Legends Tradition And History In Medieval England

In this collection of essays, Antonia Gransden brings out the virtues of medieval writers and highlights their attitudes and habits of thought. She traces the continuing influence of Bede, the greatest of early medieval English historians, from his death to the 16th century. Bede's clarity and authority were welcomed by generations of monastic historians. At the other end is a humble 14th-century chronicle produced at Lynn with little to add other than a few local references.

"Medieval Folklore" offers a wide-ranging guide to the lore of the Middle Ages -- from the mundane to the supernatural. Definitive and lively articles focus on the great tales and traditions of the age and include information on daily and nightly customs and activities; religious beliefs of the pagan, Christian, Muslim, and Jew; key works of oral and written literature; traditional music and art; holidays and feasts; food and drink; and plants and animals, both real and fantastical. For anyone who has ever wanted a path through the tangle of Arthurian legends, or the real lowdown on St. Patrick, or the last word on wolf lore -- this is the place to look. -- From publisher's description.

Curious Myths of the Middle Ages is a collection of a dozen of tales and legends from medieval England. The author does a thorough research relating these stories to the extant mythology from many ancient cultures, tracing the origin of each myth. Table of Contents: The Wandering Jew Prester John The Divining Rod The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus William Tell The Dog Gellert Tailed Men Antichrist and Pope Joan The Man in the Moon The Mountain of Venus Fatality of Numbers The Terrestrial Paradise

St Helena, mother of Constantine the Great and legendary finder of the True Cross, was appropriated in the middle ages as a British saint. The rise and persistence of this legend harnessed Helena's imperial and sacred status to portray her as a romance heroine, source of national pride, and a legitimising link to imperial Rome. This study is the first to examine the origins, development, political exploitation and decline of this legend, tracing its momentum and adaptive power from Anglo-Saxon England to the twentieth century. Using Latin, English, and Welsh texts, as well as church dedications and visual arts, the author examines the positive effect of the British legend on the cult of St Helena and the reasons for its wide appeal and durability in both secular and religious contexts. Two previously unpublished vitae of St Helena are included in the volume: a Middle English verse vita from the South English Legendary, and a Latin prose vita by the twelfth-century hagiographer, Jocelin of Furness. Antonina Harbus is Professor in the Department of English at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

This holistic study demonstrates the interconnected nature of early medieval origin legends and traces their growth over time.

Completes what will become the definitive history of the abbey of Bury St Edmunds in the thirteenth century.

The Norman Conquest in English History, Volume 1: A Broken Chain? pursues a central theme in English historical thinking over seven centuries. Covering more than half a millennium, this first volume explains how and why the experience of the Norman Conquest prompted both an unprecedented campaign in the early twelfth century to write (or create) the history of England, and to excavate (and fabricate) pre-Conquest English law. Garnett traces the treatment of the Conquest in English historiography, legal theory and practice, and political argument through the middle ages and early modern period, examining the dispersal of these materials from libraries afer the dissolution of the monasteries, and the attempts made to rescue, edit, and print many of them in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. These preservation efforts enabled the Conquest to become still more contested in the constitutional cataclysms of the seventeenth century than it had been in the eleventh and twelfth. The seventeenth-century resurrection of the Conquest will be the subject of a second volume.

The first full-length examination of the medieval Charlemagne tradition in the literature and culture of medieval England, from the Chanson de Roland to Caxton.