Mechthild of Magdeburg: Selections fromThe Flowing Light of the Godhead

Here is one of the great surprises of German medieval literature. Compiled between c.1250 and c.1282, it is an extraordinary piece of imaginative writing. It integrates visions, auditions, dialogues, prayers, hymns, lyrical love poems, letters, allegories and parables, and draws creatively on features from hagiography, the disputation, the treatise, and magic spells, as the author documents her relationship with God and with her contemporaries. Selections from the text are presented here in translation with introduction and notes.

Dr Elizabeth A. Andersen teaches in the School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University.