Medieval Monsters and the Anxiety towards the Alien
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
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
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
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
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
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?
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 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
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
If there’s anything we have in common with our medieval ancestors, it’s our love of monsters.
Continuity: Folklore’s Problem Child?
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
The purpose of this study is to examine cultural conceptions of the possible afterlives of suicides in medieval (ca. 1200– 1400) Iceland.
The Role of the Dead in Medieval Iceland: A Case Study of Eyrbyggja Saga
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 Middle Ages
Florentine writer Brunetto Lattini explains what mermaids are in his Book of Treasures.
Witchcraft Trials In Sweden: With Neighbours Like These, Who Needs Enemies?!
Everyone has “that” neighbour on their floor, or street who they’d secretly love to move to Mars and never see again. Well, the Early Modern Swedes had a way of dealing with those kinds of nasty neighbours…
The Kraken: when myth encounters science
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.
Trolls in the Middle Ages
Where did trolls come from? What did medieval and early modern people think of trolls? How did the concept of the modern day troll evolve?
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
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
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
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?
What really happened on June 26, 1284, in the German town of Hamelin?
Fossil Sharks’ Teeth: A Medieval Safeguard Against Poisoning
In the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, particularly between the thirteenth and the sixteenth century, the most common way of eliminating one’s enemy was by poisoning his food or drink at a banquet.
Nourishment for the Soul – Nourishment for the Body: Animal Remains in Early Medieval Pomeranian Cemeteries
Late medieval sources clearly refer to souls, which in traditional folk beliefs were periodically returning to feed and warm themselves by the fires made by the living. This kind of conception can be merged with Slavic eschatology. There is multiple evidence to confirm that belief some form of spirit or soul was spreading amongst the people, who in the early medieval period, bordered directly with Pomerania.