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

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 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.