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The Return of the Dead: Ghosts, Ancestors, and the Transparent Veil of the Pagan Mind
How the ghost stories of pagan times reveal the seamless union existing between the world of the living and the afterlife
• Demonstrates how Medieval Christianity transformed the more corporeal ghost encountered in pagan cultures with the disembodied form known today
• Explains how the returning dead were once viewed as either troublemakers or guarantors of the social order
The impermeable border the modern world sees existing between the world of the living and the afterlife was not visible to our ancestors. The dead could--and did--cross back and forth at will. The pagan mind had no fear of death, but some of the dead were definitely to be dreaded: those who failed to go peacefully into the afterlife but remained on this side in order to right a wrong that had befallen them personally or to ensure that the law promoted by the ancestors was being respected. But these dead individuals were a far cry from the amorphous ectoplasm that is featured in modern ghost stories. These earlier visitors from beyond the grave--known as revenants--slept, ate, and fought like men, even when, like Klaufi of the Svarfdaela Saga , they carried their heads in their arms.
Revenants were part of the ancestor worship prevalent in the pagan world and still practiced in indigenous cultures such as the Fang and Kota of equatorial Africa, among others. The Church, eager to supplant this familial faith with its own, engineered the transformation of the corporeal revenant into the disembodied ghost of modern times, which could then be easily discounted as a figment of the imagination or the work of the devil. The sanctified grounds of the church cemetery replaced the burial mounds on the family farm, where the ancestors remained as an integral part of the living community. This exile to the formal graveyard, ironically enough, has contributed to the great loss of the sacred that characterizes the modern world.
• Demonstrates how Medieval Christianity transformed the more corporeal ghost encountered in pagan cultures with the disembodied form known today
• Explains how the returning dead were once viewed as either troublemakers or guarantors of the social order
The impermeable border the modern world sees existing between the world of the living and the afterlife was not visible to our ancestors. The dead could--and did--cross back and forth at will. The pagan mind had no fear of death, but some of the dead were definitely to be dreaded: those who failed to go peacefully into the afterlife but remained on this side in order to right a wrong that had befallen them personally or to ensure that the law promoted by the ancestors was being respected. But these dead individuals were a far cry from the amorphous ectoplasm that is featured in modern ghost stories. These earlier visitors from beyond the grave--known as revenants--slept, ate, and fought like men, even when, like Klaufi of the Svarfdaela Saga , they carried their heads in their arms.
Revenants were part of the ancestor worship prevalent in the pagan world and still practiced in indigenous cultures such as the Fang and Kota of equatorial Africa, among others. The Church, eager to supplant this familial faith with its own, engineered the transformation of the corporeal revenant into the disembodied ghost of modern times, which could then be easily discounted as a figment of the imagination or the work of the devil. The sanctified grounds of the church cemetery replaced the burial mounds on the family farm, where the ancestors remained as an integral part of the living community. This exile to the formal graveyard, ironically enough, has contributed to the great loss of the sacred that characterizes the modern world.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
28 people are currently reading
442 people want to read
About the author
Claude Lecouteux
61 books134 followersDocteur en études germaniques, docteur en lettres, est médiéviste. Il a occupé la chaire de Langues, Littératures et civilisations germaniques à l'université de Caen de 1981 à 1992 avant d'être appelé à la Sorbonne (Paris IV) pour occuper celle de Littérature et Civilisation allemande du Moyen Âge jusqu'en octobre 2007. Ses axes de recherches sont: Les êtres de la mythologie populaire, Les croyances touchant aux morts et à la mort, Les mythes, contes et légendes, La magie
Ses travaux lui ont valu de recevoir le Prix Strasbourg en 1982, un prix de l’Académie française la même année, d'être fait Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes académiques en 1995 et Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres en 2006. Jusqu'en décembre 2010, il dirige la revue La grande Oreille, arts de l’oralité et collabore à plusieurs revues sur le Moyen Âge.
Ses travaux lui ont valu de recevoir le Prix Strasbourg en 1982, un prix de l’Académie française la même année, d'être fait Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes académiques en 1995 et Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres en 2006. Jusqu'en décembre 2010, il dirige la revue La grande Oreille, arts de l’oralité et collabore à plusieurs revues sur le Moyen Âge.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 13, 2012
Great book! A little focused on Norse and Anglo-Saxon, with a little Greek/Roman, I think at least there should have been more of the Graeco-Roman traditions as there is so much of that written down too. I wish there'd been more Western European and Celtic, but I guess that's due to lack of written records, nothing to be done about THAT, but with all the finding of staked corpses found everywhere in Europe, it's obvious that other cultures had beliefs of the walking dead.
This book is academic, if you're looking for happy ancestors and loving ghosts and other New Age revisionism, it's not in this book. In ancient times people's lives were so intermingled with the dead that there was almost no difference. The ancients spent a lot of time dealing with the active dead and they had huge influence on day to day lives. It's really a shame that it's all gone now, at least in the Western World, I think it gives people's lives a depth and a connection with the past and the people who made us what we are.
There are tons of references, I probably learned more about the Eddas in this book than ever before. My only gripe is that being that the book was originally written in French, the reference books and translations are in French, I love to use bibliographies as 'to-read' lists and if they're not translated into english, I snarl in frustration. I wish more of Lecouteux's books had been translated as well, apparently he's written a bunch and some look very interesting.
This book is academic, if you're looking for happy ancestors and loving ghosts and other New Age revisionism, it's not in this book. In ancient times people's lives were so intermingled with the dead that there was almost no difference. The ancients spent a lot of time dealing with the active dead and they had huge influence on day to day lives. It's really a shame that it's all gone now, at least in the Western World, I think it gives people's lives a depth and a connection with the past and the people who made us what we are.
There are tons of references, I probably learned more about the Eddas in this book than ever before. My only gripe is that being that the book was originally written in French, the reference books and translations are in French, I love to use bibliographies as 'to-read' lists and if they're not translated into english, I snarl in frustration. I wish more of Lecouteux's books had been translated as well, apparently he's written a bunch and some look very interesting.
May 29, 2017
Claude Lecouteux has written an interesting and thought-provoking book exploring man's relationship with the dead. Its central theme is the subject of Revenants, the dead who come back for a specific purpose, and at the peripheries questions are raised about how we relate to the dead. The book relies heavily upon the Icelandic Sagas for its source material while lightly using other sources to bolster arguments.
Central to the book are Revenants, known as the Draugr in the Icelandic Sagas, and these are the dead who return for a specific purpose. A vivid picture is painted about what they are and why they come back. In the texts they are described as vengeful, violent and very large in stature. In this sense they are monstrous, yet it is shown that they are also moral, and they often respect laws and value the continuance of the life of the clan. They are intimately connected with fertility and fecundity, and are quite ambiguous in nature. It is shown that not all dead became Revenants, and the deciding factor was how they died, which was usually violently or unjustly, and also their personality in life. Lecouteux observes that those who didn't fit in when they were alive also did not fit into the afterlife. An important motif to understand is that of an afterlife of a very physical nature and lived within the tomb. It was very much a continuation of life, but was often described as a lonely existence, despite tombs usually being very close to the living. Lecouteux also explores beliefs regarding the afterlife in general by turning to the Poetic Edda and suggests that the mythology overlays an original reality, that life within the tomb predates a mythological otherworld. The key idea here is of physicality, the ability to locate the Draugr in time and space, and how alien the idea of spectres and phantoms would be within this worldview. There was no border between life and death, and the role that the dead played in the lives of people cannot be overstated.
A large element of the book is about how the Medieval Church dealt with Revenants and other beliefs regarding the dead. The major contributors were St Augustine and Tertulian, and their strategy was to confine Revenants to dream and imagination. This was a stark contrast to their original physical nature, and I found the discussion particularly interesting. Attention is given to the words used to describe the Revenants, and the linguistic evolution appears to show clearly a transformation from a very physical nature to one confined to dreams and illusion, where they were more easily dealt with and able to put to didactic purposes.
There is no doubt that the Church made a huge impact on the physical nature of the dead, which as a pagan worldview was at odds with Christian doctrine. It is also clear that the church corrupted their nature in various ways. At the same time, the church did not reinvent the wheel. I think Lecouteux is rather anti-Christian and likes to paint pagan beliefs as somehow more authentic than Christianity, but I see a continuance and evolution of ideas more so than a corruption. And while caution is expressed at the start of the book regarding the historicity of the Icelandic Sagas, as the narrative progresses Lecouteux appears to interpret the Sagas as factual accounts, which strikes me as dubious. At times he does frame them as 'beliefs', but overall he presents them as factual accounts. I guess he could just be letting the sources speak for themselves, but I personally think it raises questions around objectivity and misrepresentation. It should be noted that Lecouteux is not a specialist in the Icelandic Sagas, and it seems to me that overall he is too eager to take them as factual and literal. I personally think that the Draugr in these texts are literary motifs and are actually more didactic than Lecouteux cares to admit.
I found reading the Christian exemplas presented to the reader really interesting. Lecouteux views them as distortions of older beliefs, so on the one hand they are seen as a poor source for uncovering older views, while on the other hand they are interpreted by way of comparison with other texts. I think the outcome of this is a mixed bag, with some interpretations being plausible and others being a bit of a stretch. Animals occur often, and in one particular exampla there is a horse carrying beans and refusing to cross water. In this exempla Lecouteux sees pagan antecedents in the horse, the beans and the inability to cross water, and he does so by comparing them to older practices and beliefs. I think you could make connections and ascribe meaning to many things if you so wished, but you would have to ignore context which I feel Lecouteux does. If you read Ronald Hutton, it is likely that you will raise an eyebrow at many of the conclusions reached by Lecouteux.
So while I find the methodology dubious, there is great value in other areas of the book. It contemplates our relationship with the dead which has deteriorated over the years. It suggests that we have alienated the dead and that death has become the purview of businesses. The book paints the dead as being very integrated in everyday life in the past; they intervened, they advised and they role in life was well defined in each cultural setting. This is no longer true, and Lecouteux concludes that this is a direct consequence of our shutting the door on the dead; they are no longer welcome, and neither are they feared. This is not universally true, and he suggests that their vanishing echo is still audible in areas where man lives close to the earth and an isolated life. A connection is also made between the breakdown of the family unit, and this is an important point: the dead, revenants, were intimately connected to family and home. This particular point is explored in depth and relates to the role the dead had in fertility and fecundity, and more broadly the importance of ancestor worship.
My review is quite harsh and Lecouteux is a well-respected author in the area of folk belief. I think if I had read this book a year ago I would have been on board a lot more. I read Ronald Hutton quite a lot and his methodology is extremely evidence-based, whereas I feel the inferences made by Lecouteux are more ideologically driven. His assertions are always backed up, but his conclusions are arguable and dependent on interpretation. His early treatment of the beliefs and funeral practices of Ancient Rome is strong because there is little interpretation necessary, and it was just as the book moved forward and onto the Icelandic Sagas that interpretation got heavier and therefore much more subjective with the voice of Lecouteux becoming increasingly loud. There is plenty of truly wonderful source material presented so the reader can come to their own conclusions or be guided by the author. It is an academic text, but in my opinion it is written for a specific audience and it is unfortunately tainted. This is reflected in my review.
Central to the book are Revenants, known as the Draugr in the Icelandic Sagas, and these are the dead who return for a specific purpose. A vivid picture is painted about what they are and why they come back. In the texts they are described as vengeful, violent and very large in stature. In this sense they are monstrous, yet it is shown that they are also moral, and they often respect laws and value the continuance of the life of the clan. They are intimately connected with fertility and fecundity, and are quite ambiguous in nature. It is shown that not all dead became Revenants, and the deciding factor was how they died, which was usually violently or unjustly, and also their personality in life. Lecouteux observes that those who didn't fit in when they were alive also did not fit into the afterlife. An important motif to understand is that of an afterlife of a very physical nature and lived within the tomb. It was very much a continuation of life, but was often described as a lonely existence, despite tombs usually being very close to the living. Lecouteux also explores beliefs regarding the afterlife in general by turning to the Poetic Edda and suggests that the mythology overlays an original reality, that life within the tomb predates a mythological otherworld. The key idea here is of physicality, the ability to locate the Draugr in time and space, and how alien the idea of spectres and phantoms would be within this worldview. There was no border between life and death, and the role that the dead played in the lives of people cannot be overstated.
A large element of the book is about how the Medieval Church dealt with Revenants and other beliefs regarding the dead. The major contributors were St Augustine and Tertulian, and their strategy was to confine Revenants to dream and imagination. This was a stark contrast to their original physical nature, and I found the discussion particularly interesting. Attention is given to the words used to describe the Revenants, and the linguistic evolution appears to show clearly a transformation from a very physical nature to one confined to dreams and illusion, where they were more easily dealt with and able to put to didactic purposes.
There is no doubt that the Church made a huge impact on the physical nature of the dead, which as a pagan worldview was at odds with Christian doctrine. It is also clear that the church corrupted their nature in various ways. At the same time, the church did not reinvent the wheel. I think Lecouteux is rather anti-Christian and likes to paint pagan beliefs as somehow more authentic than Christianity, but I see a continuance and evolution of ideas more so than a corruption. And while caution is expressed at the start of the book regarding the historicity of the Icelandic Sagas, as the narrative progresses Lecouteux appears to interpret the Sagas as factual accounts, which strikes me as dubious. At times he does frame them as 'beliefs', but overall he presents them as factual accounts. I guess he could just be letting the sources speak for themselves, but I personally think it raises questions around objectivity and misrepresentation. It should be noted that Lecouteux is not a specialist in the Icelandic Sagas, and it seems to me that overall he is too eager to take them as factual and literal. I personally think that the Draugr in these texts are literary motifs and are actually more didactic than Lecouteux cares to admit.
I found reading the Christian exemplas presented to the reader really interesting. Lecouteux views them as distortions of older beliefs, so on the one hand they are seen as a poor source for uncovering older views, while on the other hand they are interpreted by way of comparison with other texts. I think the outcome of this is a mixed bag, with some interpretations being plausible and others being a bit of a stretch. Animals occur often, and in one particular exampla there is a horse carrying beans and refusing to cross water. In this exempla Lecouteux sees pagan antecedents in the horse, the beans and the inability to cross water, and he does so by comparing them to older practices and beliefs. I think you could make connections and ascribe meaning to many things if you so wished, but you would have to ignore context which I feel Lecouteux does. If you read Ronald Hutton, it is likely that you will raise an eyebrow at many of the conclusions reached by Lecouteux.
So while I find the methodology dubious, there is great value in other areas of the book. It contemplates our relationship with the dead which has deteriorated over the years. It suggests that we have alienated the dead and that death has become the purview of businesses. The book paints the dead as being very integrated in everyday life in the past; they intervened, they advised and they role in life was well defined in each cultural setting. This is no longer true, and Lecouteux concludes that this is a direct consequence of our shutting the door on the dead; they are no longer welcome, and neither are they feared. This is not universally true, and he suggests that their vanishing echo is still audible in areas where man lives close to the earth and an isolated life. A connection is also made between the breakdown of the family unit, and this is an important point: the dead, revenants, were intimately connected to family and home. This particular point is explored in depth and relates to the role the dead had in fertility and fecundity, and more broadly the importance of ancestor worship.
My review is quite harsh and Lecouteux is a well-respected author in the area of folk belief. I think if I had read this book a year ago I would have been on board a lot more. I read Ronald Hutton quite a lot and his methodology is extremely evidence-based, whereas I feel the inferences made by Lecouteux are more ideologically driven. His assertions are always backed up, but his conclusions are arguable and dependent on interpretation. His early treatment of the beliefs and funeral practices of Ancient Rome is strong because there is little interpretation necessary, and it was just as the book moved forward and onto the Icelandic Sagas that interpretation got heavier and therefore much more subjective with the voice of Lecouteux becoming increasingly loud. There is plenty of truly wonderful source material presented so the reader can come to their own conclusions or be guided by the author. It is an academic text, but in my opinion it is written for a specific audience and it is unfortunately tainted. This is reflected in my review.
December 29, 2018
Another Lecouteux zinger, published by that den of aura-lickers, Inner Traditions. Don't be put off by that, this is actually a nice scholarly study of the desired caliber, in keeping with Claude's other stuff.
Here, Claude delves deeper into the medieval mind and comes tantalizingly close to structuring a history of the evolution of the haunting. The focus here is on the revenant, or, "the dead who survive". They do come back, people used to think, but how and why? Claude reconstructs as best he can with the extant sources what the living dead were doing back here, focusing on botched ritual and untimely, unfair demise in pre-Purgatory Europe. Turns out if you died shittily, you were probably gonna be a revenant until shit was put right. Once Christianity rolled around, limbo got invented and all the fun pre-Christian religions were amalgamized in the Christian stew, these became ghosts and demons and what-not.
Probably an over-focus on Nordic Europe, but the sources were isolated and fresh, so Claude does well to use them.
Here, Claude delves deeper into the medieval mind and comes tantalizingly close to structuring a history of the evolution of the haunting. The focus here is on the revenant, or, "the dead who survive". They do come back, people used to think, but how and why? Claude reconstructs as best he can with the extant sources what the living dead were doing back here, focusing on botched ritual and untimely, unfair demise in pre-Purgatory Europe. Turns out if you died shittily, you were probably gonna be a revenant until shit was put right. Once Christianity rolled around, limbo got invented and all the fun pre-Christian religions were amalgamized in the Christian stew, these became ghosts and demons and what-not.
Probably an over-focus on Nordic Europe, but the sources were isolated and fresh, so Claude does well to use them.
September 5, 2013
I liked that Lecouteux covered a lot of the Scandinavian sources, but I would have loved going more.
October 15, 2020
Salman Rushdie spoke of ghosts as the souls of the dead tending unfinished businesses on earth. Be it everlasting phantasmal whistling from the desolate fields of the buried or flickering of lights with sounds of footsteps in manmade abodes, but mind you that sometimes they come back. It is not about the fashionable New Age enlightenment advocating the veracity of paranormal activities involving ghost hunters, would-be, or self-proclaimed practitioners of occultic practice. It is academically certifiable, according to the eminent French Medieval Studies scholar Claude Lecouteux in his treaties on the formidable return of the souls departed.
The belief systems that the souls of the dead will and can come back to where they have left are universal in all cultures, including the dominant Christianity. Christianity, especially the Church of Rome, has drowned upon syncretism of pre-existing uniform pagan beliefs that paying due respect to the dead by offering food on their anniversary of death is an obligation and prevention of malice thrown upon the living. Lecouteux affirms in the discourse of the truth of revenants by the ecclesiastical records of Pope Gregory the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and Augustus. Even the ancient pagan luminaries, such as Ovid, Pliny the Elder, and the Younger, and Plato, corroborated the Wondering Souls' existence roaming among the mortals. These great benefactors of humanity averred that sometimes, by the mysterious will of God, the dead are not entirely gone to the world beyond or occasionally permitted to manifest in reality. Therefore, it is worth giving such notions a preferential credit over the sensational testimony of ghost hunters, psychics, or gypsies.
Lecouteux illustrates peculiar funereal practices, especially of the Northern Europeans, such as putting the deceased's head between the legs, sealing the roofs, windows, or any openings of a house of the dead lest the departed remain in the place of the living. After a breath of life leaves the corporeal temple, it ceases to exist and is, therefore, doesn't belong in this world. Lecouteux's treatise becomes a historical narrative of the deceased's whys and wherefores in a confused state of spiritual anomy, refusing to cut a tie to the terrestrial world that they don't belong any longer.
The book is my second read written by the French scholar following The Secret History of Poltergeists and Haunted, an excellent read in its multidisciplinary approach to validate the historical events of the fantastic phenomena in the narrative style conflated with Thucydidian objectivity and Herodotusian parataxis. Although this book retains the cracking narrative tradition of his, it is not as enthusiastically stimulating as the other book on the more popular noisy spirits for the sake of the subject itself. Perhaps, my being of the modern era accustomed to the sensory effects influenced by films and other visual aids may contribute to a rather unjust opinion on this book about revenants. Notwithstanding the preferential subject matters, this book will be a valuable textual source for historical, cultural, or social research about the universality of belief systems molded into a syncretism of the Church's established religious doctrine. Or to put it simply, this book will pique anyone not easily succumbed to occult fad but equipped with a curious mind on the restless wandering souls, thus helping fortify his or her belief that sometimes they do come back.
The belief systems that the souls of the dead will and can come back to where they have left are universal in all cultures, including the dominant Christianity. Christianity, especially the Church of Rome, has drowned upon syncretism of pre-existing uniform pagan beliefs that paying due respect to the dead by offering food on their anniversary of death is an obligation and prevention of malice thrown upon the living. Lecouteux affirms in the discourse of the truth of revenants by the ecclesiastical records of Pope Gregory the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and Augustus. Even the ancient pagan luminaries, such as Ovid, Pliny the Elder, and the Younger, and Plato, corroborated the Wondering Souls' existence roaming among the mortals. These great benefactors of humanity averred that sometimes, by the mysterious will of God, the dead are not entirely gone to the world beyond or occasionally permitted to manifest in reality. Therefore, it is worth giving such notions a preferential credit over the sensational testimony of ghost hunters, psychics, or gypsies.
Lecouteux illustrates peculiar funereal practices, especially of the Northern Europeans, such as putting the deceased's head between the legs, sealing the roofs, windows, or any openings of a house of the dead lest the departed remain in the place of the living. After a breath of life leaves the corporeal temple, it ceases to exist and is, therefore, doesn't belong in this world. Lecouteux's treatise becomes a historical narrative of the deceased's whys and wherefores in a confused state of spiritual anomy, refusing to cut a tie to the terrestrial world that they don't belong any longer.
The book is my second read written by the French scholar following The Secret History of Poltergeists and Haunted, an excellent read in its multidisciplinary approach to validate the historical events of the fantastic phenomena in the narrative style conflated with Thucydidian objectivity and Herodotusian parataxis. Although this book retains the cracking narrative tradition of his, it is not as enthusiastically stimulating as the other book on the more popular noisy spirits for the sake of the subject itself. Perhaps, my being of the modern era accustomed to the sensory effects influenced by films and other visual aids may contribute to a rather unjust opinion on this book about revenants. Notwithstanding the preferential subject matters, this book will be a valuable textual source for historical, cultural, or social research about the universality of belief systems molded into a syncretism of the Church's established religious doctrine. Or to put it simply, this book will pique anyone not easily succumbed to occult fad but equipped with a curious mind on the restless wandering souls, thus helping fortify his or her belief that sometimes they do come back.
October 26, 2018
Lecouteux explores the concept of revenants, what they are, when and why they appear and how they have been transformed through history and utilised by the Catholic church to attempt to vanquish pagan beliefs and fashion the idea of demons.
Taking the traditional corporeal revenant, and moulding them into the more easily dismissed supernatural ghost of modern times. The church regulated and attempted to control afterlife beliefs, especially the site of burials - moving graves from land belonging to the family - to graveyards on the peripheries of communal living space. This change disconnected ancestors with living relations, and in turn; the living from continued contact with the dead.
At times this is very heavy on Norse texts (Lecouteux explains this is because places such as Iceland are very isolated and therefore beliefs and recorded tales are able to remain for longer in a 'pure' form, without the intrusion of religion - which rewrote and transformed beliefs and superstitions making it much harder to dissect them historically).
The returning dead are seen as a vital part of existence, having the power to protect, warn and ensure agricultural fertility and prosperity. The boundary between the living and dead which we view today simply didn't exist in ancient times, it was a fluid continuum.
For a scholarly book, this is eminently readable and very enjoyable. I learnt a lot and it is packed with engaging quotes and a tonne of fascinating information.
Taking the traditional corporeal revenant, and moulding them into the more easily dismissed supernatural ghost of modern times. The church regulated and attempted to control afterlife beliefs, especially the site of burials - moving graves from land belonging to the family - to graveyards on the peripheries of communal living space. This change disconnected ancestors with living relations, and in turn; the living from continued contact with the dead.
At times this is very heavy on Norse texts (Lecouteux explains this is because places such as Iceland are very isolated and therefore beliefs and recorded tales are able to remain for longer in a 'pure' form, without the intrusion of religion - which rewrote and transformed beliefs and superstitions making it much harder to dissect them historically).
The returning dead are seen as a vital part of existence, having the power to protect, warn and ensure agricultural fertility and prosperity. The boundary between the living and dead which we view today simply didn't exist in ancient times, it was a fluid continuum.
For a scholarly book, this is eminently readable and very enjoyable. I learnt a lot and it is packed with engaging quotes and a tonne of fascinating information.
July 29, 2021
Fantastic. Absolutely loved being able to see the ghost stories told through the past -- the fact that we as a human race have been telling each other about the weird apparitions that appeared to just walk through a wall for centuries is so amusing and endlessly fascinating -- and seeing more in depth on the topic that so many writers (particularly on Viking history) claim is vague or that not much is known about. Particularly interesting is the realization of just how much influence Rome had on the beliefs of Europe; so much so that the interplay between Rome and Viking belief really formed all of what we believed until the current day -- much of what still remains with us is an echo of those long gone days of empire. As I am now reading a book about Native American archaeoastronomy, it is also a curious fact that so many of us, world round, thought the dead somehow resided in mountains. Definitely going to stay with me for a long time to come; look forward to reading more by this author!
November 7, 2021
Lecouteux focuses on Germanic sources regarding the transformation of beliefs surrounding revenants during the time of Christian conversion. This is an interesting look at the belief of corpses coming back to haunt the living transforming into the whispy ghosts so popular in the modern imagination today. It may be interesting for those interested in traditional practices of the different Germanic peoples.
April 27, 2019
Though this book focused heavily on Norse traditions and superstitions regarding revenants, it was highly detailed and well put together. Lecouteux’s points were easy to follow and well backed up with quotes from Norse literature as well as some Christian Medieval literature detailing the common motifs and themes that appeared and how they represented the beliefs of the time.
January 30, 2017
Impeccable scholarship!
August 6, 2014
Interesting. Scholarly.
January 23, 2016
Superb scholarly collation that achieves a genuine frisson of an older mindset, another world.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews