Demon Possession in Anglo-Saxon England
By (author) Peter Dendle
Hardback (Published)
(January 2015)
ISBN: 9781580441698
6.14 x 9.21 inches
Price: $24.95
In stock
Concepts of demon possession and exorcism provided a outlet for expressing the psychological, biological, and sociopolitical dysfunctions of society. A reexamination of the available sources describing the possessed and a study of the currently recognized medical and psychiatric conditions that may be relevant to and resemble medieval possession.
Anglo-Saxon England was a society governed by the competing discourses of illness, spirituality, power, and community. The concepts of demon possession and exorcism, introduced by Christian missionaries, provided a potential outlet for expressing the psychological, biological, and sociopolitical dysfunctions of a society that was at the center of multiple conflicting cultural dimensions.Demon Possession in Anglo-Saxon England is a reexamination of the available sources describing the possessed and a study of the currently recognized medical and psychiatric conditions that may be relevant to and resemble medieval possession.
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction
1. Backgrounds to Anglo-Saxon Exorcism
2. Medical and Liturgical Responses
3. Demon Possession in Narrative Portrayals
4. Neurological and Behavioral Pathologies in the Early Middle Ages
Conclusions and Further Questions
Works Cited
Index
- By (author) Peter Dendle
"This is a richly learned and highly readable book. It is seeded throughout with a wealth of comparative material from Carolingian, Merovingian, Late Antique, and contemporary sources. [...] Peter Dendle is to be congratulated on an admirably detailed study that complements the more literary and conceptual bent of his earlier book, Satan Unbound: The Devil in Old English Narrative Literature (2001)." Alice Jorgensen, Trinity College, Dublin; review in the Journal of English and Germanic Philology
—
"This is a richly learned and highly readable book. It is seeded throughout with a wealth of comparative material from Carolingian, Merovingian, Late Antique, and contemporary sources. [...] Peter Dendle is to be congratulated on an admirably detailed study that complements the more literary and conceptual bent of his earlier book, Satan Unbound: The Devil in Old English Narrative Literature (2001)." - Alice Jorgensen, Trinity College, Dublin; review in the Journal of English and Germanic Philology
—
Other Titles in this Series
Piers Plowman: A Parallel-Text Edition of the A, B, C and Z Versions
Volume II, Part 1. Introduction and Textual Notes
Piers Plowman: A Parallel-Text Edition of the A, B, C and Z Versions
Volume II, Part 2. Commentary, Bibliography and Indexical Glossary
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