Steve,
If you can manage any Italian, or know someone who can, look at A.
Simonetti's 'Santi cefalofori altomedievali', in 'Studi Medievali', 28
(1987), 67-121. She links early European saints' legends with Celtic
beliefs -- though it was obviously written before the present revival of
debate about defining 'Celtic'.
And (as I go on about ad nauseam) the 11th C Kenelm legend combines hunting
territory, beheaded saint, well, ash tree and hawthorn tree. And presumably
you've looked at Germanic stuff on Yggdrasill. (If we're talking totem
animals, stags recur frequently in saints' legends, often in
protection/conversion tales; there a stag e.g. on the AS Sutton Hoo
'sceptre' also with human heads on it. So hunting may be part of the
forest/wells cluster, and Simonetti deals with this. Hares also crop up in
RB decoration and occasionally in saints' legends, like Melangell's.)
NB the term 'forest' is used in medieval England, I think post-Conquest 'cos
it's French, for hunting land, especially king's hunting grounds where
special laws applied. Not necessarily densely wooded, though could be. So
might be useful to define whether, when you're discussing real property,
when and if the word 'forest' was applied, especially if the hunting link
looks valid.
Christine Buckley
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