Custom and habit(us): The meaning of traditions and legends in early medieval Western Britain

Geografiska Annaler, Series B: Human Geography

Volumn 81, Issue 4, 1999, Pages 223-233

  Harvey, David C ^a   Jones, Rhys ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EXETER   (United Kingdom)

^b ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 28244444182     PISSN: 04353684     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.0435-3684.1999.00091.x     Document Type: Article

References (92)

1. LOWENTHAL, D. (1985): The Past is a Foreign Country. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 213-14;
2. quotation from POCOCK, J.G.A. (1962): 'The origins of the study of the past: a comparative approach', Comparative Studies in Society and History 4: 209-46.
3. VANSINA, J. (1985): Oral Tradition as History. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 121-2.
4. DODGSHON, R.A. (1987): The European Past: Social Evolution and Spatial Order. Basingstoke: Macmillan, Chapter 5;
5. GLEDHILL, J. (1988): 'Introduction: the comparative analysis of social and political transitions', in GLEDHILL, J., BENDER, B. and LARSEN, M.T. (eds): State and Society: the Emergence and Development of Social Hierarchy and Political Centralisation. London: Unwin Hyman, pp. 1-29;
6. COHEN, R. (1978): 'Introduction', in COHEN, R. and SERVICE, E.R. (eds): Origins of The State: the Anthropology of Social Evolution. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, pp. 1-20;
7. CLAESSEN, H.J.M. and SKALNIK, P. (1978): The Early State. The Hague: Mouton.
8. SAHLINS, M. (1968): Tribesmen. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, p. 5. Mann also examines the rise of what he calls 'territorial citizenship';
9. MANN, M. (1988): The Sources of Social Power Vol. I, The Beginning to AD1760. London: Cambridge University Press, chapters 1-3.
10. ELIAS, N. (1982): State Formation and Civilisation, Vol. 2. The History of Manners. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 16-17.
11. DODGSHON, The European Past, Chapter 6.
12. LOYN, H.R. (1984): The Governance of Anglo-Saxon England 500-1087. London: Arnold, pp. 133-40.
13. SØRENSEN, J.K. (1978): Toponymie evidence for administrative divisions in Denmark in the Viking Age', in ANDERSSON, T. and SANDRED, K.I. (eds): The Vikings: Proceedings of the Symposium of the Faculty of Arts of Uppsala University, June 6-9th, 1977. Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, pp. 133-11.
14. OWEN, A. (ed.) (1841): Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, Vol. 1. London: Record Commissioners, p.186.
15. JONES, G.R.J. (1992): 'The models for organisation in Llyfr Iorwerth and Llyfr Cyfnerth, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 39: 95-118;
16. JONES, RH.A. (1998): 'Problems with medieval Welsh local administration: the case of the maenor and the maenol', Journal of Historical Geography, 24: 135-46;
17. JONES, RH.A. IDEM (1998): 'Early state formation in native medieval Wales', Political Geography, 17: 667-82.
18. CHADWICK, N.K. (1958): 'Early culture and learning in north Wales', in IDEM (ed.): Studies in the Early British Church. London: Cambridge University Press, p. 29;
19. see also SIMMS-WILLIAMS, P. (1985): 'Some functions of origin stories in early medieval Wales', in NYBERG, T. et al. (eds): History and Heroic Tale: A Symposium. Odense: Odense University Press, pp. 97-131.
20. LOT, F. (1934): Nennius et l'Historia Brittonum. Paris: H. Champion;
21. MORRIS, J. (ed. and trans.) (1980): Nennius, Chichester: Wiley;
22. CHADWICK, 'Early learning and culture in north Wales';
23. DUMVILLE, D. (1977): 'Sub-Roman Britain: history and legend', History, 52: 173-92;
24. WHITE, R. (1978): 'New light on the origins of the kingdom of Gwynedd', in BROMWICH, R. and JONES, R.B. (eds): Astudiaethau yn yr Hengerdd. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
25. DUMVILLE, 'Sub-Roman Britain: history and legend';
26. WHITE, 'New light on the origins of the kingdom of Gwynedd'.
27. LLOYD, J.E. (1911): A History of Wales From the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest, Vol. 1. London: Longman, p. 324.
28. VANSINA, Oral Tradition as History, pp. 121-2.
29. MILLER, M. (1978): 'The foundation legends of Gwynedd in the Latin texts'. Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 27: 517.
30. JONES, 'Early state formation in native medieval Wales'.
31. See, however, NASH-WILLIAMS, V.E. (1950): The Early Christian Monuments of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, for a reference to Venedotia in the late fifth/ sixth centuries.
32. There is a lack of empirical evidence of 'tribal' versions of history. The emphasis placed on kin- and lineage-groups in sources such as the Mabinogi, however, may give some indication of the general nature of such accounts of the past; see WILLIAMS, I. (ed.) (1974): Pedeir Keine y Mabinogi Allan o Lyfr Gwyn Rhydderch. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
33. WADE-EVANS, A.W. (1909): Welsh Medieval Law: Being a Text of the Laws of Howel the Good Namely the British Museum of Harleian MS 4353 of the Thirteenth Century with Translation, Appendix, Glossary, Index, and a Map. Oxford: Clarendon Press;
34. CHARLES-EDWARDS, T.M. (1993): Early Irish and Welsh Kinship. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 211-15.
35. CHARLES-EDWARDS: Early Irish and Welsh Kinship;
36. PIERCE, T.J. (1972) 'The laws of Wales, the kindred and the bloodfeud', in SMITH, J.B. (ed.): Medieval Welsh Society: Selected Essays by T. Jones Pierce. Cardiff: University of Wales Press;
37. ELLIS, T.P. (1926): Welsh Tribal Laws and Custom in the Middle Ages, 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press;
38. SEEBOHM, F. (1904): The Tribal System in Wales, Being Part of an Inquiry into the Structure and Methods of Tribal Society. London: Longman.
39. A similar transposition of a law relating to agricultural land-holdings to territorial kingdoms can be seen in the way in which Gruffudd ap Cynan, king of Gwynedd in the twelfth century, claimed his right of priodolder - his proprietary right - to the kingdom; EVANS, D.S. (ed.) (1977): Historia Gruffud vab Kenan. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, passim;
40. CHARLES-EDWARDS, Early Irish and Welsh Kinship, pp. 294-6.
41. Such a view - which has often stressed the immaturity of patterns of inheritance in medieval Wales - has been dispelled in recent years; see SMITH, J.B. (1988): 'The succession to Welsh princely inheritance: the evidence reconsidered', in DAVIES, R.R. (ed.): The British Isles 1100-1500, Comparisons, Contrast and Connections. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press;
42. SMITH, J.B. IDEM (1986): 'Dynastic succession in medieval Wales', Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 33: 199-232. Despite Smith's arguments, it has been suggested by Charles-Edwards and Stephenson that there existed a relatively close relationship between kindred groups and princes in medieval Gwynedd, a relationship which could have been the source for the kindred associations of the Cunedda legend;
43. STEPHENSON, D. (1984): The Governance of Gwynedd. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, p. 192, n. 28;
44. CHARLES-EDWARDS, Early Irish and Welsh Kinship, p. 211.
45. LLOYD, N. and OWEN, M.E. (eds) (1986): Drych yr Oesoedd Canol. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, pp. 203-7;
46. VANSINA, Oral Tradition as History, p. 37.
47. REYNOLDS, S. (1984): Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe, 900-1300. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 258;
48. REYNOLDS, S. IDEM (1983): 'Medieval origines gentium and the community of the realm', History, 68: 375-90.
49. BLAIR, J. (1988): 'Introduction; from minster to parish church', in IDEM (ed): Minsters and Parish Churches, the Local Parish Church in Transition (950-1200). Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 1-19.
50. Minsters and Parish Churches, the Local Parish Church in Transition (950-1200). IBID., p. 10.
51. HARVEY, D.C. (1997): 'The evolution of territoriality and societal transitions in west Cornwall', Landscape History, 19: 13-23.
52. Kirby, for instance, sees the production of the vita of St Cuthbert as a tool in the political power struggle in an emerging Northumbrian kingdom, while Barrow relates the propagation of Officially sanctioned myths' in Worcester to a more local struggle for Diocesan control; KIRBY, D.P. (1995): 'The genesis of a cult: Cuthbert of Fame and ecclesiastical politics in Northumbria in the late seventh and early eighth centuries'. Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 46: 383-97;
53. BARROW, J. (1992): 'How the twelfth century monks of Worcester perceived their past', in MAGDALINO, P. (ed.): The Perception of the Past. London: Hambledon Press, pp 53-74.
54. ABOU-EL-HAJ, B. (1997): The Medieval Cult of Saints: Formations and Transformation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 2.
55. DAVIES, W. and FOURACRE, P. (1986): 'The role of writing in the resolution and recording of disputes', in IDEM (eds): The Settlement of Disputes in Early Medieval Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 207-14, (p. 213).
56. Brown, for instance, quotes from the text of St Gregory of Tours when it relates how the reading of passiones (apparently) 'brought the past into the present', so that 'when the passio was read, the saint was "really" there: a sweet scent filled the basilica'; BROWN, P. (1981): The Cult of the Saints; its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity. Chicago: SCM Press, pp. 81-2. From the text of Gregory of Tours; Liber in gloria confessorum.
57. See HENDERSON, C. (1935): Essays in Cornish History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 93-107 for this episode.
58. ABOU-EL-HAJ, for instance, notes how hagiographies could be found in public art on shrines, altars and even bronze church doors (Medieval Cult of Saints, p. 27). The depiction of hagiographic stories on stained glass is a particularly striking and accessible format. See, for instance, BROWN, S. (1992): Stained Glass; An Illustrated History. London: Braken Books, p. 56.
59. For instance, see MARSHAL, C.T. (1995): 'Popular religion', in DOWLEY, T. (ed.). Introduction to the History of Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, pp. 300-1,
60. or the implications suggested in BALDWIN, M.W. (1970): Christianity Through the Thirteenth Century. London: Macmillan, esp. pp. 400-1,
61. or in particular in WILSON, D.M. (1985): The Bayenx Tapestry. London: Thames and Hudson.
62. ABOU-EL-HAJ, The Medieval Cull of Saints, p.14;
63. BROWN, The Cult of Saints;
64. and particularly GAZELLES, B. (1991): 'Introduction', in BLUMENFELD-KOZINSKI, R. and SZELL, T. (eds): Images of Sainthood in Medieval Europe. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 1-17.
65. BORNSTEIN, D. (1997): 'Dominican friar, lay saint: the case of Marcolino of Forli', Church History, 66: 252-67 (esp. pp. 266-7).
66. IBID.
67. TAYLOR, T. (1925): The Life of St. Samson of Dol. London: SPCK,: Llanerch Publishers, Dyfed, facsimile reprint, 1991, pp. 47-9.
68. THOMAS, C. (1994): And Shall These Mute Stones Speak? Dalrymple Archaeological Monographs, Cardiff, published in association with Glasgow Archaeological Society and the University of Glaseow, University of Wales Press, p. 224.
69. And Shall These Mute Stones Speak? IBID., p. 230.
70. TAYLOR, The Life of St. Samson, pp. 51-2, 55-8.
71. THOMAS, And Shall These Mute Stones Speak?, pp. 186-7. This group of saints that are associated with parishes around the Hayle estuary includes St Gwinear or Fingar (Gwinear parish), St Uny or Euny (Uny-Lalant and Uny-Redruth parishes), St Hya or Ia (St Ives parish), St Herygh (St Erth parish), St Breaca (Breage parish), St Sinninus (Sithney parish), St Germochus (Germoe parish) and St Crewenna (Crowan parish).
72. Euny and Ia were brother and sister. See FARMER, D.H. (ed.) (1987): The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Oxford: Oxford University Press;
73. also HARVEY, D.C. (1996): Territorialily and the Territorialisation of West Cornwall. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. University of Exeter, p. 182.
74. See, for instance, JANKOVSKY, K.P. (1991): 'National characteristics in the portrayal of English saints in the South English legendry', in BLUMENFELD-KOSINSKI and SZELL (eds), Images of Sainthood, pp. 81-93.
75. For instance, Gazelles points out that the subjects of hagiographies changed from being almost exclusively aristocratic or episcopal to there being many more lay- and urban-based subjects; a transition that corresponds to changes in Feudal society after the twelfth century; GAZELLES, 'Introduction', pp. 2-3.
76. BOURDIEU, P. (1977): Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
77. See ROBBINS, D. (1991): The Work of Pierre Bourdieu. Buckingham: Open University Press, pp. 172-3,
78. and GAGNIER, R. (1991): Subjectivities; a History of Self Representation in Britain 1832-1920. Buckingham: Open University Press, pp. 15-6.
79. BENTLEY, G.C. (1987): 'Ethnicity and practice', Comparative Studies in Society and History, 29: 24-55 (25).
80. JONES, S. (1996): 'Discourses of identity in the interpretation of the past', in GRAVES-BROWN, P. et al. (eds): Cultural Identity and Archaeology. London: Routledge, p. 68.
81. BOURDIEU, Outline, p. 72.
82. The concept of habitus offers us what Robbins calls a 'soft determinism'; it enables us to 'escape from Marxist determinism and to suggest that humans inter-generationally create the conditions within which they are conditioned', ROBBINS: The Work of Pierre Bourdieu, pp. 170-1;
83. see also PRED, A. (1984): 'Place as historically contingent process: structuration and the time-geography of becoming places', Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 74: 279-97.
84. For instance, in the later medieval period, English 'nationhood' and the legitimacy of the monarchy was related by Bengtson to the potency of a cult of St George: 'The monarchy made St. George a divine national hero and through his cult, established an intimacy with the people which it could not have otherwise easily have achieved'. Within an ecclesiastical context, papal legitimacy was supported by a 'divine mandate' of 'natural' succession from St Peter, but, as Boholm indicates, memories of an earlier pagan era were preserved through the 'correct' interpretation of legend and myth. See BENGSTON, J. (1997): 'Saint George and the foundation of English nationalism', Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 27: 317-40;
85. and BOHOLM, A. (1997): 'Reinvented histories: medieval Rome as memorial landscape', Ecumene, 4: 247-72 (257).
86. Gingrich relates the habitus to what he calls the 'social production of a nameless emotional process' that is indispensable for the preparation of rituals 'that socialise temporal concepts'; GINGRICH, A. (1994): 'Time, ritual and social experience', in HASTRUP, K. and HERVIK, P. (eds): Social Experience and Anthropological Knowledge. London: Routledge, p. 166.
87. Cf. SCHWARTZ, B. (1990): 'The reconstruction of Abraham Lincoln', in MIDDLETON, D. and EDWARDS, D. (eds): Collective Remembering. London: Sage, pp. 82-3.
88. BOURDIEU, Outline, p. 85.
89. ROWLANDS, M. (1993): 'The role of memory in the transmission of culture', World Archaeology, 25: 141-51.
90. Rowlands looked specifically at the role of memory within the 'western tradition'. On the general theme of social memory see FENTRESS, J. and WICKHAM, C. (1992): Social Memory. Oxford: Blackwell.
91. ROWLANDS, 'The role of memory', p. 143.
92. BOURDIEU, P. (1992): The Logic of Practice. Cambridge: Polity Press, p. 56.