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In Praise of Medieval Lesbians Accidentally Having a Baby

Erik Wade has published a twitter-thread on lesbians in Medieval Europe. The thread is relevant to all LGBTQA people, because it tells us something about how historians and other writers have censored the history of sexuality and gender in order to make sure that no queer role models remained.

Erik Wade writes:

Here's a AMAZING 12th-century Middle Irish story about lesbians accidentally having a baby. A woman asked the king to determine her baby's father, bc she hadn't sex with a man in a long time. The king asked if she'd had sex with a woman. The woman said yes.

While they were there, a woman came to the king carrying a boy-child, and put him into the king’s arms. ‘For your kingship and your sovereignty,’ said she, ‘find out for me through your ruler’s truth who the carnal father of this boy is, for I do not know myself. For I swear by your ruler’s truth, and by the King who governs every created thing that I have not known guilt with a man for many years now,’

The king was silent then. ‘Have you had playful mating with another woman?’ said he, ‘and do not conceal it if you have.’ ‘I will not conceal it,’ said she; ‘I have.’ ‘It is true,’ said the king. ‘That woman had mated with a man just before, and the semen which he left with her, she put it into your womb in the tumbling, so that it was begotten in your womb. That man is the father of your child, and let it be found out who he is.’

The king basically says, "Oh, then she must have had sex with her husband beforehand, and the semen fell into your womb during your 'tumbling.'"

Immediately, a MAN FALLS OUT OF THE SKY. He introduces himself as a priest who made a deal with a demon. The demons had been carrying him through the air for 7 years, but they were overhead when the king was speaking, & the truth made the demons scatter, freeing the priest.

While they were there they heard a noise coming towards them out of the sky, and they saw a strange malignant spectre falling to the floor of the assembly, putting men and horses to flight; nobody stayed in the assembly but the king and a few people around him. ‘What are you?’ said the king. ‘A human being,’ said he. “What put you in that plight?’ said the king. ‘I will tell you,’ said he. ‘I am in fact the priest of Inis Bó Finne,' and I had built a house, and there was no craftsman in the world that I thought good enough to make the woodwork. And a demon came to me in the shape of a man, and he made the woodwork in the house, and he would take no payment except that I should bow down to him. And I bowed down to him then, and I was seized by swelling pride and a wave of vainglory and I was caught up into flight and the demons took me away with them, and they have been ruling me for seven years now. But when you gave that fine righteous judgment this morning on the woman who came to plead with you, we happened to be above you at that time. The vapour, then, which arose from you when you became red flew up and scattered the demons in all directions, and they were unable to hold me in the air, so that I fell down through the truth of your rulership — the true judgment vou gave on...

The story's relative lack of criticism of two women having sex is noteworthy, and *once again* suggests that the history of queerness is a lot more complicated than "the Middle Ages were oppressive/homophobic." The king assumes correctly that women often had sex together.

This story appears in several versions after this. It appears in a 15th-century manuscript, in an apologue to a 16th-century bardic poem (written for a famous judge!) and in another 16th-century version. Some of these versions were less explicit, but none condemn the women.

In the 16th-century poem, the woman claims she's never had sex with a man and the King asks if she's ever "play[ed]" with another woman, laying beside her or letting her "lie between [her] thighs." The woman says yes, and the king says that woman's husband is the father.

‘Be in no doubt regarding anything that I say to you; even if it were not considered [possible], o king, no man has ever sinned with me.’

‘Did you ever,’ said Niall, ‘please confirm this for me, engage in [erotic fore-]play with another woman; did she ever place her body side by side with your fair body, or did she ever lie between your thighs?’

The lady admitted to the king in a soft regal voice: ‘It happens that such [a woman] did indeed lie in my bed, if that be a sin,’

Then spoke the high-king of swift intellect: ‘find out who is the husband of that woman, and I swear to you by God’s great will that he is the father of your only son.’

The part considered too risque to discuss is the semen, NOT the women having sex together. Later, in the 20th century, people refused to translate these texts because of the women having sex with each other. That was a *modern* anxiety, not a medieval one.

The second 16th-century version (this one in prose) is my FAVORITE, because, in this version, the woman tells the king that her lover had sex with her bc her lover's husband couldn't satisfy her (unlike the woman, who def could).

It was Niall Frasach son of Fergal son of Mdel Duin, high king of Ireland, who made the famous judgement for the woman regarding her child at the fair of Tailtiu, when she said that she did not know who the father of her child was, and she swore that she had no husband and that he (the father?) had not been shown to her in a dream. Niall asked had another woman lain with her. “Yes,’ said she. ‘What did she want with you?” ‘Her husband had lain with her,’ said she, ‘and she was not satisfied by him and she lay with me to quench her desire.’ ‘True,’ said Niall; ‘the semen which her husband left with her, she left with you, so that that man is the father of your child.”

In that moment the people attending the fair were shadowed by a dark cloud of demons above them in the air, and one of the demons fell to the ground in Tailtiu in front of the men of Ireland, i.e. the priest of Inisbofin. And he explained that Niall had been sanctified, and that it was the smoke of that fine judgement which had scattered the demons around him on all sides. And the priest asked Niall to pray on his behalf to deliver him from torment, and Niall did that and it was successful. It was on the night of Niall’s birth that the three showers showered down from Heaven as the poet sang...

There is a LOT happening in this story. The priest sells himself to the devil for nice woodwork, the devils just carry him around for years, etc. But the central claim is that a king's truthful judgment scatters demons. The truth of lesbians drives demons away.

Screenshots from the below. Translations from Damian Mcmanus's article "Niall Frosach's 'Act Of Truth': A Bardic Apologue In A Poem For Sir Nicholas Walsh" & David Greene's “The ‘Act of Truth’ in a Middle-Irish Story,” Saga och Sed (1976).

I will add, before people scream anachronism, that the term "lesbian" is attested referring to women who have sex with women in the Middle Ages, AND I use it as a deliberate choice of queer historiography, following Valerie Traub, Bernadette Brooten, Anne Lasykaya, etc.

More here!

See also my post on the poem written by a Medieval transgender woman.

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