Conjuring the Dead in <i>St Erkenwald</i>

Abstract The Middle English poem St Erkenwald is one of the most well-known literary artefacts of late medieval England. Found uniquely in BL, MS Harley 2250, the story concerns the discovery of a strangely preserved corpse in the foundations of St Paul’s cathedral and the dialogue that ensues between the corpse and the eponymous Erkenwald, the incumbent bishop of London. While previous scholarship has mainly focused on the poem’s final miracle, wherein the corpse—revealing itself to be that of a pagan judge—is baptized by Erkenwald’s tears, little attention has been given to the initial conjuration formula uttered by Erkenwald, in lines 179–84, that compels the corpse to speak. The aim of this article, then, is to explore the narrative and thematic significance of Erkenwald’s conjuration, contextualizing the bishop’s speech act within the wider cultural practices of exorcism and apotropaic protection against demons and the dead. It will be argued that, rather than being a rote exclamation to move the narrative forward, Erkenwald’s conjuration augments the poem’s overarching theme of the efficacy of orthodox religious practice.