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Medieval Ghost Stories: An Anthology of Miracles, Marvels and Prodigies
Seventy-seven tales of the supernatural, intended to frighten and excite and bring to heel their medieval audience, gathered from medieval chronicles, sagas, heroic poetry and romances.
Strongly recommended. M R JAMES NEWSLETTER
Stories of restless spirits returning from the afterlife are as old as storytelling. In medieval Europe ghosts, nightstalkers and unearthly visitors from parallel worlds had beenin circulation since before the coming of Christianity.
Here is a collection of ghostly encounters from medieval romances, monastic chronicles, sagas and heroic poetry. These tales bore a peculiar freight of spooks and spirituality which can still make the hair stand on end. Look at the story of Richard Rowntree's stillborn child, glimpsed by his father tangled in swaddling clothes on the road to Santiago, or the sly habits of water sprites restingas golden rings on the surface of the river, just out of reach.
The writer and broadcaster Andrew Joynes brings together a vivid selection of these tales, with a thoughtful commentary that puts them in context and lays bare the layers of meaning in them.
Strongly recommended. M R JAMES NEWSLETTER
Stories of restless spirits returning from the afterlife are as old as storytelling. In medieval Europe ghosts, nightstalkers and unearthly visitors from parallel worlds had beenin circulation since before the coming of Christianity.
Here is a collection of ghostly encounters from medieval romances, monastic chronicles, sagas and heroic poetry. These tales bore a peculiar freight of spooks and spirituality which can still make the hair stand on end. Look at the story of Richard Rowntree's stillborn child, glimpsed by his father tangled in swaddling clothes on the road to Santiago, or the sly habits of water sprites restingas golden rings on the surface of the river, just out of reach.
The writer and broadcaster Andrew Joynes brings together a vivid selection of these tales, with a thoughtful commentary that puts them in context and lays bare the layers of meaning in them.
230 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1901
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 3, 2017
Very well researched and enjoyed reading it but considering it is a book you read and process before reading on, it took me a while to get through. But it gave a good insight into medieval literature and I would happily go back to it again when I need to brush up on medieval stories.
May 10, 2023
My favourite story was the one in the bathhouse.
October 31, 2022
Medieval Ghost Stories
Book 45/52
what a load of cr*p
Book 45/52
what a load of cr*p
December 6, 2016
I picked this book up because Adam Gidwitz said he used it while writing The Inquisitor's Tale, and I thought it sounded interesting. And it is! The stories are very interesting. It was cool to see how ghost stories have changed from then to now. Religious message ghost stories are very strange. Also, many of the stories are totally messed up. So yeah, the only problem was the historical notes. Good information, but the way they were written was as dry as stale toast.
October 27, 2019
Gonna cut off your nose so your babies are noseless
November 19, 2022
nice collection and resource
May 30, 2023
I really enjoyed this book, which describes the genesis of the classic ghost story as we know it now, from the morality-filled telling of such tales by the medieval eclesiastical fraternity, up to 'The Age of Chivalry's' zelous adherence to the art of love and what can go wrong if it isn't placated, as far as hauntings are concerned.
There was also everything in between, including some really good Norse tales about draugrs and even a mention of an even earlier seminal work, the Roman 'Gesta Romanorum', where many of these later tales' origins lie.
A really good read and now an excellent reference tool in my library for my own future works.
There was also everything in between, including some really good Norse tales about draugrs and even a mention of an even earlier seminal work, the Roman 'Gesta Romanorum', where many of these later tales' origins lie.
A really good read and now an excellent reference tool in my library for my own future works.
March 28, 2019
3.5 stars
January 19, 2020
A good book, but the introductions to the stories did sometimes sum up the stories a bit too much.
January 29, 2020
For any historian, this is a great collection of stories by contemporaries.
October 7, 2024
This is a truly great read, not only chuck full of early ghost stories, many with a moral, but also full of historical perspective and insight.
August 14, 2015
I discovered this book on the recommendation of a scholar who presented a paper about revenants (roaming dead) in Medieval England at this year's Kalamazoo Medieval Congress. Since this is a topic near to my heart, in more ways than one :-) I picked up a copy at the publisher's booth.
This book gives some great insight into the role of the supernatural in the lives of people around the turn of the first millennium, up to the 1300's. It is well-organized by topics including: Ghosts and Monks, Ghosts and the Court, The Restless Dead, and Ghosts in Medieval Literature. Each of these sections includes a general introduction, placing the manifestation in context, then a series of excerpts from period works--chronicles, sagas and stories--that describe what happened and to whom.
As a fantasy author, and also as the leader of teen camps where I am frequently called upon to tell horror stories, this is just the kind of material I keep an eye out for. It includes some more familiar pieces, like the werewolf Bisclavret from Marie de FranceMarie de France or a tale from The DecameronBoccaccio's Decameron, but also many other works from less known sources--local chronicles and the like.
Most of these stories take place on the cusp of the Christian emergence, and are given a theological spin by their authors (frequently priests and monks--the most educated people of their day). So we hear souls tell of the torment they suffer because of their sins, and we see Guinevere offer to have masses sung for the restless spirit of her mother. These spirits are often laid to rest at last by the intervention of priests or of proper Christian burial.
To me, the most interesting narratives here are those from the Scandinavian sagas, where Christian motifs overlay a local aesthetic. Hence a woman wronged in life whose corpse is being brought to a monastery for burial to atone for the wrongs done her rises up in the night to make a meal for her funeral party because the miserly host has not done so--thus chiding the host for his failure to provide hospitality due to guests.
Although eager to find Christian meaning in stories of ghosts or the walking dead, Christianity in general had an uneasy relationship with the entire concept. The dead, according to doctrine, lay quietly to wait for judgment, if they were not already taken up, or sent down. The body was not animate of itself, and the soul had already been accounted for--so Church fathers are often at pains during this period to insist that ghosts and revenants simply didn't exist, even as many laypeople accepted the stories as the proof of Heaven or Hell--because these spirits desired to reach the one, or to speak out in warning about the other.
But there is another category of stories, warning the living to make much of life--and especially of love, in which groups of wandering spirits are show as joyous or as despairing in proportion to their willingness to share love while they were alive, bringing to mind later works, like Andrew Marvell's "To his Coy Mistress." Suggesting that man's fascination with the dead, and his willingness to use them as examples to the living, whether for instruction or seduction, goes on.
This book gives some great insight into the role of the supernatural in the lives of people around the turn of the first millennium, up to the 1300's. It is well-organized by topics including: Ghosts and Monks, Ghosts and the Court, The Restless Dead, and Ghosts in Medieval Literature. Each of these sections includes a general introduction, placing the manifestation in context, then a series of excerpts from period works--chronicles, sagas and stories--that describe what happened and to whom.
As a fantasy author, and also as the leader of teen camps where I am frequently called upon to tell horror stories, this is just the kind of material I keep an eye out for. It includes some more familiar pieces, like the werewolf Bisclavret from Marie de FranceMarie de France or a tale from The DecameronBoccaccio's Decameron, but also many other works from less known sources--local chronicles and the like.
Most of these stories take place on the cusp of the Christian emergence, and are given a theological spin by their authors (frequently priests and monks--the most educated people of their day). So we hear souls tell of the torment they suffer because of their sins, and we see Guinevere offer to have masses sung for the restless spirit of her mother. These spirits are often laid to rest at last by the intervention of priests or of proper Christian burial.
To me, the most interesting narratives here are those from the Scandinavian sagas, where Christian motifs overlay a local aesthetic. Hence a woman wronged in life whose corpse is being brought to a monastery for burial to atone for the wrongs done her rises up in the night to make a meal for her funeral party because the miserly host has not done so--thus chiding the host for his failure to provide hospitality due to guests.
Although eager to find Christian meaning in stories of ghosts or the walking dead, Christianity in general had an uneasy relationship with the entire concept. The dead, according to doctrine, lay quietly to wait for judgment, if they were not already taken up, or sent down. The body was not animate of itself, and the soul had already been accounted for--so Church fathers are often at pains during this period to insist that ghosts and revenants simply didn't exist, even as many laypeople accepted the stories as the proof of Heaven or Hell--because these spirits desired to reach the one, or to speak out in warning about the other.
But there is another category of stories, warning the living to make much of life--and especially of love, in which groups of wandering spirits are show as joyous or as despairing in proportion to their willingness to share love while they were alive, bringing to mind later works, like Andrew Marvell's "To his Coy Mistress." Suggesting that man's fascination with the dead, and his willingness to use them as examples to the living, whether for instruction or seduction, goes on.
February 6, 2016
An interesting compilation of ghost stories from medieval sources. The book is divided into four sections, based on who wrote the stories and the purposes they were written for. It includes miracula ("miracles"), wondrous tales told with a moral purpose, mirabilia ("marvels"), wondrous tales serving to provide diversion through theological or philosophical debate which the story sparks, stories from Scandinavian sources featuring draugar, or revenants, people who have corporeally returned from the dead to plague the living, and stories from medieval courts often supporting ideals of courtly romance. Most of the stories here are new to me, although I did recognize a version of "The Chained Coffin" (here presented as "The Witch of Berkeley") and "The Tale of King Herla". The first half is a bit drier than what most modern readers of ghost stories are likely used to, as it was written for moral or intellectual purposes, and the section colored by courtly romance may feel (rightly so) off-putting because of the skewed "morality" putting erotic love as the highest pursuit of a human life; though all these bits are still interesting. The best section is the Scandinavian stories of draugar, some of which likely evolved into Beowulf's Grendel and modern day vampires. A great read for anyone interested in ghost stories or the Middle Ages.
July 28, 2011
Very dense, but insightful. Well organized to highlight the editor's focus on themes of ghost depiction very different from modern conceptions.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews