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
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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