Instructions for Papers
Topic for papers
You are to write on the topic:
What can a historian learn from this text about social status and social classes in the early Middle Ages?
- Some questions you might consider (you do not have to use all, or even any, of them): : What social classes and ranks were there, how did people achieve these, and how did they relate to one another? These can be classes and statuses related to wealth, occupation, freedom (or lack thereof), birth, power, etc. Keep your paper focused on status and NOT on gender, which certainly does relate to social status but in a somewhat different way.
You will write on this topic for all four papers; it has been chosen because there is information in all the sources for you to use (although you may have to dig for it!).
For each paper, write an essay in which you discuss the topic. What kind of information does this text provide? Are you able to form a good picture of the subject in question from this source? Do any things that you read surprise you?
You should consider, if appropriate, what biases or problems there might be with the text, so that the picture it presents might not be complete or accurate. For example, do you come away with a good overall picture of your topic, or only of one facet of it? Be sure to include specific quotes from the text to explain each of your points.
When I say that you should be quoting from the text, I mean the part of the text that was written in the Middle Ages. Of course you may read the introduction to each text, and the notes, which are all by a modern historian, but you need to be aware that in some of the introductions, government is discussed quite extensively. If your paper is simply a paraphrase of the introduction (with appropriate footnotes, of course), you will be marked down. The intention of this assignment is that you read the primary source (i.e. the actual text written in the Middle Ages) and form your own conclusions based on the evidence that you see there. For this reason, I recommend that you not read the introductions, at least not before you have read the text and outlined your paper. Note that for Anglo-Saxon Wills, there is a brief introduction at the bottom of this page that will be useful.
One piece of the final exam will be a composite essay on the question listed above, and you will have to answer it using material from all four primary sources. You may certainly write that essay ahead of time and turn it in with the final exam; you may copy pieces of the four papers you have already written.
General instructions
Each of the books that we are reading for this class is of a different type, and some contain multiple types: lawcode, narrative history, saints' lives, biography, official and personal letters, miracle stories, documents. I would like you to begin to understand how historians write history based on various different types of sources; therefore you will be writing on the same topic for each paper, and there will be an essay question on the final exam in which you are expected to summarize your results.
Also, these papers should not consist of literary analysis, they are HISTORY papers. In a paper of this type, you are expected to make historical arguments based on EVIDENCE. The more evidence that you can provide for each point, the better. Thus, it is usually preferable NOT to cite one passage and then explain it; rather, you should make one statement and then provide AT LEAST three quotes that support it. For example, "Nobility is something achieved by who your parents are. We see this on p. ____, "xxxx". Nobles are often described as being "of noble birth". [footnote: pp. ___, ____, ____, and ____]. And, in many other cases, people achieve the titles held by their fathers, as in "xxxxx".
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS AT ALL, PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO ASK! PROF. DELIYANNIS IS HAPPY TO LOOK AT A DRAFT OF YOUR PAPER AND GIVE FEEDBACK ON IT, AS LONG AS IT IS EMAILED TO HER BEFORE 5 PM THE DAY BEFORE THE PAPER IS DUE.
Some general comments on the papers:
* Papers should be typed/word processed, and should be of a length equivalent to 4-6 double-spaced pages, with settings of 1 inch margins (top, bottom, and sides) and twelve-point font.
* Don't be afraid of including your own opinions about what is in the book; the purpose of the exercise is to make you react to the book and what it is about.
* When you quote or paraphrase any part of any written text, either these books or any other published material, you must provide the appropriate reference, either in footnotes or endnotes. Failure to provide adequate references is considered plagiarism, which is a form of academic misconduct that I am required to handle according to University policies (http://studentcode.iu.edu/responsibilities/academic-misconduct.html). If you have any question about your use of sources, it is better to be on the safe side and provide a reference. If you have questions about what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it, see https://wts.indiana.edu/writing-guides/plagiarism.html.
Requirements and suggestions for writing a good paper:
* You are REQUIRED to include DATES in the introduction, both the date the text was written, and the date of the events described in the text (if they are different).
* Introduction. These are fairly short papers. It is essential for a good paper that you have a strong introduction that clearly explains what you are going to discuss, and what your conclusion will be. THIS IS WHAT A THESIS SENTENCE IS! Don't let your conclusion be a surprise to the reader! One effective way to do this is to have the concluding sentence of the first paragraph be: "In this paper I will show that . . [put your conclusion here] . ." Don't be afraid of using such a sentence! That is not the only way to do it, but it works. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THIS SENTENCE SAY "I WILL SHOW THAT..." AND NOT "I WILL SHOW HOW...". "How" tells us only the topic of the paper, "that" tells us the thesis.
* Topic sentences: once you have written a good thesis sentence explaining what you will be arguing, EVERY PARAGRAPH IN YOUR PAPER SHOULD BEGIN WITH A TOPIC SENTENCE THAT EXPLAINS WHAT IS IN THAT PARAGRAPH AND HOW IT RELATES TO THE THESIS. If you can't do that, you should re-think the paragraph or the thesis.
* Use of source. You are REQUIRED to provide SPECIFIC QUOTES from the source, appropriately referenced, for every point you make. Don't just generalize about what it says; that is not the right way to go about proving your point.
* Don't waste time summarizing the plot or history of the text; if you want to provide a summary, it should be no more than one paragraph long.
* If you are quoting a passage that is more than 3 lines long, it must be set as a block quote: indented and single-spaced.
Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Wills
This book presents a fascinating group of documents from the late Anglo-Saxon period (c. 950-1066); however, it's not that easy to understand, and the prefaces are rather difficult to follow (although if you are interested in legal concepts about gift and property, you'll enjoy reading them). Here is a brief introduction to the concepts, and a few useful glossary items.
The process of writing a "last will and testament" goes back to the Romans. In Anglo-Saxon England, the practice of writing down a disposition of property was adopted by the 8th century, promoted by the Church, because, as you will see, much of the property in wills was given to the Church. These wills were written in Old English, most likely because their main function was to document the oral instructions about the items of property. Note that in the book, you are given both the Old English and the modern translation!
The point of a will is to designate the recipient of personal property after death. As we know from reading the Lombard Laws, germanic law required that most property be divided up among legal heirs, usually children. That was true in Anglo-Saxon England also, and thus these wills are only concerned with the disposition of property that did not fall under the laws about inheritance.
There were two types of land tenure in Anglo-Saxon law: folkland and bookland. Their meaning is controversial among modern historians, but for the purposes of understanding the wills, you need to know the following:
- Folkland was land that could not be given away from the family of the owner, except by permission of the king. It was inherited by family members according to the law.
- Bookland was land that could be given away to anyone, at the will of the owner. Bookland could be inherited according to the law, unless it was disposed of separately, as in a gift or a will. A person might acquire bookland as a grant from the king in reward for service. Land given to churches was bookland.
So, only bookland could be bequeathed in a will; the person writing the will might also have a lot of folkland that would be going to his children or other relatives according to the law, but folkland would not be mentioned in a will.
There are several other terms with which you should be familiar before reading the wills, as follows.
heriot: a kind of inheritance tax; at death, a person was required to provide his lord (or the king) with a set of military equipment and/or other objects. In return, the lord/king was expected to enforce the terms of the will.
mancus: a gold coin weighing 4.25g (thus lighter than a solidus), equivalent to the Islamic dinar, used in Europe, especially Francia and England, after the late 8th century. In England, equivalent to 30 silver pence.
hide: a unit of land value and assessment, the amount of land that would support one household. By the late 11th century, it was approximately 120 acres, but it depended on the quality of the land.
penal-slave: a person who had become a slave because he committed a crime and couldn't pay the compensation.
mast: the fallen nuts of beech and oak trees (i.e. beechnuts and acorns), which was regulated and collected specifically to feed pigs.