New Readings on Women in Old English Literature

This book explores the largely unfamiliar world of women in Anglo Saxon England and, to a lesser degree, Norse Age Scandinavia. On one hand, Anglo Saxon women could divorce their husbands and independently own property, while their conterparts in Latin-speaking countries enjoyed no such rights. On the other hand, female babies in Germanic societies were often left to die from exposure with only a bit of pork fat to suck on. This book reminds us that the world of our Teutonic ancestors is nearly as alien to modern Northern Europeans (and their American cousins) as that of distant cultures--and that the Norman Conquest obliterated the Teutonic heritage of the English as surely as white settlers undermined the heritage of Native American Indians centuries later.