Textiles, Text, Intertext

Essays centred round the representation of weaving, both real and imagined, in the early middle ages.

Essays centred round the representation of weaving, both real and imagined, in the early middle ages.

The triple themes of textile, text, and intertext, three powerful and evocative subjects within both Anglo-Saxon studies and Old English literature itself, run through the essays collected here. Chapters evoke the semantic complexities of textile references and images drawn from the Bayeux Tapestry, examine parallels in word-woven poetics, riddling texts, and interwoven homiletic and historical prose, and identify iconographical textures in medieval art. The volume thus considers the images and creative strategies of textiles, texts, and intertexts, generating a complex and fascinating view of the material culture and metaphorical landscape of the Anglo-Saxon peoples. It is therefore a particularly fitting tribute to Professor Gale R. Owen-Crocker, whose career and lengthy list of scholarly works have centred on her interests in the meaning and cultural importance of textiles, manuscripts and text, and intertextual relationships between text and textile.

MAREN CLEGG HYER is Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator in the Department of English at Valdosta State University; JILL FREDERICK is Professor of English at Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Contributors: Marilina Cesario, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Martin Foys, Jill Frederick, Joyce Hill, Maren Clegg Hyer, Catherine E. Karkov, Christina Lee, Michael Lewis, Robin Netherton, Carol Neuman de Vegvar, Donald Scragg, Louise Sylvester, Paul Szarmach, Elaine Treharne.

Introduction - Maren Clegg Hyer
A Personal Recollection - Robin Netherton
List of Publications of Gale R. Owen Crocker
The Language of Dress and Textiles in Wills of the Old English Period - Louise Sylvester
Opus what? The Textual History of Medieval Embroidery Terms and Their Relationship to the Surviving Embroideries c. 800-1400 - Elizabeth Coatsworth
Intertextuality in the Bayeux Tapestry: The Form and Function of Dress and Clothing - Michael Lewis
Birds of a Feather: Magpies in the Bayeux Tapestry? - Carol Neuman de Vegvar
Threads and Needles: The Use of Textiles for Medical Purposes - Christina Lee
Text, Textile, Context: Aldhelm and Word-weaving as Metaphor in Old English and Anglo-Latin Literature - Maren Clegg Hyer
The Weft of War in the Exeter Book Riddles - Jill Frederick
Fyrene dracan in theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle - Marilina Cesario
Old English in the Margins - Donald G Scragg
Weaving Words on the Ruthwell Cross - Catherine E. Karkov
Fates of the Apostles andTituli - Paul E Szarmach
Weaving and Interweaving: The Textual Traditions of Two of Ælfric'sSupplementary Homilies - Joyce Hill
Invisible Things in London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius A. xv - Elaine Treharne
Redacting Harold Godwinson: theVita Haroldi and William of Malmesbury - Martin Foys