Book chapter 1062 views
Visible prowess? Reading men's head and face wounds in early medieval Europe to 1000CE
Patricia Skinner 
Wounds and Wound Repair in Medieval Culture, ed. L. Tracy and K. de Vries, Pages: 81 - 101
Swansea University Author:
Patricia Skinner
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DOI (Published version): 10.1163/9789004306455_005
Abstract
Although the historiography of medieval violence is now well-established, however, rather less attention has been paid to the fate of the wounded man in early medieval culture, particularly one suffering facial or head wounds of a disfiguring or disabling nature. Early medieval law codes, medical te...
| Published in: | Wounds and Wound Repair in Medieval Culture, ed. L. Tracy and K. de Vries |
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| Published: |
Leiden
Brill
2015
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| Online Access: |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK332959/ |
| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa30092 |
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| Abstract: |
Although the historiography of medieval violence is now well-established, however, rather less attention has been paid to the fate of the wounded man in early medieval culture, particularly one suffering facial or head wounds of a disfiguring or disabling nature. Early medieval law codes, medical texts, and written narratives (both historical and imaginary) provide some clues as to how the facially-wounded were treated, and an increasing body of archaeological evidence can assist in determining what wounds were inflicted and how survivable they were. There was a fine line dividing prestigious battle scars (whose potential to convey honor can be contested) and facial injuries so disfiguring (or disabling) that they engendered horror and rejection, rather than admiration, in the viewer. There is some evidence that medical assistance was available, but whether it could mitigate the long-term effects of head and face injuries is open to question. |
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| Item Description: |
Open Access funded by Wellcome Trust grant number 097469 |
| Keywords: |
warfare, violence, medieval, faces, facial injury, masculinity |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Start Page: |
81 |
| End Page: |
101 |