Everyday Saints and the Art of Narrative in the South English Legendary
Anne B. ThompsonBooks.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
Anne Thompson here gives the fullest account and explanation to date of the diversity of the more than sixty manuscripts of the South English Legendary, a late thirteenth-century collection of lively verse lives of saints, in a southern English dialect. The importance of the SEL to hagiographic and cultural studies has been increasingly acknowledged in recent years.Without denying the legendaries' religious purpose, this book looks at the way SEL narratives reflect and address the complex, interwined tapestry-political, social, religious-of Edward I's England, while retaining a strong emphasis on the craft of story-telling.
Thompson shows the SEL to be a fresh and exciting early example of popular vernacular literature. Firmly grounded in rural and small town life of the 1270s to 1290s in the west of England, it is uniquely significant for any understanding of that culture.
About the Author:
Anne Booth Thompson, Professor of English and Euterpe B. Dukakis Chair in Classical and Medieval Studies, Bates College, USA.
Synopsis
Thompson (English, Bates College) analyzes a collection of stories about the saints that was assembled somewhere in the west of England towards the end of the 13th century and subsequently copied extensively for two centuries. After examining its unique features and those it shares with other writing of the period and with hagiography of other times and places, she focuses on its narrative art. Finally, she looks at how it was influenced by the political and social concerns of the period, particularly during the reign of Edward I. She quotes in the original Middle English, with modern English translation. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR