week 9: The Liflade and te Passiun of Seinte Juliene

Number of replies: 11

The Liflade and te Passiun of Seinte Juliene is one of the three lives of Virgin Martyr saints (the other two being St Katherine of Alexandria and St Margaret) included in a collection of texts relating the virtues and advantages of virginity as a "career option" for women (the so-called Katherine Group). Scholars have associated the collection with other manuscripts and works concerned with female spirituality in general, and anachoritic life in particular - the so-called Wooing Group and most famous of them all, the Ancrene Wisse (Guide for Anchoresses). The manuscript dates to the first quarter of the 13th century, the texts were probably composed around the year 1200 in the area of the Welsh-English border.
The individual texts postulate a range of reception contexts but, as the Ancrene Wisse, they seem to be primarily addressed to women of some social standing, contemplating a religious career. Such readers might well read texts in English and French but not in Latin.
As you will note, the text develops the Old English alliterative tradition, looking back to earlier native models; at the same time, it works with images of love from the courtly lyric and romance tradition well before the first attested specimens of those genres in English.

forum: I'd like to ask you to compare the Liflade version of the narrative of Juliana's life and martyrdom with the Latin source and try to describe the additions and modifications that it introduces, and how they change your perception of the issues foregrounded in each of the two texts.
session: If, as seems likely, the Life engages in a dialogue with romance narrative patterns and motifs, to what end(s) does it use them? Is it more like a general "reshaping" or a strategic application in specific key situations?

In reply to First post

Re: week 9: The Liflade and te Passiun of Seinte Juliene

by Jiří Chytrý -
While the story involves courtship and the question of marriage, love was of little interest to the Latin original. That the ME translation has slightly different concerns may be apparent already from the now-notorious "wounding of the heart" moment. But rather than with proper conduct in love, or the laws of love, as was often the case in romance (manners), it seems to me the hagiographic text wants to explore love as a force: we see the prefect Eleusius motivated by base love (Cupiditas), which is not contrasted to some more refined version of courtly love (it might as well be the text insists there is no difference between them), but to divine love that gives Juliana the strength the endure all her torments, as the translation adds the whole topos of the "bride of Christ" absent in the original. All these changes add sexual tension to the story, probably intending to transform or "re-contextualize" the capacity to love, the so called "amorous disposition," that women (and perhaps also men?) use it better if it's for God rather than for mortal men. Since the OE version already wanted us to think about the prefect and the saint as "doubles".

In reply to Jiří Chytrý

Re: week 9: The Liflade and te Passiun of Seinte Juliene

by Helena Znojemská -
All pertinent remarks! I'd only ask, when you speak about the sexual tension, would that also mean that love of God is "secularized", i.e. described in terms that highlight the similarities, rather than differences, between earthly and divine love?
In reply to First post

Re: week 9: The Liflade and te Passiun of Seinte Juliene

by Štěpán Rybák -
After reading both texts, I believe one cannot disagree with what Jiří has stated - that is that love as such is no theme in the original Latin source. What I would like to highlight, is the way in which the OE version incorporates love into the text. I would argue that in some moments of the story, love serves the purpose of de-rationalization. Whereas in the Latin text, it is pivotal that Juliana is Christian because of her being "intelligent", "full of virtue", and having "good sense, dignified conversation", in the English translation, this is reformulated to her being "one to whom the high heavenly Lord had given His love". This would definately support Jiří's view of love presented as a "force", since here, the love is a blessing bestowed upon her, yet I would argue that the English hagiography tries to make a distinction between prefect's love and the love of Juliana's father (love deceitful, dominant, uncontrolable) and the love the saint. She presents a type of love that is intentional ("I am wedded to one whom I will truly love"), beneficial and immortal. So, as I view it, the incorporation of love into the story of martyrdom maybe is to show how the same phenomena can lead to different results (as if to mirror the dichotomy between Belial and Christ?)
In reply to Štěpán Rybák

Re: week 9: The Liflade and te Passiun of Seinte Juliene

by Helena Znojemská -
The saint's life as, simultaneously, a discourse on "right" and "left" love, somewhat in the manner of Plato's Phaedrus? Or as new romance?
In reply to First post

Re: week 9: The Liflade and te Passiun of Seinte Juliene

by Vojtěch Ripl -
I think that what both Jiří and Štěpán said are spot on impressions of what the OE versions’ intentions are. I think that the strengthened focus on the two kinds of love, as we said, caritas and cupiditas, comes from the semi-didactic purpose of the story. If it was indeed primarily targeted to a female audience as a praise of the anchoritic spiritual lifestyle of virginity, the two kinds of love here emerge as two kinds of living. Cupiditas being a carnal life/love leading eventually to destruction and divine retribution, while caritas, the divine, spiritual love/life, leading to absolution and to God. Therefore the positing of the two loves against each other, might, beside being the philosophical position of the story, serve as a persuasion tool. This might be supported also by Belials lamenting the power that maidens and virgins have over demons, which has been given considerably more space.
In reply to Vojtěch Ripl

Re: week 9: The Liflade and te Passiun of Seinte Juliene

by Helena Znojemská -
I'd agree - persuasion and/or vindication. I'm still thinking about the idea of "new romance" in that it would give the anachoritic readers an attractive framework for what they were doing. Be the heroine!
In reply to First post

Re: week 9: The Liflade and te Passiun of Seinte Juliene

by Adéla Chvátalová -
I agree with everything that was already said because when I compared the two texts it can be seen that the Latin version does not put emphasis on love. The only kind of love it puts emphasis on is Juliana's love for Christ. The ME version, in my opinion, creates a juxtaposition between Eleusius' "love" for Juliana and Juliana's love for Christ which helps her to endure the trials. The text shows that Eleusius' love was corrupted because he was the one that tortured Juliana. But Juliana's love was true because her faith and devotion helped her survive for so long. It's almost as if Juliana, in this context, is put into the position of the brave, virtuous and Christian knight.
In reply to Adéla Chvátalová

Re: week 9: The Liflade and te Passiun of Seinte Juliene

by Helena Znojemská -
The association of Juliana with "masculine" qualities - mental acuteness, composure, self-control and articulateness, and the complementary portrayal of Eleusius as weakling plaything of his emotions, has ineed been noted by scholars.
In reply to First post

Re: week 9: The Liflade and te Passiun of Seinte Juliene

by Veronika Šteflová -
The majority of the key distinctions have already been stated by my colleagues I believe. If I my add my observation, I reckon that the ME source offers far more insight into Juliana’s inner workings as well as those of her father and the demon. In contrast to the Latin version, where the characters are left somewhat flat, we are given more background for their patterns and behaviour, and their feelings, too. In the Latin version, Juliana does not even seem to suffer, the torture she goes through does not seem to affect her physically much, yet we know she is nearly dead. In the ME version, we get a sense of how she feels:

But she patiently endured it all for the Lord, and when she felt the worst, she said most certainly, “Keep it up for a while and do not ever stop, for I will not leave His love which I believe in, neither for love nor for any wickedness.”

In the Latin version, Juliana’s devotion to God is the most prominent theme and the highest virtue. We even see the change of power position once the demon starts to be buzzled and made uncomfortable by her questions. He becomes little because of her huge faith. In the ME version, it seems to be a different narrative; love and dedication of Eleusius’ and Juliana having to stick to her faith is the main features.
In reply to Veronika Šteflová

Re: week 9: The Liflade and te Passiun of Seinte Juliene

by Helena Znojemská -
I'm glad you mentined the thematic focus of the Latin version too, we were missing that comparison.
In reply to First post

Re: week 9: The Liflade and te Passiun of Seinte Juliene

by Timotej Lauko -

Latin Belial introduces himself in a way that "rhymes" with later Juliana's speech. While Belial elaborates on how his infernal father caused the evils and torments to the faithful, the good deeds of the heavenly father, God, are recounted in a similar way, as if each and every of them unmade the evil doings. The Liflade seems to be missing this contrast.


I have also got this other tiny detail: English Juliana seems to be far more vulgar (and alliterative :) ) in her speech to Eleusius (l. 58: “Her me, heathene hund”).