Witches, Werewolves And Fairies

Zusatztext "Surprisingly! and despite the consistently scholarly tone! Lecouteux treats his subject with unmistakable sympathy and enthusiasm. He contrasts traditional beliefs about the soul with those imposed by Christianity and clearly favors the former." Informationen zum Autor Claude Lecouteux is a former professor of medieval literature and civilization at the Sorbonne. He is the author of numerous books on medieval and pagan afterlife beliefs and magic, including The Book of Grimoires , Dictionary of Ancient Magic Words and Spells , and The Tradition of Household Spirits . He lives in Paris. Klappentext MYTHOLOGY Otherworldly beings--among them werewolves, witches, and fairies--have figured in our stories and dreams since the Middle Ages. But as Claude Lecouteux shows, their roots reach back to a much older Western European belief system that predates Christianity. Through his study of Germano-Scandinavian myths and legends, as well as those from other areas of Europe, he has uncovered the almost forgotten concept that every individual has three souls, and that one of these souls--the Double--can, in animal or human form, leave the physical body and journey where it chooses. While there were many people during the Middle Ages who experienced this phenomenon involuntarily, there were others--witches--who were able to provoke it at will, thus attracting the persecution of the Church. In a thorough study of the medieval soul, the author reveals eerie and surprising accounts of contact with the Double and otherworldly phenomena, such as second sight and psychic foreknowledge. He shows that far from being fantasy or vague superstition, fairies, witches, and werewolves all attest to an ancient and continuous vision of both our world and the world beyond. CLAUDE LECOUTEUX is a professor of medieval literature and civilization at the Sorbonne. He is the author of nine other books exploring the true nature of medieval beliefs in the afterlife and the supernatural. He lives in Paris. Leseprobe From the Introduction We human beings, animals endowed with reason, have never been able to accept death . . . But reality is inescapable; daily life proves that the body is ephemeral, perishable, and that it dies and returns to dust. Hence, the idea has been developed and expressed--with more force or less force and clarity, depending on place, era, and ethnic group--that we are more than the body; that the body is only the physical encasing of the vital principle, the breath, a force, a spirit--in a word, a soul. . . Ancient Egyptian religion speaks to us about the Ka, the Greeks speak to us of the daimôn, the Romans teach us that every man has a genius and every woman an Iuno, Christianity gives us a guardian angel, ancient Scandinavians knew the fylgja. It would be futile, without a doubt, to aim at discovering a genetic connection between all these examples from all these civilizations, but . . . Is not this belief attested to by all eras, in all parts of the world? Indeed, a gap remains to be filled where the medieval West is concerned. The clues are there, but we have not been able to see them--hidden, distorted, and masked as they have been, as has been everything that contradicts the dogma of Christianity, the West's dominant religion. . . It is by playing with differences in evolution, which in the Middle Ages contrasts Germanic civilization with Roman and Celtic civilizations, that the inquiry can be led to safe harbor. . . . In taking a look at the peoples with whom the medieval West was in permanent contact--through commercial exchange, wars, invasion, or simply from being neighbors--I have been able to discover the root of the belief in the Double, and, taking this further, to see that this root is squarely planted in shamanistic concepts of the soul. My goal is simple: to write the history of the Double in the Middle Ages, to show ...

"Surprisingly, and despite the consistently scholarly tone, Lecouteux treats his subject with unmistakable sympathy and enthusiasm. He contrasts traditional beliefs about the soul with those imposed by Christianity and clearly favors the former."

Auteur

Claude Lecouteux is a former professor of medieval literature and civilization at the Sorbonne. He is the author of numerous books on medieval and pagan afterlife beliefs and magic, including The Book of Grimoires, Dictionary of Ancient Magic Words and Spells, and The Tradition of Household Spirits. He lives in Paris.

Texte du rabat

MYTHOLOGY Otherworldly beings--among them werewolves, witches, and fairies--have figured in our stories and dreams since the Middle Ages. But as Claude Lecouteux shows, their roots reach back to a much older Western European belief system that predates Christianity. Through his study of Germano-Scandinavian myths and legends, as well as those from other areas of Europe, he has uncovered the almost forgotten concept that every individual has three souls, and that one of these souls--the Double--can, in animal or human form, leave the physical body and journey where it chooses. While there were many people during the Middle Ages who experienced this phenomenon involuntarily, there were others--witches--who were able to provoke it at will, thus attracting the persecution of the Church. In a thorough study of the medieval soul, the author reveals eerie and surprising accounts of contact with the Double and otherworldly phenomena, such as second sight and psychic foreknowledge. He shows that far from being fantasy or vague superstition, fairies, witches, and werewolves all attest to an ancient and continuous vision of both our world and the world beyond. CLAUDE LECOUTEUX is a professor of medieval literature and civilization at the Sorbonne. He is the author of nine other books exploring the true nature of medieval beliefs in the afterlife and the supernatural. He lives in Paris.

Résumé
Reveals the true nature of medieval belief in the Double of the Soul

• Demonstrates the survival of a pagan belief that each individual owns three souls, including a double that can journey outside the physical body

• Explains the nature of death and the Other World hidden beneath the monsters and superstitions in stories from the Middle Ages

Monsters, werewolves, witches, and fairies remain a strong presence in our stories and dreams. But as Claude Lecouteux shows, their roots go far deeper than their appearance in medieval folklore; they are survivors of a much older belief system that predates Christianity and was widespread over Western Europe. Through his extensive analysis of Germano-Scandinavian legends, as well as those from other areas of Europe, Lecouteux has uncovered an almost forgotten religious concept: that every individual owns three souls and that one of these souls, the Double, can—in animal or human form—leave the physical body while in sleep or a trance, journey where it chooses, then reenter its physical body. While there were many who experienced this phenomenon involuntarily, there were others—those who attracted the unwelcome persecution of the Church—who were able to provoke it at will: witches.

In a thorough excavation of the medieval soul, Claude Lecouteux reveals the origin and significance of this belief in the Double, and follows its transforming features through the ages. He shows that far from being fantasy or vague superstition, fairies, witches, and werewolves all testify to a consistent ancient vision of our world and the world beyond.

Échantillon de lecture
From the Introduction

We human beings, animals endowed with reason, have never been able to accept death . . . But reality is inescapable; daily life proves that the body is ephemeral, perishable, and that it dies and returns to dust. Hence, the idea has been developed and expressed--with more force or less force and clarity, depending on place, er…