Abstract
Quoting from Pauline texts concerning marital continence, Pope Gregory the Great, in his Pastoralis, warned that it was better to fall upon 'the soft bed of marriage rather than the hard earth of fornication' [397.22-23]. The legal implications of this admonition are borne out by close study of medieval European law codes, but the social implications have excited less interest, especially in relation to the erotic landscape of the Anglo- Saxons. This paper will seek to partially illuminate that landscape by surveying some Anglo-Saxon poems that deal with sexual relationships. These poems - several of them narrated in a feminine voice and thereby, perhaps, implying female authorship - catalogue a range of physical and emotional responses to love, lust, marriage and infidelity. A close reading of this poetry reveals a discourse that embraces the aesthetic of the sensual and argues for the acceptance of erotica within the genres of the West Saxon poetic corpus.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 6-26 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association |
Volume | 1 |
Publication status | Published - 2005 |