The Thraco-Dacian Origin of the Paparuda/Dodola Rain-Making Ritual
This study presents an analysis about the rain-making ritual from Romania, called Paparuda, performed in the spring and in times of severe drought
Messages from the Otherworld – The Roles of the Dead in Medieval Iceland
I will examine the role of the restless dead in sagas by focusing on the individuals who are responsible for banishing the malevolent ghosts, or encounter the benevolent or non-harmful living dead.
Paranormal Activity in Medieval England: The Ghosts of Byland Abbey
And while he was going back along the road heard a terrifying voice yelling far behind him, as if it were on a mountain. A moment later it yelled again but this time nearer. A third time he heard the voice shouting at the crossroads ahead of him, and then he saw a pale horse.
Vampires and Watchmen: Categorizing the Mediaeval Icelandic Undead
One can imagine three ways to approach a mediaeval Icelandic draugr, a term which is usually glossed as ‘ghost’ in English.
Top 10 Strange Things done with the Medieval Dead
From piles of bones to embalmed hearts, with stories about mass graves and sleeping for hundreds of years, here is our top 10 list of strange things done with the medieval dead.
The Wages of Sin: Kinship and Forgiveness in the ‘Herlechin’s Hunt’ of Orderic Vitalis
In Book VIII of this lengthy chronicle of Norman affairs, Orderic paused in his description of the political struggles between the sons of William the Conqueror to tell a ghost story.
The Legend of the Pied Piper in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Grimm, Browning, and Skurzynski
This paper examines the changes that were made in the literary telling and retelling of the story of the Pied Piper during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, comparing the folktale “Die Kinder zu Hameln” (1816) by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the poem “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”(1842) by Robert Browning, and the book What Happened in Hamelin (1979), by Gloria Skurzynski.
Demonic Magic in the Icelandic Wizard Legends
Saemund Sigfusson is the earliest of the Icelandic wizards. According to the annals he was born in the year 1056. He was educated in France and returned to Iceland in 1076 or 1078.
The Wonderful Wonders of the East
The Wonders of the East is an author’s attempt to not only introduce readers to strange sights they may never see with their own eyes (since most people did not travel extensively), but also to make sense of some things they might see every day.
‘Vampire’ skeleton discovered in Poland
Archaeologists working in northwestern Poland have unearthed the remains of man who was buried with a rock jammed into his jaw and a stake driven into his leg.
Enabling Love: Dwarfs in Old Norse-Icelandic Romances
Many of these romances deal not merely with love and adventure but also with dwarfs. But how do dwarfs fit in with the romantic idealism of these narratives? What exactly is their function?
Slavic and Greek-Roman Mythology, Comparative Mythology
In this paper I will present a number of similarities between Greek and Roman deities and the Slavic ones, basing my research as much as possible on the information provided by an etymological analysis, a description of the deity as well as rituals, offerings, sacrifices and celebrations dedicated to the deities.
The Origins of the Tale of the Blood Drinking Hungarians
The motif of the covenant of blood was quite widespread in West European chronicle literature, and it was not necessarily applied to Oriental peoples, nor particularly to Hungarians.
The Extreme Emotional Life of Völundr the Elf
In this article, my aim is to determine the function of elves in Old Norse narratives from the thirteenth century by concentrating on the figure of Völundr, the protagonist of Völundarkviða, who to my mind is the most important Old Norse elf.
The Contemporary Evidence for Early Medieval Witchcraft-Beliefs
This article has two main aims. One is to bring to a wider audience a small group of early medieval texts pertinent to the history of witchcraft…
The Ship in the Field
An article exploring the possibility of a connection between the Vanir gods, specifically the goddess Freyja, with the Scandinavian stone ships and boat burials, and hypothesizing a field of the dead in early Germanic mythology.
Why Care about Later Folklore in Old Norse Studies?
It is not unusual that folklore data can be demonstrated, with high probability, to reflect ancient times, for reasons like those mentioned in the Bárðar saga example, or other reasons – as many of us know.
Abduction, surgery, madness: an account of a little red man in Thomas Walsingham’s Chronica maiora
This article examines the inclusion of the supernatural and mythological in Thomas Walsingham’s Chroncia Maiora.
Incubus: the medieval nightmare disease
Some people have nightmares of being crushed to death, either by a person or a thing. In the Middle Ages this type of dream was so common that had it a name: incubus (which means ‘the crusher’ in Latin).
Werewolves and snakewomen
Dr Miranda Griffin, College Lecturer in medieval French literature, provides a fascinating investigation of medieval tales of transformation, exploring the way in which the Middle Ages imagined the frontiers between the human and the animal.
The Hole: Problems in Medieval Dwarfology
When trying to understand Old Norse dwarfs, one problem is knowing too much.
The Isles of Scilly, Lost Peaks of Lyonesse?
Twenty-eight miles off the coast of Cornwall, the Scilly Isles rise above the waves of the Atlantic.
The Hunted Children of Kings: A Theme in the Old Icelandic Sagas
In this instance life appears to imitate art, that is if we categorize fairy tales as art. Life, or at least the life of King Sverrir, resembles a story about stepmothers.
Medieval Proverbs from The Well-Laden Ship
Here is a list of some of our favourite medieval proverbs from The Well-Laden Ship, including a few that are very similar to modern ones.