The Texts and Contexts of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 108: The Shaping of English Vernacular Narrative

The late thirteenth-century, monolingual Oxford manuscript, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 108, bears singular importance to medieval studies, for it preserves and anthologizes unique versions of several seminal Middle English texts, including South English Legendary, Havelok the Dane, and King Horn and Somer Soneday. While critics have traditionally classified these poems by genre, this book returns them to their manuscript context in a comprehensive examination of this vernacular codex. Considering the manuscript as a “whole book” rather than a miscellany of romances, saints' lives, and religious poems, these inter-connected essays focus on the physical, contextual, and critical intersections of Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 108. Codicological evidence foregrounds the manuscript’s investment in a particular vision of an English Christian identity. Contributors are A.S.G. Edwards, Thomas R. Liszka, Murray J. Evans, Andrew Taylor, Diane Speed, Susanna Fein, Robert Mills, Andrew Lynch, Daniel Kline, Christina M. Fitzgerald, and J. Justin Brent.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures … x Acknowledgments … xi List of Abbreviations … xiii List of Authors … xvii Introduction: Reading Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 108 as a “Whole Book” … 1 Kimberly K. Bell and Julie Nelson Couch PART ONE THE MANUSCRIPT AND ITS PROVENANCE I. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 108: Contents, Construction, and Circulation … 21 A. S. G. Edwards II. Talk in the Camps: On the Dating of the South English Legendary, Havelok the Dane, and King Horn in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 108 … 31 Thomas R. Liszka III. “Very Like a Whale”?: Physical Features and the “Whole Book” in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 108 … 51 Murray J. Evans IV. “Her Y Spelle”: The Evocation of Minstrel Performance in a Hagiographical Context … 71 Andrew Taylor V. Miscellaneous Masculinities and a Possible Fifteenth-Century Owner of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 108 … 87 Christina M. Fitzgerald PART TWO THE MANUSCRIPT AND ITS TEXTS VI. A Text for Its Time: The Sanctorale of the Early South English Legendary … 117 Diane Speed VII. The Audience and Function of the Apocryphal Infancy of Jesus Christ in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 108 … 137 Daniel T. Kline VIII. The Eschatological Cluster—Sayings of St. Bernard, Vision of St. Paul, and Dispute Between the Body and the Soul—in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 108 ... 157 J. Justin Brent IX. Genre, Bodies, and Power in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 108: King Horn, Havelok, and the South English Legendary … 177 Andrew Lynch X. The Early South English Legendary and Difference: Race, Place, Language, and Belief … 197 Robert Mills XI. The Magic of Englishness in St. Kenelm and Havelok the Dane … 223 Julie Nelson Couch XII. “holie mannes liues”: England and its Saints in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 108’s King Horn and South English Legendary … 251 Kimberly K. Bell XIII. Somer Soneday: Kingship, Sainthood, and Fortune in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 108 … 275 Susanna Fein Epilogue: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 108 and Other English Manuscripts … 299 A. S. G. Edwards Bibliography … 303 Index of Manuscripts … 323 General Index … 325 Figures following 329