Women's Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination: Matrilineal Legacies in the High Middle Ages

Emma O. Bérat

doi:10.1017/9781009434720

Uncovering the many striking female alternatives to patrilineal narratives in medieval texts, Emma O. Bérat explores strategies of writing and illustration that creatively and purposefully depict women's legacies. Genealogy, used to justify a character's present power and project it onto the future, was crucial to medieval political, literary, and historical thought. While patrilineage often limited women to exceptional or passive roles, other genealogical forms that represent and promote women's claims are widespread in medieval texts. Female characters transmit power through book patronage and reading, enduring landmarks, and international travel, as well as childbearing and succession. These flexible – if messy – genealogies reflect the web of political, biological, and spiritual relations that frequently characterized elite women's lives. Examining hagiography, chronicles, genealogical rolls, and French, English, and Latin romances, as well as associated codices and images, Bérat highlights the centrality of female characters and historical women to this fundamental aspect of medieval consciousness.

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Contents

Women’s Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination
pp i-i
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Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature - Series page
pp ii-iv
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Women’s Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination - Title page
pp v-v
Matrilineal Legacies in the High Middle Ages
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Copyright page
pp vi-vi
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Contents
pp vii-vii
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Figures
pp viii-viii
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Acknowledgments
pp ix-xi
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Note on the Text
pp xii-xii
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Introduction
pp 1-22
Women’s Genealogies
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Chapter 1 - The Book as Bloodline
pp 23-54
The Life of Queen Margaret of Scotland
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Chapter 2 - Records on the Landscape
pp 55-88
Landmarks in Audrée, Osith, and Modwenne
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Chapter 3 - Tracing Mobility
pp 89-124
Royal Genealogical Diagrams and Trevet’s Les Cronicles
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Chapter 4 - Mothers and Messengers
pp 125-150
Violent Transmission in Athelston
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Conclusion
pp 151-155
Matrilineal Legacies
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Notes
pp 156-199
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Bibliography
pp 200-224
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Index
pp 225-228
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Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature - Series page
pp 229-234
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Women's Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination

Matrilineal Legacies in the High Middle Ages

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Contents

Women’s Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination
pp i-i

Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature - Series page
pp ii-iv

Women’s Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination - Title page
pp v-v

Copyright page
pp vi-vi

Contents
pp vii-vii

Figures
pp viii-viii

Acknowledgments
pp ix-xi

Note on the Text
pp xii-xii

Introduction
pp 1-22

Chapter 1 - The Book as Bloodline
pp 23-54

Chapter 2 - Records on the Landscape
pp 55-88

Chapter 3 - Tracing Mobility
pp 89-124

Chapter 4 - Mothers and Messengers
pp 125-150

Conclusion
pp 151-155

Notes
pp 156-199

Bibliography
pp 200-224

Index
pp 225-228

Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature - Series page
pp 229-234

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Women's Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination

Matrilineal Legacies in the High Middle Ages

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