Book contents
- Lives, Identities and Histories in the Central Middle Ages
- Lives, Identities and Histories in the Central Middle Ages
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Entwined Lives and Multiple Identities
- Part II Historians, Lawyers and Exegetes: Writing Lives and Identities
- 9 Ademar of Chabannes and the Normans:
- 10 Lives, Identities and the Historians of the Normans
- 11 Ruth in the Twelfth Century:
- 12 Jacob and Esau and the Interplay of Jewish and Christian Identities in the Middle Ages
- 13 Identity, Gender and History in Wace’s Roman de Rou and Roman de Brut
- 14 Glanvill:
- 15 Dunstan, Edgar and the History of Not-So-Recent Events
- Index
13 - Identity, Gender and History in Wace’s Roman de Rou and Roman de Brut
from Part II - Historians, Lawyers and Exegetes: Writing Lives and Identities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2021
- Lives, Identities and Histories in the Central Middle Ages
- Lives, Identities and Histories in the Central Middle Ages
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Entwined Lives and Multiple Identities
- Part II Historians, Lawyers and Exegetes: Writing Lives and Identities
- 9 Ademar of Chabannes and the Normans:
- 10 Lives, Identities and the Historians of the Normans
- 11 Ruth in the Twelfth Century:
- 12 Jacob and Esau and the Interplay of Jewish and Christian Identities in the Middle Ages
- 13 Identity, Gender and History in Wace’s Roman de Rou and Roman de Brut
- 14 Glanvill:
- 15 Dunstan, Edgar and the History of Not-So-Recent Events
- Index
Summary
This chapter uses a gendered lens to examine how individuals' identity changed over the course of their life-cycle in two of Wace's poems: the Roman de Brut – his retelling of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Brittonum – and the Roman de Rou - his verse history of the Normans. Following Patricia Skinner's challenge to consider the potential for rupture and repetition in the life-cycle, the chapter examines the following themes evident in both poems: the uncertainty surrounding succession, the conduct of rulers, the effects of old age, the order of marriage and children and the importance of otherwise anonymous groups (peasants, old women) at moments of crisis.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Lives, Identities and Histories in the Central Middle Ages , pp. 246 - 263Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021