Prof researches medieval female roles

Investigating the female role in medieval life, Lisa Weston traveled to England, where she studied manuscripts and visited the abbey at Barking, Essex. Above: The remains of the transept survive at Barking, where an abbey founded by women in Anglo-Saxon times was powerful until Henry VIII's day.

by April Schulthies

The role women played during the early medieval period is often overlooked, according to Lisa Weston, an associate professor in the Department of English and an expert on medieval studies.

Being a medievalist is not your typical career choice, Weston said. Her mother often has difficulty explaining to the neighbors what her daughter does for a living. "My mother would tell them I was a 'medievalist' and they would say, 'Oh, I'm sorry,'" Weston laughed.

Recently returned from a foray into the British Library for texts unavailable in the states, Weston has embarked on her current research project, titled "Women, Texts, and Community." It focuses on medieval women in monasteries - particularly Anglo-Saxon women.

Among these women were widows, divorcees, and virgins.

"We're very much dealing with a society - a female monastic community within the larger social world - in which gender (and sexuality, for that matter) was not defined by marriage," Weston said.

In some ways the position of women changed for the worse after the Norman conquest in 1066, Weston said. Before the Normans, elite Anglo-Saxon women could hold authority. For instance, Etheldreda, Queen of Northumbria and one of the King of Kent's four daughters, founded the Abbey of Ely, where she presided as abbess over both men and women until her death in 679 A.D.

Etheldreda was married two times, Weston said. "She adamantly refused conjugal relationships with either of her husbands, to the point where she was able to take herself out of the marriage circuit entirely," Weston noted.

A woman ruling over both sexes raises "some interesting questions on power and gender," said Weston. As the Anglo-Saxon period progressed, women's roles changed. Weston is studying this transition, looking for clues to women's identity. In particular she looks at texts that are tied to the period, including letters that are written by women.

Researching this period of time isn't always easy, Weston said. "A lot of the sites basically don't exist any more," she explained. "They've been rebuilt so much there's not much from the Anglo-Saxon period that's visible. A few sites, though, do have something to look at above ground."

During a sabbatical from teaching this spring and during the summer, Weston visited historical sites in England and continued her manuscript research. In particular, she visited the remains of the abbey at Barking, Essex, near London. Barking is a women's house started under an abbess in the Anglo-Saxon period (666 A.D.) that survived after the Norman conquest and remained a very powerful and influential women's house until Henry VIII's reign.

"At the time of the conquest, it had a really canny abbess, Ælfgifa, who was really good at working power relationships," Weston said. "She managed to hold on to a lot of her land by making a deal with William the Conqueror, who built the Tower of London on land owned by Barking Abbey."

One folk tale about Barking tells how the foundress, St. Ethelburga, called up a storm at sea in order to convince a monk to return a manuscript written by one of her nuns. Women in the abbey were also visionaries and claimed the power to interpret dreams, said Weston.

One liturgical manuscript Weston found mentioned a medieval abbess of Barking by the name of Elinore Weston - possibly Weston's relation? - who is buried in front of the shrine of Saint Ethelburga.

Weston's findings will first find form in conference papers and may later be published as a book. She has recently submitted for publication an article, "Angelic Bodies in Human Spaces: Aldhelm Imagines the Women of Barking Abbey." Her article, "Gender and the Cult of St. Ethelburga at Barking" has been accepted for presentation at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds (United Kingdom), to be held in July 1999.

In early November, Weston will read a paper on Barking women's traditions and folklore at the annual meeting of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Association.