Demon Possession in Anglo-Saxon England

By (author) Peter Dendle

Book cover: Demon Possession in Anglo-Saxon England

Extent: 322 pages

Publisher: Medieval Institute Publications

Subjects: Literary Studies, Medieval Studies

Series: Research in Medieval Culture

Language: English

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

Peter Dendle is Associate Professor of English at Penn State Mont Alto

  • 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
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