Where do we go after we die? This book traces how the European Middle Ages offered distinctive answers to this universal question, evolving from Antiquity through to the sixteenth century, to reflect a variety of problems and developments. Focussing on texts describing visions of the afterlife, alongside art and theology, this volume explores heaven, hell, and purgatory as they were imagined across Europe, as well as by noted authors including Gregory the Great and Dante. A cross-disciplinary team of contributors including historians, literary scholars, classicists, art historians and theologians offer not only a fascinating sketch of both medieval perceptions and the wide scholarship on this question: they also provide a much-needed new perspective. Where the twelfth century was once the 'high point' of the medieval afterlife, the essays here show that the afterlives of the early and later Middle Ages were far more important and imaginative than we once thought.
Preface; List of abbreviations; List of figures; 1. Introduction Richard M. Pollard; Part I. Chronological Surveys: 2. Just deserts in the ancient pagan afterlife Susanna Braund and Emma Hilliard; 3. Visions of the afterlife in the early medieval west Yitzhak Hen; 4. A Morbid efflorescence: envisaging the afterlife in the Carolingian period Richard M. Pollard; 5. The afterlife in the medieval Celtic-speaking world Elizabeth Boyle; 6. Anglo-Saxon visions of heaven and hell Gernot Wieland; 7. Otherworld journeys of the central middle ages Carl Watkins; 8. Visions of the otherworlds in the late middle ages, c.1300–c.1500 Gwenfair Walters Adams; Part II. Theological Perspectives: 9. Purgatory's intercessors Isabel Moreira; 10. The theology of the afterlife in the early middle ages, c.600–c.1100 Helen Foxhall Forbes; 11. Afterdeath locations and return appearances, from scripture to Shakespeare Henry Ansgar Kelly; Part III. Artistic Impressions: 12. 'Eye hath not seen [...] which things God hath prepared [...] ': imagining heaven and hell in Romanesque and Gothic art Adam R. Stead; Part IV. Notable Authors and Texts; 13. Visions and the afterlife in Gregory's dialogues Jesse Keskiaho; 14. The vision of Tnugdal Eileen Gardiner; 15. The afterlife in the visionary experiences of the female mystics Debra L. Stoudt; 16. Dante's other-worldly surprises and this-worldly polemic George Corbett; Cumulative bibliography.
Richard Matthew Pollard studied at Toronto and then Cambridge, and his doctoral thesis won the 2010 Leonard Boyle prize. Aside from numerous articles and chapters, he completed the first new edition of the Latin version of Josephus' Antiquities since 1524 and is preparing a new critical edition of the Visio Wettini.
Reviews for Imagining the Medieval Afterlife
'Imagining the Medieval Afterlife presents an important attempt to offer an overview of medieval visions of the otherworld. In an impressive way, many of the chapters expand on and complement each other. In dialogue, these chapters give insight into various aspects of images of afterlife in the Christian Middle Ages, offering a comprehensive view while repeatedly pointing out that no conclusive findings can be drawn in such a limited space. The coherence and consistency of the articles, which combine both recent scholarship as well as many canonical sources, makes the volume easily accessible and establishes a very valuable resource for research as well as teaching.' Annegret Oehme, Zeitschrift fur interkulturelle Germanistik (ZIG)
