Health and the Body in Early Medieval England (Elements in England in the Early Medieval World) - Softcover

Batten, Caroline

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1009246259 ISBN 13: 9781009246255

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2024

Synopsis

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1009246259
• ISBN 13: 9781009246255
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 82