Medieval Mentality
Torn Between King and Pope
“It seemed as if we were being tossed about on a wild sea without any oar. Unsure as to what would happen, we were indeed worried and very deeply disturbed.” […]
Religion
Supernatural
Competing Prayers to Capricious Gods
“Frea gave counsel that the women of the Winnili should take down their hair and arrange it upon the face like a beard, and that in the early morning they should be present with their husbands and in like manner station themselves to be seen by Godan.” […]
Britons and Celts
Apathy for the Damned
“The venerable father and his companions saw how the unhappy man was carried off by a multitude of demons to be tormented and was set on fire among them. He said: ‘Alas for you, my son, that you have received such fate as you have deserved while living.'” […]
Britons and Celts
Fear the Island of the Smiths
“Even before he had finished speaking, the same savage came to the shore near where they were, carrying a tongs in his hands that held a lump of burning slag of immense size and heat. He immediately threw the lump on top of the servants of Christ, but it did no hurt to them.” […]
Britons and Celts
Gryphon Vs. Simurgh
“The bird stretched her talons to seize the servants of God. Just then, suddenly, the bird which on the earlier occasion brought them the branch with the fruits, flew swiftly up to the Gryphon, which immediately made to devour her. But that bird defended herself until she overcame and tore out the eyes of the Gryphon.” […]
Britons and Celts
The Punishment of Judas
“When I am sitting here I feel as if I were in a paradise of delights in contrast with my fear of the torments that lie before me this evening. For I burn, like a lump of molten lead in a pot, day and night. But here I have a place of refreshment every Sunday from evening to evening, at Christmas until the Epiphany, at Easter until Pentecost, and on the feasts of the purification and assumption of the mother of God. After and before these feasts I am tortured in the depths of Hell.” […]
Greek and Roman
The Off-Key Emperor
THE SCENE: Being the most powerful person in the land doesn’t insulate you from criticism, as is demonstrated by this passage about an emperor who vastly overestimated his singing skill. THE TEXT: He was very […]
Supernatural
Alien, Airship, or Mass Hallucinations?
“They saw a ship with men on board floating before the anchor cable; and soon they saw a man leap overboard and dive down to the anchor as if to release it. The movements of his hands and feet and all his actions appeared like those of a man swimming in the water.” […]
Supernatural
Doomed to the Dance of Lust
“This nocturnal play of supernatural being the natives call ‘the dance of the elves’, and this is their belief about them: that the souls of people who devote themselves to bodily pleasures (becoming as it were their servants), giving way to the incitements of their lusts and profaning the laws of God and man, assume corporeal form and are whirled about the earth.” […]
Britons and Celts
What Makes a Man Turn Neutral?
“We wander through various regions of the air and the firmament and the earth, just like the other spirits that travel on their missions. But on holy days and Sundays we are given bodies such as you now see so that we may stay here and praise our creator.” […]