Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:47:22.719Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Afrisc Meowle: Exploring Race in the Old English Exodus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2022

Mary Dockray-Miller
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An Afrisc meowle (“African woman”) appears at the end of the Old English Exodus, a poem ostensibly celebrating religious freedom, migration, and divine justice. Amid the Hebrews’ final celebration, the explicit inclusion of the Afrisc meowle's racial difference from the Israelites exposes the horror and violence of the aftermath of war; a focus on her also invites questions about the poem's early medieval audience and how that audience could have understood her, especially since she does not appear in the source text of the Hebrew Bible. The scant critical analysis of this remarkable figure tends to provide a brief exegetical explanation before moving into more secure critical territory. My analysis of the Afrisc meowle reveals the limitations of source study and exegetical criticism for Exodus and for the field of medieval studies; she thus serves as a case study for this deeper theoretical problem in the field.

Type
Essay
Information
PMLA , Volume 137 , Issue 3 , May 2022 , pp. 458 - 471
Copyright
Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Modern Language Association of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Anlezark, Daniel, editor and translator. Exodus. Old Testament Narratives, Harvard UP, 2011, pp. 205–45.Google Scholar
Bagby, Benjamin, performer. Beowulf. Directed by Stellan Olssen, Film Movement, 2007.Google Scholar
Bede, . Historia ecclesiastica. Edited and translated by Colgrave, Bertram and Minors, R. A. B., Clarendon Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Bethurum, Dorothy, editor. Critical Approaches to Medieval Literature. Columbia UP, 1960.Google Scholar
Bindman, David, and Gates, Henry Louis. Preface. The Image of the Black in Western Art. Edited by Bindman and Gates, 2nd ed., vol. 1, Harvard UP, 2010, pp. vii–xx.Google Scholar
Bradley, S. A. J., translator. Anglo-Saxon Poetry. 1982. Dent, 1991.Google Scholar
“Celebrating Ivory Bangle Lady.” York Museums Trust, 22 Oct. 2020, www.yorkmuseumstrust.org.uk/blog/celebrating-ivory-bangle-lady/.Google Scholar
Chakravarty, Urvashi, and Thompson, Ayanna. “Race and Periodization: Introduction.” New Literary History, vol. 52, nos. 3–4, summer-autumn 2021, pp. v–xvi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dictionary of Old English. University of Toronto, www.doe.utoronto.ca. Accessed 13 Feb. 2019.Google Scholar
Dockray-Miller, Mary. Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon England. St. Martin's, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earl, James. “Christian Traditions in the Old English ‘Exodus.’” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, vol. 71, 1970, pp. 541–70.Google Scholar
Flaherty, Colleen. “It's about More Than a Name.” Inside Higher Ed, 20 Sept. 2019, www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/09/20/anglo-saxon-studies-group-says-it-will-change-its-name-amid-bigger-complaints-about.Google Scholar
Foys, Martin. E-mail to the author. Apr. 2018.Google Scholar
Fulk, R. D. A History of Old English Meter. U of Pennsylvania P, 1992.Google Scholar
Godden, Malcolm. Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: Introduction, Commentary, and Glossary. Oxford UP, 2000.Google Scholar
Godden, Malcolm. “Biblical Literature: The Old Testament.” The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature, edited by Godden, Michael Lapidge, , Cambridge UP, 1986, pp. 206–26.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, Margaret. “The Corruption of Beowulf.” Readings on Beowulf, edited by Stephen P. Thompson, Greenhaven Press, 1998, pp. 63–68.Google Scholar
Gower, Gillian. “Race-ing Plainchant: Theodore of Tarsus, Hadrian of Canterbury, and the Voice of Music History.” Viator, vol. 51, no. 1, 2020, pp. 103–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, Caitlin. “The Anglo-Saxons Abroad? Some Early Anglo-Saxon Finds from France and North Africa.” Dr. Caitlin R. Green, 7 May 2016, www.caitlingreen.org/2016/05/anglo-saxon-finds-france-africa.html.Google Scholar
Green, Caitlin. “A Great Host of Captives? A Note on Vikings in Morocco and Africans in Early Medieval Ireland and Britain.” Dr. Caitlin R. Green, 12 Sept. 2015, www.caitlingreen.org/2015/09/a-great-host-of-captives.html.Google Scholar
Green, Caitlin. “Indo-Pacific Beads from Europe to Japan? Another Fifth- to Seventh-Century AD Global Distribution.” Dr. Caitlin R. Green, 22 July 2018, www.caitlingreen.org/2018/07/indo-pacific-beads-europe.html.Google Scholar
Groves, S. E., et al. “Mobility Histories of 7th–9th Century AD People Buried at Early Medieval Bamburgh, Northumberland, England.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology, vol. 151, 2013, pp. 462–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Handley, Mark. “Disputing the End of African Christianity.” Vandals, Romans and Berbers: New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa, edited by Merrills, A. H., Ashgate Publishing, 2004, pp. 291–310.Google Scholar
Heng, Geraldine. The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages. Cambridge UP, 2018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howe, Nicholas. Migration and Mythmaking in Anglo-Saxon England. Yale UP, 1989.Google Scholar
Hsy, Jonathan, and Orlemanski, Julie. “Race and Medieval Studies: A Partial Bibliography.” Postmedieval, vol. 8, 2017, pp. 500–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudson, Alison. “An African Abbot in Anglo-Saxon England.” Medieval Manuscripts Blog, British Library, 27 Oct. 2016, blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2016/10/an-african-abbot-in-anglo-saxon-england.html.Google Scholar
Huppé, Bernard. Doctrine and Poetry: Augustine's Influence on Old English Poetry. State U of New York P, 1959.Google Scholar
Huppé, Bernard. The Hero in the Earthly City: A Reading of Beowulf. MRTS, 1984.Google Scholar
Hyland, Meg. “The Parishioner of North Elmham.” Women of 1000 AD, womenof1000ad.weebly.com/parishioner-of-north-elmham.html. Accessed 20 Apr. 2021.Google Scholar
Irving, Edward. The Old English Exodus. 1953. Archon Books, 1970.Google Scholar
Jarman, Cat. River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads. Pegasus Books, 2022.Google Scholar
Keefe, Katie, and Holst, Malin. “Osteological Analysis, 12–18 Swinegate, 14 Little Stonegate and 18 Back Swinegate, York, North Yorkshire.” York Archaeological Trust, Dec. 2015, static1.squarespace.com/static/5c62d8bb809d8e27588adcc0/t/5ce6aed1f9619a0d3433ab0a/1558621911253/St-Benets-Swinegate-Osteological-Analysis-December-2015-2.pdf.Google Scholar
Kim, Dorothy. “The Politics of the Medieval Preracial.” Literature Compass, vol. 18, 2021, pp. 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krapp, G. P., and Dobbie, E. V. K., editors. The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records. Columbia UP, 1931–53. 6 vols.Google Scholar
Lapidge, Michael, and Bischoff, Bernard, editors. Biblical Commentaries from the Canterbury School of Theodore and Hadrian. Cambridge UP, 1994.Google Scholar
Lockett, Leslie. Anglo-Saxon Psychologies in the Vernacular and Latin Traditions. U of Toronto P, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lockett, Leslie. “An Integrated Re-examination of the Dating of Oxford, Bodleian Library Junius 11.” Anglo-Saxon England, vol. 31, 2002, pp. 141–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Love, Damian, translator. “The Old English Exodus: A Verse Translation.” Neophilologus, vol. 86, 2002, pp. 621–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucas, Peter J., editor. Exodus. 1977. 3rd ed., Liverpool UP, 2020.Google Scholar
Magidow, Melanie. “The Epic of the Commander Dhat al-Himma.” Medieval Feminist Forum, Subsidia Series, vol. 9, 2019, scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2151&context=mff. Medieval Texts in Translation 6.Google Scholar
Martin, Ellen E. “Allegory and the African Woman in the Old English ‘Exodus.’” Journal of English and Germanic Philology, vol. 81, no. 1, 1982, pp. 1–15.Google Scholar
“Meówle.” Bosworth Toller's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online. Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2019, www.bosworthtoller.com/022643.Google Scholar
Miyashiro, Adam. “Decolonizing Anglo-Saxon Studies.” In the Middle, 29 July 2017, www.inthemedievalmiddle.com/2017/07/decolonizing-anglo-saxon-studies.html.Google Scholar
Morrison, Toni. The Origin of Others. Harvard UP, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“MS. Junius 11.” Medieval Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries, Bodleian Libraries / University of Oxford, medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/manuscript_6318. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022.Google Scholar
Newman, Barbara. Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular against the Sacred. U of Notre Dame P, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, Lee. Negotiating the Past: The Historical Understanding of Medieval Literature. U of Wisconsin P, 1987.Google Scholar
Rambaran-Olm, Mary. “A Wrinkle in Medieval Time: Ironing Out Issues regarding Race, Temporality, and the Early English.” New Literary History, vol. 52, nos. 3–4, summer-autumn 2021, pp. 385–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramírez, Paul Edward Montgomery. “Colonial Representations of Race in Alternative Museums: The ‘African’ of St Benet's, the ‘Arab’ of Jorvik, and the ‘Black Viking.’” International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2 Feb. 2021, pp. 937–52, https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2021.1883715.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, D. W. A Preface to Chaucer. Princeton UP, 1962.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Fred. “Notes on the Old English Exodus.” Anglia, vol. 80, 1962, pp. 363–78.Google Scholar
Scott, Florence H. R. “Two Black Women in Tenth-Century England: The North Elmham and Fairford Women.” Ælfgif-who?, 19 Apr. 2021, florencehrs.substack.com/p/northelmhamfairfordwomen.Google Scholar
Thundy, Zacharias. “Afrisc Meowle and the Old English Exodus.” Neophilologus, vol. 64, 1980, pp. 297–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Old English Exodus: Text, Translation, and Commentary. Edited by Turville-Petre, Joan, Clarendon Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Vorholt, Hanna. “Mapping the World.” Medieval England and France, British Library, www.bl.uk/medieval-english-french-manuscripts/articles/mapping-the-world. Accessed 6 Mar. 2019.Google Scholar
Wade, Erik. “Pater Don't Preach.” The Medieval Globe, vol. 4, no. 2, 2018, pp. 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walton, Audrey. “‘Gehyre Se Ðe Wille’: The Old English Exodus and the Reader as Exegete.” English Studies, vol. 94, no. 1, 2013, pp. 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watt, Diane. “The Earliest Women's Writing? Anglo-Saxon Literary Cultures and Communities.” Women's Writing, vol. 20, no. 4, 2013, pp. 537–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, Calvin, and Cayton, Helen. “‘The Human Bones’: Excavations in North Elmham Park 1967–72.” East Anglian Archaeology, vol. 9, 1980, pp. 247–302.Google Scholar
Whitaker, Cord. “Race-ing the Dragon: The Middle Ages, Race and Trippin’ into the Future.” Postmedieval, vol. 6, 2015, pp. 3–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, O. T. “A Note on ‘Exodus,’ Ll.56ff.” Modern Language Review, vol. 4, 1909, pp. 507–08.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, Michael. “The African Who Transformed Anglo-Saxon England.” History Extra, BBC, 28 Sept. 2020, www.historyextra.com/period/anglo-saxon/hadrian-clerk-libya-african-who-anglo-saxon-england/.Google Scholar
Wood, Michael. “As a Racism Row Rumbles On, Is It Time to Retire the Term ‘Anglo-Saxon?’” History Extra, BBC, 4 Nov. 2019, www.historyextra.com/period/anglo-saxon/professor-michael-wood-anglo-saxon-name-debate-is-term-racist/.Google Scholar
Zacher, Samantha. Rewriting the Old Testament in Anglo-Saxon Verse: Becoming the Chosen People. Bloomsbury, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar