MAGNUS ERLENDSSON AND RULER MARTYRDOM ON THE SCANDINAVIAN AND SLAVIC PERIPHERY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE

• Authors: Malmenvall Simon
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

From the early tenth to early twelfth centuries the eastern and northern periphery of Europe was composed of polities which had recently adopted Christianity. Here, a special common type of veneration of the saints emerged – ruler martyrs, such as Wenceslaus of Bohemia (died in 935), Boris and Gleb of Kievan Rus’ (died in 1015), Magnus Erlendsson of Orkney (died between 1115 and 1117), etc. This type of sainthood refers to saints characterized by a martyr’s death caused out of political self-interest by Christians themselves. One of the most representative saints pertaining to the phenomenon of ruler martyrs is jarl (earl) Magnus Erlendsson of the Orkney Isles, then part of the Norwegian kingdom. The internal political plot led by a close relative, the jarl’s nonresistance on principle, and the slaughter of the innocent victim resembling Christ – all this recalls the manner of the deaths of some Slavic princes of the time, for example, Boris and Gleb of Kievan Rus’. Magnus and other ruler martyrs from that period together formed a new tradition of sainthood, previously unknown both in the Byzantine Empire and Southern (Latin) Europe, where the murdered ruler eventually became a saint who could legitimize the self-esteem of newly Christianized peoples and position them in the symbolic center of the Christian world.

Keywords

EN

ERLENDSSON MAGNUS; ORKNEY ISLES; MEDIEVAL SCANDINAVIA; KIEVAN RUS’; HAGIOGRAPHIES; RULER MARTYRS; MEDIEVAL LITERATURE

• Publisher: Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa v Nitre
• Journal: Konštantínove listy
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 23 - 38

Contributors

author

Malmenvall Simon

• Catholic Institute, Faculty of Law and Business Studies, Krekov trg 1, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Identifiers

DOI

10.17846/CL.2021.14.1.23-38