The Ghostly Child in Medieval North-west Europe
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7707666 |
|---|---|
| Authors | May (0000-0002-0352-5625, Historic England, corresponding author), Simon May (0000-0002-4895-4212) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 109-119 |
| Publication date | 2016-07-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Childhood in the Past (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1758-5716 • E-ISSN: 2040-8528 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17585716.2016.1205341 |
| OpenAlex | W2518234470 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 14 |
This work studies sixty Medieval ghost stories and analyses the role of children in these tales. Most stories were recorded for use as exempla, short narratives to be used in preaching to illustrate the dangers of sin. Ghosts took the form of apparitions (having the appearance of the person in life but lacking physical substance) or of revenant corpses (reanimated bodies that arise from their graves). Children occasionally feature as apparitions - usually souls in Purgatory seeking help in finding absolution for their sins or else seeking to furnish the living with information on the afterlife - but not as revenants. Child protagonists in ghost stories may be used to illustrate the consequences of minor sins, a role they can fulfil without undue threat to ideals of childhood innocence. The innocence attributed to children may also mean that children who return as apparitions were seen as a source of uncorrupted information about the afterlife
Afterlife · Ancient history · Art · Innocence · Literature · Narrative · Psychoanalysis · Purgatory · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies · History · Medieval Literature and History · Psychology
Oxford Medieval Texts: Gervase of Tilbury: Otia Imperialia: Recreation for an Emperor
Death and Burial in Medieval England, 1066-1550
Repentant soul or walking corpse? Debatable apparitions in medieval England
Crime and Public Order in England in the Later Middle Ages
Purgatory, the Communion of Saints, and Medieval Change
Sin, Penance and Purgatory in the Anglo-Norman Realm
Wraiths, Revenants and Ritual in Medieval Culture
Otherworld Journeys
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2017 - 2022 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |