Reading Ælfric's Saint Æthelthryth as a woman

Reading iElfric's Saint jEthelthryth as a woman Although it might scarcely surprise that in his hagiography of Ethelthryth, jElfric should present her as a w o m a n most worthy to be called a saint one might not anticipate that his retelling of her story would also reveal something of the way in which powerful elites attempt to control history and culture. Written in the tenth century, when women's authority and position in the Anglo-Saxon monastery were being eroded and confined, this version of the seventh-century saint's life reflects such a context representing her as dependent and passive rather than as autonomous and active. From this perspective, vElfric's discourse provides an effective literary illustration of Catharine R. Stimpson's claim: [Men] have decided w h o will have power, and w h o will not; which realities will be represented and taught, and which will not. In so doing, m e n have relegated women, as women, to the margins of culture, if not to silence and invisibility.1 Since, in AElfric's version of her story, Ethelthryth is not endowed with a voice which constitutes her own subjectivity, she becomes marginalized, visible only as object to be gazed upon and used by others to the extent that her body itself ultimately functions as text So effectively has vElfric relegated Ethelthryth to the margins of his discourse that to recuperate a central position for this woman, it is necessary to read against histext'sdominant ideology by refusing to accept the reader position created through nanator control of the discourse, thereby emulating jEthelthryth's example of subversive resistance to dominant powerful elites.2 Through techniques of elevation and suppression, vElfric constitutes ^Ethelthryth as submissive to the authority of that ideology—as a 'subjected being'.3 H e elevates her through her virginity and perfect service role, but suppresses her by denying her active role and by silencing her voice, constructing her identity only through sets of cultural signs. Any contradiction between the Christian king's and Ethelthryth's perceptions of God's calling is also suppressed in this manipulation of her story, and a concomitant effect is the elision of any problem that might exist about how to discern and heed God's 1 'Introduction', in Feminist Issues in Literary Scholarship, ed. Shari Benstock, Bloomington, 1987, p. 2. 2 For the way in which ideology authorizes and suppresses representation, particularly in relation to women, see Linda Hutcheon, The Politics of Postmodernism, London, 1989, pp. 141-50, and Catherine Belsey, Critical Practice, London, 1980, pp. 5, 56-67. 3 For this expression see Belsey, Critical Practice, 1980, p. 62. P A R E R G O N ns 10.2, December 1992 36 G. Griffiths will conectly. The coherence and balance of the prevailing ideology are preserved. Elfric's Life of Saint Ethelthryth4 is found in his selected homilies in the vernacular for some saints' days which the monks, though 'not the vulgar' ('non uulgus': Latin Praefatio, line 9), celebrated at that period. Elfric intended that these saints' lives should edify, energize, and strengthen the faith of all those who heard or read them (Praefatio, lines 1-4, 14-17). As hagiography goes, Ethelthryth's story is not complex, and it lacks those fabulous or tenible elements so often associated with the genre. The events recorded indicate no confrontation, suffering or martyrdom, or mass conversion of others during her life, signs distinguished by Paul E. Szarmach as usual, even essential, components of hagiography.5 jEthelthryth does not diverge in any major way from a religious life, return to bring about change within her community,6 or even need to defend her virginity against violence of any kind.7 The states of virginity and perfection in themselves validate her sanctity. Briefly, the story tells how Ethelfryth's father Anna, a seventh-century Christian king of the East Angles, gives her as wife first to the local chief Tondbyrht, and then to the Northumbrian king Ecgfrith. jEthelfryth, however, declines to consummate either marriage, desiring instead to enter God's service. Bishop Wilfridfinallyobtains her release from marriage and permission for her 4 Natale Sancte ALSelSrySe Uirginis, in sElfric...