>
>Hello learned ones,
>I once heard that Ursula was accompanied by a maid named Undemila, both were
>virgins, hence the error of Ursula and the 11,000 virgins.
>Can anyone confirm or deny this.
>Thanks,
>Patricia Legorreta
>
Dear Patricia Legorreta,
this was one way sholars tried to explain the enormous number of 11.000. Levison showed in a famous article
written in the twenties, that the mistake was another one: eleven, written as XI was often marked as number
by a line written over it. By accident, a line over a Roman number could also mean "these are thousands". So
XI with a line on top could mean 11 or 11.000. Because of the interruption of the cult in the 8th and 9th
century the number XI with a line - maybe in an old calendary - brought in the 10th century some people to the
wrong allusion, that there have been eleven-thousand martyrs.
The best information about the cult of Ursula is still:
Wilhelm Levison, Das Werden der Ursula-Legende, in: Bonner Jahrbcher 132 (1927), p.1-164
Katrinette Bodarwe
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|