The Review of English Studies Advance Access originally published online on January 17, 2007
The Review of English Studies 2006 57(232):607-622; doi:10.1093/res/hgl119
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press 2007; all rights reserved
The Source and Textual Identity of ‘Homily’ Napier XXXI – Ælfric & The Munuccild of Saint-Maurice D'agaune
University College London, English Department, Malet Place, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
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Abstract |
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Legends about the death of oblates exist in various forms in the medieval literatures of Europe. The only known version of such a story extant in Old English, the edifying example of the munuccild of Saint-Maurice d’Agaune in Napier XXXI, has been largely ignored in previous research. For the first time, this article presents the Latin source of the Old English text, contained in the Libri miraculorum of Gregory of Tours. Comparing Napier XXXI to its source reveals the consequent transformation of a Latin hagiographical text into a vernacular homiletic exemplum. Ælfric's authorship of the translation seems possible, but his direct influence on the extant version must be doubted on both palaeographical and stylistic grounds. Analysing the context and layout of MS Bodleian Hatton 113, this study further suggests that the apparent fragmentary state of Napier XXXI could perhaps be remedied by its predecessing item, homily Napier XXX. A historical connection between Wulfstan of Worcester, whose private homiliary contains the legend of the munuccild, and bishop Ermenfrid of Sion, who probably acted as abbot of the monastery of St Maurice, can be established on the grounds of the latter's work as a papal legate in Worcester during the 1060s. Long before Chaucer's Prioress's Tale, Napier XXXI represents the earliest English, possibly even the earliest vernacular version of an oblatus mortus legend.