Abstract

The Lives of the legendary virgin martyrs may appear of no relevance for contemporary readers, except for limited groups such as traditionalist believers or textual scholars. Such an impression, however, is misleading, given that these ancient stories remain hugely influential in our contemporary culture, both literary and visual. Come and explore links between Cinderella’s fairy god-mother and a virgin martyr’s nurse, between Prince Charming and Jesus Christ, between St Margaret and Britney Spears, and lots more.

Dr Juliana Dresvina graduated as a historian, continued as a theologian, got a PhD in English and is currently a post-doctoral researcher with the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. Her main research interest is medieval manuscripts.