The International Prester John Project: How A Global Legend Was Created Across Six Centuries Main Menu Orientation to Project Path One: 1122-1235 Path Two: 1236-1310 AD Path Three : 1311-1460 AD Path Four : 1461-1520 AD Path Five: 1521-1699 AD Path Six: 1700-1800 AD Global Middle Ages

Edessa

5281
Through the twelfth-century narratives insisting on Christian miracles in the city of Edessa, writers establish Edessa not only as a magical place worth defending, but as a naturally Christian locale. By way of his associations with Thomas, Prester John, in turn, offers support to those worried about the loss of Edessa. Given that the Prester John legend arose, in part, out of news that Edessa had fallen, it should not be surprising that this association persists well into the fourteenth century. Johannes Witte de Hese, whose fanciful “travels” recall those of the more famous John Mandeville, even names Edessa as the city that houses the infamous kingdom of Prester John.By associating the lands of Prester John directly or indirectly with Edessa, we see writers using the creative power of fiction to un-know the traumatic loss of this “gateway to the East.”