/r/AskHistorians frequently receives questions about the belief in unicorns. As a folklorist, I answer that this was simply not part of folk belief in premodern cultures that were considered by folklorists or earlier antiquarians. It appears to me that this was a feature in bestiaries and an idea that circulated among the educated and the elite (in art, literature, etc). Have you seen any evidence that the medieval peasant in the field believed or even told stories about unicorns?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this - and for doing this AMA.

I see your answer about the Church and belief in monsters - what about more supernatural beings? Was there any pushback against belief in things like fairies or brownies or changelings? What about things like hexes or wards?

I hope this isn’t too vague as I do not have it available to me at the moment, but I remember reading in the Annals of Fulda about a supposed demon that laid devastation to a village. I was curious about what prompted this to be included in the annals and why it did not discuss it more thoroughly. What events would be attributed to a demon in a village? Thank you.

Hi Keagan,

Have you come across changes in supernatural beliefs during/after the Black Plague? I am aware of rise of morbid cultural motifs like the danse macabre, but I'm specifically interested in what ordinary people actually believed.

For instance, the Witcher videogames are heavily based on Polish mythology and feature a creature called a plague maiden (a hag said to carry the plague from town to town). Would people have actually believed that witches, demons, and other malevolent supernatural forces were behind the Black Plague?

Were there any official manuals for how priests should deal with ghosts? And if someone suspected demons to be about, how would a priest or other church official determine whether or not that is the case?

What counts as a "supernatural belief," in pre-Renaissance, pre-Enlightenment Europe?

How did the Prester John legend originally start? If I remember correctly, he was claimed to be either the king of Kongo or Abyssinia. If it was Kongo, wouldn’t the legend be proven false because the Portuguese had to convert the king originally?

I hear the term "cult of saints" used in literature regarding European folk beliefs sometimes and am a little confused as to what it actually means. Did people actively worship saints like they did gods, not as powerful of course, but under the subservience of god? Or is this simply a term for the veneration of certain saints similar to modern Catholicism?

Does it make any sense to see the Arthurian legend as playing a role as a kind of legitimating propaganda for the Norman conquest?

If Arthur was a primordial “rightful king of the Britons,” fighting against the evil pagan Saxon invaders (along with other forces of evil like witches, dragons, etc), then it seems to provides a kind of basis for regarding the Norman invasion as the overthrow of an illegitimate usurper-kingdom (along with the more conventional claims that Godwinson was a usurper, Edward left it to William, etc).

(Also, Arthurian legend with its knightly court in Camelot resembles Norman culture more than Saxon culture (or, at any reasonable guess, sub-Roman Brythonic culture), perhaps further casting Norman invasion as a restoration of the rightful order -- although that might just be because the Anglo-Normans of the time had a hard time imagining a society in Dark Ages Britain which was too radically different from their own than anything else.)

(Note: I'm not saying I actually think this is true, or that I'm advocating for it. I'm just laying out my reasoning in even considering this train of thought.)

Is there something like a concept of "elf", distinguishable from other supernatural beings, across Europe? Or a "dwarf"? More generally, are there any cosmopolitan classifications / systems for European humanoids?

By "humanoid", I mean intelligent and, well, vaguely human-looking animate beings but not with animal parts. I'm thinking of Tolkein's elves, dwarves, orcs, and trolls, not (say) satyrs, minotaurs, ents, Medusa, and such. I'd like to exclude strongly religious beings like angels, demons, or Norse gods.

By "cosmopolitan", I mean similarities across cultures and times.

By "classifications": are there any inter-cultural clusterings where you can say, for example, multiple cultures have mischievous beings that hang around the house that you should bribe to prevent disorder, or beautiful and perilous creatures that live in some other place, or miners toiling beneath the earth? Or are cultures pretty much sui generis, where knowing about (say) German humanoids doesn't really help in understanding Swedish humanoids? Or do such humanoids just not have clusters: that is, there are so many different sizes, beauty, personalities, peril, and other properties, that reading a new tale with new characteristics for a humanoid would occasion you no surprise at all?

When it comes to wonders and legends, I've heard a bit about monsters and animal saints in medieval Europe and I was wondering if you could shed some light on how the fit into a medieval worldview and theology.

Were monsters such as the Cynocephali, Blemmyae, Skiapodes believed in and who believed in them (e.g. was it a popular belief, a scholarly one, both)? Did the belief in these creatures have any effect on theological questions of salvation? Could they be saved or be saints?

Similarly, for animals, I've heard of Saint Guinefort, so did at least some medievals think that animals could be saints and did that have any impact on their beliefs in the souls or rationality of animals?

And, considering I've often heard these called "monstrous races" was there any connection between ideas concerning them and modern ideas of race?

The Prester John Letter has been said to represent ‘a medieval utopia’. Is this view convincing?

Hi Keagan, thanks for the AMA.

I would be in interested to know about what people in medieval Europe imagined for the future. Are there any examples of medieval science fiction or predictions of technological advancement from medieval sources?

In the early medieval period, could a "normal" person be a miracle-worker, i.e., a farmer in the field one day does something amazing, magical or otherwise impossible, then goes back to being a farmer that evening, or is a miracle-worker by definition someone who set apart, blessed, cursed, in league with some otherworldly force, etc.?

Do we know of any historical person who was believed to have been a changeling or a half supernatural being or were those ideas purely confined to folklore and fiction

Hi Keagan,

I’m currently applying to English literature masters programs, looking to focus in Medieval Literature (and on folklore, legends, and supernatural beliefs)... pretty much exactly what you’re here to talk about. So I’m really excited to see some of the questions other people ask and the answers you provide.

What have been your most useful resources during your time in the field. The ones you find yourself continually going back to, either to help with research or just for enjoyment?

What would you recommend for someone who’s looking to start their own research in this area?

If you were to be reborn as a woman in the Middle Ages, what place and year would you pick and why?

I know this is past the medieval period, but I can’t help but ask considering the nature of your work and the fact that you cited Game of Thrones as a current favorite. Hopefully you know about this:

Was John Dee believed by contemporaries to be a sorcerer? Did people think he used dark arts in his role as an advisor to Elizabeth I? Was John Dee a master of whispers? Do you see him as possibly an inspiration for characters like Lord Varys or Brynden Rivers?

Thanks for doing this AMA!

Can you share anything about the Knights Templar and there connection to Baphomet? Thank you.

I have always found folk remedies and health related beliefs fascinating. Are there any especially odd health/medicine related beliefs you have found in your research?

What are some of your favorite legends and beliefs you've researched? Have you looked into the pictures of knights fighting human sized snails? Also, is there any truth to the rumor that Slenderman is based off German legends?

First thank you so much for coming here to answer our questions! Since this weeks theme is the Mediterranean, can you speak to any legends or supernatural beliefs that were tied to the waters or coast of that specific sea?

Many Norman French ruling families were rumored to have "fairy" ancestors. Richard 1 joked about his family coming from, and returning to, the devil. Did these rumors have a practical effect? Did the clergy believe these stories? And if so, how could these fairy descendents be regarded as legitimate Christian rulers? Did the peasants have an opinion on this?

Hi Keagan - I’m wondering if, during your research, you came across any communications regarding the wholesale slaughter of Jewish communities in Europe.

The latest thinking that I’ve been exposed to from right of center Rabbinic authorities is that crusaders were primarily rallied to a cause to keep them from being problematic “ruffians” within their home kingdoms. Out of work soldiers looking to smash things types funneled into armies headed to the Levant.

Prior to their arrival in the Levant, I’m now told, they would destroy Jewish communities.

When I originally learned about the Crusades, I was not taught that destroying Jewish communities was any part of their agenda.

Was I misinformed then or am I misinformed now? Thanks for your time on this!

I've been reading the Vinland sagas and the fanciful tales of corpses sitting up and giving prophecies shortly after the death of their person really stuck out to me. The footnotes said it was a distinctly Icelandic thing, but didn't go into more detail. I'd never heard of other European tales like that. Can you talk about where that myth came from?

What place did the Holy Grail have in Christian Theology? Like if I found it would my sins be forgiven or would I drop dead for being unworthy?

Hi Keagan, thanks for the AMA.

As a longtime devotee of Tolkien's writings, both fictional and non-fictional, I've often wondered how the community of historians views his broadly stated hints that his fiction was an attempt at positing a mythological history of English pre-history. In particular, how are Tolkien's quibbles with Chadwick over the legends of Zealand and Nerthus viewed, and is the possibility that Tolkien saw Elendil as a fictional representation of Ing taken seriously? If you'll allow me to sneak in a final question, I wonder if I could ask you about your opinion of Tad Williams interpretation of the Prester John legend in his Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy?

In the medieval RTS game Age of Empires II, monks can collect relics, deposit it in a monastery, and thereby gain the player gold (the implication being that pilgrims come to view these relics and donate). Is this an accurate reflection of how pilgrims were expected to engage with holy relics? Would poor peasants who journeyed for hundreds of miles be expected to donate a portion of their wealth like the old woman whom Jesus praises for donating two copper coins to a public treasury in the Gospels? Were the rich “expected” to donate a larger portion of their wealth? Basically, my question can be summed up as: what’s the relationship between relics and a pilgrim’s wealth?

Also, did people similarly journey like that to view cabinets of curiosity, or did the nobility who had them keep them to themselves and fellow nobles they wanted to impress?

What did Europeans think of the “humanity” of the Saracens? Did the Crusaders think they were demonic or just misled?

This might not be the right time period, but I have heard that demons could sometimes impregnate human women. How would one figure out that a child was fathered by a demon, and what would be done with the child? If such a child grew up, would they have any special traits or abilities?

On a somewhat related note, did medieval theologians believe that there were still living descendants of nephilim?

In the song King Henry the ghost is depicted as having an insatiable appetite demanding the titular king henry kill his various animals in order for her to eat. Was this a common trait of ghosts in the period?

Hello, I am not sure if this falls under your categories, but I am interested in Bogomilism, their theology, relationship to Patarenes/Bosnian Church and Catharism and any possible beliefs that made it into later days. Most sources I have found are in Bulgarian/Macedonian in which I am really only able to read road signs and ask directions.

Thanks!

Considering a lot of these beliefs are no doubt remnants of pre-Christian Europe, have you found many/any good first hand sources on European paganism?

What is with the images in period texts in the 12-14th century of cats, ah, cleaning themselves? A quirk, some symbolism or some subtle message?

http://discardingimages.tumblr.com/post/122257539403/top-10-medieval-butt-licking-cats

What's the difference between a dragon and a wyvern, in terms of physiology and people's beliefs about their characteristics?