Midsummer
A Cultural Sub-Text from Chretien de Troyes to Jean Michel
By (author) Sandra Billington
This publication is based on new and original research from archives in France and the Low Countries, concerning customs and beliefs practised around the midsummer solstice in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
This book is based on fresh and original research from archives in France and the Low Countries, concerning customs and beliefs practised around the midsummer solstice. The information has never previously been considered and it reveals a festive treatment of divisiveness, which might also be politically engaged. The book shows how in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries these traditions were not solely observed by the lower classes. A study of texts throughout the Middle Ages shows that the significance of St John’s Day was a valued source for some major writers, and it can be argued that it was even the rationale for works such as Chretien’s Yvain, and the anonymous Perlesvaus. The midsummer customs also appear in the civic records of Leuven and Metz, in periods where the city authorities were strong enough to break free of feudal controls. Their civic freedom was expressed at the Feast of the Baptist’s Nativity, and this appropriation by the bourgeoisie informs the romance, Galeran. The rationale of Midsummer is to examine the disparate, but interlinked uses of the customs, and to bring to the awareness of scholars festive influences current in Europe before the better known influence of Carnival; also to discuss their seminal importance for early fiction and for the theatre. The book further reveals that pre-Christian belief in Chance / Fortune was supported by the phenomenon of the Solstice and that John the Baptist’s Nativity, placed on 24 June, provided a way for Christian Fathers to allow for this, safely. [Sandra Billington is a Reader at the University of Glasgow.]
- By (author) Sandra Billington
Other Titles in this Series
Writing and Reading in Medieval Manuscript Culture
The Translation and Transmission of the Story of Elye in Old French and Old Norse Literary Contexts
Volume 25
The Ideological Foundations of Early Irish Law and Their Reception in Anglo-Saxon England, c. 600-c. 900
Volume 37
Grant risee?
The Medieval Comic Presence / La Presence comique medievale: Essays in Memory of Brian J. Levy
Volume 11
Historical Narratives and Christian Identity on a European Periphery
Early History Writing in Northern, East-Central, and Eastern Europe (c.1070-1200)
Volume 26
The Playful Middle Ages
Meanings of Play and Plays of Meaning: Essays in Memory of Elaine C. Block
Volume 23
Crossroads of Cultures
Multilingual Diversity in Dutch Literature from Late Medieval Flanders
Volume 41
Learning and Understanding in the Old Norse World
Essays in Honour of Margaret Clunies Ross
Volume 18
Survival and Success on Medieval Borders
Cistercian Houses in Medieval Scotland and Pomerania from the Twelfth to the Late Fourteenth Century
Volume 24
Celts, Gaels, and Britons
Studies in Language and Literature from Antiquity to the Middle Ages in Honour of Patrick Sims-Williams
Volume 35
Parisian Confraternity Drama of the Fourteenth Century
The 'Miracles de Nostre Dame par personnages'
Volume 22
Essays in Manuscript Geography
Vernacular Manuscripts of the English West Midlands from the Conquest to the Sixteenth Century
Volume 10
Similar Books
A Collaborative Tapestry in Honour of Shirley Ann Brown / Une fresque brodée en l’honneur de Shirley Ann Brown
The Bayeux Tapestry Seen by her Colleagues and Friends / La Tapisserie de Bayeux vue par ses collègues et amis
Behind the Scenes of Medieval Roofs
An Overview of the Roofing Systems of Italian Churches
Volume 90
Innovation and Medieval Communities
The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and out of the Town (1200-1500)
Volume 63
John Dunstaple Reading Boethius
John Dunstaple’s Annotations to Boethius’s “De institutione musica” in the Manuscript Oxford, Corpus Christi College Library, MS 118
Linguistic and Cultural Dynamics in a Frontier Society
New Perspectives on Northeastern Bavaria and Western Bohemia in the Early Middle Ages
Volume 9
Medieval Debates on Foreknowledge: Future Contingents, Prophecy, and Divination
Acts of the XXVII Annual Colloquium of the SIEPM, Trento 12-15 September 2023
Volume 31
Medieval Yeghegis, Armenia
History, Archaeology, Society. Local Multiplicities and Global Connections of a Rural Centre on the Silk Road(s)
Power and Women in Southeast and Central Europe in Late Medieval and Early Modern Period (1300-1600)
Volume 10
The Anglo-Norman Bible’s Books of Kings, a Critical Edition
(BL Royal 1 C III, fols 234r-274v)
Volume 37
The Embodied Court in the Premodern World
Understanding the Physicality, Performativity and Lifecycle of Bodies at Court in Europe and Beyond, 1400-1800
Volume 4
