Dominion and Stewardship: Unpacking Environmental Consciousness in Some Old English Saints’ Lives

Abstract

This article explores how ideas of environmental consciousness are explored within two Old English prose versions of The Life of St Cuthbert, alongside an Old English poem Guthlac A and a Latin version of The Life of St Guthlac. It seeks to challenge the assumptions of monolithic belief in the early medieval period and to situate an ecocritical analysis within the context of contemporary focus on the Anthropocene. The article analyses episodes of interaction between the human and non-human in the texts, reading them through this dual lens. It argues for a complexity of beliefs regarding man and nature in the early medieval period that is characterised by a theology of both dominion and duty of care.

Keywords

• environment
• theology
• religion
• old english
• literature
• saints