1st Edition
Supernatural Encounters Demons and the Restless Dead in Medieval England, c.1050–1450
By Stephen Gordon
Copyright 2020
244 Pages
by
Routledge
242 Pages
by
Routledge
242 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
The belief in the reality of demons and the restless dead formed a central facet of the medieval worldview. Whether a pestilent-spreading corpse mobilised by the devil, a purgatorial spirit returning to earth to ask for suffrage, or a shape-shifting demon intent on crushing its victims as they slept, encounters with supernatural entities were often met with consternation and fear. Chroniclers,... Read more
Introduction
- The Witch of Berkeley in Context
- The Critical Function of the Walking Corpse in William of Newburgh’s Historia rerum Anglicarum
- Satirising the Undead: Walter Map and the Ambiguation of Wonder
- Between Demons and the Undead: Preaching Practice and Local Belief in the Sermons of John Mirk
- "But whan us liketh we kan take us oon’: Vain Surfaces and Walking Corpses in Chaucer’s Friar’s Tale
- Nightmares and the Supernatural Encounter
Epilogue
Index
Biography
Stephen Gordon graduated with a PhD in medieval literature and archaeology from the University of Manchester, UK, and currently works at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is an interdisciplinary scholar of medieval and early modern supernatural belief and has published widely in his chosen research area.
