a425couple
2021-10-28 18:04:01 UTC
from
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-dragons-dominated-the-landscape-of-medieval-monsters-180978939/
(Going to the citation to see the paintings
might be worthwhile.)
Why Dragons Dominated the Landscape of Medieval Monsters
The mythical beasts were often cast as agents of the devil or demons in
disguise
David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele
October 27, 2021
Illustration of medieval dragons and saints
During the Middle Ages, dragons more often figured in accounts about the
lives of saints and religious figures than stories of heists and
adventures. Photo illustration by Meilan Solly / Photos via Wikimedia
Commons and British Library under public domain
The dragon resting on its golden hoard. The gallant knight charging to
rescue the maiden from the scaly beast. These are images long associated
with the European Middle Ages, yet most (all) medieval people went their
whole lives without meeting even a single winged, fire-breathing
behemoth. Dragons and other monsters, nights dark and full of terror,
lurked largely in the domain of stories—tales, filtered through the
intervening centuries and our own interests, that remain with us today.
As Halloween approaches, we’re naturally thinking about scary stories.
Though horror today is most often about entertainment—the thrill of the
jump scare or the suspense of the thriller—it hasn’t always been that
way. In the European Middle Ages, monster stories served as religious
teaching tools, offering examples of what not to do, manifestations of
the threats posed by the supernatural and the diabolical, and metaphors
for the evil humans do to one another.
Medieval people told tales about all kinds of monsters, including
ghosts, werewolves and women who turned into serpents on Saturdays. But
dragons held a special place in both the modern imagination and the
medieval one. As historian Scott Bruce, editor of the newly released
Penguin Book of Dragons, explains, dragons in the medieval mindset stood
“as the enemies of humankind, against which we measure the prowess of
our heroes.” As such, they were neatly and easily folded into Christian
tradition, “often cast … as agents of the devil or demons in disguise.”
Preview thumbnail for 'The Penguin Book of Dragons
The Penguin Book of Dragons
Two thousand years of legend and lore about the menace and majesty of
dragons, which have breathed fire into our imaginations from ancient
Rome to "Game of Thrones"
BUY
Over the past few years, Bruce, a historian at Fordham University, has
developed wide-ranging expertise in how medieval people talked about
monsters. In 2016, he published The Penguin Book of the Undead, and in
2018, The Penguin Book of Hell. Collections of texts from the ancient,
medieval and early modern worlds, these books allow readers to see for
themselves how people from the past thought about things that went bump
in the night. According to Bruce, one of the reasons he collaborated
with Penguin on the series is that he wanted to make “these fascinating
themes … accessible to general readers,” demonstrating that monsters of
the past are not the same as modern ones.
Why Dragons Dominated the Landscape of Medieval Monsters
Illuminated manuscript featuring Saint Marina and the dragon Public
domain via Wikimedia Commons
Though they sometimes appeared as foes to be overcome in valiant single
combat, dragons in the European Middle Ages more often figured in
accounts about the lives of saints and religious figures than stories of
heists and adventures. In the sixth century, for example, French bishop
and poet Venantius Fortunatus wrote about a bishop of Paris named
Marcellus, who, in front of the gathered citizens of the city, drove off
a dragon that had devoured a sinful noblewoman’s corpse. The bishop
bonked the dragon on the head three times, led it through Paris on a
leash, then banished it back to the forest so it would never trouble the
city again.
Similarly, the Byzantine historian Michael Psellos wrote in the 11th
century of a dragon that tormented Saint Marina. Thrown in jail and
tortured by a Roman official who wanted to sexually violate her, Marina
encountered a demon in the form of a dragon. The monster threatened her,
ignored her prayers and swallowed her whole. Undeterred, writes Bruce,
Marina “made the sign of holy Christ, and, as this sign went down ahead
of the rest of her, they ruptured the dragon’s innards. … [H]e was split
asunder and died.”
Dragons could also embody, in scales and fire, the defeated menace of
paganism, as was the case with Saint George. A third-century military
saint from the eastern Mediterranean, George supposedly slew his dragon
in the Roman province of Libya in North Africa. For later Christians,
this monster represented the pagans of the era, threatening the virtue
of Christian maidens only to be defeated by the knight. By the time
dragon-slaying became the most commonly portrayed element of his story,
during the High Middle Ages, George‘s battle was also used to talk about
contemporary Western knighthood and conflicts between Christians and
Muslims. The saint was heavily invoked, for example, by the Latin
Christians who took Jerusalem in 1099.
Why Dragons Dominated the Landscape of Medieval Monsters
Bernat Martorell, Saint George Killing the Dragon, 1435 Public domain
via Wikimedia Commons
Thus the monsters of the medieval era are simultaneously natural and
supernatural, both metaphors and more than that. Venantius’ dragon is a
creature of the forest, while Psellos’ dragon is another form of a
demon. George’s dragon embodies the church’s very human enemies. In each
case, these dragons are part of the landscape—a danger to be confronted,
or at least pondered, in everyday life. Medieval people weren’t more
superstitious or credulous than modern ones. For people of the past,
however, monster stories weren’t just about being scary. They were
moralizing tales that held warnings and lessons for Christians hoping to
achieve salvation.
In this way, perhaps our own modern world is not so different. In
Venantius’ story, the dragon haunts a tomb as a (super)natural
punishment for the deceased’s sins, offering a warning that those sins
will be known. Psellos’ dragon appears in a prison, a supernatural
manifestation of danger posed to Marina by the government official. And
George’s dragon patrols the borderlands of the civilized world,
representing the dangers of perceived outsiders. We in the 21st century
have different anxieties, different boundaries drawn around us—but we
still have monsters.
Why Dragons Dominated the Landscape of Medieval Monsters
Paolo Uccello, Saint George and the Dragon, circa 1470 Public domain via
Wikimedia Commons
Look again at our own scary tales, and you’ll find our deepest fears.
Freddy Krueger lurks in our neighborhood, ready to murder our kids.
Skynet, from the Terminator movies, is just one of many reflections of
our fear of machines taking over. The Demogorgon, a monster from the
Netflix series “Stranger Things,” emerges from secret government
experiments. As “Monster Theory” scholar Jeffrey Jerome Cohen once
asked, “Do monsters really exist? Surely they must, for if they did not,
how could we?”
Monsters, both medieval and modern, are indeed a part of our everyday
lives. We wonder along with Venantius if someone can be forgiven for the
harm they’ve done to others in their life, how we can reckon with the
consequences of those actions after the sinners have died. Like Psellos,
we can understand the torment and inner strength of a young woman
suffering abuse at the hands of a powerful man. That common humanity,
the one that creates monsters to terrify, as well as the one that has to
face those monsters, is what fascinate us as historians, that led us to
tell similar stories (admittedly with only one dragon) in our
forthcoming book. The monsters we see in our imagination, as well as the
monsters that will be knocking on our doors this Halloween, are
ultimately versions of ourselves.
Preview thumbnail for 'The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe
The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe
A lively and magisterial popular history that refutes common
misperceptions of the European Middle Ages, showing the beauty and
communion that flourished alongside the dark brutality—a brilliant
reflection of humanity itself.
BUY
David M. Perry | | READ MORE
David M. Perry is a freelance journalist covering politics, history,
education, and disability rights. He was previously a professor of
medieval history at Dominican University from 2006-2017.
Matthew Gabriele | | READ MORE
Matthew Gabriele is a professor of medieval studies and chair of the
Department of Religion & Culture at Virginia Tech. His latest book,
co-authored with David M. Perry, is The Bright Ages: A New History of
Medieval Europe (Harper, December 2021). See more at profgabriele.com
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-dragons-dominated-the-landscape-of-medieval-monsters-180978939/
(Going to the citation to see the paintings
might be worthwhile.)
Why Dragons Dominated the Landscape of Medieval Monsters
The mythical beasts were often cast as agents of the devil or demons in
disguise
David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele
October 27, 2021
Illustration of medieval dragons and saints
During the Middle Ages, dragons more often figured in accounts about the
lives of saints and religious figures than stories of heists and
adventures. Photo illustration by Meilan Solly / Photos via Wikimedia
Commons and British Library under public domain
The dragon resting on its golden hoard. The gallant knight charging to
rescue the maiden from the scaly beast. These are images long associated
with the European Middle Ages, yet most (all) medieval people went their
whole lives without meeting even a single winged, fire-breathing
behemoth. Dragons and other monsters, nights dark and full of terror,
lurked largely in the domain of stories—tales, filtered through the
intervening centuries and our own interests, that remain with us today.
As Halloween approaches, we’re naturally thinking about scary stories.
Though horror today is most often about entertainment—the thrill of the
jump scare or the suspense of the thriller—it hasn’t always been that
way. In the European Middle Ages, monster stories served as religious
teaching tools, offering examples of what not to do, manifestations of
the threats posed by the supernatural and the diabolical, and metaphors
for the evil humans do to one another.
Medieval people told tales about all kinds of monsters, including
ghosts, werewolves and women who turned into serpents on Saturdays. But
dragons held a special place in both the modern imagination and the
medieval one. As historian Scott Bruce, editor of the newly released
Penguin Book of Dragons, explains, dragons in the medieval mindset stood
“as the enemies of humankind, against which we measure the prowess of
our heroes.” As such, they were neatly and easily folded into Christian
tradition, “often cast … as agents of the devil or demons in disguise.”
Preview thumbnail for 'The Penguin Book of Dragons
The Penguin Book of Dragons
Two thousand years of legend and lore about the menace and majesty of
dragons, which have breathed fire into our imaginations from ancient
Rome to "Game of Thrones"
BUY
Over the past few years, Bruce, a historian at Fordham University, has
developed wide-ranging expertise in how medieval people talked about
monsters. In 2016, he published The Penguin Book of the Undead, and in
2018, The Penguin Book of Hell. Collections of texts from the ancient,
medieval and early modern worlds, these books allow readers to see for
themselves how people from the past thought about things that went bump
in the night. According to Bruce, one of the reasons he collaborated
with Penguin on the series is that he wanted to make “these fascinating
themes … accessible to general readers,” demonstrating that monsters of
the past are not the same as modern ones.
Why Dragons Dominated the Landscape of Medieval Monsters
Illuminated manuscript featuring Saint Marina and the dragon Public
domain via Wikimedia Commons
Though they sometimes appeared as foes to be overcome in valiant single
combat, dragons in the European Middle Ages more often figured in
accounts about the lives of saints and religious figures than stories of
heists and adventures. In the sixth century, for example, French bishop
and poet Venantius Fortunatus wrote about a bishop of Paris named
Marcellus, who, in front of the gathered citizens of the city, drove off
a dragon that had devoured a sinful noblewoman’s corpse. The bishop
bonked the dragon on the head three times, led it through Paris on a
leash, then banished it back to the forest so it would never trouble the
city again.
Similarly, the Byzantine historian Michael Psellos wrote in the 11th
century of a dragon that tormented Saint Marina. Thrown in jail and
tortured by a Roman official who wanted to sexually violate her, Marina
encountered a demon in the form of a dragon. The monster threatened her,
ignored her prayers and swallowed her whole. Undeterred, writes Bruce,
Marina “made the sign of holy Christ, and, as this sign went down ahead
of the rest of her, they ruptured the dragon’s innards. … [H]e was split
asunder and died.”
Dragons could also embody, in scales and fire, the defeated menace of
paganism, as was the case with Saint George. A third-century military
saint from the eastern Mediterranean, George supposedly slew his dragon
in the Roman province of Libya in North Africa. For later Christians,
this monster represented the pagans of the era, threatening the virtue
of Christian maidens only to be defeated by the knight. By the time
dragon-slaying became the most commonly portrayed element of his story,
during the High Middle Ages, George‘s battle was also used to talk about
contemporary Western knighthood and conflicts between Christians and
Muslims. The saint was heavily invoked, for example, by the Latin
Christians who took Jerusalem in 1099.
Why Dragons Dominated the Landscape of Medieval Monsters
Bernat Martorell, Saint George Killing the Dragon, 1435 Public domain
via Wikimedia Commons
Thus the monsters of the medieval era are simultaneously natural and
supernatural, both metaphors and more than that. Venantius’ dragon is a
creature of the forest, while Psellos’ dragon is another form of a
demon. George’s dragon embodies the church’s very human enemies. In each
case, these dragons are part of the landscape—a danger to be confronted,
or at least pondered, in everyday life. Medieval people weren’t more
superstitious or credulous than modern ones. For people of the past,
however, monster stories weren’t just about being scary. They were
moralizing tales that held warnings and lessons for Christians hoping to
achieve salvation.
In this way, perhaps our own modern world is not so different. In
Venantius’ story, the dragon haunts a tomb as a (super)natural
punishment for the deceased’s sins, offering a warning that those sins
will be known. Psellos’ dragon appears in a prison, a supernatural
manifestation of danger posed to Marina by the government official. And
George’s dragon patrols the borderlands of the civilized world,
representing the dangers of perceived outsiders. We in the 21st century
have different anxieties, different boundaries drawn around us—but we
still have monsters.
Why Dragons Dominated the Landscape of Medieval Monsters
Paolo Uccello, Saint George and the Dragon, circa 1470 Public domain via
Wikimedia Commons
Look again at our own scary tales, and you’ll find our deepest fears.
Freddy Krueger lurks in our neighborhood, ready to murder our kids.
Skynet, from the Terminator movies, is just one of many reflections of
our fear of machines taking over. The Demogorgon, a monster from the
Netflix series “Stranger Things,” emerges from secret government
experiments. As “Monster Theory” scholar Jeffrey Jerome Cohen once
asked, “Do monsters really exist? Surely they must, for if they did not,
how could we?”
Monsters, both medieval and modern, are indeed a part of our everyday
lives. We wonder along with Venantius if someone can be forgiven for the
harm they’ve done to others in their life, how we can reckon with the
consequences of those actions after the sinners have died. Like Psellos,
we can understand the torment and inner strength of a young woman
suffering abuse at the hands of a powerful man. That common humanity,
the one that creates monsters to terrify, as well as the one that has to
face those monsters, is what fascinate us as historians, that led us to
tell similar stories (admittedly with only one dragon) in our
forthcoming book. The monsters we see in our imagination, as well as the
monsters that will be knocking on our doors this Halloween, are
ultimately versions of ourselves.
Preview thumbnail for 'The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe
The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe
A lively and magisterial popular history that refutes common
misperceptions of the European Middle Ages, showing the beauty and
communion that flourished alongside the dark brutality—a brilliant
reflection of humanity itself.
BUY
David M. Perry | | READ MORE
David M. Perry is a freelance journalist covering politics, history,
education, and disability rights. He was previously a professor of
medieval history at Dominican University from 2006-2017.
Matthew Gabriele | | READ MORE
Matthew Gabriele is a professor of medieval studies and chair of the
Department of Religion & Culture at Virginia Tech. His latest book,
co-authored with David M. Perry, is The Bright Ages: A New History of
Medieval Europe (Harper, December 2021). See more at profgabriele.com