Foreword

Essays on Early England in honour of Audrey Meaney edited by Diane Speed, Sue Spinks, and Susan Mary Withycombe Audrey Meaney with Delilah in Cambridge Photograph courtesy of John Bernard Foreword It gives m e a great deal of pleasure to pay tributetoAudrey Meaney and her outstanding work at Macquarie University which spanned more than two decades. Audrey's special characteristics as a scholar, teacher, and individual have gained admiration, affection, and gratitude from her colleagues and students throughout her academic career. , Those who worked closely with Audrey at Macquarie and earlier at the University of Sydney have deep and lasting impressions of her. Above all, they recall the virtues of the bom scholar and the giftedteacher,whose standards are meticulous and exacting, yet whose personal kindness and enthusiasm for her subject make teaching and learning a mutual joy. Add to these her breadth of vision, boldness, and innovation in breaking down the old and artificial disciplinary barriers, and, at a time when barriers were even more difficult to overcome, her capacity to carve out a distinguished academic career alongside substantial family commitments, and it is easy to see why Audrey has made such an impact Her contribution to Macquarie University extended deep into its fabric and well-being. She was very influential in thcearly development of the new University's teaching programs. She was active in several committees, and took on the responsibilities of Acting Head of the School of English and Linguistics. She quiedy but persistently promoted the role of women and women's studies. Indeed, her interest in the role of women has been a dominant theme in her research into Anglo-Saxon culture, removing yet another layer of invisibility over women's place in history. In the 1960s and 1970s she played a creative role in the formation of the Australian and N e w Zealand Association for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and was also a key organizer of its activities, including a major conference at Macquarie in 1981. Not long before her retirement she made a similar contribution to the activities of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association, when Macquarie hosted its 1989 conference. 2 D. Yerbury The field of study to which she has dedicated her scholarly life—AngloSaxon and medieval studies—lost ground in recent years to so-called notions of relevance, becoming marginalized as more immediate topics gained dominance. This leads m e to wonder what w e mean by relevance, especially when I recall an article in the 1989 Macquarie University Research Report, headed 'Another Myth Exploded', on Audrey's investigation of the role of magic in medicine among Anglo-Saxons. In it she described how the Anglo-Saxons, well over 1000 years ago, brought scientific logic to their observations and deductions about causes and remedies of illness. Magic played a small part, but evidence from original texts revealed that rationality played a much bigger one. Surely the scholarly values and quality of research that lead to illumination and new ways of thinking and understanding are the true markers of 'relevance' for universities? Audrey has embodied these throughout her career. Indeed, her pioneering interdisciplinary approach, broadening from her core studies in literature and languages to medicine and history and emphasizing the connections between different strands of knowledge, was as relevant to the Macquarie educational philosophy as it was possible to be. Her distinction as a scholar was recognized externally in her election in 1984 as a Fellow to the Australian Academy of the Humanities—thefirstMacquarie academic to be so selected. When Audrey retired from Macquarie I had very mixed feelings about her departure. Part of m e wanted to put pressure on her to remain, because I did not want to lose her and the outstanding contribution she made to our academic community and its scholarly standards. O n the other hand it was impossible not to wish her well in taking up the opportunity to pursue her research in an environment that would nourish her foremost interest in Anglo-Saxon and medieval studies. In Cambridge, where she now lives and works, she has access to the sites, the libraries, and the community that providefirstrateresources and support her work. Since...