Distinguished Lecture Series 26-27: Public Lecture by Prof. Andrew Rabin

Public Lecture: Dear and Precious, Loathsome and Vile: Law and Emotion in Early Medieval England

Speaker: Andrew Rabin, Professor, University of Louisville

4:00PM October 8, 2026 (Thu)

Abstract

This talk will examine how a particularly violent episode in the reign of King Æthelred ‘the Unready’ exemplifies the complex relationship between emotion and law in early medieval England. The dispute record recounts a series of legal violations—theft, M**der, violation of sanctuary, and the rejection of royal prerogative. Crucially, the participants in the dispute frame their motivations as emotional, rather than political, to avoid accusations of bias, self-interest, or hypocrisy. As we shall see, this episode vividly illustrates how the performance of emotion could both serve and undermine the exercise of legal authority.

Biography

Andrew Rabin is a professor of English at the University of Louisville, his research examines the law and literature of early medieval England. His books include Crime and Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England (2020), Wulfstan: Old English Legal Writings (2020), The Disputatio Puerorum: A Ninth-Century Monastic Instructional Text (2017), and The Political Writings of Archbishop Wulfstan of York (2015). His most recent book is pseudo-Arnald of Villanova: Alchemical Tracts (2026), the first in a three-volume set on alchemy in the Middle Ages. In addition, he has edited multiple essay collections and published more than seventy scholarly articles. Professor Rabin is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries.

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https://english.hku.hk/event/612/Professor_Andrew_Rabin_-_Public_Lecture_&_Workshop