Crime and Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England

Rabin, Andrew

doi:10.1017/9781108943109

Cited by 9 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 88 publications

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“…Although they differ in their views of royal power and the degree to which the governing apparatus of pre-Conquest England can be regarded as centralized, both treat pre-Conquest England as a largely functional political community capable of sustaining social hierarchies, redressing crime and other forms of extra-legal violence and preserving a degree of continuity from one generation to the next. It is for this reason that a number of recent studies have sought to take a middle road, recognizing that the crown was supported by a largely stable administrative infrastructure, though one frequently limited by the competing demands of Church, aristocracy and at times even local community (Cubitt, 2007(Cubitt, , 2011Hudson, 2000;Hyams, 2004;Jurasinski, 2015Jurasinski, , 2019Lambert, 2017;Molyneaux, 2015;Rabin, 2007Rabin, , 2020Roach, 2013aRoach, , 2013bRumble, 2013). One might reasonably say that Wormald's thesis has not been so much overturned as moderated.…”

Section: New Horizonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Law and legal culture in Anglo‐Saxon England

Rabin

2020

History Compass

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The reception and study of pre-Conquest legal texts can never be fully disentangled from the historical and political contexts within which they transpired. Indeed, the historiography of early English law has been shaped as much by the desires, prejudices and ideological commitments of its historians as it has by the texts themselves. Modern scholarship has not 'risen above' its predecessors but is instead guided (and at times governed) by the history of the laws' reception from the post-Conquest period onwards. The boundaries of the Old English legal corpus are far more fluid than often recognized and its survival has been determined by political forces and social trends that reshaped and recontextualized it in ways that those involved in its composition may not have intended or even understood. To better understand how the modern study of Anglo-Saxon legal culture has been and continues to be shaped by these influences, this article first outlines a brief history of the reception of early English legal texts from the Conquest onwards before turning to a review of the major themes and trends in contemporary scholarship. As will become apparent, for modern scholars, the interpretation of legal records, the historical narrative they appear to construct and even the parameters of the corpus itself have all been shaped by the nostalgia, biases and scholarly priorities of their predecessors. 1 | INTRODUCTION The modern study of pre-Conquest English law can be said to have begun with the publication of Felix Liebermann's (1903-1916) Gesetze der Angelsachsen. Over the course of three massive volumes, he edited, annotated

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Section: New Horizonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Law and legal culture in Anglo‐Saxon England

Rabin

2020

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Entertainment, Pleasure, and Meaning in Early England

Bayless

2024

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The people of early England (c. 450–1100 CE) enjoyed numerous kinds of entertainment, recreation and pleasure, but the scattered records of such things have made the larger picture challenging to assemble. This volume illuminates the merrier aspects of early English life, extending our understanding of the full range of early medieval English culture. It shows why entertainment and festivity were not merely trivial aspects of culture, but had important functions, in ritual, in community-building, in assuming power, and in resistance to power. Among the activities explored are child's play; drinking and feasting; music, dance, and performance; the pleasures of literature, festivals and celebrations; hunting and sport; and games.

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Health and the Body in Early Medieval England

Batten

2024

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This Element explores ideas about the sick and healthy body in early medieval England from the seventh to the eleventh centuries, proposing that surviving Old English texts offer consistent and coherent ideas about how human bodies work and how disease operates. A close examination of these texts illuminates the ways early medieval people thought about their embodied selves and the place of humanity in a fallen world populated by hostile supernatural forces. This Element offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to medical practice and writing in England before the Norman Conquest, draws on dozens of remedies, charms, and prayers to illustrate cultural concepts of sickness and health, provides a detailed discussion of the way impairment and disability were treated in literature and experienced by individuals, and concludes with a case study of a saint who died of a devastating illness while fighting demons in the fens of East Anglia.

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Crime and Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England

Cited by 9 publications

References 88 publications

Law and legal culture in Anglo‐Saxon England

Law and legal culture in Anglo‐Saxon England

Entertainment, Pleasure, and Meaning in Early England

Health and the Body in Early Medieval England

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