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The undead and the Medieval period are. From a narrative perspective a match made in heaven, or should I say in purgatory. The Middle Ages were both a time of incredible inventions, architecture and progress, but also a time for war, death, and a fascination for the occult, was present both within the educated elite, clergy and the common people, so no wonder we see these two concepts in so many fantasy settings.

Also check out the blog I read in the last section of the video

https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscri...

But did Medieval people actually believe in all these undead creatures? And if they did, what sort of stories did they tell? Was there a regional variation in the way these monsters were perceived? And if we were to show our Medieval undead from our games and novels to an actual Medieval person, would they be familiar? Or confused?

And the oral and folkloric traditions that tie all of these sources together. Welcome to episode one of Historically accurate Medieval Undead.

Did Medieval People believe in Ghosts?

Contents of this video

Intro
1 - A world imbued with spirits
2 - Function of ghosts and role of cemeteries
3 - The living and the dead in medieval society
4 - The discernment of spirits
5 – Literary Analysis
6 – Byland Abbey
Conclusion

1 - The Medieval Ghost

Whenever we try to understand how something was perceived and understood in period, we have to approach the subject from an unfiltered perspective. The word ghost for us may have a specific meaning, but for a person from 1000 years ago the same word could have a slightly different or even completely different meaning to it. Any fixation with the “supernatural” needs to be contextualized also considering the fact that the term supernatural itself, for instance is a term not used at the time.

In other words, terms come with a certain cultural semantic baggage.

A world imbued with spirits

Ghost stories had been common in ancient Greek and Roman culture, and at least in the initial Medieval approach, were tinged with paganism in the eyes of the early church fathers. In early medieval Europe, a certain number of clerical figures rejected the idea that dead souls could return to earth. Tertullian (c.160–c.230) and Lactantius (c.250–c.325) dismissed ghosts as a vulgar superstition. Augustine of Hippo (354–430) allowed only for the ‘image’ of a dead person to return, as opposed to an actual spirit or soul, and explained that this image was created by angels or demons.

Instead identifying apparitions as angels or (more frequently) as demons. The main biblical justification for ghosts was the Old Testament story of the Witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:3–25), which focused on the tribulations of King Saul of Israel and Judah.

He repaired to a medium who had remained in Endor, and by his request, she raised the deceased prophet Samuel. The story suggested that ghosts might appear on earth, but it was not conclusive. Moreover the apparition of Samuel was tainted by the association with witchcraft and necromancy, and might be read as a devil in disguise. In the absence of clear biblical guidance, medieval theologians expressed varying views on the orthodoxy of ghosts. Atleast from the point of view of ecclesiastical authorities we could say that scepticism became more pronounced with the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, when ghosts were widely identified as demons. This of course doesn't necessarily reflect the population at large though.

Ghosts and the Church

A study of the phenomenon of ghost stories Although the belief in ghosts existed already in antiquity and the early Middle Ages, only the interaction of the Christian Church and the subtle but powerful pagan cultures among the laity could produce a strong reemergence and growth of ideas about ghosts since the eleventh century.

In the early Church the discussion of ghosts centered mostly on the pagan aspects of the belief in ghosts, as the church fathers such as Augustine, Tertullian, and Evodius struggled to come to terms with this "superstition." But beginning in the ninth century the Church agreed to embrace a new liturgy of the dead which made it also possible for the general belief in ghosts to grow tremendously.

Aspects of ghosts in their appearance, functions, and actions. Beginning in the second chapter, he studies accounts of ghosts which appeared in dreams or rather nightmares. Following he turns to the large body of Christian miracle tales, exempla, and mirabilia which also were filled with reports about ghosts.

#ghosts #medieval #undead