ABSTRACT
This essay discusses the Old English remedies for menstruation, placing early medieval texts in conversation with contemporary controls exerted over women’s reproductive bodies by both politics and medicine. By examining not only the presences that contribute to our understanding of early medieval women’s bodies in the medical tradition, but also the absences, this essay considers the potential experience of ordinary and not extraordinary women, who grappled with the dangers of reproduction and a medical tradition that could offer little practical help for gynecological concerns. While the medical texts themselves are a part of the dominant patriarchal textual tradition, the medical needs invoked by the remedies offer a pinhole view into the lives and experiences of women.
