Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Genesis and Migration of the Legends
- Part II The Archangel in Medieval English Legend
- 3 Vernacular Versions of the Hagiographic Foundation-Myth
- 4 The Archangel as Guardian and Psychopomp
- 5 The Archangel and Judgment
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
Conclusion
from Part II - The Archangel in Medieval English Legend
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Genesis and Migration of the Legends
- Part II The Archangel in Medieval English Legend
- 3 Vernacular Versions of the Hagiographic Foundation-Myth
- 4 The Archangel as Guardian and Psychopomp
- 5 The Archangel and Judgment
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
and th' Arch-Angel soon drew nigh,
Not in his shape Celestial, but as Man
Clad to meet Man; over his lucid Arms
A military Vest of purple flow'd
Livelier than Melibaean, or the grain
Of Sarra, worn by Kings and Heroes of old
In time of Truce; Iris had dipt the woof;
His starry Helm unbuckl'd show'd him prime
In Manhood where Youth ended; by his side
As in a glistening Zodiac hung the Sword,
Satan's dire dread, and in his hand the Spear.
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book XI, lines 238–48The legends of St. Michael the archangel were widespread in medieval England. Indeed, it was upon the well-established stock of legends of the archangel as warrior-angel and psychopomp that the poet John Milton relied to create his heroic figure of St. Michael in Paradise Lost.
These legends derive their literary impetus from a matrix of references to the archangel in scriptural and apocryphal literature. Part I of this book, “Genesis and Migration of the Legends,” presents a historical survey of this body of literature. One of the principal angels venerated by the early Church, St. Michael the archangel appears five times in canonical scripture: three times in the Old Testament and twice in the New Testament. As Chapter One, “Literary Origins of the Archangel's Legendary Roles,” makes clear, there was no Michaeline cultus to speak of in the biblical era, only a measure of popular appeal, and this appeal was defined largely by the archangel's roles in biblical and extra-biblical literature.
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- Saint Michael the Archangel in Medieval English Legend , pp. 105 - 108Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2005