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Nightfall on Ravenna: Storms and Narrativity in the Work of Andreas Agnellus
- Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft
- University of Pennsylvania Press
- Volume 9, Number 1, Summer 2014
- pp. 33-61
- 10.1353/mrw.2014.0005
- Article
- Additional Information
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This article examines an odd story told in Andreas Agnellus' Deeds of the Bishops of Ravenna about a certain Abbot John. The story involves a night journey to Ravenna: the vehicle is a ship drawn in the sand, and there is a rapid passage through a storm in the company of three mysterious men. Ultimately John lands not in a harbor but on the roof of his monastery. A variety of different narrative analagues are adduced to explore the origins of these disparate narrative elements and show how they were reshaped into a miraculous story by Agnellus.