IMC 2016: Sessions
Session 1224: Spiritual Nourishment in Early English Text and Image
Wednesday 6 July 2016, 14.15-15.45
| Sponsor: | Centre for Medieval & Early Modern Studies, Stanford University |
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| Organiser: | Elaine Treharne, Department of English, Stanford University |
| Moderator/Chair: | David F. Johnson, Department of English, Florida State University |
| Paper 1224-a | 'Till ȝure sawles fode': Nourishing the Body and Soul in the Ormulum (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Sermons and Preaching |
| Paper 1224-b | Food for the Soul or Poison?: Curiosity in Ælfric (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Religious Life |
| Paper 1224-c | Feeding on Blood: Spiritual Nourishment and the Arrows of the Crucifixion (Language: English) Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Art History - General |
| Abstract | In the spirit of the special thematic strand at this year's IMC, our session concentrates on feasting. Rather than literal feasts, though, our work seeks to evaluate the importance of 'spiritual nourishment' in a range of Early English texts between the late-9th to the early-13th centuries. This significant metaphor-of the ingestion of and dependency upon Christian wisdom and Christian symbols of eternal life-is a frequent motif in texts throughout the pre-modern ages. In this session, our speakers will detail particular characteristics of the motif as it appears in the Ormulum; Ælfric's prolific oeuvre of sermons and saints' lives; and in art historical and archaeological witnesses from the Anglo-Saxon period. Linked by a shared intellectual focus and by theme, these papers will highlight solid, liquid, and ethereal food as a means to life and death in the temporal and eternal spheres. |