Converting corpses: the religious other in the Munich Oswald and St Erkenwald
This article investigates the concerns about the fate of non-Christians after death in the Middle High German Munich Oswald by reading it alongside the Middle English St Erkenwald. These texts ascribe to their protagonists, the Anglo-Saxon saints Erkenwald, Bishop of London and Oswald, King of North...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor and Francis
2015
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| _version_ | 1826292672570064896 |
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| author | Mary Boyle |
| author_facet | Mary Boyle |
| author_sort | Mary Boyle |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | This article investigates the concerns about the fate of non-Christians after death in the Middle High German Munich Oswald by reading it alongside the Middle English St Erkenwald. These texts ascribe to their protagonists, the Anglo-Saxon saints Erkenwald, Bishop of London and Oswald, King of Northumbria, the power to raise, convert, and baptize the dead. The article considers the possible impact on this tradition of the legend of the Emperor Trajan's post-death relief from Hell, as well as the different deployment of the posthumous conversion motif in each text: the religious other of the Munich Oswald is contemporary yet geographically distant, while the religious other of St Erkenwald is temporally distant but geographically proximate. This article considers how far the Munich Oswald and St Erkenwald share a formula for dealing with an exceptional solution to an eternal problem. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:18:19Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:b692b85e-91b4-4d2d-9763-384228f61934 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:18:19Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Taylor and Francis |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:b692b85e-91b4-4d2d-9763-384228f619342022-03-27T04:41:53ZConverting corpses: the religious other in the Munich Oswald and St ErkenwaldJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:b692b85e-91b4-4d2d-9763-384228f61934EnglishSymplectic ElementsTaylor and Francis2015Mary BoyleThis article investigates the concerns about the fate of non-Christians after death in the Middle High German Munich Oswald by reading it alongside the Middle English St Erkenwald. These texts ascribe to their protagonists, the Anglo-Saxon saints Erkenwald, Bishop of London and Oswald, King of Northumbria, the power to raise, convert, and baptize the dead. The article considers the possible impact on this tradition of the legend of the Emperor Trajan's post-death relief from Hell, as well as the different deployment of the posthumous conversion motif in each text: the religious other of the Munich Oswald is contemporary yet geographically distant, while the religious other of St Erkenwald is temporally distant but geographically proximate. This article considers how far the Munich Oswald and St Erkenwald share a formula for dealing with an exceptional solution to an eternal problem. |
| spellingShingle | Mary Boyle Converting corpses: the religious other in the Munich Oswald and St Erkenwald |
| title | Converting corpses: the religious other in the Munich Oswald and St Erkenwald |
| title_full | Converting corpses: the religious other in the Munich Oswald and St Erkenwald |
| title_fullStr | Converting corpses: the religious other in the Munich Oswald and St Erkenwald |
| title_full_unstemmed | Converting corpses: the religious other in the Munich Oswald and St Erkenwald |
| title_short | Converting corpses: the religious other in the Munich Oswald and St Erkenwald |
| title_sort | converting corpses the religious other in the munich oswald and st erkenwald |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT maryboyle convertingcorpsesthereligiousotherinthemunichoswaldandsterkenwald |