The Semantics of Self-Killing in Old English Language, Literature and Culture, c. 750–1150

This thesis investigates the semantic field of, and rhetoric around, suicide in Old English (OE) and early medieval England c. 700–1150. It identifies a relative wealth of linguistic evidence concerning self-killing in the period. The thesis uses a mixed methods approach grounded in historical linguistics to unearth perceptions about self-killing from literary and linguistic data. Special attention is paid to self-killings in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, glosses to Aldhelm’s De Virginitate, Orosius’ Latin History Against the Pagans and the OE History of the World based on it, the Legend of St. Margaret, and several of Ælfric’s homilies (in particular, Saul and the Witch of Endor, The Life of St. Martin, and The Feast of St. Stephen). By analysing case-studies, the thesis reconstructs perceptions of and attitudes towards self-killers and self-killing. It also explores x-phemistic language for SELF-KILLING and proposes several underlying conceptual metaphors such as DEATH IS A JOURNEY, SELF-KILLING IS A JOURNEY TO HELL, DEATH IS LOSS (to person/world), and SELF-KILLERS ARE CRIMINALS. Ultimately, this thesis shows that there was an ongoing debate about where and when self-killing was acceptable. While Ælfric of Eynsham is certainly against it, the anonymous OE History compiler and Wulfstan II of York are not such clear cases. This thesis even uncovers some situations and instances where self-killing was considered preferred, or even honourable. The evidence is compiled in an appendix which lists every instance of self-killing in Old English, as well as two similar self-killing corpora in Latin and Ancient Greek based on Anton Van Hoof’s seminal work, which can be used for further comparative studies on the linguistics and semantics of suicide, or negative mental states.