Telling the Story: Reshaping Saint Christopher for an Anglo-Saxon Lay Audience

Abstract

The Old English Saint Christopher has, like much anonymous vernacular hagiography, gone under-studied. This is partly because its manuscript context results in it being mentioned dismissively alongside more famous texts, and partly because no source has been identified or published. Based on a survey of the fifteen extant pre-thirteenth-century versions across about fifty of their manuscript forms, it is possible to show numerous and significant additions and alterations unique to this vernacular retelling. These changes ameliorate Christopher’s extreme passivity with some active attributes, make the king he opposes more deranged and cruel, and in particular tighten and clarify the story. The Old English Christopher is no masterpiece, but it is a skilful and creative reimagining of a very widespread text, developed by an authorial translator to meet the interests and needs of an Anglo-Saxon audience.