In this dissertation, I provide a reconstruction and analysis of the Anglo-Saxon conceptions of impairment and disability, as they are preserved within the textual record of the period. I develop the Old English lexeme unhælu as the most appropriate term for these conceptions, as it reflects the holism that is central to the Anglo-Saxon understanding of health and ability. Unhælu is a large and fluid category, which covers physical impairment, illness, and injury, and which takes into consideration their impact on both the body’s functionality and appearance. Importantly, it does not seem to cover mental health impairments and other similar conditions. It may perhaps be best understood in terms of Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s notion of the “extraordinary body,” which brings together various kinds of corporeal otherness, such as impairment, deformity, monstrosity, and mutilation. Consequently, this dissertation focuses on defining the polysemous concept of unhælu, determining how the Anglo-Saxons perceived the concept, and discovering how these beliefs impacted the lives of unhal people. To achieve these aims, I employ rigorous textual and linguistic analysis, and adapt the insights of present-day disability theory to an early medieval context.
In the opening chapters, I begin by establishing the linguistic and educational foundations of the Anglo-Saxon conception of unhælu. Chapter One examines the Old English lexicon that reveals how they spoke and thought about impairment, while Chapter Two considers the school-room texts that would have served as the contemporary equivalent of their disability theory. In the following chapters, I discuss what the Anglo-Saxons’ various responses to unhælu reveal about their perception of the state. Chapter Three uses the medical texts to provide a detailed reconstruction of unhælu, as suggested by the leeches’ remedies and their understanding of etiology. Chapter Four builds on this foundation by employing the law-codes to further define unhælu as a category and to explore its potential consequences. These consequences could include social and economic disadvantage, feud (in the case of unhælu inflicted by illegal violence), and stigma (in the case of juridical mutilation). Chapter Five, which discusses the hagiographies, develops this focus on the social significance of unhælu, as it shows how the church made use of unhælu within the cults of the saints, and also discusses the lived experiences of unhal people. It reveals the complexity of unhælu as both a state that called for a miraculous cure, and that could serve as a marker of sanctity. Chapter Six shifts focus to consider other cultural uses to which unhæluwas put, as it examines how the Alfredian textual community appropriated the conception of unhælu for rhetorical and metaphorical purposes. Lastly, Chapter Seven shows how the Anglo-Saxons considered unhælu to be a part of the human life-cycle that developed in age and ended with death, thereby linking it inextricably with human mortality, and with life in a fallen world.