Goscelin, monk of Saint-Bertin, who came to England in the early 1060s, was one of the most prolific hagiographers of the Anglo-Saxon saints. William of Malmesbury described him as ''second to none since Bede in the celebration of the English saints''. Part of his career was spent in wandering exile, and one of the places Goscelin stayed briefly was Ely, who twelfth-century house-history portrays him working late at night on verses commemorating Ely''s patroness, St Æthelfryth.By the late tenth century, the cult of Æthelfryth, the seventh-century virgin-queen whose two unconsummated marriages were recounted in Bede''s Historia Ecclesiastica, had been combined with that of her sister Seaxburh, and of another supposed sister, Wihtburh (whose relics were ''translated'' from East Dereham in Norfolk to Ely in 974). To this group were added Seaxburh''s daughter Eormenhild, and Eormenhild''s daughter Wærburh.A collection of the Lives of these female saints - some probably the work of Goscelin - is preserved in three twelfth-century Ely manuscripts.Taken together these texts offer a fascinating insight into Ely''s view of the women venerated by the community and of its own past history.

This volume contains comprehensive and scholarly editions of three Anglo-Saxon saints' lives: Birinus of Dorchester-on-Thames, Kenelm of Winchcombe, and Rumwold of Buckingham. Rosalind Love provides the Latin texts, based on all known manuscript versions, with a facing-page English translation, together with full annotation and a historical introduction which sets these works in the context of the development of hagiographical literature. Dr Love traces the growth and changes in hagiographical writing, one of the most important genres of medieval literature and essential to the understanding of the religious mentality of the Middle Ages, and shows how the eleventh century saw significant new directions emerge in the cult of the saints and the writing of saints' lives.

Goscelin, monk of Saint-Bertin, who came to England in the early 1060s, was one of the most prolific hagiographers of the Anglo-Saxon saints. William of Malmesbury described him as ''second to none since Bede in the celebration of the English saints''. Part of his career was spent in wandering exile, and one of the places Goscelin stayed briefly was Ely, who twelfth-century house-history portrays him working late at night on verses commemorating Ely''s patroness, St Æthelfryth.By the late tenth century, the cult of Æthelfryth, the seventh-century virgin-queen whose two unconsummated marriages were recounted in Bede''s Historia Ecclesiastica, had been combined with that of her sister Seaxburh, and of another supposed sister, Wihtburh (whose relics were ''translated'' from East Dereham in Norfolk to Ely in 974). To this group were added Seaxburh''s daughter Eormenhild, and Eormenhild''s daughter Wærburh.A collection of the Lives of these female saints - some probably the work of Goscelin - is preserved in three twelfth-century Ely manuscripts.Taken together these texts offer a fascinating insight into Ely''s view of the women venerated by the community and of its own past history.

This volume contains comprehensive and scholarly editions of three Anglo-Saxon saints' lives: Birinus of Dorchester-on-Thames, Kenelm of Winchcombe, and Rumwold of Buckingham. Rosalind Love provides the Latin texts, based on all known manuscript versions, with a facing-page English translation, together with full annotation and a historical introduction which sets these works in the context of the development of hagiographical literature. Dr Love traces the growth and changes in hagiographical writing, one of the most important genres of medieval literature and essential to the understanding of the religious mentality of the Middle Ages, and shows how the eleventh century saw significant new directions emerge in the cult of the saints and the writing of saints' lives.