Women and European National Myths

The British historian Janina Ramirez examines in “Heroines, Rulers, Saints” how the stories of significant women have been reframed, romanticized, and appropriated for national narratives over centuries.
From Joan of Arc to Lady Godiva to Isabella of Castile: Their names are still widely known, yet the depictions handed down often bear little resemblance to the complex historical personalities. Ramirez sets out on a quest through the Middle Ages to the 19th century, asking what role these women played in the formation of European countries and national identities.
The cultural historian shows how chroniclers, artists, and political actors, drawing from multifaceted biographies, forged seemingly unambiguous symbols. The women suddenly stood for purity, self-sacrifice, piety, or power — depending on the message their era needed. Conflicts and uncomfortable aspects of their life stories disappeared from the record.

Between Reverence and Co-option

The author makes clear that national myths don’t simply arise. They are created, passed down, and adapted to the ideologies of their time. It is precisely the stories of famous women that prove especially malleable: from rulers, fighters, and saints they became projection surfaces, whose actual voices increasingly vanished behind later interpretations.
Janina Ramirez, born 1980, is a cultural historian as well as a scholar of literature and linguistics. After studying English literature at Oxford, she earned a master’s at the Centre for Medieval Studies in York and completed a PhD on art, literature, and culture of Anglo-Saxon England. She taught in Winchester and Warwick and today works as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Oxford.

Ramirez is also widely known to a broad audience for her work with the BBC as well as numerous scholarly articles and non-fiction books. Her 2022 book “Femina: A History of the Middle Ages Through Women’s Eyes” became an international bestseller. Ramirez lives with her family in Woodstock. (dd/pm)