The “Kundeste Englisse Man”

The Englishing of St. Wulfstan of Worcester in the South English Legendary

Bibliographic Data

ID8863181
AuthorsErin Mullally (corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume92
Issue6
Pages587-606
Publication date2011-09-30
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnglish Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-838X • E-ISSN: 1744-4217
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0013838x.2011.604916
OpenAlexW2015735292
LanguageEN
References cited18

In this essay, “The ‘Kundeste Englisse Man’: The Englishing of St. Wulfstan of Worcester in theSouth English Legendary”, I discuss the literary transmission of the Life (or Vita) of St. Wulfstan, the last surviving Anglo-Saxon bishop after the Norman Conquest, exploring how that vita changes through time. I argue that Wulfstan's status as native hero grows, and his evolving vitae reveal new incidents of English heroism as the idea of Englishness itself takes root among the Norman conquerors. In theSouth English Legendary, a vast thirteenth-century Middle English compendium of saints' lives, Wulfstan becomes “þe kundeste Englisse man“—that is, the most native or natural of Englishmen—and the emergence of “Englishness” as a sign of heroism is a signal moment in the Anglo-Normans' transformation to Englishmen themselves. Ultimately, Wulfstan's archetypal Englishness rhetorically advances the Anglo-Norman transition away from a continental identity and towards Anglicization, paving the way for later conceptions of “Englishness” to emerge

Ancient history · Art · CONQUEST · Diction · HERO · Identity (music · Literature · Poetry · Sign (mathematics · Linguistics and language evolution · Medieval Literature and History · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism · Classics · History

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