Image and Legend of Saint Margaret as an Aid in Childbirth Rituals
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Sharon Khalifa-Gueta
Abstract
Focusing on objects of medieval rituals, this article discusses the iconography of St. Margaret and the Dragon, emphasizing the gap between the saint’s legend and her visualization in medieval art. I refer to the pagan sources of the image and to its secular and folkloristic perspectives, suggesting that the figure of St. Margaret is a mirror image of demons that prevent fertility, such as Lilith, and was conceived as part of the historic development of the motif of “the woman and the dragon” and an anguiped (half-woman and half-dragon) image, intending to chase away her mirror rivals. Thus, it is clear that the portrayal sprang from the secular folk sphere and was adopted and clothed in Christianized sacred schemes.
Abstract
Focusing on objects of medieval rituals, this article discusses the iconography of St. Margaret and the Dragon, emphasizing the gap between the saint’s legend and her visualization in medieval art. I refer to the pagan sources of the image and to its secular and folkloristic perspectives, suggesting that the figure of St. Margaret is a mirror image of demons that prevent fertility, such as Lilith, and was conceived as part of the historic development of the motif of “the woman and the dragon” and an anguiped (half-woman and half-dragon) image, intending to chase away her mirror rivals. Thus, it is clear that the portrayal sprang from the secular folk sphere and was adopted and clothed in Christianized sacred schemes.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Table of Contents VII
- Blurred Boundaries in Pre-Modern Texts and Images: Aspects of Audiences and Readers-Viewers Responses 1
- The Sacred and the Profane in German Courtly Romances and Late Medieval Verse Narratives: With an Emphasis on Ulrich Bonerius and Heinrich Kaufringer 15
- The Poetic and Ideological Blurring of Boundaries in the Jewish Book of Ethics Orḥot Ṣaddiqim 41
- Laughing at Death: Blurred Boundaries in Giotto’s Last Judgment 57
- The Popular in Service of the Sacred: The Sculpted Musicians of Santiago de Compostela 79
- Image and Legend of Saint Margaret as an Aid in Childbirth Rituals 101
- Violent Women and the Blurring of Gender in some Medieval Narratives 125
- On the Heavenly and the Earthly, the Secular as Sacred – A New Reading of Medieval Hebrew Fables 145
- The Secular and the Sacred in a Bifolio from Louis of Laval’s Book of Hours and Its Spiritual Use 165
- Between Psalter and “Mirrors for Princes”: On the Moral and Didactic Messages in BL Cotton MS Domitian A XVII 185
- Visual and Textual Authority: Reading Chevalier in Manuscripts of La Vie des pères 205
- Aspects of Italian and Flemish Identity in Relation to Book Illumination: Reception of Devotional and Antiquarian Ideas through Depictions of Jewelry 229
- List of Illustrations 249
- Notes on Contributors 253
- Index 255
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Table of Contents VII
- Blurred Boundaries in Pre-Modern Texts and Images: Aspects of Audiences and Readers-Viewers Responses 1
- The Sacred and the Profane in German Courtly Romances and Late Medieval Verse Narratives: With an Emphasis on Ulrich Bonerius and Heinrich Kaufringer 15
- The Poetic and Ideological Blurring of Boundaries in the Jewish Book of Ethics Orḥot Ṣaddiqim 41
- Laughing at Death: Blurred Boundaries in Giotto’s Last Judgment 57
- The Popular in Service of the Sacred: The Sculpted Musicians of Santiago de Compostela 79
- Image and Legend of Saint Margaret as an Aid in Childbirth Rituals 101
- Violent Women and the Blurring of Gender in some Medieval Narratives 125
- On the Heavenly and the Earthly, the Secular as Sacred – A New Reading of Medieval Hebrew Fables 145
- The Secular and the Sacred in a Bifolio from Louis of Laval’s Book of Hours and Its Spiritual Use 165
- Between Psalter and “Mirrors for Princes”: On the Moral and Didactic Messages in BL Cotton MS Domitian A XVII 185
- Visual and Textual Authority: Reading Chevalier in Manuscripts of La Vie des pères 205
- Aspects of Italian and Flemish Identity in Relation to Book Illumination: Reception of Devotional and Antiquarian Ideas through Depictions of Jewelry 229
- List of Illustrations 249
- Notes on Contributors 253
- Index 255
