Identifying the Ogre: The Legendary Saga Giants
The legendary saga giants are for the most part terrible and ugly. Some are also of incredible size, although no sources agree on how huge giants are.
Well-Pissers and Water Goblins: What the Monsters of Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka Mean
A creature who seems to desecrate wells, a mountain in the shape of a man that rises out the sea, and a spiteful, laughing aquatic goblin: thus runs the cast of monsters found in the saga Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka.
Medieval Magical Spells against Theft
You can find dozens of examples of spells and charms from medieval manuscripts to help prevent you from being a victim of theft, or to catch a thief.
The Green Children of Woolpit: Going past the skin-deep explanations of a medieval legend
The children have consistently been rejected as a freakish contortion of medieval superstition and generous imagination.
Axlar-Björn: The Only Serial Killer of Iceland
Axlar-Björn, or Björn of the farm Öxl, was executed in 1596 for having murdered at least 18 people.
Sko-Ella: The Woman Worse than the Devil
What is it that you truly desire? How far are you prepared to go to get it? Would you, say, treasure it even more than your immortal soul?
Your Birthstone According to the Middle Ages
Birthstones and their superpowers according to the Middle Ages
The Goat and the Cathedral – Archaeology of Folk Religion in Medieval Turku
This paper introduces three cases of material signs of folk religion that archaeologists have discovered in the medieval soil layers of Turku
Murderous Mermaid: Why Siren Is More Medieval Than You Think
In medieval bestiaries, the Sirens are portrayed as deadly seducers who use their seductive songs to lure the sailors to sleep, and then attack them with sharp teeth and tear open their flesh.
Seven Wonders of the Medieval Far North
Konungs skuggsjá explains the wonders of the strange waters around Greenland, a far corner of the medieval world.
The Challenge of Folklore to Medieval Studies
When folklore began to emerge as a valid expression of a people during the early stages of national romanticism, it did so alongside texts and artifacts from the Middle Ages; it was only as folklore began to develop its own methodology during the nineteenth century that the fields were distinguished.
The Legend of the White Snake: A Chinese Mélusine Story
A husband ‘accidentally’ glimpses into his wife’s bedchamber only to discover that the lady whom he believed to be fair, noble, and undoubtedly human – is in fact a (partial) snake.
How to Kill a Medieval Zombie
By Danièle Cybulskie I’ve often said that people in the Middle Ages shared the same hopes and fears that we do. Believe it…
What Medieval Ghosts can tell us about the Afterlife
People in the Middle Ages told tales of seeing and talking with ghosts. While these encounters could be quite scary, it was also an opportunity from them to learn about the afterlife.
Old Norse White Walkers?
Fear of the undead is by no means a new sensation to humankind; the Icelanders, for instance, knew it centuries ago.
Fake Medieval Proverbs (from the Middle Ages)
Jane la Sauvage said, if someone sees a wolf before the wolf sees them, it will have no power to do any harm. And likewise from the person to the wolf.
A Wolfish Reflection: A Literary Analysis of the Werewolf Story in ‘The King’s Mirror’
Why has the werewolf story been selected? How should it be read and understood?
Seven Things You Didn’t Know About Medieval Dragons
Why were dragons so popular—and what was a dragon in the Middle Ages, anyway? Here are a few things you might not know about medieval dragons
Buried Alive with an Undead Corpse! A Medieval Tale
A medieval tale from northern Europe tells the story of Asmund, who gets buried alive. His friend then rises from the dead!
Druids, deer and ‘words of power’: coming to terms with evil in medieval Ireland
Our focus is on medieval Irish literature—one of the earliest written vernaculars in Europe. Within this rich tradition, the face of evil changes according to genre.
Hearing medieval voices
Hearing voices without external stimuli: in the popular imagination, auditory hallucination is most often understood as a symptom of severe mental disorders.
How to Deal with the Restless Dead? Discernment of Spirits and the Response to Ghosts in Fifteenth-Century Europe
Discernment of spirits was embedded in late medieval theologies and ministries of death and, as such, was central to the assessment of other apparitions – like those of ghosts.
From the Middle Ages to Modernity: The Intersecting Supernatural Worlds of Melusine and Today’s Popular Culture
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 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.