ABSTRACT

All Anglo-Saxon women who left textual traces were exceptional: queens, noblewomen, abbesses, and saints, their class precludes their acting as representatives of their sex.1 Although archaeological evidence supplements what is known about early medieval women, deciphering this is an ongoing project that frequently gives rise to divergent interpretations of the evidence.2 The broad outlines of the historiography of Anglo-Saxon attitudes to gender once posited a ‘golden age’ for women. 3 Although it was a warrior society and one that never approached gender equality, women, it was argued, possessed power and authority that was gradually eroded by Christian mores (in which Eve featured prominently) 4 and fi nally extinguished by the Norman Conquest which involved intellectual as well as political upheaval. Most signifi cantly for the interpretation of Eve, the Conquest ushered in an increased knowledge of patristic thought.5 The deleterious effect of 1066 on gender roles has more recently been questioned,6 and grand narratives are giving way to more cautious and specifi c petits récits, as summaries that embrace the history of women across fi ve centuries, the boundaries of class and individual circumstance appear increasingly impossible to formulate, particularly when it is diffi cult to date or determine the representativeness of the remaining textual evidence. One of these more modest histories can be constructed from the Anglo-Saxon portrayal of Eve.