Reinterpreting and reconstructing standards of sainthood through emotional experience in the Old English lives of Saint Margaret

ABSTRACTIn this paper, I am interested in showing how there is a divergence in two Old English texts on Saint Margaret of Antioch, particularly as far as their treatment of affective and aesthetic phenomena are concerned. Drawing on some of the most recent research on emotional communities, early medieval hagiography, and contemporary emotion theories, this paper seeks to examine the treatment of emotional experience, chiefly aesthetic pleasure and fear, in two Old English lives of Saint Margaret. This research highlights how, in early Medieval England, there were no consistent standards of sainthood, and how emotional tenor depended on the more specific goals, values and feeling norms of narrower emotional and textual communities. More specifically, this paper stresses how one of these authors relies on fear terminology to portray a more relatable standard of sainthood, while another censors this response and highlights the saint’s beauty in order to paint a more exemplary portrayal of this saint.KEYWORDS: Saint MargaretOld Englishearly medieval hagiographyemotions Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Appraisals here are defined as cognitive evaluations that are carried out subconsciously by the central nervous system (Scherer, Citation2005: 698).2 Throughout this paper, I follow the practice of, for example, Lakoff and Johnson (Citation1980), and employ small caps to refer to individual emotions. In the case of beauty, this is short for the experience of beauty, understood as an aesthetic experience, instead of an aesthetic category.3 Here, I am following Fingerhut & Prinz (Citation2020), who categorise the experience of beauty, an aesthetic emotion pointed out by other researchers like Armstrong & Detweiler-Bedell (Citation2008), under the umbrella term of aesthetic pleasure.4 There is a third Old English prose rendition of Margaret’s legend, which can be found in Cotton MS Otho B. x, and which dates from the eleventh century, but it was partially destroyed in a fire in 1731. Only its incipit and excipit survive, having been transcribed by the English scholar Humfrey Wanely before the fire.5 Throughout this paper, I will highlight in bold face the terms that will be explicitly discussed or that denote emotional experience, while underlining the motifs and ideas that contribute or are more peripherally related to this emotion. The Old English and Latin texts provided here, as well as the translations, are taken from Clayton & Magennis (Citation1994).6 “He was looking in through a window and writing down her prayers. Behold, suddenly a dreadful dragon came out from the corner of the prison, all adorned with different colours in its coat and with a gold-coloured beard. Its teeth seemed like the sharpest iron. Its eyes shone like the flame of fire, and from its nostrils issued fire and smoke; its tongue hung out panting over its neck, and a two-edged sword could be seen in its hand. It was fearsome and it caused a stench in the prison from that fire which issued from the mouth of the dragon. The blessed Margaret became as pale as grass and the fear of death came upon her, and all her bones were shattered. She had actually forgotten because of her terror that God had heeded her prayer” (Clayton & Magennis, Citation1994: 205).7 Oblita enim erat propter paurorem quod Deus exaudiuit orationem eius (BN, lat. 5574 (P), 12) “She had actually forgotten because of her terror that God had heeded her prayer” (Clayton & Magennis, Citation1994: 205).8 The Old English text abbreviations and line numbers are taken from the Dictionary of Old English Corpus.9 “There came then out of the corner of the prison a most terrifying dragon of many different colours. His hair and his beard appeared golden, and his teeth were just like cut iron, and his eyes shone like strange gems, and from his nose there came a great amount of smoke, and his tongue breathed out and he caused a tremendous stench in the prison. Then he raised himself up and hissed with a loud sound. Then there was a great light in the dark prison from the fire which came out from the dragon’s mouth. The holy maiden then became very afraid and she bent her knees to the ground and stretched out her hands in prayer and spoke as follows: ‘God Almighty, extinguish the power of this huge dragon and have mercy on me in my need and hardship and never let me perish, but defend me against this wild beast” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 123).10 “And immediately after that it suddenly happened that a horrible devil entered. His name was Rufus and he was very large, with the appearance of a dragon, and he was all spotted like a snake. And a glare emanated from his teeth, as if from a bright sword, and it was as if a flame of fire came from his eyes and smoke and an immense great fire from his nostrils, and his three tongues lay around his neck. Margaret prostrated herself on the ground and uttered her righteous prayers to God” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 163).11 “It happened that, when the blessed Margaret had completed her prayer, she looked into the left side of the prison and, behold, she saw another devil sitting there in the form of a black man, with his hands fastened to his knees. He got up and began to make his way towards her and seized her hand. Margaret, however, said to the demon ‘Let what you have done be sufficient for you. Depart from me now.’ […] Then the holy maiden Margaret seized the demon by the hair and smashed him to the ground. She placed her right foot on his neck” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 207).12 “I did not dare to speak to you because I see Christ walking beside you and I am fearful” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 209).13 “And when she had completed her prayers, she looked into the left-hand side of the prison and saw another devil sitting there, black and ugly, as was his nature, and he got up and came towards her” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 163).14 Circa 450 occurrences (DOE, s.v. fæger, adj.).15 See Table A1, Appendix for a more illustrative account of how fear-related terminology is distributed through these texts.16 “The holy Margaret replied, ‘God, who has put his seal upon my chastity, knows that you will not persuade me, nor will you be able to move me from the path of truth upon which I have started. For I worship him before whom the earth quakes and the sea is terrified, whom you and every creature ought to fear, whose reign lasts for ever in eternity” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 199).17 “And I am ready’, she said, ‘to believe in the Lord who created the heavens and the earth and he compelled the sea, where it fears day and night” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 157-159).18 “Look upon me, Lord, and have pity on me, and free me from the hands of my enemies and from the grasp of this tormentor, lest perhaps my heart may be stricken into fear” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 201).19 “In you I trust, Lord, that I may not be confounded. Look upon me and deliver me from the hands of the wicked and from the hands of this executioner, lest my heart should be in terror here’ (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 117).20 “I believe in you, beloved Lord, and I entreat you never to allow me to perish nor my enemies ever to overcome me, because my hope is in you, beloved lord […] Remain with me always, beloved Lord, heavenly King. Have mercy on me and rescue me from the devil’s power” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 159).21 “And then she said to the prefect, ‘O, you base dog! My God is helping me and, though you have power over my body, Christ will save my soul from your terrible hands” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 119).22 There are two further instances of OE egeslic in this text, but they do not relate to the standard of sainthood that is presented in this text. They occur in the collocation egeslican dome: one of them can be found in section 19, in the words of Saint Margaret, describing Judgment Day; the other in section 10, in the words of Olibrius, referring to his decision to torture Margaret. In the first case, it is not necessarily a saintly emotion, but an instance of utilitarian fear that is envisioned to be experienced by those who experience Judgment Day. In the second case, it is Olibrius himself who directs what emotion Margaret’s torture should trigger, in Margaret, and in those who would behold it.23 “I sent my brother Rufus to you in the appearance of a dragon, in order that he would swallow you up and destroy your chastity and your beauty and expunge the memory of you from the earth” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 125).24 “The torturers approached and afflicted her flesh. The wicked prefect covered his face with his cloak, as he was not able to look at her because of the pouring forth of her blood. The rest did likewise” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 203).25 “The soldiers then came and tormented her body. Then the impious prefect covered his face with his cloak, for he could not look upon her because of the blood” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 119).26 As it is discussed in Minaya (Citation2022b), in the Old English martyrology, the portrayal of Saint Lawrence’s martyrdom suggests that, despite being burned alive, his martyrdom caused him to look even more beautiful in the face: Ond æt nehstan he hine het aþenian on irenum bedde, ond hine cwicne hirstan ond brædan. Ond swa hine mon ma hirste, swa wæs he fægera on ondwlitan (151, Lawrence) “And eventually he ordered him to be stretched out on an iron bed, and roasted and fried alive. And the more they roasted him, the more glorious he was to look at” (Rauer Citation2013: 159).27 “He said to his attendants, ‘Go quickly, lay hold of that girl. If she is free-born, I will take her as my wife. If she is a slave I will give money for her and she will be my concubine. She will prosper greatly in my household because of her beauty” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 197).28 “Then [Olibrius] said to his attendants, ‘Ride quickly to that girl and ask her whether she is free; and if she is, then I will have her as my wife; and if she is a slave, then I will pay money for her and have her as my concubine and it will be well for her with me because of her fairness and her fair beauty’” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 155).29 “The following day the evil prefect cam and sat in the official place of justice. He ordered the girl to be led in and said to her, ‘Foolish girl, have pity on the beauty of your body and on your tenderness” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 199).30 “Olibrius then said, ‘If you will not pray to my god, my sword will have to cut your beautiful body into pieces and sunder all your limbs and I will have to burn all your bones” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 157-159).31 Interestingly, the Latin text describes how the experience of Margaret’s martyrdom and the miraculous events that surround it cause pagan people to believe in god: In ipsa hora crediderunt in Dominum Iesum Christum uiri .v. milia esceptis mulieribus et puellis (BN, lat. 5574 (P), 18).32 “Because of the great outpouring of her blood the bystanders wept bitterly for her. And some of them said, ‘O Margaret, truly we pity you, because we see you naked and your body weakened. O Margaret, what beauty you have destroyed because of your lack of belief!” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 201).33 “All the people standing about her called to her and spoke thus: ‘Why, wretched girl, will you not believe in our god and submit and bow down to our lord? O fair girl, we all lament for you grievously because we see you sitting naked like this and your fair body made into a spectacle and it seems to us that he has power over you, as to whether he wishes you to die or live” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 159).34 “and he ordered red-hot stones to be thrown at her beautiful body” (Clayton & Magennis Citation1994: 167).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) and by the University of Castilla-La Mancha, grant number 2022-GRIN-34448.Notes on contributorsFrancisco Javier Minaya GómezFrancisco Javier Minaya Gómez is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Letters, Unviersidad de Castilla-La Mancha. There, he teaches Medieval English literature and Translation Studies. His research focuses on the conceptualisation and expression of emotions and aesthetic experience in Old English literature, with an emphasis on poetry and hagiography.