SENSORY PERCEPTION IN THE MEDIEVAL WEST UTRECHT STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL LITERACY 34
UTRECHT STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL LITERACY General Editor Marco Mostert (Universiteit Utrecht) Editorial Board Gerd Althoff (Westfälische-Wilhelms-Universität Münster) Michael Clanchy (University of London) Peter Gumbert (Universiteit Leiden) Mayke de Jong (Universiteit Utrecht) Rosamond McKitterick (University of Cambridge) Arpád Orbán (Universiteit Utrecht) Armando Petrucci (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa) Richard H. Rouse (UCLA)
SENSORY PERCEPTION IN THE MEDIEVAL WEST Edited by Simon C. Thomson and Michael D. J. Bintley H F
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library 2016 Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. D/2016/0095/26 ISBN 978-2-503-56714-3 e-isbn 978-2-503-56717-4 DOI: 10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.109361 Printed on acid-free paper
Contents Abbreviations Acknowledgements vii ix Sensory Perception in the Medieval West: Introduction SIMON C. THOMSON 1 Heaven Ahoy! Sensory Perception in The Seafarer RICHARD NORTH 7 The Sensory Cost of Remediation; or, Sniffing in the Gutter of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts JONATHAN WILCOX 27 The York Mystery Plays: Exploring Sound and Hearing in Medieval Vernacular Drama MARIANA LOPEZ 53 Birds and Words: Aurality, Semantics and Species in Anglo-Saxon England ERIC LACEY 75 Whistle While You Work : Scribal Engagement with Old English Poetic Texts SIMON C. THOMSON 99 Doing Things with Words: Language and Perception in Old English Riddles and Charms VICTORIA SYMONS 123 Sight, Sound, and the Perception of the Anglo-Saxon Liturgy in Exeter Book Riddles 48 and 59 FRANCESCA BROOKS 141 All that Glitters: The Role of Pattern, Reflection, and Visual Perception in Early Anglo-Saxon Art MELISSA HERMAN 159
vi Contents Taking Out the Eye of a One-Eyed Man and Other Hypothetical Moments of Sensory Impairment in Early Medieval Law PATRICIA SKINNER 181 Dis-embodied Cognition and Sensory Perception in Sólarljóð PETE SANDBERG 195 (Re-) Viewing Iuxta Morem Romanorum : Considering Perception, Phenomenology, and Anglo-Saxon Ecclesiastical Art and Architecture MEG BOULTON 207 Plant Life in the Poetic Edda MICHAEL D.J. BINTLEY 227 Index 245
Abbreviations ASPR The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, ed. G.P. KNAPP and E.V.K. DOBBIE, 6 vols. (New York, 1931-1942). BHL Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina, 2 vols. (Brussels, 1899-1901), with Supplementum by H. FROS (Brussels, 1986). DOEC Dictionary of the Old English Corpus <http://tapor.library. utoronto.ca.libproxy.ucl.ac.uk/doecorpus/simple.html>. MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica. LL Nat. Germ. Leges nationum Germanicarum, 1- (Hanover, 1892-). SRG Scriptores rerum Germanicarum: Nova Series, 1- (Munich, 1922-). SRM Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum, 7 vols. (Hanover and Leipzig, 1884-1951). SS Scriptores (in Folio), 30 vols; (in Quarto), vols. 31-34 (Hanover, 1826-1980). PL Patrologiae cursus completus... Series Latina, ed. J.P. MIGNE, 221 vols. (Paris, 1841-1864).
Acknowledgements This volume was inspired by a conference held at University College London on 12th and 13th April 2014. The event was the eighth in what is now the Northern / Early Medieval Interdisciplinary Conference Series, founded at UCL and the University of York, and this is the fourth volume to be published as a result of the productive and challenging dialogues held within that series. All of the contributors and attendees at that conference generated thought-provoking debate in a warm and scholarly atmosphere characteristic of the series events. The conference itself could not have taken place without the support of UCL s Faculty Institute of Graduate Studies, Department of English Language and Literature, and Institute of Archaeology, for whose generosity and long-standing support we are also grateful. The editors would like to thank the contributors for their patience, persistence, and perspicacity throughout the project. Special thanks are due to Guy Carney at Brepols for his smooth management of the process, and to the Series Editor Marco Mostert for his encouragement, oversight, and swift work. Simon would particularly like to thank Mike for his guidance and advice from inception to completion of the volume, and Mike would similarly like to thank Simon for his invulnerable energy and enthusiasm.