Heads Will Roll

Larissa Tracy, Ph.D. (2000) in Medieval Literature, Trinity College, Dublin, is Associate Professor of Medieval Literature at Longwood University. She has published extensively on medieval texts with a specific focus on torture and brutality, including Torture and Brutality in Medieval Literature (D.S. Brewer, 2012).Jeff Massey, Ph.D. (2003) in English Literature (Certificate in Medieval Studies), Emory University, is Associate Professor of English Language and Literature at Molloy College. He has published variously (from Chaucer to Hardy) but voices a particular interest in literary monstrosity.

• CONTENTSPreface: Losing Your Head ........................................................................... viiJefffrey Jerome CohenAcknowledgements ........................................................................................ xiList of Illustrations .......................................................................................... xiiiList of Contributors ........................................................................................ xvIntroduction ..................................................................................................... 1Larissa Tracy and Jefff MasseyNon potest hoc corpus decollari: Beheading and the Impossible ...... 15Nicola MasciandaroEXECUTION AND HAGIOGRAPHY“Like a Virgin”: The Reheading of St. Edmund and Monastic Reform in Late-Tenth-Century England ............................................. 39Mark FaulknerA Crowning Achievement: The Royal Execution and Damnationof Eadric Streona ........................................................................................ 53Jay Paul GatesDecapitation, Martyrdom, and Late Medieval Execution Practicesin The Book of Margery Kempe .............................................................. 73Christine F. Cooper-RompatoCONTINENTAL NARRATIVES OF PUNISHMENT AND OTHERINGTalking Heads in Hell: Dante’s Use of Severed Heads in Inferno .... 93Dwayne C. ColemanSevered Silence: Social Boundaries and Family Honor inBoccaccio’s “Tale of Lisabetta” ............................................................... 115Mary E. LeechThe Headless Giant: The Function of Severed Heads in theAhistorical (Aventiurehafte) Dietrich Epics ....................................... 137Tina BoyerENGLISH ROMANCE AND REALITY“To be a ‘Fleschhewere’ ”: Beheading, Butcher-Knights, andBlood-Taboos in Octavian Imperator ................................................... 159Renée WardThe Werewolf at the Head Table: Metatheatric “subtlety”in Arthur and Gorlagon ............................................................................ 183Jefff Massey“So he smote of hir hede by myssefortune”: The Real Price of theBeheading Game in SGGK and Malory ............................................... 207Larissa TracyEARLY MODERN PRACTICE AND IMAGINATION“At the time of his death”: The Contested Narrative of Sir WalterRalegh’s Beheading .................................................................................... 235Andrew Fleck“Killing swine” and planting heads in Shakespeare’s Macbeth ......... 261Thomas Herron“Tucked Beneath Her Arm”: Culture, Ideology, and Fantasy in theCurious Legend of Anne Boleyn ........................................................... 289Thea Cervone‟Answering the Call of the Severed Head” .............................................. 311Asa Simon MittmanBibliography ..................................................................................................... 329Index ................................................................................................................... 347Illustrations