Saint Michael the Archangel in Medieval English Legend - Hardcover

by Richard F. Johnson (Author)

Although there exists a vast body of scholarly work on St Michael the Archangel, this book is the first comprehensive study of the genesis and diffusion of the legends of the archangel in medieval England. Part I of this study identifies and analyses the concerns, conflicts, and roles with which St Michael is associated from scriptural and apocryphal literature through the homiletic literature of the medieval period. Part II begins with a discussion of the vernacular recensions of the popular account of the archangel's earthly interventions (BHL 5948). A close examination of the legendary accounts in Old English, Anglo-Norman, and Middle English of the archangel and his roles as guardian, intercessor, psychopomp, and warrior-angel follows. The Appendices contain the first English translation of the archangel's hagiographic foundation-myth (BHL 5948); an annotated bibliographical list and motif index of textual materials relating to the archangel; and an essay on the iconographic representations of the archangel in medieval England.