Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction / Larissa Tracy and Jefff Massey -- Non potest hoc corpus decollari: Beheading and the Impossible / Nicola Masciandaro -- “Like a Virgin”: The Reheading of St. Edmund and Monastic Reform in Late-Tenth-Century England / Mark Faulkner -- A Crowning Achievement: The Royal Execution and Damnation of Eadric Streona / Jay Paul Gates -- Decapitation, Martyrdom, and Late Medieval Execution Practices in The Book of Margery Kempe / Christine F. Cooper-Rompato -- Talking Heads in Hell: Dante’s Use of Severed Heads in Inferno / Dwayne C. Coleman -- Severed Silence: Social Boundaries and Family Honor in Boccaccio’s “Tale of Lisabetta” / Mary E. Leech -- The Headless Giant: The Function of Severed Heads in the Ahistorical (Aventiurehafte) Dietrich Epics / Tina Boyer -- “To be a ‘Fleschhewere’ ”: Beheading, Butcher-Knights, and Blood Taboos in Octavian Imperator / Renée Ward -- The Werewolf at the Head Table: Metatheatric “Subtlety” in Arthur and Gorlagon / Jefff Massey -- “So he smote of hir hede by myssefortune”: The Real Price of the Beheading Game in SGGK and Malory / Larissa Tracy -- “At the time of his death”: The Contested Narrative of Sir Walter Ralegh’s Beheading / Andrew Fleck -- “Killing Swine” and planting heads in Shakespeare’s Macbeth / Thomas Herron -- “Tucked Beneath Her Arm”: Culture, Ideology, and Fantasy in the Curious Legend of Anne Boleyn / Thea Cervone -- “Answering the Call of the Severed Head” / Asa Simon Mittman -- Bibliography -- Index -- Illustrations.

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The decapitation motif recurs in nearly all medieval and early modern genres, from saints' lives and epics to comedies and romances, yet decollation is often little regarded, save as a marker of humanity (that is, as the moment mortality exits) or inhumanity (that is, as the moment the supernatural enters). However, as a seat of reason, wisdom, and even the soul, the head has long been afforded a special place in the body politic, even when separated from its body proper. Capitalizing upon the enduring fascination with decapitation in European culture, this collection examines--through a variety of critical lenses--the recurring \'roles/rolls\' of severed human heads in the medieval and early modern imagination. Contributors are Nicola Masciandaro, Mark Faulkner, Jay Paul Gates, Christine Cooper-Rompato, Dwayne Coleman, Mary Leech, Tina Boyer, Renée Ward, Andrew Fleck, Thomas Herron, Thea Cervone, and Asa Simon Mittman. Preface by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen.