Chapter 18 Heavenly Agent and Divine Disclosure: The Holy Cross at Borre

Abstract

During the Late Middle Ages, there were reports across Western Christianity of miraculous, wonderworking crosses, and crucifixes that moved, spoke, bled, and wept or interacted with the worshipper. In medieval Norway, several crosses were treated as animate objects possessing power, will or agency. In the small village of Borre in southeastern Norway, a wooden cross is known to have received gifts and to own land and livestock. Also, in two late medieval wills, “the Holy Cross” at Borre is referred to as a site of pilgrimage, mentioned together with Jerusalem and the holiest places in Christendom. This chapter will explore the material aspects of the Borre cross as well as its potential of agency, in search of answers that can explain why this cross, in the periphery of the Christian world, was included in a holy topography that had Jerusalem at its centre.