Wounds and Wound Repair in Medieval Culture

Larissa Tracy, Ph.D. (2000), Trinity College, Dublin, is Associate Professor of medieval literature at Longwood University. She has published widely on violence in medieval literature and culture, including Torture and Brutality in Medieval Literature (D.S. Brewer, 2012) and, with Jeff Massey, Heads Will Roll: Decapitation in the Medieval and Early Modern Imagination (Brill, 2012). She is also the series editor for Explorations in Medieval Culture (Brill), and the editor of Eolas.Kelly DeVries, Ph.D. (1987), University of Toronto, is Professor of history at Loyola University Maryland and Honorary Historical Consultant for the Royal Armouries, UK. He has published widely, including Medieval Military Technology (2nd ed., University of Toronto Press), Rhodes Besieged (History Press, 2011); Medieval Weapons (ABC-CLIO, 2007), among others — and has appeared on PBS, History, History International, Military History, and National Geographic Channels.

• ContentsAcknowledgements ixList of Figures and Tables xiList of Abbreviations xiiiList of Contributors xvi xxivIntroduction: Penetrating Medieval Wounds 1Larissa Tracy and Kelly DeVriesPart 1The Physicality of WoundsSection 1Archeology and Material Culture1 Battle Trauma in Medieval Warfare: Wounds, Weapons andArmor 27Robert C. Woosnam-Savage and Kelly DeVries2 “And to describe the shapes of the dead”: Making Sense of theArchaeology of Armed Violence 57M.R. Geldof3 Visible Prowess?: Reading Men’s Head and Face Wounds in EarlyMedieval Europe to 1000 CE 81Patricia Skinner4 Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes: Injury and Death in Anglo-ScottishCombat, c. 1296–c.1403 102Iain A. MacInnes5 “…Vnnd schüß im vnder dem schwert den ort lang ein zů der brust”:The Placement and Consequences of Sword-blows in SigmundRingeck’s Fifteenth-Century Fencing Manual 128Rachel E. KellettSection 2Surgery6 The Diagnosis and Treatment of Wounds in the Old English MedicalCollections: Anglo-Saxon Surgery? 153Debby Banham and Christine Voth7 Spitting Blood: Medieval Mongol Medical Practices 175Timothy May8 The Wounded Soldier: Honey and Late Medieval MilitaryMedicine 194Ilana Krug9 “The Depth of Six Inches”: Prince Hal’s Head-Wound at the Battle ofShrewsbury 215Michael LivingstonSection 3Law10 Wounds, Amputations, and Expert Procedures in the City of Valenciain the Early-Fifteenth Century 233Carmel Ferragud11 The Mutilation of Derbforgaill 252Charlene M. EskaPart 2The Spirituality of WoundsSection 4Stigmata12 “The Wounded Surgeon”: Devotion, Compassion and Metaphor inMedieval England 269Virginia Langum13 “Scarce anyone survives a heart wound”: The Wounded Christ in IrishBardic Religious Poetry 291Salvador Ryan14 Penetrating the Void: Picturing the Wound in Christ’s Side as aPerformative Space 313Vibeke Olson15 Wandering Wounds: The Urban Body in Imitatio Christi 340Elina GertsmanContents viiSection 5Passionate Wounds16 Ascetic Blood: Ethics, Sufffering and Community in Late-MedievalCulture 369Joshua S. Easterling17 Christ’s Suppurating Wounds: Leprosy in the Vita of Alice ofSchaerbeek (†1250) 389Alicia Spencer-Hall18 Wounding the Body and Freeing the Spirit: Dorothea von Montau’sBloody Quest for Christ, a Late-Medieval Phenomenon of theExtraordinary Kind 417Albrecht Classen19 In the Bursting of an Eye: Blinding and Blindness in Ireland’sMedieval Hagiography 448Máire JohnsonPart 3The Literature of Wounds20 The Laconic Scar in Early Irish Literature 473William Sayers21 “Into the hede, throw the helme and creste”: Head Wounds and aQuestion of Kingship in the Stanzaic Morte Arthur 496Larissa Tracy22 “They … toke their shyldys before them and drew oute their swerdys…”: Inflicting and Healing Wounds in Malory’s Morte Darthur 519Stephen Atkinson23 Women’s Wounds in Middle English Romances: An Exploration ofDefijilement, Disfijigurement, and a Society in Disrepair 544Barbara A. GoodmanAfterword: The Aftermath of Wounds 572Wendy J. TurnerBibliography 581Index 635 645