Magic and the Supernatural in Medieval English Romance

Description

The world of medieval romance is one in which magic and the supernatural are constantly present: in otherwordly encounters, in the strange adventures experienced by questing knights, in the experience of the uncanny, and in marvellous objects - rings, potions, amulets, and the celebrated green girdle in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This study looks at a wide range of medieval English romance texts, including the works of Chaucer and Malory, from a broad cultural perspective, to show that while they employ magic in order to create exotic, escapist worlds, they are also grounded in a sense of possibility, and reflect a complex web of inherited and current ideas. The bookopens with a survey of classical and biblical precedents, and of medieval attitudes to magic; subsequent chapters explore the ways that romances both reflect contemporary attitudes and ideas, and imaginatively transform them. Inparticular, the author explores the distinction between the `white magic' of healing and protection, and the more dangerous arts of `nigromancy', black magic. Also addressed is the wider supernatural, including the ways that ideasassociated with human magic can be intensified and developed in depictions of otherworldly practitioners of magic. The ambiguous figures of the enchantress and the shapeshifter are a special focus, and the faery is contrasted with the Christian supernatural - miracles, ghosts, spirits, demons and incubi. Professor CORINNE SAUNDERS Saunders teaches in the Department of English, University of Durham. FRONTCOVER CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION 1 Classical and Biblical Precedents The Classical Period The Bible 2 The Middle Ages: Prohibitions, Folk Practices and Learned Magic Transitions: St Augustine Prohibitions and Punishments Folk Beliefs and Practices Learned Magic 3 White Magic: Natural Arts and Marvellous Technology Healing Magic The Virtue of Stones Love-Magic Wondrous Objects and Marvellous Technology Chaucer and ‘Magik Naturel’ 4 Black Magic: The Practice of ‘Nigromancy’ The Arts of ‘Nigromancy’ Shape-Shifting and Enchantment The Witch: Medea Clerical Arts: Magicians and Alchemists 5 Otherworld Enchantments and Faery Realms Other Worlds Faery Mistresses and Enchantresses Shape-Shifters and Faery Knights The World of Faery 6 Christian Marvel and Demonic Intervention Miracle and Providence Marvellous Agents Penance, Illness and Healing Revenants and Demons 7 Malory’s Morte Darthur Merlin and Arthurian Destiny Marvel, Enchantment and Sorcery Miracles and Demons: The Grail Quest The Hand of Destiny EPILOGUE: Towards the Renaissance BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX BACKCOVER