Synopses & Reviews
The literature of Anglo-Saxon England is unique among contemporary European literatures in that it features a vast amount of saints' lives in the vernacular. This study analyzes the most important author Aelfric's lives of five important saints in the light of their cults in Anglo-Saxon England, providing the reader fascinating glimpses of 'Aelfric at work'. He adapts the cults and rewrites the received Latin hagiography so that each of their lives conveys a distinct message to the contemporary political elite as well as to a lay audience at large.
Synopsis
The cult of saints was one of the most important aspects of life in the Middle Ages, and it often formed the nucleus of developing group identities in a town, a province or a country. This book examines five of Aelfric's saints' Lives in their contemporary political and intellectual setting.
Table of Contents
1. Aelfric's Sanctorale and the Benedictional of Aethelwold; 2. Gregory: the Apostle of the English; 3. Cuthbert: from Northumbrian Saint to Saint of All England; 4. Benedict: Father of Monks - and what else?; 5. Swithun and Aethelthryth: Two 'Saints of our Days'; 6. Epilogue.