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Dr Juliana Dresvina
Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic, University of Cambridge
St Margaret of Antioch was one of the most popular female saints in medieval England, and seventeen versions for her Life in Old and Middle English are still extant. The version which survives in the highest number of copies – sixteen – is the verse Life from the South English Legendary. Although this version derived from a relatively stable corpus, whose core texts demonstrated less mouvance than one would expect in the case of a collection which had been popular for at least 150 years, the entry for St Margaret is unusual in this respect.
Two versions of the Life exist. The larger group consists of thirteen manuscripts, eight of which contain the ‘majority’ text, reflecting the original composition and almost identical to each other. Three more leave out a few particular lines, same in all of them, but, rather intriguingly, neither of the manuscripts was copied directly from the others, which suggests that more manuscripts with this version must have circulated in the Middle Ages.
One more Life of the first group belongs to the only known northern recast of the SEL, and although based on the ‘majority’ text, it is drastically re-wrought. Another late text of the SEL Margaret, copied approximately in the same period (mid-15 th century), is another recast, although less considerable than the one mentioned above. It is unusual because this version is the only one to be found on its own outside the SEL corpus, in a commonplace book.
The second redaction, extant in three late medieval manuscripts, apparently came into existence due to the loss of the final part of the Life at some point in the 14 th century, and a scribe had to provide the legend with an ending of approximately the same length. This tradition evolved into two sub-groups, the first, being represented by the Margaret-legend found in the famous Vernon manuscript, and the second, from two unrelated manuscripts, which again points towards a potentially wider circulation of this version.
The present paper will offer a reconstruction of the textual development of the Life of St Margaret within the SEL, suggesting connections and relationships between the manuscripts in which it is found. Given the bulk and complexity of the SEL as a corpus, still requiring a collaborative scholarly effort, a closer look at the development and mouvance of one particular item of the collection can certainly help with seeing a bigger picture.