ODYSSEUS IN THE HOUSE OF DEATH
1. Homer, The Odyssey 11.13-256, trans. Robert Fagels (New York: Viking Penguin, 1996), pp. 250–256.
2. Erebus was the name of the place of darkness beneath the earth where the dead were thought to dwell.
3. Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, who became queen of the underworld after her abduction by Hades.
4. Aeaea was the name of the island where Circe lived and where Elpenor still lay unburied after his accidental death.
PLINY CONTEMPLATES THE EXISTENCE OF GHOSTS
1. Pliny the Younger, Letter 7.27, in The Letters of the Younger Pliny, trans. Betty Radice (New York: Penguin Books, 1963), pp. 202–205 (slightly altered).
2. Curtius Rufus was a first-century magistrate of the senatorial rank, who may also have been the author of a history of Alexander the Great that proved to be very popular in the Middle Ages.
3. The veracity of the spirit’s prediction indicated that she was a manifestation of the divine will (numen) rather than an empty hallucination.
4. Domitian was the emperor of Rome from 81 to 96.
A MISTRESS OF THE GRAVES
1. Lucan, Civil War 6.565-928, in Lucan, Civil War, trans. Matthew Fox (New York: Penguin Classics, 2012), pp. 164–175 (slightly altered).
2. Dis Pater is the Roman name for the god of the underworld, the equivalent of the Greek Hades.
3. Haemus refers to the Balkan mountain range, which is nowhere near Pharsalus, the town in ancient Greece, in the vicinity of which Caesar defeated Pompey in battle in 48 BCE. Lucan seems to be associating the name of the mountain with Haemonia, a poetic name for Thessaly.
4. Emathia is an ancient reference to Macedonia.
5. Rhodope is a mountain in western Thrace.
6. Avernus was the name of a crater located near Cuma in Italy. In the ancient period, it was believed to be an entrance to the underworld.
7. Taenarus was another entrance to the underworld in ancient lore. It was located on the southern tip of one of the peninsulas in the Peloponnese.
8. The Eumenides were the Furies, the Greek deities of vengeance. Cerberus was the great three-headed dog that guarded the gate to the underworld.
9. Echenais were small fish, whose name means “holds back ships” (Gr. Echein naus). In antiquity, they were a common ingredient in magical spells.
10. Elysium is the name of the isles of the blessed, the abode of dead heroes.
11. Tartarus and Orcus are synonyms for the underworld or the gods thereof.
12. Tisiphone and Megaera are the names of the Furies.
SPEAKING WITH THE DEAD IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from the Latin Vulgate version of Deut. 18.9–14.
2. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from the Latin Vulgate version of 1 Sam. 28.1 and 3–25.
A GHOST UPON THE WATERS
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from the Latin Vulgate version of Matt. 14:22–33.
DREAMING OF THE DEAD
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Passio sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis 7-8, ed. H. Musurillo, in The Acts of the Christian Martyrs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), pp. 114 and 116.
THE DISCERNMENT OF THE SAINTS
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Sulpicius Severus, Vita sancti Martini 11, ed. Jacques Fontaine, in Sulpice Sévère, Vie de saint Martin, 3 vols., Sources chrétiennes 133-135 (Paris: L’Éditions du Cerf, 1967–1968), vol. 1, p. 276.
2. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Constantius, Vita sancti Germani 10, ed. René Borius, in Constance de Lyon, Vie de saint Germain d’Auxerre, Sources chrétiennes 112 (Paris: L’Éditions du Cerf, 1965), pp. 138, 140, and 142.
3. Recast in modern English from the translation of Whitley Stokes in The Tripartite Life of Patrick with Other Documents Relating to that Saint (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1887), pp. 125 and 127.
EVODIUS’S INQUIRY: GOING FORTH FROM THE BODY, WHO ARE WE?
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Augustine, Epistolae 158 and 159, ed. A. Goldbacher, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 44 (Vienna: F. Tempsky, 1904), pp. 488–496 and 498.
2. Phil. 1.23.
3. See Psalm 84.2; and Psalm 23.5, respectively.
4. See Rom. 8.37.
5. Compare Matt. 10.29.
AUGUSTINE’S REJECTION OF GHOSTS
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Augustine, De cura pro mortuis gerenda ad Paulinum 12-15, ed. Joseph Zycha, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 41 (Vienna: F. Tempsky, 1900), pp. 639–646.
2. Aeneid 6.337–383.
POPE GREGORY THE GREAT: HOW CAN THE LIVING HELP THE DEAD?
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Gregory the Great, Dialogorum libri quattuor 4.40, 4.47, 4.53, and 4.55, ed. J. P. Migne, in Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series Latina 77 (Paris: Garnier Fratres, 1896), cols. 396–397, 408–409, 413, 416–417, and 420–421.
2. The dalmatic was a long tunic with wide sleeves worn by deacons during the celebration of the Mass.
3. See Acts 8.20.
THE VISION OF BARONTUS
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Visio Baronti monachi Longoretensis, ed. W. Levison in Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptorum rerum Merovingicarum 5 (Hannover and Leipzig, Germany: Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1910), pp. 373–394.
2. Saint-Pierre de Longoret in the diocese of Bourges, later renamed Saint-Cyran-du-Jambot.
3. Matins was the night office of the church, usually sung at midnight or in the early hours of the morning.
4. Presumably a reference to the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt through the agency of God working through his prophet Moses, as recounted in the Book of Exodus.
5. Modern Méobecq in central France.
6. Psalm 103.22.
7. Psalm 51.1.
8. See Gregory the Great, Dialogues 4.36.
9. Manuscript copies of the Vision of Barontus included illustrations depicting the keys of Saint Peter.
10. Psalm 51.1.
11. Matt. 19.21.
12. See Luke 16.22.
13. Gregory the Great, Dialogues 4.36. The quotation is from Matt. 13.30.
14. Gregory the Great, Homilies on the Gospels 12.5.
15. See Psalm 40.11.
DRYHTHELM RETURNS FROM THE DEAD
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People 5.12, ed. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), pp. 488, 490, 492, 494, 496, and 498.
IMPERIAL TORMENTS
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Annales Fuldenses, anno 874, ed. F. Kurze, Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores rerum Germanicarum 7 (Hannover, Germany: Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1891), p. 82.
CLUNY AND THE FEAST OF ALL SOULS
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Iotsald, Vita Odilonis 2.15, ed. Johannes Staub, in Iotsald von Saint-Claude, Vita des Abtes Odilo von Cluny, Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum in Usum Scholarum Separatim Editi 68 (Hannover, Germany: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1999), pp. 218–220.
A LESBIAN GHOST
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Peter Damian, Epistola 168, ed. Kurt Reindel in Die Briefe des Petrus Damiani, Monumenta Germaniae Historica; Die Briefe der Deutschen Kaiserzeit, 4 vols. (Munich: Monumenta Germaniae Historica, 1983–1993), vol. 4, pp. 242–243.
THE HAUNTING OF THE CLOISTER
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Peter the Venerable, De miraculis libri duo 1.9-11, ed. Denise Bouthillier, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaeualis 83 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1988), pp. 34–42.
2. Phil. 1.21.
3. Psalm 84.4.
4. Psalm 80.11.
5. The rules against mundane conversation were so strict at the abbey of Cluny that the monks developed a rudimentary form of sign language to communicate essential information to one another when speaking was forbidden. See Scott G. Bruce, Silence and Sign Language in Medieval Monasticism: The Cluniac Tradition, c. 900–1200 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
WARNINGS TO THE LIVING
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus miraculorum 12.18, 12.19, 12.24, 12.29, 12.36, and 12.41, ed. Horst Schneider, in Caesarius von Heisterbach, Dialog über die Wunder, 5 vols. (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2009), vol. 5, pp. 2214, 2216, 2218, 2236, 2238, 2248, 2250, 2252, 2262, 2264, 2266, 2278, and 2280.
2. Usury is the act of lending money at interest, which was forbidden among medieval Christians.
3. Wisdom 6.7.
4. See 1 Cor. 7.14.
5. This prayer serves as the offertory during the Mass on November 2, All Souls Day.
6. The Cisterican General Chapter was the annual gathering of Cistercian abbots at Cîteaux, the motherhouse of the entire order.
7. Lauds is the office of prayer that takes place at sunrise.
8. 1 Sam. 2.9.
9. The Rule of Benedict 7, trans. Caroline White (New York: Penguin Classics, 2008), p. 25.
10. Advent Day probably refers to Advent Sunday, the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day that marks the beginning of Advent, the first day of the liturgical year, and the start of Advent season, which culminates on Christmas Day. Since the date of this feast day changes every year, it is impossible to know the precise day when this miracle took place.
11. Benedicte means “Be blessed” in Latin; Dominus means “Lord.”
12. Cruselinum is a rare Latin word for a small drinking cup.
SPIRITS OF MALICE
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Thietmar of Merseburg, Chronicon 1.11-13, ed. Robert Moltzman, in Monumenta Germanie Historica: Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, n.s. 9 (Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1935), pp. 17–18.
2. Matins was the night office of the church, usually sung at midnight or in the early hours of the morning.
3. The invitatory is the name given to any of the psalms that signal the beginning of Nocturns, which are part of the office of matins.
4. See Rom. 12.3.
THE BLACKENED HEARTS OF STAPENHILL
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Geoffrey of Burton, Life and Miracles of St. Modwenna, ed. Robert Bartlett (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002), pp. 192, 194, 196, 198.
THE EVIL WELSHMAN
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Walter Map, De nugis curialium: Courtiers’ Trifles 2.27, ed. M. R. James, rev. ed. Christopher N. L. Brooke and Roger A. B. Mynors (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), pp. 202 and 204.
RAMPAGING REVENANTS
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from William of Newburgh, Historia rerum Anglicarum 5.22-24, in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, ed. Richard Howlett, Rolls Series 82, 2 vols. (London: Longman, 1884–85), vol. 2, pp. 474–482.
2. The Feast of the Ascension, also known as Holy Thursday, was a moveable feast day in the liturgical calendar commemorating the bodily ascension of Jesus into heaven. It took place on the fortieth day after Easter, a Thursday.
3. Commemorating the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, Palm Sunday is a moveable feast day in the liturgical calendar that always falls on the Sunday before Easter Sunday.
TERROR IN TONNERRE
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Rodulphus Glaber, Historiarum libri quinque 5.6, ed. John France in Rodulphus Glaber: The Five Books of Histories and the Life of St. William (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), p. 222.
HELLEQUIN’S HORDE
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Walter Map, De nugis curialium: Courtiers’ Trifles 1.11, ed. M. R. James, rev. ed. Christopher N. L. Brooke and Roger A. B. Mynors (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), pp. 26, 28, and 30.
2. Pan, the Greek god of shepherds and flocks, likewise had the legs and hooves of a goat.
3. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 2.1–30.
4. Henry II was crowned at Westminster on December 19, 1154.
5. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Orderic Vitalis, Historia ecclesiastica 8.17, ed. Marjorie Chibnall, in The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, 6 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968-1980), vol. 4, pp. 236, 238, 240, 242, 244, 246, 248, and 250.
6. Biers are wooden frames commonly used to transport corpses or coffins.
7. A cubit is an ancient unit of measurement that takes its name from the Latin word for elbow (cubitum) because its length is the distance between the tip of the middle finger and the elbow.
8. The Mont Saint-Michel is a small island off the coast of Normandy crowned with a church and monastery dedicated to the archangel Michael.
AN ARMY WHITE AS SNOW
1. Translated by Christopher A. Jones from MS Valenciennes, Bibliothèque municipale 516, fols. 109rb-110vb, dating from the thirteenth or fourteenth century. An edition of the Latin text will appear as Appendix A in Christopher A. Jones and Scott G. Bruce, The Relatio metrica de duobus ducibus: A Twelfth-Century Cluniac Poem on Prayer for the Dead, Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin 10 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017).
2. For what follows, see 2 Kings 6:8-18.
THE RAVENOUS DEAD
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, The History of the Danes, ed. Karsten Friis-Jensen and trans. Peter Fisher, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendeon Press, 2015), vol. 1, pp. 336 and 338.
2. Seven Viking Romances, trans. Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards (New York: Penguin Books, 1985), pp. 236–238.
OLD GHOSTS, NEW LAWS
1. Eyrbyggja Saga, trans. Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards (New York: Penguin Books, 1989), pp. 93–95 and 129–141.
2. In medieval Scandinavia, door-courts were ad hoc courts that convened at the door of the house of the defendant.
RECREATION FOR AN EMPEROR
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia 1.20, 3.17, 3.99, and 3.103, ed. S. E. Banks and J. W. Binns, in Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia, Recreation for an Emperor, Oxford Medieval Texts (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002), pp. 112, 114, 588, 590, 752, 754, 758, 760, 762, 764, 766, 768, 770, 772, 774, 776, and 778.
2. See Matt. 26.26–30; Mark 14.22–26; Luke 22.14–20; and I Cor. 11.23–25.
3. St. Ruf was an Augustinian priory that was transferred to Valence in 1158. Pope Adrian IV (1154–1159) had been prior there from its founding in 1139 until 1148/49 and as pope had sanctioned its removal to Valence.
4. That is, the cellarer swapped out the much longer Psalm 51 for the much shorter Psalm 117.
5. John II, who was bishop of Pozzuoli around 1135.
6. Avernus was the name of a dormant volcano near Cuma, Italy, widely believed since the Roman period to be an entrance to the underworld. Gervase is using the term here as a synonym for purgatory.
7. Compare John 11.17: “Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.”
8. Compare 2 Cor. 12.2–4.
9. Lazarus’s account of hell was made known in the Middle Ages through an apocryphal text called the Vision of Lazarus (Visio Lazari).
10. Viaticum (Latin for “provisions for a journey”) is the name given to the Mass when it is administered to a dying person. It is a key component to the last rites performed when death is imminent.
11. Saint-Michel de Frigolet was a Benedictine priory situated between Tarascon and Avignon.
12. Gregory the Great, Dialogues 4.30.
13. Gregory the Great, Dialogues 4.45–46.
14. “The Eater” is a reference to Peter Comestor (“Peter the Eater”), a twelfth-century theologian and scholar whose voracious appetite for knowledge earned him his nickname.
15. Gregory the Great, Dialogues 4.44, quoting Psalm 86.13.
16. Gregory the Great, Dialogues 4.43.
17. Luke 2.14.
18. Gregory the Great, Dialogues 4.34 and 36.
19. Gregory the Great, Dialogues 4.26.
20. Matt. 24.28 and Luke 17.37; and Phil. 1.23.
21. 2 Cor. 5.1.
22. The medieval understanding of Jerusalem as the center of the world, the scene of the crucifixion, and the image of the heavenly city all play a role in its significance to the ghost.
23. In the thirteenth century, it was widely believed that Bernard of Clairvaux had rejected the celebration of the feast of the Immaculate Conception because the feast had not been formally recognized by the pope.
24. Gregory the Great, Dialogues 4.26.
25. That is, that the priest had the power to bind the Devil with his stole.
26. John the Baptist leaping for joy in the womb: Luke 1.41 and 1.44; sending his disciples to inquire about Jesus’ identity: Matt. 11.2–3 and Luke 7.19–20.
27. Pope Innocent III launched a crusade against the Albigensian heretics of Languedoc in 1209.
28. The prelate in question was the Cistercian monk William Hélie, who was bishop of Orange from c. 1205 to 1221. On the Cistercian General Chapter, see p. 278, n.6, above.
THE GHOSTS OF BYLAND ABBEY
1. Translated by Scott G. Bruce from the Latin edition of M. R. James in “Twelve Medieval Ghost Stories,” English Historical Review 37 (1922): 413–422.
2. Richard II was King of England from 1377 to 1399.
3. The title of triumph is probably a reference to the title posted on the cross above Jesus, when he was crucified: INRI, which stood for Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum (“Jesus of Nazareth, King of Jews”). See John 19.19–20. At the end of the Middle Ages, this title was commonly inscribed on protective amulets to ward off evil spirits.
4. The church stile is the entrace to the churchyard, in this instance presumably a gate.
5. No priest has been mentioned up to this point in the story. Either the priest has been present at the necromancer’s ritual and silent until now or, more probably, the necromancer also happens to be a priest.
6. The shrine of Saint James in Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain was one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations in the Middle Ages.
7. A mortuary was the name given to the customary offering by a recently deceased person to the parish priest of a farm animal in payment for any tithes still owed to the church.
OF GHOSTES AND SPIRITES WALKING BY NYGHT
1. Rendered into idiomatic English by Scott G. Bruce from Lewes Lavater, Of Ghostes and Spirites Walking by Nyght, trans. Robert Harrison (London: Thomas Creede, 1596), pp. 1, 71–75; 77–79; 98, 127–129, 175–176, and 191–192.
2. Davos is a town high in the Swiss Alps located in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland.
3. Gregorius Agricola (1494–1555) was a sixteenth-century German scientist most famous for his influential book on mineralogy, De re metallica (1556), from which Lavater has drawn the following anecdotes.
4. Gerolamo Cardano (1501–1576) was a sixteenth-century Italian polymath who wrote many books on mathematics, cosmology, and the natural world. His treatise De rerum veritate (On the Truth of Things) appeared in 1557.
5. See pp. 29–30, above.
6. The Urim was an unidentified item that resided in the breastplate of a high priest of ancient Israel and had some function related to divination.
7. Here Lavater seems to be confusing Matt. 7.6 (“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.”) with the story related in Matt. 8.30–32, in which demons entreat Jesus to enter a herd of swine when he casts them out of the person they have possessed.
8. See p. 31, above.
9. In the Hebrew scriptures, the Book of Job recounts the hardships endured by God’s servant Job and his eventual restoration. In the medieval tradition, Job became a symbol of patience.
WHEN NIGHT DRAWS SWIFTLY DARKLING ON
1. Noel Taillepied, A Treatise of Ghosts, trans. Montague Summers (London: Fortune Press, 1933), pp. 94–95, 97–99, and 101–107.
2. Ember seasons refers to Ember days, a set of three days (Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday) in the liturgical calendar set aside for fasting and prayer. Ember days are celebrated four times a year, during weeks known as Ember weeks.
3. The visions of Cornelius and Peter take place in Acts 10:3–4 and 10:10–11, respectively.
4. Bonaventure (1221–1274) was a thirteenth-century Franciscan theologian. The saint in question is Saint Francis (1181–1226), the founder of the Franciscan order.
5. Pythagoras of Samos (ca. 570–ca. 495 BCE) was an ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher.
6. Isa. 13.19–22.
7. Isa. 34.1–17.
8. Cimiez, a neighborhood in Nice, France, is the site of the ruins of the Roman settlement of Cemelenum.
9. Elephant folios are massive books up to 24 inches tall.
10. John Chrystostom (ca. 349–407) was a renowned preacher. He was born in the city of Antioch and frequently preached there before becoming archbishop of Constantinople in 397. Hundreds of his homilies have survived.
THE TORMENTS OF TANTALUS
1. Seneca, Phaedra and Other Plays, trans. R. Scott Smith (New York: Penguin Books, 2011), pp. 201–204.
HAMLET, REMEMBER ME
1. William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, ed. K. Deighton (London: MacMillan and Co., 1919), pp. 3–17 and 21–30.