Legend of Holy Women - (Notre Dame Texts in Medieval Culture) by Sheila Delany (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Sheila Delany's spirited translation of Osbern Bokenham's Legendys of Hooly Wummen (1443-1447) makes available in modern English the first all-female hagiography. Closely translated from elaborate, Latinate Middle English verse into fluent prose, A Legend of Holy Women contains the Augustinian friar's version of the stories of 13 women saints from gospel, apocrypha, martyrology, and high-medieval history. As Delany writes in her comprehensive introduction, "Bokenham gives us not only an all-female hagiography--an authorial decision significant in its own right--but a gallery of powerful, articulate women who are indubitably worthy to do God's work. Some of them are well-educated, some give sound political advice to a monarch, some preach, converting hundreds and thousands to Christianity, some walk on water or perform resurrection. Nor are they pacifists; on the contrary, they call for divinely inflicted vengeance and approve violence in their cause." Delany argues that Geoffrey Chaucer's Legend of Good Women provided a principle of selection and of arrangement for Bokenham's array of saints. She suggests further that the friar's choice of all-female hagiography, and his poetic representation of holy women, are closely linked to patronage and politics in fifteenth-century England. The translation is accompanied by full notes which, along with the introduction, make the book accessible to a wide audience. It will appeal to all readers interested in the representation of women in late-medieval culture as well as to scholars and students in medieval, renaissance, religious, and women's studies.

Review Quotes

"Why did Bokenham focus almost exclusively on women of the early church, women whose virtue was constituted by their unflinching acceptance of torture? Delany suggests that "the sadistic sexual politics of hagiography .. . is met by the affirmative sexual politics of moral strength and spiritual victory." It is Delany's achievement to facilitate the exploration of this problem by producing this fine translation of Bokenham's work." --Renaissance Quarterly

"The present translation is smooth and readable. It is based on the 1938 EETS edition of the Legendys of Hooly Wummen by Mary Serjeantson.... On the whole this is an attractive book that may introduce Bokenham to new readers." --The Ricardian

"We must be grateful to Ms. Delany for the assiduity of her well-researched and perceptive study of the life and works of this little known clerical poet." --Times Literary Supplement

About the Author

Dr. Sheila Delany is an emerita professor of English at Simon Fraser University.