Afterlives: The Return of the Dead in the Middle Ages

by Nancy Mandeville Caciola

Whatever interpretative standpoint one brings to belief in revenance in the Middle Ages, Afterlives provides a wealth of evidence combined with insightful commentary and discussion. This book is a major contribution to scholarship, and a highly recommended read. ― The Folklore Society Simultaneously real and unreal, the dead are people, yet they are not. The society of medieval Europe developed a rich set of imaginative traditions about death and the afterlife, using the dead as a point of entry for thinking about the self, regeneration, and loss. These macabre preoccupations are evident in the widespread popularity of stories about the returned dead, who interacted with the living both as disembodied spirits and as living corpses or revenants. In Afterlives , Nancy Mandeville Caciola explores this extraordinary phenomenon of the living's relationship with the dead in Europe during the five hundred years after the year 1000. Caciola considers both Christian and pagan beliefs, showing how certain traditions survived and evolved over time, and how attitudes both diverged and overlapped through different contexts and social strata. As she shows, the intersection of Christian eschatology with various pagan afterlife imaginings—from the classical paganisms of the Mediterranean to the Germanic, Celtic, Slavic, and Scandinavian paganisms indigenous to northern Europe—brought new cultural values about the dead into the Christian fold as Christianity spread across Europe. Indeed, the Church proved surprisingly open to these influences, absorbing new images of death and afterlife in unpredictable fashion. Over time, however, the persistence of regional cultures and beliefs would be counterbalanced by the effects of an increasingly centralized Church hierarchy. Through it all, one thing remained the deep desire in medieval people to bring together the living and the dead into a single community enduring across the generations.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Medieval, Science

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Sahel's · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explains the begining of all the origins of those characters needed for Halloween from ghosts to witches. This said, I am still undermining the book, since there are great stories drawn out of medieval books to use them as examples for the various beliefs regarding the return of the dead. Not only stories, but pictures to engage the readers visually.
Moreover, the footnotes are so helpful as they introduce a vast array of sources for further reading.

I still wonder why is this book not a coursebook or source material for the Medieval courses in universities!! Awesome material. Dig this, for real!

[Kara Jorgensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. To my writer friends seeing this, it is academic and dense at times. Definitely gave me some great places to look to further my research

[Jason Slocombe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so thoroughly researched, well written, and forthright I honestly could not recommend it enough.

A friend let me borrow this book as part of a reading list for a research project. At first I was sceptical because so many books on the topic of the dead are just awful and I don’t always agree with the opinions of said friend, however this was a standout.

Full of clear explorations of records from the time being studied, including contradicting perspectives and how they fall in both the time line and geography of European civilisation, I actually found this book giving me a great deal of “aha!” moments as I discovered the history and context of so many common childhood beliefs.

One of my absolute favourite things about this work, aside from the vast sources and the authors ability to remain even in her treatment of them, is her citations!! Honestly, it is such a relief to see a work of non-fiction making statements and providing references for the materials being discussed.

More work like this please.