Main description:

Anglo-Saxon England was a society governed by the competing discourses of illness, spirituality, power, and community. The concepts of demon possession and exorcism, introduced by Christian missionaries, provided a potential outlet for expressing the psychological, biological, and sociopolitical dysfunctions of a society that was at the center of multiple conflicting cultural dimensions.Demon Possession in Anglo-Saxon England is a reexamination of the available sources describing the possessed and a study of the currently recognized medical and psychiatric conditions that may be relevant to and resemble medieval possession.

Contents:

Acknowledgments Abbreviations Preface Introduction 1. Backgrounds to Anglo-Saxon Exorcism 2. Medical and Liturgical Responses 3. Demon Possession in Narrative Portrayals 4. Neurological and Behavioral Pathologies in the Early Middle Ages Conclusions and Further Questions Works Cited Index