Deconstructing the Female Antagonist of the Coronation Scandal in B’s Vita Dunstani

ABSTRACT

The clerical author known as B provides the earliest account of one of pre-Conquest England’s more infamous tales: the coronation scandal of 955. In his Vita S. Dunstani, written 995 × 1005, B recounts that King Eadwig (955–959) absconded from his coronation feast, later to be found by Dunstan, the Abbot of Glastonbury, engaging in a sexual liaison with two women, a mother and daughter. Dunstan’s forcible separation of Eadwig from the two women is presented as the genesis for a feud that plays out between Dunstan and the older of the two women, Æthelgifu. Where much previous analysis of this episode has focused on the saint, Dunstan, and the king, Eadwig, this article seeks to centre Æthelgifu as the primary antagonist of the story. In so doing, it undertakes a detailed examination of her character construct, considering the political situation, intertextual models and biblical archetypes that inform it.

KEYWORDS:

• Hagiography
• Anglo-Latin
• Anglo-Saxon
• medieval
• Eadwig
• Æthelgifu
• St Dunstan
• queenship
• kingship

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 B, Vita S. Dunstani 21.4.

2 ASC D–E 957.

3 See for example: Brooks, Anglo-Saxon Myths, 170–1; Higham and Ryan, 314; Leyser, 124; Stenton, 365–6.

4 See for example: Jayakumar, 102; Wassenhoven, 98–100; Yorke, 76. Each of these provides valuable insights into the politics that underlay the factionalism of Eadwig’s court, of which the story is representative, but little consider its literary aspects. See also Getz, 21–2, which considers how B’s account of the coronation scandal may shed light on other literary traditions relating Eadwig’s purported infidelities.

5 S 1292. Charter citations are per the Electronic Sawyer.

6 B, 21.4.

7 B, 21.4, n. 200.

8 Wassenhoven, 98.

9 Dictionary of Latin from Medieval British Sources, s.v. “ganea”, for the varying potential meanings of ganearum.

10 Firth, “The Character”; Sebo and Schilling.

11 Firth, “The Character,” 1–4; Cubitt, 72–4; Hayward, 87.

12 Lapidge, 251–7.

13 Ibid., 247–51.

14 Frank Stenton, for example, in his foundational if somewhat outdated history of pre-Conquest England, did not decline to recount the story in full, though he held it to have “a scandalous colour which clashes with better evidence”, Anglo-Saxon England, 365–6. See likewise the relevant sections of Marc Morris’ recently published book, The Anglo-Saxons.

15 Lapidge, 248.

16 B, 22.1.

17 B, 21.4.

18 Mair, 143. The blame placed in ASC on Archbishop Sigeric and Ealdorman Eadric for the failed policies of Æthelred’s reign serve as cases in point ASC D–F 991, C–F 1009, 1015.

19 Lapidge, 251–7.

20 Eadmer, Vita S. Odonis 13; Eadmer, Vita S. Dunstani 25.

21 Eadmer, Vita S. Odonis 13–14.

22 Eadmer, Vita S. Dunstani 29.

23 ASC D–E 957.

24 ASC A–E 955–9.

25 Geffrei Gaimar, Estoire des Engleis, 3560–61; Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, v. 23; John of Worcester 955, 958.

26 William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum, ii.147; though cf. William’s account of the coronation scandal in his Vita Dunstani which, while largely parroting B’s account, reverses Ælfgifu and Æthelgifu’s roles, calling the former by her name, William of Malmesbury, Vita S. Dunstani, i.27–28.

27 Yorke, 76–7.

28 See for example: Brooks, Anglo-Saxon Myths, 170–2; Jayakumar, 84–7; Wassenhoven, 98–101. The two women are named in the witness list of the aforementioned Eadwig charter S 1292, ‘Ælfgifu þæs cininges wif 7 Æþelgifu þæs cyninges wifes modur’ (Ælfgifu, this king’s wife, and Æthelgifu, this king’s wife’s mother’).

29 ASC D, 958; John of Worcester, 955, 958; William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum, ii.147.

30 Yorke, 76–7. See also, Brooks, Anglo-Saxon Myths, 171.

31 ASC D, 958; Eadmer, Vita S. Odonis, 13; Jayakumar, 88–9.

32 Jayakumar, 88–9; Stafford, Queens, Concubines, 16; Yorke, 76–7.

33 Brooks, “The Career of St Dunstan,” 15; Wassenhoven, 99–100.

34 Jayakumar, 88–90.

35 B, 22.2–3. See Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, s.v. “inimicalis” for the nuances of inimicalibus in the Anglo-Latin corpus, in which its simple meaning of “hostile” can take on specific associations with the Devil.

36 B, 23.2. Firth, “Allegories of Sight,” 21–4.

37 B, 23.2–3.

38 B, 23.2.

39 Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, s.v. “impudens”, “virago”, where the former term can be translated as “indecent, immodest, unchaste”, and the latter “woman who has a masculine temperament”.

40 B, 21–23.

41 Hayward, 87. See also Firth, “The Character,” 13.

42 B, 9.4–12.3.

43 B, 10.

44 B, 12.

45 ASC A–F 978.

46 Roach, 77.

47 See Fell, for the text of Passio Eadwardi. See also, Cubitt, 75–6; Firth, “The Character,” 16–17; Thacker, 16–17.

48 William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum, ii.162.2.

49 Firth, “The Character,” 13; Watson, 1–3.

50 Dictionary of Latin from Medieval British Sources, s.v. “blanditia”, “allicio”.

51 Liber Eliensis, ii.56.

52 Houwen, 487.

53 Geffrei Gaimar, Estoire des Engleis, 3944–60.

54 Eadmer, Vita S. Dunstani, 59; Fell, 2. For a full overview of the succession dispute and its factions, see Keynes, 163–76.

55 Geffrei Gaimar, Estoire des Engleis, 3951–56.

56 Passio S. Æthelberhti, 239.

57 Firth, “The Character,” 16–17; Thacker, 16–17.

58 ASC A–F 794 (recte).

59 Stafford, Queens, Concubines, Dowagers, 132, 182–3.

60 Vita et miracula S. Kenelmi, 6–11.

61 Vita et miracula S. Kenelmi, 16; Firth, “Allegories of Sight,” 14–16.

62 Firth, “The Character,” 5; Thacker, 8, 22.

63 Vita et miracula S. Kenelmi 1, n.1.

64 Ibid.; S 165, S 1434, S 1436.

65 Thacker, 8, 22 n.57.

66 Klein, 145–6.

67 Hayward, 81–92.

68 Ziolkowski, 15–16.

69 Ibid., 15; Firth, “The Character,” 10; Maclean, 133; Nelson, 57–8; Ziolkowski, 16–20.

70 B, 22.1.

71 Adelard, vi.

72 Ziolkowski, 15–16; Klein, 134–5.

73 Stafford, “Portrayal of Royal Women,” 150–1.

74 1 Kings 16.31, 18.13–20, 19.1–5, 21.5–15.

75 1 Kings 21.5–15.

76 Ziolkowski, 25–6.

77 Ibid., 9–12.

78 Ibid., 15–17. See also, Heffernen, 5–6.

79 Firth, “The Character,” 11.

80 Lees and Overing, 26–9. The quoted text, from page 29, is used in specific reference to Old English riddles, but can be held to apply equally to the formulae of Anglo-Latin hagiography.

81 Matthew 14.1–10; Mark 6.21–29.

82 Klein, 135–47, especially 135.

83 Ælfric, 488.

84 Klein, 142–4.