At first glance, depictions of old age in medieval texts seem too numerous to count and too commonplace to argue for anything other than the inevitability of aging as a natural process. But yet this is very much not the case, as numerous treatments exist of cultural and historical depictions of this biological process. And while much has been written, much is left to argue as Thijs Porck's Old Age in Early Medieval England: A Cultural History proves. Indeed, his work on old age in early medieval England is one of the most lucid and engaging books to date that focuses on this subject. Well-researched and clearly written, Old Age in Early Medieval England offers an incisive and detailed look at the process of aging and how that process is reflected in early medieval English texts.
The importance for Porck's focus on old age and its depiction in early medieval English texts and history is clear: this book raises questions that help to clarify the attitudes toward old age that are modern and, simultaneously, ask and suggest new questions about familiar texts and contexts by focusing on old age. In fact, according to Porck, "the greater awareness of societal aging and the rise of 'ageism' in the twentieth century create a need for contrastive or parallel images of how people in the past viewed old age and the elderly" (12). Offering these portrayals of old age as examples for modern readers as contrasts or parallels to contemporary depictions nevertheless can highlight the value of old age in these texts to medievalists, as Porck shows, for instance, how these depictions are key to "analyzing the multifaceted way" this original audience might have considered old age (12).
Throughout Porck's study, this mutltifaceted understanding of old age in early medieval England is clear as Porck mines not only literary and religious texts for signs of old age and its various meanings, but also documentary sources and archaeological evidence, all of which he shows can offer multiple and new conclusions about the role of old age in early medieval England. In order to demonstrate these new readings of old evidence or evidence of old age, Old Age in Early Medieval England begins with three chapters which focus respectively on definitions, merits, and drawbacks of old age in early medieval England. Porck then discusses old age as it is depicted in hagiography, followed by a chapter that discusses old warriors. The last two chapters focus on the role of old kings in Beowulf and finally offers a new understanding of the social and political power of old women in early medieval England.
In order to show how old age was conceptualized in early medieval England, chapter 1 engages with a discussion of the "Ages of Man" schema. In describing previous scholarship on the Ages of Man, as it might have been understood from the seventh to the the twelfth century, this chapter first examines "green" and "grey" old age, a distinction that, according to Porck does not seem to hold in his discussion of various depictions of old age. Green old age, as theorized by Cochelin, refers to that period of old age where physical ability remained, and grey old age marked the period defined by that loss of physical ability. This distinction remains an important one for the chapter, as Porck considers how artists and authors defer in their use of the Ages of Man and the number of ages which they include. Quite helpful is the table at the end of the chapter, which lists how various sources "represent the three main phases of an early medieval life cycle definition as posited by Cochelin: pueritia, iuuentus and senectus" (49).
Having defined what these sources mean when they discuss old age, Porck then reflects upon the advantages and disadvantages of age. Chapter 2 outlines what sources and evidence from early medieval England convey about the value of old age. There, Porck gives a nuanced view of the links between senescence and wisdom and between spirituality and senescence, as he examines the role of the aged as teachers, sources of knowledge, and models for the faithful. Considering the subjectivity nature of old age--at which age does it arrive, what abilities or lack therof define it--Porck's careful argument here is a welcome one. In spite of J.A. Burrow's argument "that the emphasis on the moral and spiritual superiority of the elderly was such that the Anglo-Saxons preferred old age above all other age categories" (53), Porck argues for a more ambiguous attitude toward age, suggesting that, those these links between age and knowledge, spirituality, and wisdom were frequent, they were not absolute. This conclusion leads to Porck's fleshing out of the disadvantages of old age in the next chapter, where he notes that due to the frequency of the declines of body and mind associated with old age in poetical and homiletic literature, "the old man became a symbol of the transience of worldly plasures and old age was framed as a prefiguration of the torments of Hell" (77). Building upon a wealth of evidence from the literary record, including poems and homilies, Porck demonstrates that the attitudes toward age are remarkably similar to those "established for Modern English literature" (109), with its "overarching attitude of 'gerontophobia': the fear of old age" (52).
The next four chapters move to specific contexts, centering and expanding on some of the more general observations about old age. Chapter 4 discusses texts that depict saints and age. Here Porck notes both the relative paucity of scholarship on old age and hagiography as well as the "relative scarcity of descriptions of senescence in hagiography" (133). Nevertheless, these hagiographic texts that do describe old saints are evidence of a kind of pattern concerning age and saintliness where old age and its related decline might be absent altogether or could be a limit to their power and effectiveness, making death a kind of release from physical bonds. But this limitation, according to Porck, also appears to reinforce the saint's exceptional nature, as "the physical duress of the saints, while hampering their activities in some respects, also provided opportunity" (134).
Next, chapter 5 describes the connections between old age and warriors, suggesting that the view of old warriors was largely positive, as "old warriors appear to have enjoyed a special status within the Anglo-Saxon war band" (172). Indeed, this argument is a strong one, supported by various kinds of evidence from Old English heroic poetry to archaeological evidence. And the former is particularly useful it seems, as Porck demonstrates that this poetry "features a two-fold role model for warriors in their later years: the old advisor...and the active warrior" (173). The notion that "old people could still be warriors, and, indeed, even heroes" (173) is a claim the reader might keep in mind for the next chapter as Porck imagines Beowulf as a mirror for elderly kings. Indeed, by centering this examination of Beowulf in the context of historical details of elderly kings in the early middle ages, this chapter demonstrates how old age is central to Beowulf and to the "comparison between the two age protagonists, Hrothgar and Beowulf" (186). Porck's argument is evocative and well-supported: by placing three ancient monsters against two aged kings, the poem functions implicitly at least as an advisory text for elderly kings and the monstrous old age that might attack them: the poem then asks whether it is more wise to be peaceful, like Hrothgar, or to be "old, but not obsolete" (197) like Beowulf. In Porck's view, though Beowulf loses, his "sacrificial act...creates the opportunity for his people to survive and prosper" (207).
In the final chapter, Porck concentrates on the existence and role of old women in early medieval England. Looking at evidence which is admittedly "fragmented, ambiguous, and anecdotal" (231), Porck nevertheless creates an effective argument, concentrating not only on the documentary record, including wills, chronicles, and saints' lives, as he shows that old women had a number of roles that were possible, from political figures to "remembrancers', people who were called upon to report stories of local history" (229). Indeed, in spite of archaeological evidence from burials that might suggest a loss in status for old women, Porck offers something of a revision and answer to that interpretation. In spite of this fragmented evidence, Porck's conclusion to this chapter rings true: "If not a golden age, the scanty written records do reveal at the very least that for an old woman the Anglo-Saxon period need not have been the worst of times" (231).
As his conclusion makes clear, more work remains to be done on old age in early medieval England, but it is also clear that this book is and will remain important for future discussions of age, including for discussions of age in later medieval England. Well-written and well-researched, Old Age in Early Medieval England is itself a storehouse of knowledge about the aged, and one is surely to find much more than can be stated here.