âLazarus, Come Forthâ: Pregnancy and Childbirth in the Life Course of Early Medieval English Women

Caroline R. Batten

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Chapter 5 âLazarus, Come Forthâ: Pregnancy and Childbirth in the Life Course of Early Medieval English Women

In: Early Medieval English Life Courses

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Caroline R. Batten

Caroline R. Batten
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 140â158

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004501867_007

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Abstract

This chapter examines Old English obstetric remedies to argue that across the early medieval English period, pregnancy was considered to constitute a separate stage in the female life cycle, which overlaps with but is fundamentally distinct from both wifehood and motherhood. The âpregnancy stageâ in the life course is marked by its vulnerability and marginality, its distance from the other stages of adult female development, its increased proximity to death, and a conceptual elision of woman and fetus. These remedies are contextualized by a discussion of the Old English medical texts, which, it is argued, exhibit a male bias. The chapter then turns to the archaeological record, arguing that women and neonates who died in labour or shortly afterwards were interred in such a way as to blur the identities of mother and child, before offering close readings of five obstetric remedies, including Metrical Charm 6.

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Early Medieval English Life Courses

Cultural-Historical Perspectives

Series:Â Explorations in Medieval Culture, Volume: 20

Cover Early Medieval English Life Courses

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004501867

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 17 Nov 2021

Subjects
- History
  - Medieval History
  - History of Medicine
- Literature and Cultural Studies

Front Matter

Part 1 Defining and Dividing the Life Course

Part 2 The Life Course and the Human Body

Part 3 Intergenerational Dynamics

Part 4 Life beyond the Human

Back Matter

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Chapter 5 âLazarus, Come Forthâ: Pregnancy and Childbirth in the Life Course of Early Medieval English Women

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Early Medieval English Life Courses

Cultural-Historical Perspectives

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Chapter 5 âLazarus, Come Forthâ: Pregnancy and Childbirth in the Life Course of Early Medieval English Women