XXIV. Studientag Englisches Mittelalter (SEM 2024)

Durch den Inhalt der einzelnen Einträge im Korpus der angelsächsischen Reliquienverzeichnisse ist klar angedeutet, dass sich die Art der Reliquie eigentlich an das Legendennarrativ der jeweiligen Heiligen richtet. Deshalb findet man in dem Reliquienverzeichnis des sogenannten ‚Leofric Missal‘ Märtyrerreliquien wie etwa das Blut, den Kopf oder den Stein von Stephanus dem Protomärtyrer, aber auch die Kohlen (carbone) des hl. Laurentius, der auf heißem Rost starb.[1] Im Vergleich sind die Reliquien geheiligter Konfessor-Bischöfe häufig als liturgische Gewände eingetragen; daneben findet man oft Arme—unmittelbar mit den Gesten der Segnung verbundene Körperteile. Auf diese Art und Weise wird es Reliquien ermöglicht, Geschichte und Narrativ konkret zu enthalten. In diesem Vortrag möchte ich diese hagiographische Legendentragbarkeit in den Einträgen von angelsächsischen Reliquienverzeichnissen aufzeigen. Danach möchte ich kurz den Einfluss dieser Wirkung auf der Verbreitung legendärer Handschriften, und letztendlich auf den in Kalendern zu sehenden Zuwachs bestimmter Kulte eingehen.  

[1] Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 579, f. 6r-v.

[English]

Holy Things: Relics as Concretisation of Hagiographical Legend in Early England
Early Medieval English relic lists suggest by the content of their entries that the kind of object a relic was purported to be was directly linked to the saint’s legendary narrative. For example, it is surely no accident that in a relic list contained in the so-called ‘Leofric Missal’, martyr relics recall the specific brutalities of their passions: consider the relics of Stephen the Protomartyr’s blood, head, and stone, as opposed to the coals (carbone) of the gridironed Laurence.[1] On the other hand, vestments dominate as relics of confessor-bishops, alongside a large number of arms—used in life to bless and heal. In this way, relics, as things, themselves become capable of containing hagiographical narrative and supporting it. In this paper, I will demonstrate how relic lists (and indeed, relics themselves) concretize and contain legendary narrative. I will then briefly demonstrate the impact that this fact had on the spread of legendary manuscripts, and the culting of particular saints as evidenced by kalendars.

[1] Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 579, f. 6r-v.

Geistliche Spiele dienten neben der Vermittlung von „Wahrheiten“ in Form alt- wie neutestamentlicher und eschatologischer Geschichten sowie kirchlicher Lehren und Dogmen, vor allem auch der Vergegenwärtigung der biblischen historia. Dazu wurden verschiedene Strategien angewandt (Lebende Bilder, Appelle und Ansprachen an das Publikum, gottesdienstliche Gesänge und Gebärden), um zu Andacht, Mitleid und in einigen Fällen auch zur Rache aufzurufen. Diese Mnemotechniken und weitere Strategien der Wahrheits(re)produktion und  -vermittlung sowie der damit verbundenen Publikumsdramaturgie sollen im Rahmen meines Promotionsprojektes untersucht werden.

[English]

The Production of Truth in Religious Plays of the German and English Middle Ages
Religious plays served not only to convey “truths” in the form of Old and New Testament stories, eschatological narratives, and church teachings and dogmas, but also primarily to bring the biblical historia to life. Various strategies were employed for this purpose (living pictures, appeals and addresses to the audience, liturgical songs and gestures) to evoke devotion, compassion, and in some cases, revenge. These mnemonic techniques and other strategies for the (re)production and transmission of truth, as well as the associated audience dramaturgy, will be examined as part of my doctoral project.

The Middle English Alexander A and B (ca. 1340–70), two alliterative fragments dedicated to different aspects of Alexander the Great’s life and legacy, offer unique insights into the compositional practice of two anonymous poets. Just like The Destruction of Troy, they have been translated closely from influential Latin prose sources. This paper unravels the poems’ linguistic and intellectual independence, demonstrating that they confronted their fourteenth-century audiences with some of the most sensitive issues of the period.

Now entering its second year, the ERC-funded Post-REALM project calls for a reassessment of the methodologies by which historical text corpora are studied. We will present on the key aims and approaches shaping the project, which focuses on the widespread medieval romance Floire et Blancheflor as a case study for exploring how digital methods, close reading, and the study of manuscript context can complement each other and provide new insights into text collections from the past.

The importance of the spatialisation of the afterlife in visions has been widely debated since at least Le Goff’s La Naissance du Purgatoire. While the linear, progressive nature of the afterlife spaces has been noted to have a salvific effect on the visionary, anomalous, i.e. atemporal and non-linear, usage of time and space has not been addressed adequately yet. This is particularly surprising as narrating time and space in those texts does not only mean negotiating the atemporality of eschatological time with the linear progression of a visionary’s journey through afterlife spaces but also with the atemporality of reading and the spatialisation of the reader. My paper will address this by analysing Middle English afterlife visions from a narratological point of view in relation to medieval reading practices. I will argue that by reading visions aloud the eschatological time and space of the afterlife are not only symbolically but literally brought into the present of the reader, actualised in mind and body. Narrated time, often characterized by its extensions and contractions, and narrated space, often seen as fragmentary, become performative in their transformation into real time and space – which in turn transforms the narrative itself. Thus, my paper will show that visions of the afterlife intentionally play with time and space to create a more direct immersion and, thereby, actively seek to transform or rather cleanse the reader.