The Landscapes of Thanet and the Legend of St Mildrith

Human and Nonhuman Voices, Agencies and Histories

Bibliographic Data

ID8864850
AuthorsJoshua Davies (0000-0002-2357-3392, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume96
Issue5
Pages487-506
Publication date2015-05-22
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnglish Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-838X • E-ISSN: 1744-4217
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0013838x.2015.1029304
OpenAlexW1512714943
LanguageEN
References cited37

The “Mildrith legend” is a group of Latin and English texts that record the circumstances in which the abbey of Minster in Thanet was founded and celebrate the life of its saintly abbess. The stories the legend tells of St Mildrith and the foundation of Minster by her mother Domne Eafe are deeply concerned with the environment, and the transmission of the legend was determined by the connection that existed between the legend and Minster's estates on Thanet. In this essay I examine the representation of the environment within various versions of the legend and interrogate how this can be related to historical context and broader cultural and critical traditions. I investigate how the dissemination of the legend is related to the natural history of the Isle of Thanet and argue that the legend and its history provide a valuable example of the interaction and interdependence of human and nonhuman beings and histories through and across time

Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology · Legend · Literature · Natural (archaeology · Representation (politics · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Medieval Literature and History · History · Law

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