Women, literacy, and intellectual culture in Anglo-Saxon England.

Abstract

Literacy in Anglo-Saxon England is usually considered to have been restricted to a small group of male religious. In general, too, Anglo-Saxons are not considered to have used literacy in any complex ways. Consequently the study of their uses of literacy has been infrequent. The work presented here reassesses Anglo-Saxon literacy, arguing that literate culture encompassed religious women as well as religious men, and a small but significant number of laity as well. Furthermore, this study argues that historical studies need attend to the varieties of literacy in a given culture regardless of the extent of literacy in that culture. This socio-linguistic approach, focusing on literate activities rather than literate individuals, allows me to examine broad issues such as the role writing played in monasteries, the extent to which written texts were used by religious women, and the functions letter-writing fulfilled. An examination of saints' lives, monastic histories, letters, legal documents, and literary sources reveals that reading and writing were a central part of women's monastic routine. Nuns were required to memorize and recite texts, a task which presupposes the presence of written models; they were also required to read Scripture and commentary, to participate in debates on points of canon law, and to write letters to absent friends and relatives. Manuscripts such as the Book of Nunnaminster show grammatical evidence of female use and ownership. Outside the monastery, legal records demonstrate women's access to a developing form of literacy and also record their participation in religious and political disputes. Only a relatively small portion of Anglo-Saxons had any need to be literate, but the uses of literacy by religious men and women were varied and complex. Leoba, Hild, and AElfflaed are justly famed for their scholarly and administrative abilities; it is important to understand that their abilities were nurtured in a religious environment that permitted women as well as men the ability to teach and study. Intellectual life in Anglo-Saxon women was not the province of a few well-educated monks. Both women and men engaged in vigorous intellectual exchanges that fostered the expansion of literacy as well as the expansion of the Church.