Illustrations
1.1 The three Patriarchs as the three ages of man. London, British Library, Harley 603, fol. 52v. © British Library Board 19
1.2 Byrhtferth’s diagram in Oxford, St John’s College, 17, fol. 7v. By permission of the President and Fellows of St John’s College Oxford 36
1.3 Diagram of the ages of woman in Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 428/428, fol. 28v. By Permission of the Master and Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 40
2.1 Visualization of the semantic field of ‘human old age’ in Old English 78
7.1 House of Kent c.600–c.755 189
7.2 House of Wessex c.900–c.1066 191
7.3 House of Bamburgh c.955–c.1125 192
10.1 Orkney hood. © National Museums Scotland 258
10.2 Pictish sculpture, St Vigeans 11, Angus, Scotland. Drawn by and by permission of Michael King 259
10.3 Bayeux Tapestry, opening scene, patched and restored, with its sixteenth-century backcloth numbered in an eighteenth- or nineteenth-century hand. Eleventh-century. By special authorization of the City of Bayeux 260
10.4 The largest hanging bowl from Sutton Hoo. a) outside; b) inside. © The British Museum 267
10.5 The Sutton Hoo clasps. © The British Museum 269
10.6 The Benty Grange helmet. a) full helmet; b) X-ray of cross on nose-piece. © Museums Sheffield 270
10.7 Reconstruction of the Sutton Hoo shield. © The British Museum 271
10.8 The York Gospels, c. AD 1000. York, York Minster, MS Add. 1, fol. 60v. Portrait of the Evangelist Mark; fol. 61r. The opening of St Mark’s Gospel. © Chapter of York; Reproduced by kind permission 273
10.9 The Utrecht Psalter and the Harley Psalter. a) Utrecht, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Hs. 32, fol. 3v. By permission. b) London, British Library, Harley 603, fol. 3v. © The British Library Board 275
10.10 The Lindisfarne Gospels. London, British Library, Cotton Nero D. iv, fol. 34r, which includes the opening of The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5.1–10). © The British Library Board 277
10.11 Densely glossed text of Aldhelm. Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, MS 1650, fol. 47v. By permission 278
10.12 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 41, p. 272. © The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge 279
10.13 Altar or processional cross from the Staffordshire Hoard. a) folded original; b) recent reconstruction. © Birmingham Museums Trust 281
10.14 The Ruthwell Cross, base of south face with added crucifixion scene. © Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, photographer T. Middlemass 282
10.15 The Beowulf Manuscript, showing change of scribe at lines 3–4. London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius A. xv, fol. 175v. © The British Library Board 283
10.16 The Exeter Book, Codex Exoniensis, fol. 8r, with water stain, drinking vessel stain and chopping marks. © The Dean and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral 285
Tables
1.1 Divisions of the life course in Anglo-Latin and Old English texts, excluding works by Byrhtferth of Ramsey 22
1.2 Bede’s scheme of physical and physiological fours 31
1.3 Life course divisions found in works by Byrhtferth 32
1.4 Byrhtferth’s system of tetradic correspondences relating to the ages of man 37
1.5 Seven ages according to philosophers (Tractatus de quaternario 3.2–4) 44
1.6 The Tractatus author’s preferred scheme (Tractatus de quaternario 3.5–7) 44
2.1 Old English terms for ‘infancy’ 51
2.2 General terms for ‘childhood’ in Old English 53
2.3 General terms for ‘youth’ in Old English 59
2.4 Old English terms for young male and female persons 61
2.5 Old English terms for ‘adulthood’ and ‘maturity’ 69
2.6 Old English terms for ‘old age’ 77
2.7 Select Latin terms for stages of life, their senses, and Old English equivalents 81
2.8 Select Old English terms for stages of life with their Latin equivalents, showing the overlap of senses 84
2.9 Stages of life in Old English 88
4.1 Remedies mentioning the age of the patient 123
11.1 The farming year in early medieval England 295