Nonbeenary Gender: Bees and Grammar in Monastic Culture Circa 800-1070

At the interface of grammar and nature, bees served as a figure of transgender identification for monks in England, France, and Germany circa 800-1070. Monks recognised bees as essential nonhuman participants in monastic life. Bees were associated with chastity, and communal life, but also with the arts of grammar and poetry. They were also known for their divergence from human sexual difference. Monastic writers used bees to conceptualise their own status in the sexual economy of their society, by experimenting with the grammatical genders used to refer to bees, identifying bees with monks, and rewriting the genders of monks in the process. This process of nonbeenary identification unfolds in Old English and Latin bee charms, and in the works of monastic writers including Rainerus of Blandin, Bern of Reichenau, and Wulfstan of Winchester.