One of the more unusual explanations for English defeat in 1066 appears in the Life of St Wulfstan. In it Bishop Wulfstan lambastes English noblemen for their luxurious style of living as well as their long flowing hair and he warns them that this will lead to disaster if they do not mend their ways. Not one to be accused of being all talk and no action, Wulfstan proceeds to cut the hair of all those that he can with a special knife which he kept to hand precisely for this purpose.

Wulfstan's prophetic awareness of the coming of the Normans is particularly striking not only because of the wonderful image of Wulfstan as a barber but also because of its explicit use of a gendered language. Men here are compared to women with their long flowing hair and are accused of effeminacy, which implies that they were not acting as men should. Is it also the case that Wulfstan, a cleric reprimanding laymen, is in turn being cast as the ‘real man’ here? He is certainly presented as a figure of power and authority and as a prophet to the English. Is he also a hero in the sense of a masculine ideal? This passage suggests that a gendered reading of the text, with especial reference to the presentation of Wulfstan, may be worth exploring further.