Taste and smell, ingestion and consumption, in Old English literature

Abstract

This thesis provides an in-depth literary study of taste and smell, ingestion and consumption in Old English medical texts and Christian exegetic poetry, demonstrating their integral role in the Anglo-Saxon cultural milieu. Taste and smell have been viewed as secondary senses in the traditional western scholarship, considered as the drivers behind earthly pleasures that engendered gluttonous consumption. This study demonstrates that broader meanings and implications of taste and smell existed in Anglo-Saxon England that extended beyond their primary physiological functions. Indeed, far from being solely corporeal faculties that were gateways to sin, taste and smell encompassed a diverse array of symbolic and cultural meanings in Old English medical texts and Christian exegetical poems, also revealing a rich and largely unexplored intertextual relationship between medical treatises and poetry.

Thesis is embargoed until 31 July 2029.

Date of Award	Jul 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Sponsors	Northern Ireland Department for the Economy
Supervisor	Marilina Cesario (Supervisor) & John Curran (Supervisor)