ABSTRACT
In his influential work on Western views of death and dying, The Hour of Our Death (1981), Philippe Ariès argues that the early Middle Ages witnessed the nearcomplete anonymity of burial owing to the lack of both readers and skilled engravers.1 He contends that, as a result, there was a loss of the sense of self that was rediscovered only after the eleventh century through a revival of epitaphs and portraiture of the dead. These statements overgeneralize such trends, however, since tomb inscriptions, epitaphs, and portraiture – though rare by comparison with the later Middle Ages – did not disappear from early medieval Europe. The use of writing to commemorate the dead is apparent from evidence on both stone and parchment, from gravestone inscriptions to memorial books. This chapter traces the form and function of Anglo-Saxon commemorative texts, demonstrating how the perceived permanence of writing was exploited by Anglo-Saxon authors as a mechanism of remembrance of the dead by present and future readers. For the Anglo-Saxon religious and elite – like their European neighbors – the use of
writing to remember the dead was one of many uses for written texts following their conversion to Christianity, and the concern for the fate of the soul after death was the driving force behind this commemorative use of writing. The Anglo-Saxons recorded their dead in a number of genres: confraternity lists; libri vitae (“books of life” meant to emulate the celestial book opened by Christ at Judgment in which the names of the saved are inscribed); obits and necrologies, which record death dates; inscriptions on stone markers and other monuments; epitaphs on gravestones and copied in manuscripts; relic tags and lists of relics; and – for the exceptional and saintly – written narratives of the life and death of the deceased that express their special qualities. These sources provide the most immediate evidence of the
1 Philippe Ariés, The Hour of Our Death, trans. Helen Weaver (Oxford: Oxford University
convergence of writing and death in Anglo-Saxon England, inscribing the dead into memory both literally and figuratively. In addition to other functions, including marking the location of the body, labeling the body part of a saint, or recording the story of a remarkable death, these written objects enabled the living to remember the dead in prayer. Posthumous prayers officially began at the individual’s funeral and continued at designated intervals after the date of death, depending on that individual’s position and any provisions – such as celebrations on the anniversary of death – requested in exchange for bequests to the church.2 In essence, having participated in the liturgy as part of the laity or clerical order during life, the dead continued to participate, since “Even after death the faithful kept up their roles in the liturgical assembly, through the efforts of the living on their behalf.”3 One’s inclusion in the liturgy often meant having one’s name recorded in – and perhaps also read aloud from – a memorial list or book, which would have been placed on the altar during the celebration of Mass. The dead might also participate metonymically in services carried out at the church through the inscription of their names on the donated objects that were used during Mass, including the church building itself – a practice that remains visible on the surviving Anglo-Saxon dedication stones and plates.4
