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Forum: General Forum
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Respond to: Holy wells and hagiography
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ESgt
Joined:
19-10-2010
Messages: 42
from SK 483342
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|  New Message Posted!2012-08-15 13:32
Quote:
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On 2012-07-25 21:26, kstark wrote:
I would love to hear if anyone knows of other contemporary hagiography that I should check out! I'm also curious if people can cite much ritual behaviour at holy wells from primary sources from before the 16th c.; I'd be really interested in allusions to pin and rag wells from the high middle ages.
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Have a look at The Runwell mystery: http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/Runwell.htm
More research was published recently, in Leyhunter's Newsletter #42.
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Sunny100
Joined:
20-03-2010
Messages: 216
from Near Nelson, Lancashire
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| New Message Posted!2012-08-12 18:46
Yes the lives of the western, Celtic saints of Wales are usually brought to us from the 11th century onwards, written by monks at abbeys and monasteries, often much embellished as a way of bringing pilgrims to holy sites and shrines who would hopefully spend some money and make that particular abbey wealthy. This happened at Glastonbury, in particular. When I wrote my book on Celtic saints in 1991, I had to rely a lot on "Lives of Saints" written by medieval monks who may well have overdone many of the original legends.
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kstark
Joined:
25-07-2012
Messages: 2
from London
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| New Message Posted!2012-08-12 16:33
Thanks so much for the reply! Just to update, I've found several saints lives from the 11th c. that have been immensely helpful. They are primarily Welsh and western English saints, and are included in the hagiography of the contemporary Goscelin of St Bertin. The historian Rosalind Love has, very helpfully, translated a good amount of them.
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Sunny100
Joined:
20-03-2010
Messages: 216
from Near Nelson, Lancashire
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| New Message Posted!2012-07-25 21:48
Hello Kstark. Glad you like being on the Meg Portal. I also like holy wells. But there is, as you say, a great dearth of information from earlier Christian times with regard to saints living beside holy springs. Much folklore comes from after the 16th century, and more so in the Victorian period. There used to be a Journal called 'Source' but this ended many years ago, unfortunately. It was edited by Tristran Gray Hulse who has worked for many years at St Winefride's Well in north Wales. I still have a number of these magazines. You might be able to contact him at St Winefride's Well, other than that, its a difficult one. I am also interested in the Celtic saints, particularly those of Wales and Ireland - where many holy wells are, in fact, located.
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kstark
Joined:
25-07-2012
Messages: 2
from London
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| New Message Posted!2012-07-25 21:26
Hello everyone, I am really excited to have found this website and have perusing it for the past few months. I am currently a master's student and am writing about the nature and function of holy wells in Great Britain in the high to later Middle Ages. Specifically I want to look at contemporary literature (from about the 11th-late 15th c.) that discusses well formation or miracles occurring at wells. I've found a good amount (Frideswide, Thomas Becket, Winifred, and Aethelthryth are some of the standouts), but it's proving difficult to find references to wells from primary documents from that period. Everywhere I look there are countless legends and stories from the 16th c. onwards, but very little concerning the time periods the wells were supposedly 'Christianised' (if thought originally pagan).
I would love to hear if anyone knows of other contemporary hagiography that I should check out! I'm also curious if people can cite much ritual behaviour at holy wells from primary sources from before the 16th c.; I'd be really interested in allusions to pin and rag wells from the high middle ages.
Thanks very much!
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