Julia Koll: Das Buch Mechthild

Mechthild, a name like a crocheted doily: born, presumably, over eight hundred years ago; died in Helfta; heard the voice of God shortly before her twelfth birthday and allowed herself to be guided by it over all obstacles. The only thing that remains of Mechthild of Magdeburg is “perhaps the boldest erotic poetry” of the Middle Ages, her seven-volume work*The Flowing Light of the Divine*, a work that shimmers across genres, in which song and counter-song alternate with dialogues, visions, autobiographical passages, and critiques of monastic life and the Church. Yet not even this book has survived in its original form. So someone else might have written her texts. She might have been someone entirely different, might never have written at all. Or perhaps she wrote much earlier. Perhaps even now. The only thing beyond doubt is her courtly love—the combative love of a strong woman. In search of this distant sister, a woman of today sets out to piece together Mechthild’s life story where the trail goes cold—using her own as a guide.

In her sparkling novel*Das Buch Mechthild*, Julia Koll reflects the story of two women in love across the ages, thereby breathing new life into the world with a touch of mysticism.

Julia Koll, born in Göttingen in 1975, is a qualified Protestant theologian and director of the Evangelical Academy in Loccum. Since her doctoral dissertation on the relationship between bodily experience and religious experience (*Körper beten*, Stuttgart 2006), she has been navigating the boundaries between academia and practice, spirituality and culture, and most recently studied creative writing in Hildesheim. She lives in Hanover.*Das Buch Mechthild*is her first novel.

Moderator:Dr. Sabine Zubarik

This event is a collaboration with theProtestant Academy of Thuringiaand Kultur: Haus Dacheröden.