Mechthild of Magdeburg's The Flowing Light of the Godhead is one of the great surprises of German medieval literature. Written 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.Mechthild of Magdeburg's The Flowing Light of the Godhead is one of the great surprises of German medieval literature. Written between c.1250 and c.1282, ic, counsellor and intercessor, as she documents her relationship with God and with her contemporaries.
Within the context of German literary history The Flowing Light of the Godhead is the first text in the tradition of mystical writing that was neither a translation nor a free adaptation of a Latin text, but rather an independent composition in the vernacular. Also of major significance is the fact that this text was written by a woman and thus it offers insights into the cultural and social-historical context of the female religious (Mechthild lived her adult life as a beguine and latterly as a nun) in thirteenth century northern Europe.
Through the identification of salient themes and aspects, this anthology offers the reader pathways through a text that might otherwise seem confusing in its heterogeneity. Furthermore, the chapters selected for translation reflect the rich diversity of register and discourse woven into the texture of Mechthild's writings.