Don't know about the continental parallels but it's certainly a common
motif in Welsh hagiography as well - see Elissa Henken's The Welsh Saints:
a study in patterned lives for analysis of prophetic designation, pre-birth
miracles etc. She seems to derive it from pre-Christian hero stories but I
don't think that's entirely accepted.
Maddy
Dr Madeleine Gray
Department of Humanities and Science
UWCN
'Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought'
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