Description
Book SynopsisIn reality, medieval outlaws were dangerous, desperate individuals. In the fiction of the Middle Ages, however, the possibilities afforded by their position on societies’ margins granted them the ability to fill a number of transitory, transgressive roles: young adventurer, freedom fighter, and even saint.
Outlawry, Liminality, and Sanctity in the Literature of the Early Medieval North Atlantic examines the development of the literary outlaw in the early Middle Ages, when traditions drawn from Anglo-Saxon England, early Christian Ireland, and Viking Age Iceland informed a generous view of itinerant criminality and facilitated the application of outlaw tropes to moral questions of conduct in both secular and religious life. Taken together, the traditions of the North Atlantic archipelago reveal a world of interconnected cultures with an expansive view of movement across boundaries both literal and conceptual, capable of finding value in unlikely places and countenancing the challenges presented by such discoveries.
Trade Review"This book examines tropes of social exclusion around the medieval North Sea area, and in particular makes a case for considering the benefits to be gleaned from occupying a liminal position. Its innovation lies in the breadth of material it brings together, and in its comparative approach across early medieval England, Ireland and Scandinavia. It will provide much material for specialists in any one of those three areas, as well as for those working across the cultures of the region."
- Hannah Burrows,
Journal of English and Germanic Philology, October 2021
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Outlawry and Liminality in the North Atlantic Chapter 2: Imitating Exile in Early Medieval Ireland Chapter 3: Lessons of Conduct in Anglo-Saxon England Chapter 4: The Transgressive Hero Chapter 5: Cultural Exchane in the Far North Chapter 6: Transgression in Transition after the Norman Conquest Bibliography
