Long Ago, Far Away, and Saintly: The Acceptable Face of Female Aggression in Anglo-Saxon England

In Late Anglo-Saxon England, accounts of women whose aggressive behavior could have been depicted in a positive light, such as Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians or Emma of Normandy, are minimized (censored or self-censored). Positive acts of violence by women from long ago and far away, however, were explored in poetry, homily and hagiography, though not without a squeamish need to explicate their actions in terms of the greater Christian good. In the poem Judith, the wealthy widow beheads her people’s enemy herself, but her violence is interpreted as the victory of chastity over lust. Similarly, Saints Juliana and Margaret are depicted as extremely physically violent towards demons, although their violence serves to underscore their virginity. Such approved female aggression was never accompanied by anger; but examples of bad women with bad tempers provide a counterpoint. For instance, Queen Modthryth in Beowulf is furious when she orders judicial punishments for imagined slights. Such examples could be more recent and politicized. Similarly, Asser, in his chronicle, Life of King Alfred, writes with palpable delight about the fall Queen Ethbur of Wessex, who poisoned her husband, and was eventually put in a nunnery, where she caught in flagrante and ends her days begging.  The approved violence of ancient heroines was meant to goad martial fortitude in men and spiritual rectitude in women, while conversely depictions of more contemporary women behaving aggressively are either absent or censored in the record, unless they were used a politicized means of shaming an opposing regime.