Ebook: The "Scottish Legendary": Towards a Poetics of Hagiographic Narration

This is the first book-length study of the late-fourteenth-century 'Scottish Legendary', the only extant collection of saints' lives in the vernacular from medieval Scotland. The fifty saints' legends are remarkable for their narrative art: the enjoyment of reading the legends is heightened, while didactic and edifying content is toned down.

This study scrutinises the dynamics of hagiographic narration, its implicit assumptions about literariness and the functions of telling the lives of the saints. Focusing on the role of the narrator, the depiction of the saintly characters, their interiority, as well as temporal and spatial parameters, the author demonstrates that the Scottish poet has adapted the traditional material to the needs of an audience versed in reading romance and other secular genres. The legends of the saints are 'secularised' in their narrative design and the emphasis put on aspects such as familial conflict and interpersonal tensions. The Scottish compilation is placed within the hagiographic landscape of medieval Britain: while undoubtedly bearing similarities to other vernacular saints' legends such as the 'South English Legendary' or Osbern Bokenham's legends, it ultimately follows its own agenda of popularising the hagiographic tales. The implications of the Scottish poet's narrative strategies are scrutinised also with respect to the Scottishness of the legendary.

This study will be of interest to students and academics interested in late medieval narrative, the legends of the saints, and the intersections of secular and religious literature in medieval Britain.