| This dissertation explores how Anglo-Saxon hagiographers negotiate between didactic prohibitions of sorrow and the generic conventions which encourage the representation of mourning men. I examine cases where an author exploits these conventions to emphasize and thus defend his interpretation of a saint as confessor.;The introduction situates my work within ongoing conversations about mourning in early medieval culture. I argue that men did mourn, despite the heroic code, and despite Philippe Aries' conception of death as tame in the early Middle Ages. My second chapter, "Unhappy Birthdays: the Sin of Sorrow in Anglo-Saxon Culture," outlines the cultural context in which these saints' lives were written. I compare AElfric's binary between sinful tristitia and salutary compunction to Freud's work on mourning and melancholy. Yet even AElfric bows to the conventions of the uita, including the saint's foreknowledge of his death and his followers' grief.;Chapter three analyses the legend of the Anglo-Saxon Saint Guthlac. I assert that Guthlac B was written as a corrective companion-piece to Guthlac A. Because the A-poet portrays the saint as a martyr, the B-poet redeems Guthlac's status as a confessor by intensifying his physical decline and Beccel's sorrowful reaction. Later redactors (Ordericus Vitalis, Peter of Blois, Henry of Avranches, and the illustrator of the Harley Roll) also include Guthlac's posthumous consolation of the mourning King AEthelbald.;My fourth chapter, "Vitas Matrum: Euphrosyne and Mary of Egypt as Female Confessors," focuses on female saints who console mourning men. The shocking paucity of female confessors in Anglo-Saxon England is an indication of the anxiety elicited by these women. AElfric insists on portraying his one female confessor, St. AEthelthryth, as a virgin martyr, despite her terminal illness. On the other hand, both Euphrosyne and Mary of Egypt are accompanied by weeping men. Paphnuntius utters three laments for Euphrosyne's death, and Zosimus punctuates the Life of Mary of Egypt with his tears and sighs.;Finally, my conclusion explains the significance of this research, especially in light of the recent backlash against the promotion of male mourning within the fields of thanatology and sociology. |
