First full-length study of the notion and concept of old age in
early medieval England. How did Anglo-Saxons reflect on the
experience of growing old? Was it really a golden age for the
elderly, as has been suggested? This first full survey of the
Anglo-Saxon cultural conceptualisation of old age, as manifested
and reflected in the texts and artwork of the inhabitants of early
medieval England, presents a more nuanced and complicated picture.
The author argues that although senescence was associated with the
potential for wisdom and pious living, the Anglo-Saxons also
anticipated various social, psychological and physical
repercussions of growing old. Their attitude towards elderly men
and women - whether they were saints, warriors or kings - was
equally ambivalent. Multidisciplinary in approach, this book makes
use of a wide variety of sources, ranging from the visual arts to
hagiography, homiletic literature and heroic poetry. Individual
chapters deal with early medieval definitions ofthe life cycle; the
merits and drawbacks of old age as represented in Anglo-Saxon
homilies and wisdom poetry; the hagiographic topos of elderly
saints; the portrayal of grey-haired warriors in heroic literature;
Beowulf asa mirror for elderly kings; and the cultural roles
attributed to old women.
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