Meanings of Water in Early Medieval England

Abstract

Recent decades have seen growing scholarly interest in how the people of early medieval England interacted with the natural environment around them – with animals, trees, and water. Indeed, Meanings of Water in Early Medieval England is the second edited volume on the subject in recent years, following Maren Clegg Hyer and Della Hooke’s 2017 publication Water and the Environment in the Anglo-Saxon World. This latest book arises from a 2015 colloquium at London’s Senate House, supplemented by work presented at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds. The focus is very much on textual evidence. Michael Bintley dips into the appearances of water in the Old English poem Andreas, where it was used to convey a clear Christian message, while Jill Frederick discusses the Exeter Book Riddle 84, conventionally understood as alluding to water. Several contributors highlight the scarcity of early medieval evidence, as with Simon Trafford’s interesting summary of references to swimming and Elizabeth A. Alexander’s chapter on English perspectives on Jonah and the whale. Religious themes are repeatedly explored. Those interested in ritual engagements with the landscape will turn to Hooke’s examination of how ecclesiastical establishments saw their watery environments and by Carolyn Twomey’s analysis of baptism at English rivers. Art-historical approaches also make an appearance; when considering the Christian connotations of pearls, Meg Boulton turns to continental artworks and considers possible carvings of pearls on the Easby Cross. In contrast, archaeological evidence is largely overlooked, something likely to frustrate readers of Time and Mind. This is a disappointment, as previous edited volumes on similar themes – such as Trees and Timber in the Anglo-Saxon World and Representing Beasts in Early Medieval England and Scandinavia – had pursued a broader interdisciplinary approach. When considering human relationships with water in the early Middle Ages, archaeology has much to offer. These caveats about disciplinary scope aside, this is a good selection of work on an admittedly niche subject matter – certainly a volume that anyone working on water in early medieval Europe will want to have access to.