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Between Medieval Men: Male Friendship and Desire

by David Clark

This challenging and well-written study approaches the elusive question of the nature of same-sex relations and attitudes to them in Old English Literature from a variety of perspectives. It continually throws up questions about our assumptions and approach to the subject, both warning against an underlying heterosexist view of early medieval europe, and against seeing homosexuality everywhere - two chapters focus on the range of meanings which can be adduced for the sin of sodom in medieval texts, for example. Both sacred and secular literature is explored, including well-known pieces such as Beowulf and the Battle of Maldon as well as Aelfric's lives of Saints, and penitential material. Overall the book argues for a far more nuanced view and less easy categorization of same-sex desire, love, and homo-social relationships in Anglo-Saxon literature. 299p (Oxford UP 2009)

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