Rulers and the Wolf: Archbishop Wulfstan, Anglo-Saxon Kings, and the Problems of His Present

272 Pages·2017·2.03 MB·English

University of New Mexico
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English Language and Literature ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations
9-1-2015
Rulers and the Wolf: Archbishop Wulfstan, Anglo-
Saxon Kings, and the Problems of His Present
Nicholas Schwartz
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i

Nicholas P. Schwartz
Candidate

English Language and Literature
Department

This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication:

Approved by the Dissertation Committee:

Dr. Jonathan Davis-Secord, Chairperson

Dr. Helen Damico

Dr. Timothy Graham

Dr. Anita Obermeier
ii

RULERS AND THE WOLF: ARCHBISHOP WULFSTAN,
ANGLO-SAXON KINGS, AND THE PROBLEMS OF HIS
PRESENT

by

NICHOLAS P. SCHWARTZ

BA, Canisius College, 2008
MA, University of Toledo, 2010

DISSERTATION

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy in English

The University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico

July, 2015
iii

DEDICATION

This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Sharon and Peter Schwartz
iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I have incurred many debts while writing this dissertation. First, I would like to
thank my committee, Drs. Jonathan Davis-Secord, Helen Damico, Timothy Graham, and
Anita Obermeier. Without their knowledge and guidance this project could never have
been completeted. During the course of writing I was financially supported by the Russell
J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Fellowship, an award granted by the Bilinski Educational
Foundation. The impact this award had on my dissertation is immeasurable, and the
Foundation has my heartfelt thanks. Kevin Jackson and Mona Logarbo provided valuable
assistance with certain pieces of scholarship, and they, along with Veronica Schornack,
offered me much encouragement while writing. Dylan Gauntt made the procedures of
finishing manageable. Thanks is also due to the staff of Zimmerman Library. Finally, I
would like to especially thank my family for all of its support. Needless to say, any errors
in the following pages are my own.
v

ABSTRACT
Until now, Wulfstan, Archbishop of York’s relationship to and view of Anglo-
Saxon kingship has never been comprehensively examined. The lack of attention this
topic has received is a glaring omission in Wulfstan scholarship. Wulfstan worked under
two kings, Æthelred and Cnut, and he had an interest in Edgar that has long been
recognized. In response to Wulfstan’s career under these kings and his interest in Edgar,
scholars have been far too ready to assume that the archbishop’s view of kingship was
straightforward. It has too long been taken for granted that Wulfstan operated under Cnut
in the same manner as his did under Æthelred, as if his political viewpoint never changed,
for example. Moreover, Alfred and Edgar—both of whom had been vetted by history—
left a considerable number of texts which Wulfstan mined extensively for material
applicable to the kingdom’s situation when he was active. His interaction with these
earlier kings reveals that early in Wulfstan’s career the archbishop found the position of
king to be of the utmost importance to the governance and stability of the kingdom. The
reigns of Æthelred and Cnut witnessed Wulfstan’s application of his views on kingship
and what the kingdom needed generally in order to improve, both of which changed over
the course of his career. Under Æthelred, Wulfstan focused on admonishing and
instructing the Anglo-Saxon laity, but after he drafted V Æthelred, Wulfstan’s texts were
aimed at the king, himself, and his witan. They stressed both the essentiality of law and
order and the importance of the king to society as a whole. His texts from Cnut’s reign,
however, reveal that it is not primarily the king that interested Wulfstan during these
years, but, rather, the administration of the kingdom in general. In them, the position of
king was actually deemphasized.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 2: Ðis syndon þa domas ðe Ælfred cyncg 7 Guðrum cyncg gecuron: Wulfstan and King
Alfred ............................................................................................................................................... 6
Chapter 3: Ane misdæda he dyde þeah to swiðe: Wulfstan and King Edgar ................................. 71
Chapter 4: Ac soð is þæt ic secge, þearf is þære bote: Wulfstan in the Reign of Æthelred ......... 140
Wulfstan as IdeologFue: The Millenarian and Eschatological Homilies ................................ 145
Wulfstan as Teacher of the Faith: The Remaining Homilies for the Laity .............................. 155
Wulfstan the Adviser: The Remaining Homilies of Æthelred’s Reign ..................................... 171
Chapter 5: Ac to lyt is þara nu ða, þe þæt understande, swa swa man scolde: Wulfstan during the
Reign of Cnut ............................................................................................................................... 199
Chapter 6: Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 240
BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................ 244
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1: Comparison of the “Laws of Edward and Guthrum” and Other Wulfstan-
Authored Codes………………………………………………………………………..62-3
Table 3.1: Wulfstan-Authored Lawcodes and Their use of Edgar’s Legislation………139
Table 4.1: Selected Examples of Collapsing Social Order in the Sermo Lupi ad
Anglos…………………………………………………………………………………..194
Table 5.1: II Canons of Edgar 68e-i and Wulfstan-authored Legislation……………...209
1

Chapter 1
Introduction
The present study seeks to show that an understanding of Wulfstan, Archbishop
of York’s view of the position of king—both historical and contemporary—is
instrumental for any examination of the archbishop’s career and body of works. Until
now, Wulfstan’s relationship to and view of Anglo-Saxon kingship has never been
comprehensively examined. The lack of attention this topic has received is something of
a glaring omission in Wulfstan scholarship. Wulfstan worked under two kings, Æthelred
(978-1016) and Cnut (1016-35), for example, and he had an interest in Edgar (957-75)
that has long been recognized. In response to Wulfstan’s career under these two kings
and his interest in Edgar, scholars have been far too ready to assume that the archbishop’s
view of kingship was straightforward. It has too long been taken for granted that
Wulfstan, chosen by two kings to be an advisor and legislator, operated under Cnut in the
same manner as his did under Æthelred, as if his political viewpoint never changed, for
example. Furthermore, scholars have been too often hung up on the notion that Wulfstan
had a Benedictine interest in Edgar, and that he looked back on Edgar’s reign as
something of a Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon England. He very well may have—as will be
seen—but not on account of Edgar’s participation in the Reform, as has often been
assumed. Moreover, scholars have had a far too limited approach to Wulfstan’s source
material, which has resulted in Alfred and his reign being largely overlooked in this
regard, even though the fact that Wulfstan glossed Alfred’s Preface to the Pastoral Care
clearly indicates he had a real interest in that king.
2

It is a good time to study Wulfstan. In recent years the archbishop’s career and
writings have attracted more scholarly interest than at any other time—including the mid
twentieth century when several studies by Dorothy Whitelock, Dorothy Bethurum, and
Karl Jost laid down the field’s foundation. The work of these scholars was rooted in the
bedrock set down by two other scholars who operated nearly 200 years apart from one
other. It was Humfrey Wanley who effectively initiated critical study of Wulfstan and his
works when, in 1705, he attributed fifty-four writings to the archbishop.1 In 1883 Arthur
Napier made these texts available, along with some others, in an edition that remains
useful for Wulfstan scholars to this day.2 Though his arguments for and against the
authorial authenticity of these texts never appeared, it is a testament to the great abilities
of Wanley that subsequent scholars have found his take on the body of Wulfstan’s works
to be more often correct than not.
More recent scholars have made hay of this earlier work by those mentioned,
along with others. Jonathan Wilcox, and, more recently, Joyce Tally Lionarons, have
mapped out much of Wulfstan’s homiletic output.3 For his part, Patrick Wormald has
provided an in-depth analysis of Wulfstan’s participation in the legislation of Anglo-
Saxon England.4 Additionally, Matthew Townend’s edited collection of essays on various

1 Humfrey Wanley, Librorum Veterum Septentrionalium Catalogus, vol. 2 of Linguarum Veterum
Septentrionalium Thesaurus, ed. George Hickes (Oxford: E Theatro Sheldoniano, 1705), 140.
2 Arthur Napier, ed., Wulfstan: Sammlung der ihm zugeschriebenen Homilien nebst Untersuchungen über
ihre Echtheit (Berlin: Weidmann, 1883; repr. with a supplement by Klaus Ostheeren, Dublin: Weidmann,
1967).
3 Jonathan Wilcox, “The Dissemination of Wulfstan’s Homilies: The Wulfstan Tradition in Eleventh-
Century Vernacular Preaching,” in England in the Eleventh Century: Proceedings of the 1990 Harlaxton
Symposium, ed. Carola Hicks, Harlaxton Medieval Studies 2/Paul Watkins Medieval Studies 12 (Stamford:
Paul Watkins, 1992), 199-217; and Joyce Tally Lionarons, The Homiletic Writings of Archbishop Wulfstan:
A Critical Study, Anglo-Saxon Studies 14 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2010).
4 Patrick Wormald, The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, vol. 1, Legislation and
its Limits (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999).