30 Medieval Superstitions
We know a lot about Christianity in the Middle Ages, but much less about the ‘pagan’ and folk religion that many people had. A list from the eighth century offers some clues into those medieval beliefs and superstitions.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin: A Medieval Mass Abduction?
What really happened on June 26, 1284, in the German town of Hamelin?
The Earliest Little Red Riding Hood Tale
The tale of Little Red Riding Hood has a long history to it – first printed by Charles Perrault in the late 17th century and the Brothers Grimm in the nineteenth. However, the earliest known version of the story actually dates back to the 11th century.
Clothing as Humanity: Ghosts, Werewolves, and the Fashion of Redemption
Through a range of medieval sources, otherworldly and supernatural beings are described through dress, identified or questioned by it, and sometimes, it is pivotal to the story
Joan of Arc’s Heretical Tree of Domrémy
The tree represented a useful trump card for Joan’s judges in order to convict her of heresy and eventually burn her at the stake
Did Medieval People Believe in Fairies?
Today fairies are typically relegated to the realm of children’s stories or superstitions, but in the Middle Ages, some individuals believed that fairies were real and that they had the power to impact human lives in material ways.
Medieval Omens
Omens were a staple of medieval superstition and a great reflection of medieval folk beliefs.
Christmas Traditions in the Hidden Corners of Europe
Celebrating the Christmas season in the Carpathian Mountains
Pagan Survivals in Medieval Holiday Celebrations
Many of the most signature parts of Christmas in the Middle Ages (and today) actually come from pagan rather than Christian traditions. So, if you want to find out how you can make your Christmas and end of year celebrations just a little bit more pagan, read on!
Demons, Djinns, and Devils of the Medieval Islamic World
Throughout the medieval world there was a strong belief in supernatural beings. If you lived in the Middle East, they would be called djinn, demons or devils. If you dare want to know more about these monsters, read on!
From Magic to Maleficium: The Crafting of Witchery in Late Medieval Text
In 1437, theologian Johannes Nider warned about a new threat to the Christian world – witches.
The Scotichronicast Halloween Special
A donkey, a dragon, a headless ghost, and a spider walk into a podcast. Kate Buchanan is joined by Lizzie Swarbrick and Callum Watson for a lighthearted telling of some stories where the supernatural and medieval Scotland meet (if only slightly).
The weird story of an Icelandic ghost named Þórgunna
Then, in the middle of the night, the party was awakened by a noise as of someone fumbling about in the darkness: someone had broken into the farmhouse. The larder: the thief was in the larder.
The Wild Hunts of Medieval Lore
What are these strange tales of ghostly armies?
The Medieval Cinderella
It takes place within a community of rural “cave-dwellers,” features magical fish bones, presents a prince who is both violent and greedy, and stars a heroine who is much more disobedient and ambitious than the European version.
The Yule Cat of Iceland: A Different Kind of Christmas Tradition
By Minjie Su You know the Christmas Cat, – That cat was enormous. People know not where he came from Nor to what…
There is More than Meets the Eye. Undead, Ghosts and Spirits in the Decretum of Burchard of Worms
The Corrector, that is, the nineteenth book of Burchard of Worms’s Decretum, is widely recognized as one of the essential sources for the study of pagan survivals around the year 1000 A.D
Haunting Matters: Demonic Infestation in Northern Europe, 1400-1600
This dissertation will show the ways in which learned writings about demons reveal insights into the cultural and intellectual history of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century western Europe.
Messages from the Otherworld: The Roles of the Dead in Medieval Iceland
The ghosts in sagas are no phantoms or incorporeal spirits, but appear to the living in their physical and tangible bodies at a dark time of the day or year. The dead look the same as they used to when they lived, and are thus easily recognized by the living.
5 Things you might not know about Medieval Werewolves
Medieval authors were fascinated by werewolves just as much as we are. Yet, despite all the ferocity, the werewolf they imagined is not quite the same monster in our era.
Did Augustine believe in Monsters?
The sermon that makes this outrageous claim is a fake. It is one of hundreds, if not thousands of sermons that circulated in the Middle Ages using Augustine’s illustrious name as a way to guarantee a wide readership and make a bid for literary immortality.
How to become an EVIL wizard – medieval magic from Picatrix
Could you learn magic and become a powerful and evil wizard? In the Middle Ages you could, if you had a copy of Picatrix.
The Dead Man’s Prophecy and a Roundtrip to Hell: The Early Adventures of Hadingus
What can be more glorious, more tempting than the conquest of death?
Magic and the Warding-off of Barbarians in Constantinople, 9th – 12th Centuries
What remains to be seen is how the populace of the middle-Byzantine Constantinople tried to ward off “barbarians” by resorting to the “magical properties” of bewitched statues.