Supernatural Encounters: Demons and the Restless Dead in Medieval England, c.1050-1450

Description

The belief in the reality of demons and the restless dead formed a central facet of the medieval worldview. Whether a pestilent-spreading corpse mobilised by the devil, a purgatorial spirit returning to earth to ask for suffrage, or a shape-shifting demon intent on crushing its victims as they slept, encounters with supernatural entities were often met with consternation and fear. Chroniclers, hagiographers, sermon writers, satirists, poets, and even medical practitioners utilised the cultural 'text' of the supernatural encounter in many different ways, showcasing the multiplicity of contemporary attitudes to death, disease, and the afterlife. In this volume, Stephen Gordon explores the ways in which conflicting ideas about the intention and agency of supernatural entities were understood and articulated in different social and literary contexts. Focusing primarily on material from medieval England, c.1050-1450, Gordon discusses how writers such as William of Malmesbury, William of Newburgh, Walter Map, John Mirk, and Geoffrey Chaucer utilised the belief in demons, nightmares, and walking corpses for pointed critical effect. Ultimately, this monograph provides new insights into the ways in which the broad ontological category of the 'revenant' was conceptualised in the medieval world. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of illustrations Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction The restless dead in medieval Europe: a fluid cultural text #13,0,-32767 Ambiguous ontologies and the restless dead #20,0,-32767 Previous research and chapter breakdown #24,0,-32767 Notes #28,0,-32767 Primary sources #34,0,-32767 Secondary sources #35,0,-32767Chapter 1 The Witch of Berkeley in context #39,0,-32767 Introduction William of Malmesbury and the Witch of Berkeley: some considerations #41,0,-32767 The literary function of the Witch of Berkeley #49,0,-32767 From Malmesbury to Southey: the textual history of the Witch of Berkeley #54,0,-32767 Conclusion #67,0,-32767 Notes #71,0,-32767 Primary sources #80,0,-32767 Secondary sources #82,0,-32767Chapter 2 The critical function of the walking corpse in William of Newburgh’s Historia rerum Anglicarum #86,0,-32767 Introduction Portents and monsters #87,0,-32767 The Historia rerum Anglicarum in context #88,0,-32767 The Historia and the walking dead #91,0,-32767 The social revenant: William FitzOsbert, warmongering kings and William Longchamp #95,0,-32767 Conclusion: William of Newburgh and the uses of the walking corpse #100,0,-32767 Notes #102,0,-32767 Primary sources #108,0,-32767 Secondary sources #109,0,-32767Chapter 3 Satirising the undead: Walter Map and the ambiguation of wonder #113,0,-32767 Introduction Satire in twelfth century England: some considerations #114,0,-32767 Walter Map and the De nugis curialium #116,0,-32767 ‘Moral’ revenants in twelfth-century literature #121,0,-32767 ‘Amoral’ revenants: an ironic subversion of genre #124,0,-32767 Conclusion #130,0,-32767 Notes #131,0,-32767 Primary sources #137,0,-32767 Secondary sources #138,0,-32767Chapter 4 Between demons and the undead: Preaching practice and local belief in the sermons of John Mirk #141,0,-32767 Introduction The Festial: background and context #144,0,-32767 Prayers for the undead: exploring the Festial’s De dedicacione ecclesie sermon #148,0,-32767 Exorcising demons: exploring Mirk’s In die sepulture alicuius Mortui sermon #155,0,-32767 Conclusion #159,0,-32767 Notes #161,0,-32767 Primary sources #167,0,-32767 Secondary sources #169,0,-32767Chapter 5 ‘But whan us liketh we kan take us oon’: Vain surfaces and walking corpses in Chaucer’s Friar’s Tale #172,0,-32767 Introduction The Friar’s Tale: an overview #174,0,-32767 Chaucer’s demonology #178,0,-32767 Conclusion: commerce and the undead corpse #186,0,-32767 Notes #188,0,-32767 Primary sources #194,0,-32767 Secondary sources #195,0,-32767Chapter 6 Nightmares and the supernatural encounter #198,0,-32767 Introduction Canonical traditions of the nightmare: dreams, humoural theory, and sin #200,0,-32767 Insular traditions and the nightmare #208,0,-32767 Nightmares and revenants in medieval historiography #212,0,-32767 Conclusion #216,0,-32767 Notes #217,0,-32767 Primary sources #224,0,-32767 Secondary sources #226,0,-32767Epilogue From the medieval to the early modern: the persistence of habit Conclusion #235,0,-32767 Notes #237,0,-32767 Primary sources #238,0,-32767 Secondary sources #238,0,-32767Index