at least, lfe s main sanction against transgression seems to have been to inflict ailments, inparticular mind-altering ones and sharp internal pains. Such beliefs could also be used toimpart meaning to illnesses, potentially providing a rationale for their infliction andcertainly a set of cultural references through which the experience of illness could besafely constructed within the community, and the curing of those afflicted points suggest a further dimension to my association of lfe with demarcatinggroup identity.