The Circulations of Matthea, the Legendary Ghent Beguine, in Time, Space and Genre

In post-revolutionary Belgium, writers associated with the Flemish Movement, in conjunction with German philologists, promoted the legend as a key resource in their cultural activism. As a traditional, oral genre,legends transferred authority about the history and character of the nation from elites to ‘the people.’ They were the raw material from which to construct a new, national culture that would reunite a class-divided society. At the same time, they became omnipresent in more ephemeral literature aimed at an international audience, such as tourist guides, because they supposedly offered ethnographic insight. In the 1840s one Flemish legend inspired numerous retellings, both for domestic audiences and for foreign visitors. The legend concerned Matthea, a poor Ghent beguine, who died after a miraculous encounter. In this chapter, I consider the origins of this story, and how it passed from oral culture into literature. I also speculate about why this modest legend, originally narrated among the lacemakers of Flanders, should have found such international appeal.