Storytelling at the Gates of Hell: Narrative Epistemology in Piers Plowman

Abstract:This essay investigates the role of collective, reiterative storytelling within Piers Plowman. More specifically, it characterizes Langland's Four Daughters' debate in Passus B XVIII/C XX as a moment of metanarrative reflection that considers the power and limitations of storytelling for knowing God. At the poem's narrative climax, between the Crucifixion and the Harrowing of Hell, Langland inserts a deliberative pause in which Mercy, Truth, Justice, and Peace attempt to discern what the death of Christ means. While scholars typically read the debate as a discursive exchange, the speakers repeatedly tell stories. Most poignantly, within this larger life of Christ, Mercy, Peace, and the personification Book all narrate new lives of Christ. Langland presents the nested vitae Christi as acts of discernment that integrate select aspects of biblical history and forget or exclude others. By means of narrative selectivity, the speakers render God more legible, while also manifesting ideologies and potentially fostering misunderstanding. Ultimately, the essay argues that Langland presents any individual vita Christi as an insufficient means to know God, but affirms the collective, multivocal project of storytelling as vital to the quest for such knowledge.