S. Snellenberg - Kievit (6919375) PERFORMING THE CROSS: THE DANE SAGA , CIVIC RELIGION, AND MEMORY IN LATE MEDIEVAL BREDA

Abstract

This thesis, Performing the Cross: The Dane Saga, Civic Religion, and Memory in Late Medieval Breda, examines the interplay of narrative, ritual, and civic identity in the Brabantine city of Breda during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. At its centre is the Dane Saga, a Middle Dutch legend recounting the miraculous origins of a Holy Cross, allegedly fashioned during a Danish incursion and later housed in Breda’s Church of Our Lady. The saga was not only preserved in manuscript form but also performed during the city’s two principal processions, the Grote Ommganck and the Cleyne Ommganck, making it a unique example of text and ritual reinforcing one another within civic culture.

The study interprets the saga as both a literary product and a performative script that contributed to Breda’s civic self-definition. Drawing on theories of performance, performativity, and cultural as well as collective memory, it argues that the saga functioned as a civic script: a narrative repeatedly enacted before the community, embedding mythic origins into collective consciousness. Through this process, Breda’s urban population constructed and affirmed a shared identity that was both devotional and civic in nature.

A key historiographical concern is Johan Huizinga’s enduring characterisation of Burgundian culture as overly ritualistic and hollow. This thesis challenges such cultural pessimism by showing that rituals in Breda were generative, not empty. Processions and textual performances were active, creative practices through which meaning was negotiated, identities reinforced, and memory transmitted across generations. In so doing, the study joins recent scholarship in re-evaluating late medieval ritual as a vital element of urban life rather than a symptom of decline.

The thesis also addresses the devotional competition between the cult of the Holy Cross and that of the Bleeding Eucharist of Niervaert, a nearby pilgrimage site promoted by Breda’s lords of Nassau. While earlier scholarship has framed these devotions as antagonistic, this study suggests they may instead have coexisted in a complementary manner, offering overlapping yet distinct avenues for articulating civic, communal, and lordly identities.

Methodologically, the work combines textual and codicological analysis with performance and memory studies. It identifies oral markers and performative indicators in the saga’s rhymed verses, highlighting its suitability for public recitation and audience engagement. At the same time, it situates the surviving manuscript within the broader devotional culture of sixteenth-century Breda, demonstrating how textual preservation and ritual performance interacted to sustain and transmit communal memory.

By integrating literary, historical, and theoretical perspectives, the thesis contributes to a more nuanced understanding of late medieval civic religion in the Low Countries. It shows how narrative, ritual, and space converged to construct a shared sense of belonging that both distinguished Breda from neighbouring cities and united its inhabitants across social strata. More broadly, it underscores the importance of recognising civic environments as sites of cultural production, challenging court-centred models of Burgundian culture. In revealing how the Dane Saga operated simultaneously as text, ritual, and memory, the study demonstrates the generative power of performance in the making of late medieval urban identity.