From the Middle Ages to Modernity: The Intersecting Supernatural Worlds of Melusine and Today’s Popular Culture

(Illustration to folio CXLI of L'Histoire de la Belle Mélusine published by Steinschaber in 1478 , depicting the scene of Remondin’s discovery of his wife’s animal-human hybrid form. The wall has been removed so that the reader, who knows she takes this form once a week, may see what is going on inside. Note that Mélusine is dressed as a noble lady and clearly has both human and animal body parts.)

This work contains many elements common to supernatural tales of its time-shape-shifting, magic fountains and marriages between humans and fairies – yet it is also surprisingly relevant to our own age, whose popular culture is saturated with modem myths and vampire love-stories.

Deviants, Donestre, and Debauchees: Here be Monsters

The earliest surviving illustration of a donestre consuming an unwary traveller. British Library MS Cotton Vitellius A.XV, fol. 103v (detail), late 10th or early 11th century

The donestre, a mediaeval race of lion-headed polyglots with a taste for human flesh, demonstrate an ancient form of monstrous transgression by their corporeal violation of both social and natural law.

Sacrificial Magic and the Twofold Division of the Irish Ritual Year

Samhain Candle - photo by Alison Leigh Lilly / Flickr

The historical development of St. Martin’s Day in Ireland, and its relationship with the more ancient festival of Samhain is examined, revealing circumstances that saw much of the ritual nature of Samhain being adopted within a Christian context in the medieval period.

Medieval Monsters and the Anxiety towards the Alien

Cynocephali. The Travels of Sir John
Mandeville. 15th century.
British Library, London. MS Harley 3954, fol 40v

Similar to many monsters or aliens in our current science fiction culture, some medieval monsters could be dangerous and life threatening.

The Mythical Ghoul in Arabic Culture

"Amine Discovered with the Goule", from the story of Sidi Nouman, of the One Thousand and One Nights.

Though the ghoul has origins as old as the Mesopotamian civilization, Arabs were largely responsible for popularizing it. Because Islam incorporated this being in its doctrine, the ghoul remained a source of fear and mystery in the Arab culture.

‘One Thing I Know’: Werewolves Are a Thing

werewolf moon

In his Otia Imperialia, Gervase of Tilbury tells of many strange creatures he knows all about. One of these creatures is the werewolf.

Necromancy from Antiquity to Medieval and Modern Times

The Witch of Endor, by the Master of Otto van Moerdrecht, 15th century

In the Old Norse saga there is peculiar technique of divination called utiseta that is practised on burial mounds.

‘Hann lá eigi kyrr’: Revenants and a Haunted Past in the Sagas of Icelanders

haunted iceland - Gunnuhver' - Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland Photo by Kris Williams / Flikr

From Antiquity to the present day, the idea of the dead returning to interact with the living has greatly influenced human imagination, and this has been reflected in literature — the product of that imagination.

Doors to the dead: The power of doorways and thresholds in Viking Age Scandinavia

Photograph of Þjóðveldisbærinn in Iceland, a reconstruction of the Viking Longhouse Stöng.  Photo by Thomas Ormston / Flickr

It is argued that Viking Age people built ‘doors to the dead’ of various types, such as freestanding portals, causewayed ring-ditches or thresholds to grave mounds; or on occasion even buried their dead in the doorway.

Curse or Blessing: What’s in the Magic Bowl?

Incantation bowl with an Aramaic inscription around a demon. Now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen (2011)

I intend to look at magic bowls in order to see how and for what purpose they were used, and to get a glimpse at the way they worked and what hidden treasures can be found within them.

5 Fun Facts About Robin Hood

robin hood facts

Robin Hood has enthralled generations of readers and movie goers. This English outlaw-hero has become of symbol of freedom against tyranny, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. But who was Robin Hood? How much is grounded in myth and how much is reality?

The Evil Spirit that Terrorized a Medieval Village

evil spirit - photo by craig Cloutier / Flickr

Today’s horror movies could make use of this story from the ninth-century, of how an evil spirit terrorized a village, and the attempt to get rid of it, which seems to be one of the earliest recorded exorcisms from the Middle Ages.

Liber Monstrorum: The Book of Monsters

Liber Monstrorum

If there’s anything we have in common with our medieval ancestors, it’s our love of monsters.

Continuity: Folklore’s Problem Child?

Odins Riddles

Few topics play a more central role in the way scholars have thought – and, in some cases, continue to think – about medieval folk cultures than has the issue of continuity.

Having no Power to Return? Suicide and Posthumous Restlessness in Medieval Iceland

A medieval burial in Iceland - photo by Christian Bickel

The purpose of this study is to examine cultural conceptions of the possible afterlives of suicides in medieval (ca. 1200– 1400) Iceland.

Magic in Anglo-Saxon England

staffordshire horse

Magic was a regular part of daily life in pre-Christian Europe, as it was and still is in many other parts of the world. In this context, the term ‘magic’ is distinct from its modern usage which is better described as optical illusion.

The Fairy Faith: An Ancient Indigenous European Religion

Fairies Looking Through A Gothic Arch by John Anster Fitzgerald 19th century

As Christianity arose in Celtic and Anglo Britain, the indigenous fairy beliefs were grafted into the Christian lexicon, altering beliefs further. Not only did powerful deities of mythology become shrunken into fairy lore, but ideas about fairies changed to fit the Christian paradigm.

The Role of the Dead in Medieval Iceland: A Case Study of Eyrbyggja Saga

northern lights iceland - photo by Alison Tomlin / Flickr

In this article I intend to discuss the role of the malevolent restless dead in medieval Iceland by making a case study of the so-called wonders of Fróðá, the Fróðárundr episode in Eyrbyggja saga.

Mermaids in the Book of Treasures

Medieval mermaids

Florentine writer Brunetto Lattini explains what mermaids are in his Book of Treasures.

The Kraken: when myth encounters science

Kraken Octopus - Denys Montfort in Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière des mollusques: animaux sans vertèbres et a sang blanc

Hundreds of years ago, sailors were terrified by the Kraken, a dreadful sea monster capable of sinking ships and with a taste for human flesh.

Medieval Black Magic

Medieval Black Magic

Sins of evil black magic, as listed by the medieval theologian Burchard of Worms in the 11th century.

What’s the forecast for 2015? A Medieval Twelve Days of Christmas forecast reveals all

Medieval Twelve Days of Christmas - Photo from University of Reading

Is a BBQ summer on the cards in 2015? Will farmers make hay next year? And is there a political scandal on the election horizon? Well take a peek out of the window with the University of Reading’s Medieval Weather Forecast guide on the 12 days of Christmas and you’ll find out!

The oldest Onion in Denmark

onion in Denmark - photo courtesy National Museum of Denmark

A 1300-year-old onion has been discovered as part of a woman’s grave in Denmark.

Adversus paganos: Disaster, Dragons, and Episcopal Authority in Gregory of Tours

rome

In 589, a great flood of the Tiber river sent a torrent of water rushing through the city of Rome

The Pied Piper of Hamelin: A Medieval Mass Abduction?

Pied piper

What really happened on June 26, 1284, in the German town of Hamelin?

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