The Way to the Other World in Medieval Literature and Art

Author(s): Peter Dinzelbacher

Source: Folklore, Vol. 97, No. 1 (1986), pp. 70-87
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.
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Folklorevol. 97:i, 1986

70

The Way to the Other World in Medieval

Literatureand Art
PETER DINZELBACHER

JUDGING by the sources, medieval man must have spent much time with thoughts,
fears and hopes concerning the Other World. That there was a life to come was a
conviction left nearly unchallengedduring the Age of Faith. The speculationson the
how and where of this afterlife show a markeddifferencewhen comparedto those of
most Christiansnowadays:they are markedlyconcrete,realistic,palpable.The places,
receptacula,of the other world were not situatedbeyond this cosmos, but formed part
of our disk-like earth, or of the spheres towering up over it.' Hell, divided into
different compartmentsas infernussuperior,infernusinferior,limbuspatrum, limbus
puerorum(sometimes identified with one another),was thought to be in the middle of
earth;purgatoryborderedupon it. The earthlyparadisewas sought somewherein the
east and formed both a topic for map-makersto define, and a goal for regular
expeditions. Heaven, or, more correctlythe heavens(fromthree to seven), were spread
out in hemispheres not in some unimaginabletranscendence,but above where you
stood, above the clouds.2
So it is quite natural that there existed a lot of traditions not only about the
eschatologicalregions, but also about the ways leading thither. How the passageto the
other world was imagined will be dealt with first. But often medieval sources also
speakabout anotherkind of way to the future life, i.e. the way a man coversduringhis
lifetime. It is the allegory of the homo viator or the peregrinusin terris,which was to
find its definite delineationin Bunyan's ThePilgrim'sProgressfrom this Worldto That
whichis to Come.I shall give some few examples of this theme afterwards,and show
some points of connection between these two conceptionsin conclusion.
Though it is no easy thing to speak about popularculture during the Middle Ages,
as all its utterancespassedthrough the medium of the learnedpens of the intellectuals
(and I would not hesitateto call every one knowinghow to reador write an intellectual
at this period), it will be evident, I hope, that the sourcespresentedin the first partof
this paper stem from traditions current among the common people, as they never
formedpartof the officialteachingof the church.This did not preventthe intellectuals
from sharing these conceptions, because it was they who not only had such scenes
painted or sculptured but thought them worth recordingby themselves. I feel that
there is much more concretenesseven in philosophicaland theological reflectionthan
we today, with our minds used to a ratherabstractway of speakingand thinking, are
able to recognize in these texts. That hell, for instance, was a real cavelike prison
beneath the surfaceof the earth was not only popularopinion, but was believed if not
by Peter Abelard or Meister Eckhart at least by St Thomas Aquinas (Summa
Theologiae111,97,7(176)). And it was FredericII of Hohenstaufen,whose learnedness
is beyond doubt, who askedhis court philosopherMichael Scot where on or under or
above this our earth hell and purgatorymight be found, how many abysses existed,
and, in connection with this, what one ought to think about volcanos.3
On the other hand the allegoricalinterpretationsof the soul's journey through the

THE WAY TO THE OTHER WORLD

71

world were items of metaphoricspeakingand not of popularbelief, similes createdin

orderto describeman's situation and task in the world. They often can be tracedback,
if not to their inventor, at least to the intellectualand chronologicalmilieu they were
coined in. But here againthey often cannothave been esoteric,as preachingon the one
side and pictorial representationson the other spread these motifs among the lower
classes as well, though we usually do not know to what degree they were accepted
unless popularmedia such as cheap devotionalwoodcuts etc. adopted them.
It is the interaction between these 'two worlds' we can observe quite well by
studying the conceptionsof the afterlifeat that period.
What did medieval people expect to happen to them in the hour of death? This
moment was a dramaticbeginning to a journey during which the soul was tested,
judged and sentenced to eternal life or eternal death, or to a certain time of
purification.4No one expected to be transferredto the place of his furtherdestiny in
one instant, as we would today; during the first night after death, the soul stays with
St. Gertrude (of Nivelles), the second with St. Michael and only on the third night
does it reach its destination.5It takes a thirty-years'voyage to come to the black hellgullet, writes the authorof the 12th century Irish Tidingsof Doomsday,as hell's prison
is so deep that a millstone had to fall for 1000 years to reach it.6 But the souls are
falling quicker still.7 Though the specification of such precise figures is exceptional,
the name given to the Eucharist as ministered to a dying person demonstratesthe
underlying idea: viaticum (the translation of Greek ephodion or hodiop6rion,
compositionswith hod6s, way) is explainedby a Germanpreacherof the 13th century
in the following terms: viaticum dicitur a via ... that is His holy body and His blood
preparedas provisionsfor the journey... Pray ... that He mercifullywill condescendto
administerthis high viaticum the day after this transitorylife, when your soul has to
meet her own death on the very unknown road ..."8 The pre-Christiancustom of
putting a pair of shoes into the grave, preservedin some districts during the Middle
Ages and modern times,9 points to the same. The vast corpus of visions of the Other
World recorded mainly from the 7th to the 13th century, but popular still as
incunabula,'0preserves many detailed descriptions of the terrifying paths leading to
the nether world, as well of their beautiful counterpartsleading to paradise. The
visionary,who of course is only seemingly dead, usually has to take the very same way
the really dead must follow. I quote just one example, the long vision seen by the
peasant Godeschalcusin late December 1189. Under Henry the Lion, Godeschalcus
had been forcedto go to the front, notwithstandinghis bodily weakness.He fell ill and
into an ecstasy of five days and nights, during which he was led throughthe realmsof
the dead. Two angels took him by the hand, guiding him to the south. First they came
to an unusually big and beautiful linden-tree.Each of its twigs was luxuriantlyloaded
with pairs of shoes, more than anyone could have thought to exist in the whole world.
Beyond this tree a plain extended, a heathy ground wild and waste, filled with sharp
unbreakablethorns standing densely like the teeth of a hackle. Here the souls of the
dead congregatedfrom all directionsin orderto be tested. But each of them recognized
for himself whetheror not he hadmeriteda pair of shoes by worksof mercy, accepting
them from an angel, or sadly passing by barefooted.Godeschalcushimself afteronly a
few steps onto this plain collapsedbecauseof the unbearablepains, his feet completely
penetratedby the thorns. In like mannermost of the other souls had not got any shoes,
'miserabilenimis ... spectaculum':the pains made them wince and smart, creeping on
now, then breaking down, every inch of their tortured bodies slashed." We cannot
follow Godeschalcus and the dead on their way over the cutting sword-riverwhich

WeK|~

^
4 "'""..........~

1. Purgatory. Panel, c. 1500; Schlossmuseum Linz, Austria

(P. Dinzelbacher).

5. The Other World. Mural, c. 1200; St. Peter and Paul, Chaldon,
Surrey, England (after Eriksson, as note 94, fig. 1).

4. The Bridge of Souls. M

Piano, Loreto Aprutino, Ita
Heavenand

7. Dagobert I Brought to H
R. Hammerstein,Diabo

3. St. Michael. Mural, c. 1500; Aarhus

Cathedral, Denmark (P. Dinzelbacher).

9. Hortus Deliciarumby Herrad of Landsberg. Late 12th century MS, now destroyed
(after Eriksson, as in note 94, fig. 5).

6. Tundal Crossing the Bridge. MS. germ

8? 60, 294v (late 16th century);Staatsbibliothek PreussischerKulturbesitz,West Berlin
(courtesy N. Palmer).

10. The Two Ways. Late 12th century

MS; University Library, Erlangen, West
Germany (after Eriksson, fig. 7).

74

PETER DINZELBACHER

forms the boundaryto the differenteschatologicalabodes,12but let us notice that there

were three paths:the one to the left, narrow,filthy and shut in between sky-highwalls,
the one to the right, very pleasant, friendly and shining, the middle one broad and
bright. Wanderingon them you reach hell, heaven and the resting-placeof the good
but not perfect.
The experiencesof this North Germanpeasantare sharedby many other visionaries
all over medieval Europe, be it the Norwegian noble, Olav Asteson; the Irish knight,
Tundal; the English farmer,Thurkill; the Italian boy, Alberic; or the French monk,
Barontus.All told how souls have to wander strangepaths until they reach the places
of the Other World where recompenseaccordingto their temporallives awaitsthem.
It goes without saying that there existed also special regional conceptions, as
documented for instance by the Inquisitorial protocols of the Occitan village of
Montaillou. There people imaginedthe ghosts as being en routepermanently:the dead
are runningquickly, the more culpableone is the quickerhe runs - but on this world,
if invisible to the living. During daytime, they move from church to church, from one
pilgrimage-centreto the next; during the nights, they stay inside a church. As if alive,
knights are still riding, ladies drive in a cart. These penitential pilgrimagesfinished,
the souls may enter a place of repose, but still on this earth.Heaven will be their abode
only after the Last Judgement; hell is reserved for the demons, Jews, and the great
sinner, Judas Iscariot.13
Returning to the ideas on afterlife which were current in the whole of medieval
Europe, we notice that this journey to the localities of future existence is not
undertakenalone. Good or evil spirits are man's companionson his last way. This is
testified not only by the visionary literaturebut also by texts belonging to nearly all
other literary genres, as well as by countless figural representations painted or
sculptured. That is, for example, what the very popular author of the 12th century,
Honorius Augustodunensis, narrates in his Sermo ad pauperes:when an honest
pauper's life was ended, 'multitudo angelorum venit, animam ejus cum gaudio de
carcerecorporisexcepit, et ad coeleste palatiumcum ymnis perduxit.'The case is quite
the reversewhen a rich man dies (who is eo ipso expected to be bad): 'repentecaterva
daemoriumhorribili aspectu domum intravit, quos aeger videns exclamavit:'Domine
adjuva me!...' Daemones vero crudeliter animam ejus extorserunt et ad tartara
cruciandam pertraxerunt."4These situations could be seen depicted in almost all
medieval churches, because there are two typical scenes where this motif appears,viz.
the story of Dives and Lazarus,and the Crucifixionwith the deathsof the two thieves.
The pictures showing souls elevated to heaven seem to outnumberthose showing the
passageto the underworld,because saints' legends were depicted more often than the
stories of great sinners such as Judas Iscariot or Theophilus.'5 Whereasmedieval art
influenced by Byzantium often shows the soul being carriedupwardsby angels who
hold it in a linen cloth, like that of Lambert of Saint-Bertin in a 12th century
manuscript,'6 we also find the soul taken (and crowned) by the angels without
intermediatedevice, as can be seen on a coloured 14th-centuryrelief of the death of St.
Theobald at St. Thibault in Burgundy, or a fresco of about 1340/50 in the
Dominicans' church at Bozen (Siidtirol) in the Johanniskapelle,part of a life of St.
Nicholas. It is striking that it is only in this latter way that the visions and exempla
describe the souls' flight to heaven, whereas the motif of the cloth is restricted to
pictoral representations.But if a saint is especially loved by God, the celestial hosts
come down to his death-bedin order to accompanyhim or her to heaven.'8
It is not only to the realmsof the blessed but to purgatory,too, that the good spirits

THE WAY TO THE OTHER WORLD

75

bring the deceased. This is a constant theme of the visions; an interestingand rather
rare representationis to be found on an Austrian panel (fig. 1). It shows an angel
carryinga soul to the so often mentioned cauldron,anotherone helping a soul out of
the fiery pit, obviously by virtue of the Rosaries said on behalf of this dead man by
living friends, a third one fetching bread and drink, obviously alms bestowed on the
poor in memoryof the deceased;meanwhile,on the right hand, those sinnerswho have
19An example of devils catching
been cleansed from their faults take their refrigerium.
dying men's souls comes from a mural showing an execution at S. Fermo Maggiorein
Verona; another one, with the demons as hounds hunting naked souls over a rough
path, is to be seen in the 'Taymouth Hours' (fig. 2).

Demons Hunt Souls. Taymouth Hours, first half 14th century; British Library,London (after Gibson, as
note 78, Abb. 62).

Whether the innumerable Romanesque sculptures of animal-shaped demons

clutching a humanbeing may be interpretedin this sense, or whetherthey are meantto
representliving men ensnaredby personifiedvices, would be difficult to decide.
The authors of the New Testament thought that the Second Coming of Christ in
order to separatesheep and goats, was to approachsoon. As this day of doom was
deferredfurtherand further,a second conceptionwas accepted:the personaljudgment
immediatelyafter death. So it is an importantstation on the way to the future life's
abodes. There are many texts which present the soul in front of Christ's Judgment
Seat,20but another concept was still more popular: judgment by weighing on the
scales.21This ancient motif, known from Egyptian and Greek antiquity, became
widespreadin Western Christendomduring the central Middle Ages. The weighing
angel was identified with St. Michael, whose picture was not lacking in any late
medieval church. An Old Norse prayer of the 13th century runs: 'You I beseech,
Michael, to deign to take my soul when she is brought away from my corpse and to
protect her against the fiends' powers, so she can come through hell's door and the
road of darkness,so she is not held back by lions or dragonswho use to direct the soul
to hell ... You I beseech, my Lord God, you almighty, that you send to me your holy
angel for help.'22It is with such prayerson their lips we should imagine medieval
people looking at the representationsof the weighing angel, whether they are as
unpretentiousas the one at Pulkau(Nieder6sterreich,13th century),or as elaborateas
itas
ass mighty
and
that in the cathedralof Aarhus(fig. 3). Often the devils, as big
nearlyg
the heavenly spirits, are representedhoping for the slumping of the scale filled with
the examinee's sinful deeds. That is, of course, what will happen to the risen at the
time of resurrection,and it is in this connection that the act of soul-weighingwas most
often representedin the pictorialarts. Not rarelyangels and devils are actuallyfighting
and
for the departed'ssoul, a scene frequently described in the exempla-collections23

76

PETER DINZELBACHER

visions.24Sometimes the saints take part in the struggle, St. Peter hitting the demons
with his keys,25St. Laurencethrowingon the scale the thuriblewhich had been offered
to him by the emperorHenry II,26 St. Mary putting her hand on the scale holding the
sinner's good deeds.27
About this stage of the souls' way, the personaljudgment,there is still anotherline
of tradition.From the late sixth century on we have sources referringto the bridge to
the Other World, the function of which is identicalwith that of the souls' balance,for
it is the path to the upper regions,which only the just will successfullypass. We have a
letter of St. Bonifaceto the abbessof Thanet, Eadburga,where he recordsthe vision of
an unnamed Wenlock monk, narratedto the saint by the visionaryhimself. This man
during his illness fell into a rapture;angels carriedhim upwards, so that he could see
the whole wide world from above,28coveredwith immensefires. During the time of his
ecstasy, he saw such a numberof souls migratingfrom their bodies that they seemed to
outnumberthe world's inhabitants.As they gathered, countless evil spirits and holy
angels also approachedand enteredinto conflict over the souls, the formerby accusing
the sinners, the latter by excusing them. There was a river full of fire and burning
pitch, and there was a tree over it in likeness of a bridge. The saintly souls hurriedto
the bridge, as they desired to pass over to the other bank. And some crossed without
staggering,but some sliding down from the tree fell into the hellish stream.Some were
wholly submergedin the flood, some to the knees, some to the middle of the body, and
some to the ankles. All eventually came out of the fire, renderedbright and clean to
ascend the other side. Beyond the river were walls shining with splendour, great in
length and height - heavenlyJerusalem.29
This idea of the test-bridgebecame very popularin the later centuriesand was even
interpolatedinto other eschatologicaltexts such as the apocryphalVisioPauli. During
the eleventh or twelfth century the continental tradition, stemming from the
widespreadDialoguesof Pope Gregorythe Great, blended with the Irish, which in my
opinion had developed independentlythe motif of the moving and changing bridge,
known for instance from the Fis Adamnain,the treatiseon St. Patrick'sPurgatoryor
the vision of Alberic. It is of this latter type that we have an illustrationin a mural
painting in S. Maria in Piano, Loreto Aprutino, Italy, (early 14th century?)(fig. 4).
One is remindedof the bridge in Alberic's vision: a river of burning pitch was crossed
by a very broad iron bridge, to be overcomeby the just souls the easier and fasterthe
more immune from sins ('immunes a delictis') they were found to be. But when those
who were burdenedby their sins' weight came to the middle of the aforesaidbridge, it
became as narrowas a thread.So they fell down into the river, crawledout, came back,
fell down again, and so on, till 'in moremcarniumexcocti et purgati'they were able to
cross this bridge.30But I do not feel that this paintingwas meantto be an illustrationto
the boy's ecstaticrecord,becausedetails like the helping angel or St. Michael's balance
do not occur in Alberic. So the model was more probablya lost vision, or else we have
here a new formulation of the well-known subject by the patron who ordered the
fresco.
As far as I know, there exists only one other pictureof the eschatologicalbridgeto be
seen on a large scale, in a little church some miles south of London, Chaldon (fig. 5),
about 1200. On the lower stage to the right, two giganticdevils (andgigas is a medieval
synonym to 'demon')31hold the bridge of spikes over the flames of hell or purgatory.
Five human beings try to keep themselveson it - one can assumethat the giants don't
fail to shake the bridge. They are obviously dishonest tradesmen:a blacksmith, a
mason or carpenter, two spinsters and a potter. It is evident that this bridge is a

THE WAY TO THE OTHER WORLD

77

perversion of the original motif, the bridge as passage from this world to the other.
This bridge leads nowhere save into the monsters'jaws, its only aim is to punish. Of
exactly this function we find the bridges beset with nails in the visions of Tundal
(1149) and Thurkill (1206). I will content myself with citing from the last one only.
Thurkill was a simple Essex rustic who experienceda 48 hours' raptureduring which
he was led to a spacious church. On the outside was the pit of hell and a purgatorial
fire; between this and heaven(situatedon the monsgaudit),there was a long bridgefull
of spikes, the way over which is describedin some detail: the souls who come to this
bridge filled with desire for rest want to cross at all costs. With their bare feet they step
on the long nails and very sharp spikes, and unable to stand the pains they put their
hands on the spikes for help. These are pierced immediately, so they creep on their
bellies very slowly until they reach the other side, stabbedand bloodstainedon every
inch.32Again, neither Tundal nor Thurkill can probablyhave been a source of the
aforesaidpainting at Chaldon, but undoubtedly the same idea lies behind them: the
bridge as instrument of punishment. The bridge-motif, so diffused in medieval
literature,has, astonishinglyenough, been illustratedonly very rarely.I can cite e.g.
the illuminationsof a French version of St. Paul's vision, some late woodcuts in early
prints, and a late 16th-centuryillumination of the Visio Tundali as mentioned by
Martin Luther33(fig. 6). The fashionablydressedknight Tundal meets anothersoul at
the Bridge of Dread who is carryingstolen corn.
The bridge of the dead is the typical manifestationof the path the soul must travel,
the concretizationof the distancebetween the living and the defunct. In additionit is,
as comparisonwith folkloristicand ethnographicmaterialreveals,the difficult passage
par excellencewhich has to be overcome before a man can reach a higher level of
existence. Let us at least mention that the eschatologicalbridge also had a profane
counterpart,the perilous bridge of the romances. The best known example is the
sword-bridgein Chretiende Troyes' Lancelot,as shown in illuminatedmanuscriptsor
on a capitalin St-Pierre,Caen.
Similar to the bridge is the ladder. While the first is quite usual in visions of the
Other World, the ladderor steps are extremelyrare.The bridge must be crossedboth
by the ecstaticalseer and the dead;the ladderon the contraryseems to be restrictedto
either the visionaryor some famous saint.
In 13th-centurysources St. Dominic is said to have been seen ascendingto heaven
between two laddersheld by the Virgin and Christ.34There are not a few saints who
are shown with a ladderas an attribute,but usually this refersto the apparitionof this
divine way,35comparableto the dreamwhich the patriarchJacob was favouredwith,36
not to the ascending of the visionary himself. Out of about 2()() texts of medieval
visions, I know but a few containing our motif: one is the until now completely
unnoticed dream-vision of the Hirsau monk Bernhard of 'ectcrshausen(late 11th
century)who beholds an opening in the skies, from which the ladderis reachingdown
to earth. It is interpretedas mankind'sway to the Last Judgment,but only Peter in his
sleep and his companionsclimb up. He participatesin the saints' meal, but discredits
his story with the remark:'When I awoke, I was glad that it was not true,' becausehe
himself was to be thrown into the penitential flames.37Better known is the second
vision, one experiencedby the English Cisterciannovice Gunthclm in 1161. He in his
agony is led by St. Benedict of Nursia to narrowand steep stairsapparentlybeginning
in the air. On each stair sat two demons who beat and mocked Gunthelm violently
until he and his leaderreachedthe Lady's Chapelat the end of the steps.38Anotherone
is the dream the Norwegian king St Olav had before his death, seeing 'a high ladder,

PETER DINZELBACHER

78

upon which he went so high in the air that heaven was open.'39And from Englandwe
have recordof William Stauntonwho in 1409 visited St. Patrick'sPurgatoryon Lough
Derg (Ireland) and described the 'ladder ... sharper than any razor' between
purgatoryand paradise.40
Are there further ways in which the journey to the Other World could be
accomplished?There are, but they are not what the averagemedievalman would have
expected to happen to him. They concern only people who became the heroes of
legends becauseof their extraordinarylife or (usuallybad) deeds. An unusualexample
of this is the journeyto hell by ski. Skiing was well known to the ancient Finns,41and
so we read in the late medieval ballad on the death of Bishop Henry of Uppsala,
Finland's apostle, who was murderedin 1156: "But now the bishop is rejoicing,/Lalli
(his murderer)is in dreadfultorture./ The bishop with the angels sings,/ chanting a
hymn of exultation,/Lalli in Hell is skiing,/ sliding along with his glide-skis,/into the
dense smoke of torment,/ with his staff he pushes on./ Badly prick him all the devils
"42

Less eccentric is the conception of a boat-tripto the beyond. As we are speaking

about journeysof souls, not of the living, I set aside St. Brendanand his voyage to the
Isles of the Blessed,43a combination of the Irish pagan tradition of a happy Other
World and Christian paradise on earth, and also Alexander the Great's journey to
paradise, much influenced by oriental sources.44It was Teutonic belief, as we know
from rich archaeologicaland literarysources, that the dead man had to cross a waterbarrier in order to reach his resting-place.45There remained some traces of this
conception in the Middle Ages, e.g. the mention of the Rhine as streamof the dead in
Caesariusof Heisterbach,46
or the story of an entranceto hell, brokenby the Saviouron
the occasion of his descensusad limbumpatrum, which is to be seen in the depth of a
lake near Puteoli in Italy.47But more currenttraditionswere limited to two personages
of the early Frankishmonarchy, viz. king Dagobert I. (d.639) and the maior domus
Ebroin (d.ca.680). When the good king Dagobert left this world, we are told, without
having cleansedhimself from all sins, the demons seized his soul and put her on a ship.
But St. Denis did not forget his friend and came in company of other saints whom
Dagobert had especially honoured. They fought the demons, who were defeatedand
thrown out of the boat into the sea. Then the angels received Dagobert'ssoul and all
went back to paradise.48Less fortunate was Ebroin, who had been confined by his
enemies in a monastery(the usual early medieval method of political elimination)but
left it aftertwo years to regainhis power. At night a victim of Ebroin'scruelty49heard
the sound of hardrowing. Having askedwhere the ship was bound to, he was told: 'we
are bringingEbroin to the Volcanowhere he shall pay for his misdeeds.'50The first of
these two stories has been carvedinto stone on the appropriateplace, i.e. on the king's
cenotaph standingin the royal necropolisof St. Denis (fig. 7), about 1265.
While this popularnotion is a relic from Germanicmythology,51the learnedpoets
especially during and after the renaissanceof the 12th century referredto classical
conceptionsof tartaruswith its infernalstreamsand the ferrymanCharon.52It is in this
Vergiliantraditionthat Dante createdhis Infernowhere Carondimonio53
brings terrorstrucksouls to the land without hope. Also the Stygianswampshave to be traversedby
boat, this time steered by Flegias, personificationof wrath.54The subject was still
treated by Renaissancepainters such as Joachim Patenier (d.1524), Dfirer's host in
Antwerp, and was frequentlyused by the most famousPortugeserenaissancedramatist
Gil Vicente.55
The journey on horseback usually also remained reserved for one prominent

THE WAY TO THE OTHER WORLD

79

member of the early medieval aristocracywho had to be damned as an adherent to

Arianism, the Gothic king Theoderic the Great. His hell-ride has been represented
quite often; the most famous example is the relief at the portal of S.Zeno, Verona
(ca.1130). The legend, which can be reconstructedby the help of many texts, tells how
the king, having killed Pope John I, Symmachusand Boethius, was bathing when a
hart, sent by the demon, came into his view. He jumped out, mounted a jet black
horse, sent by the demon as well, and hunted the animal. But he was not able to
dismount the horse which carriedhim straightinto hell through a volcano.56Another
variant of this legend says it was the Pope and the consul themselves who threw
Theoderic into the fiery mouth of hell,57but the hunting-versionwas more esteemedin
the arts, for example on a relief of the 13th century at the charnel-houseof Modling
(Niederosterreich).One can suppose that the king's famous equestrianstatue brought
to Aachen by Charlemagnewas the nucleus of this whole tale.58Possibly Germanic
mythology, as expressed in Hermodur's hell-ride, had preparedthe ground for this
motif.59

A Pushcart to Hell. Late 13th century MS; Bibliotheque Municipale, St. Omer, France (Hammerstein,
Abb. 8).

IncidentallyI mention a last and unusual vehicle:the cart. To heavenit broughtonly

the living Elijah in the Old Testament,60so it hardly could be used in later Christian
legends.61Alexander'sattempt to fly to the heavens in a cart drawn by gryphonswas
understoodby the medievalsas a symbol of his superbia.62
To the opposite realmin the
depth no carts are preparedfor offendersin serious eschatologicalliterature,but they
appearin a satiricaldrawingin the marginof a Franco-Flemishbible (fig. 8) and on a
fresco in Bagnot church, Burgundy.63As regardsSt. Francis, who was seen
by his
followersin a fiery chariot(a scene immortalizedby Giotto in his churchat Assisi), this
simply signified his position as governorof spiritualmen, as St. Bonaventurawrites,64
not that he was believed to have ascendedby this device.
So far, we have briefly surveyedthe more realisticconceptsof the souls' ways to their
further abodes.65Equally prolific were the allegoricalnotions which depict this our
temporallife as a way to the other world. They of coursewere createdin the reflections
of intellectuals, not by popular imagination, but as at least from the 13th
century
onwardsthey were used by preachersspeakingin the vernacularto the laity, they could
gain a more widespreadcurrencytoo.
The basic conception is the biblical view of this world as a vale of tears66
through
which we in statu viatorumare wanderingas pilgrims. Our homeland is not this evil

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PETER DINZELBACHER

saeculumbut the coelestispatria. The allegorical literatureprovides symbolic paths

analogousto those on which it was thought the dead reallyhad to go. The two ways (as
expressed e.g. in Proverbs 4.1 ff.: '. . . iustorum autem semita quasi lux splendens,
procedit et crescit usque ad perfectamdiem. Via impiorum tenebrosa, nesciunt ubi
corruant .. .') were treated in a thousand ways by medieval homilists. "leten we po
brode strete and'ane wei benne/ bet leded'fo nijende del to helle .. ./ go we Pane
narewewei and'ane wei grene,/ .. a..t is vair and schene", are we exhortedby the
late 12-centuryauthor of the Poema morale.67The later path is God's word, leading
over rock and mountain, the former man's own will, bound to a barrenwood and a
bare field.
More sophisticated is the Swabian Freidanc who wrote his Bescheidenheitabout
1225. Three roads go down to hell, open everyday: desperation, bad deeds and
postponing amendment. To heaven there are three ways, too: self-denial, discreet
goodnessand almsgiving.68The upper ways are infestedby enemies, devils69or vices.70
These are the wegewerende
(those hindering the way), as Walthervon der Vogelweide
had said. In the later Middle Ages the allegoryof men's pilgrim's way was treatedin
some lengthy works such as Guillaume de Digullevilles' Pelerinagede la vie humaine
and Pelerinagede l'dme(1330-58, severaltimes translatedinto other languages)with a
detailed symbolical apparatus:River of Baptism, pilgrim's staff as bridge over the
River of the World, broad road to pleasureand narrowway to duty, thorny hedge of
penitence, Ship of Religion and so on.7' The way to hell could also be described in
similarterms. Thus Raoul de Houdenc (d.ca. 1230) in his Songed'Enferimaginesthat
he is a pilgrim to the city of Hell, journeyingon a broadand pleasantroute. His way
leads him through such places as Convoitise la Cite (greediness) and Foi-Mentie
(perjury) over the river of Gloutonie (gluttony) to Ville-Taverne (tavern), then to
Chastiau-Bordel(brothel) through Cruaut6 (cruelty) to Desesperance (despair), the
Montjoie (hill) of Hell. Close by is Mort-Soubite(sudden death), a kind of infernal
outpost. The people whom he meets are sins and vices personified like Envy,
Treachery,Avarice, Robbery, Gambling and so on.72
The motif of the two ways often is given in the ancient form of the Y, well-known
from the story of Hercules-Prodikos, transmitted to the Middle Ages through
Cicero,3and combined with Matthew 7,13f, the parableof the narrowand the broad
way. This is the subject of many exempla74like this one: Two pilgrims, sometimes
explained as homocarnalisand homospiritualis,reach a road fork, the path to the left
leading to a town where the guests are cordially received and given gifts, but robbed
and hangedafter three days;the one to the right being difficult, but leading to a town
where they will be crowned. 'Peregrinacioest vita presens, civitas et premia mundus
est, vbi post ... vite huius cursum ... ducuntur nudi ad suspendium, id est, ad
mortem eternam. Via asperaconfessio, contricio, satisfaccio.. .'75Though there are
some illuminationsof such allegoricaltexts,76during the Middle Ages they remained
limited to the manuscriptscarryingthese stories and, as far as I see, no iconographyof
its own was developed. The homo viator became more often pictured during the
Renaissance; an instance would be Hieronymus Bosch's well-known triptych The
Hay-Cart.77When its wings are closed one sees the wanderer passing through the
dangers of this life; he turns his back upon crime and looks away from luxuria (as
sexuality was called in the Middle Ages), symbolized by the dancing couple. Death
menaces him (he looks at the bones, the gallows are over his head). With his staff the
pilgrim keeps off slander(the barkingdog), but the bridgeon his way, will it hold out?
Maybe this is an allusion to the eschatological bridge mentioned above.78More

THE WAY TO THE OTHER WORLD

81

elaboratepictures of this theme will be found in later times; e.g. a mural painting in
the Minster at Konstanz (Baden-Wiirttenberg,1593): the guardian angel leads the
soul, represented as child with staff and knapsack, on the meandering path to
brightness. The animals along this path can be interpreted as different spiritual
dangers.79Devotional pictures(woodcutsand prints)illustratedMatthew'sparableand
were on the marketuntil the beginning of our century.80
If we quickly survey the remainingmeans of travellingto the Other World we see
some of them again in allegoricaluse. Thus the ship: it is the famous symbol for the
church on which the Fatherswrote since Tertullian, and which was representedin the
arts from the fourth century onwards.8' We are divided, writes Honorius
Augustodunensis,from our homeland of paradiseas if a sea lay in between, i.e. the
saeculum,perturbedby much bitterness. The ship is Christian religion.82About the
allegoricalchariotwe read in the same author:When the Lord constructedHis palace,
one wall broke down (the apostateangels), so His Son collected many new stones (the
elect) in His chariotwhich was drawn by horses (the Apostles). The quadrigaitself is
the Evangelists;the stones that fell out of it symbolize the heretics and schismatics.83
This allegoryremindsone of the stones used to build the tower in Hermas'Poimenof
the second century. Another representationof the allegorical chariot is of course
Bosch's Hay-Cart,draggedto hell by the devils.84
More often the bridge was used as an allegory, especially for the life of man as
counted by his age. In the Livre de Lancelota bridge of 45 plankssuggests the span of
life.85 From the 15th century onwards there exist woodcuts (very popular in
Scandinaviatill the 19th century)on which the analogybetween the span of life and
the bridge's span is expressedconspicuously:a pilgrim, homoviator, is on his way to
the passage:the devil attackshim, and on the other end death awaits him.86
In a completely different way St. Catherine of Siena speaks at length about this
metaphor: when the road whereby man could reach heaven had been broken by
Adam's disobedience,God made of his Son a bridge acrosswhich one can pass. Since
the original sin there streamsa stormy river, carryingthe molestationsof the demon
and of the world. This river is the tempestuous sea of this dark life. 'Vedi quanto e
tenuta la creaturaa me!' the Lord comments.87
I must leave aside certainother symbolicalimages of the earthlypilgrimage,such as
the maze, which is difficult to interpret; it was found on the pavements in many
French cathedralsbefore the Age of Enlightenment,and is said to be a device to act as
substitute for a pilgrimageto Jerusalem,whence the name chemindeJerusalem,but it
occurs also on walls and vaults.88I finally come to the most widespreadsymbol, viz.
the allegorical ladder. Whereas the ladder as real help for ascending through the
spheresis extremelyrare,as a symbolic motif it is abundant.Alreadyone of the earliest
Christian visions, that of the martyr Perpetua (d.202), includes this image; in jail,
awaitingsentence with her fellow believers, the young woman askedfor a vision about
the future, and was shown in answera very narrowiron ladder studded with swords,
knives and spears, a gigantic dragon lurking beneath. Perpetua kills the animal and
climbs up to where she is received by the Good Shepherd. There is no hint that she
thought her soul would have to pass this ladderafterdeath, but they understoodit as a
symbol foretelling that they were to win the martyr's crown, the martyrdomitself
being expressedby the weapons.89In view of the number of manuscripts,Perpetua's
laddermust have been a well-knownmotif; this is testified by the illuminationsof the
SpeculumVirginum,a 12-centurytreatiseon the virtuesof the Christianvirgins, whose
spiritualprogressthe devil tries in vain to stop.90Probablyalso the motif of the knife-

82

PETER DINZELBACHER

studdedcolumn which Mephistopheleswould be willing to ride in orderto regainhis

lost beatitude, and cognate items, are not uninfluencedby this early vision.91
But there existed still another conception of the perilous ladder, coming from the
East. In the seventh century Johannes Scholastikos had described the Klimax tou
paradeisouleading to the Lord's realm in 30 steps (correspondingto Christ's years).
They stand for differentvirtues, but ascendingthem is difficult, as demons try to beat
down the monks.92The best known Western illustrationof this type is a picture in
Herrad of Landsberg's Hortus deliciarum(fig. 9), showing the tension between
temporal life (the dragon)and eternal life (the crown):who from all ranks is able to
overcome it? The layfolk, the cleric, the nun, the recluse and the hermit, they all are
attractedby delicious dishes, the soft couch and heaped gold. To this complex the
ladderat Chaldon may belong. It obviously begins down in hell or purgatorywhere a
devil is busy pluckingthe climbing souls. It ends in heaven;one recognizesthe Saviour
with his cross in the clouds. Hardly by chance it points exactly to the only window in
this wall, so that it seems to reach to the sky, nay, to heaven itself (fig. 5). As it is
located just in the middle of the wall and of the painting it reminds us of this
archetypal idea of the axis mundi in the centre of the world. Its eight rungs are
paralleledby those ladderswhich representthe eight virtuesby which blessednessis to
be reached. Ladders of this kind were often used in explaining man's spiritual
progress,becausethis motif appearsin one of the most widespreadtexts that medieval
Christianity knew, the Regula Monasteriorumof St. Benedict. Jacob's ladder, he
teaches, is our life in the world, which is erectedto heavenby the Lord when our heart
humbles itself. The ladder's sides we understandas our soul and body; in between,
divine vocation has joined the rungs of humility and discipline.93But there are some
difficulties about the ladderat Chaldon. If it is the virtues' ladder,94how
can it have its
base in hell? And how can it be that some souls ascend it only from the sixth rung?So
maybe we should interpretthe fresco as follows: The weighing of souls, on the upper
left, is taking place in the air above the world but beneath heaven, that is, in the first
cosmological sphere. The descensusof Christ, on the upper right, is taking place in a
compartmentof hell, the limbuspatrum,situatedusually over the actualhell (infernus),
which is representedon the lower left. Here the tree of knowledge indicatesOriginal
Sin, because of which Christ's work of redemption became necessary. From hell
nobody can escape (in spite of what the legends say about Trajan, St. Odilia's father,
and king Edwin of Northumbria),95thereforethe demons here turn their backs to the
ladder.But from purgatory(on the right)one may ascendto the upper regions, having
been sufficientlycooked. Here a devil has to watch that only justifiedsinnerstake this
way; he fills the same function as the bridge over the river calledpurgatoriumhad in
Alberic's vision. This of course is only a suggestion of how one should read this
painting:the ladderat Chaldon leads out of purgatory,as did the real one upon which
the pilgrims descendedand ascendedin St. Patrick'sIrish cave.96
I close this rapid survey of allegoricalpaths with a very unusual representationof
this ladder from a 12th century German manuscript (fig. 10). It excellently shows
man's possibility of choosing between the devilish allurements(the seven deadly sins)
and God's attractions(seven virtues). The ladderdivides itself into a part to the left,
i.e. to hell, and a part to the right, i.e. to heaven's palace: 'arbitriidextrum ramum
pete, sperne sinistrum. Nam dexter celum tibi pandit, levus abyssum' runs the
inscription.97
Let us now survey which ways to the other world we have found in what contexts.

THE WAY TO THE OTHER WORLD

83

The path is common both in real expectationsand in allegory;so is the bridge. Being
carriedby angels or draggedby demons is the most widespreadexpectation,but does
not appearin allegory. The ladder is frequentlysymbolic, whereasaccounts of a real
ladder occur only very seldom. Travelling by boat and cart appearin both mediums,
but in ratherdifferentways; riding a horse only happenedto one or anothergreatman.
So points of contact between believed eschatology and invented symbolism have
become evident, as well as differences:for instance, whereas the image of the ladder
was limited nearly exclusively to allegoricaltexts, transporteffected by good or evil
spirits did not become a theme for allegorists.Further, it may be noticed that which
way was described,also depended on the literarygenre:the visions often mention the
bridge, but it does not occur in prayers;the boat is restrictedto pious folktale and
chronicles.
So far, so good. But we also have texts where our neat division between expected
reality and fictive allegory does not work. Here for us, I feel, begins the difficulty in
understandingmedieval thinking. I give one example:Gautier de Coincy (d.1236) in
his legend of St. Leocadiahas an interpolationaboutthe Holy Virgin's power. This he
exemplifies through the well-knownbridge, but continually shifting from real bridge
of souls to allegoricalbridge of life. There is a bridge long and perilous, and so many
wolves and lions; no soul (nule ame and not nul ome!)98can pass over without St.
Mary's help. So far it is the bridge for the dead, but then he says that the sea of the
world streamsbeneaththe bridge - so it is meant allegorically?The poet goes on: the
devils who pull away the planks in front of everybody,hide themselves before those
who pray to Our Lady. She defends them againstthe hideous animals, i.e. the devils,
who cannot become satiatedby biting us. 'Cil ponz, cele mers, c'est cis mondes/ Nus
n'est si justes ne si mondes/ Qui ne perisse a ce passage/ Se Nostre Dame outre nel
nage:'99this bridge, this sea, that is this world, no one is so just and pure that he would
not perish at this passage, if Our Lady did not consent to the voyage. So Gautier
changes from the real bridge, with the animals under it as described in so many a
vision, to the symbolicalbridge of life.
This shifting, which is not 'imposed allegory,'00surely must not be consideredas
peculiarto this French author,but is to be found often from the centralMiddle Ages
onwards.One could quote Mechthild of Hackeborn(d. 1299) on the three ways of Our
Lord which alternatebetween the real, as Christ's way to Golgotha,and the figural,as
his poverty being a dry path;'10or the Sacrum Commerciumwhich shows St. Francis
beginninghis quest for the way to Lady Povertyin the narrowstreetsof his home town

Assisi. 102

But these are only examplesof one kind of pictorialself-expressionof medievalman,

to understandwhich in its propermeaningstill remainsan open task for modernman.
HistoricalInstitute,
Universityof Stuttgart.

PETER DINZELBACHER

84
NOTES

Paper read at the Third British Colloquium of the Commission Internationaled'Histoire Ecclesiastique
Comparee, Sept. 3 and Sept. 5 1981, and at the Colloquium on Popular and Learned Culture at the
University of Haifa, June 1, 1983. I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Harald Kleinschmidt and Esther
Heszler, who pointed out some incorrectness of language to me.
1. Cf. Peter Dinzelbacher, Visionund Visionsliteraturim Mittelalter,Stuttgart 1981, 90-115, with vast
literatureto which should be added M. Aubrun, 'Caractereset portee religieuse et sociale des "Visions" en
Occident du Vie au XIe siecle,' Cahiers de Civilisation medievale23, 1980, 109-130. See also Peter
Dinzelbacher, MittelalterlicheVisionsliteratur,Darmstadt 1984; id., 'Jenseitsvisionen/Jenseitsreisen,' in:
Ulrich Miiller et al edd., Die epischenStoff des Mittelalters,Stuttgart (1984, 61-80).
2. Cf. e.g. Waltherv.d. Vogelweide 54,lff.:,'ob ichz vor siinden tar gesagen,/s6 saehe ichs iemer gerner
an/dan himel oder himelwagen.' Ed. Karl Lachmann, Hugo Kuhn et al, 13th ed., Berlin 1965, 75f. So
Walther counts it as a sin that he likes to look at the face of his lady more than to look at the sky, which
therefore must be identified with heaven.
3. K. Hampe, 'Kaiser Friedrich II. als Fragensteller,' in: Festschriftfir Walter Goetz (Kultur-und
Universal Geschichte), Leipzig 1927, 53ff.
4. Cf. P. Dinzelbacher, 'Klassen und Hierarchienim Jenseits,' MiscellaneaMediaevalia12, 1979, 20-40.
5. Leopold Kretzenbacher, Die Seelenwaage,Klagenfurt 1958, 112-116; KulturhistoriskLeksikonfor
Nordisk Middelalder5, 276-280.
6. Ed. W. Stokes, RevueCeltique4, 1879/80, 245ff., 255; cf. St. J. D. Seymour, 'The Eschatologyof the
Early Irish Church,' Zeitschriftfur celtischePhilologie14, 1923, 179ff., 186.
7. German book of devotion (1493), cit. Vincenz Hasak, Der christlicheGlaubedes deutschenVolkes,
Regensburg 1868, 148; cf. also William Edwards,A MediaevalScrap-Heap,London 1930, 91f.
8. Anton E. Sch6nbach ed., AltdeutschePredigten,Graz 1886ff., III, 11.
9. J. v. Negelein, 'Die Reise der Seele ins Jenseits,' Zeitschriftdes VereinsfiirVolkskunde11, 1901, 16ff.,
151; Handworterbuchdes deutschenAberglaubens5, 1080; 7, 1336f.; M. Ebert ed., Reallexikon der
Vorgeschichte13, 418ff. P. Dinzelbacher, 'Verba tam mystica,' in Volks-religionim hohen und spaten
mittelalter,ed. id., Paderborn 1986.
10. Dinzelbacher (as note 1), 265.
11. Godeschalcasund Visio Godeschalcied. Erwin Assmann, Neumiinster 1979, 54ff. For a commentary
on this text, see Dinzelbacher (as in n. 9).
12. Cf. Peter Dinzelbacher, Die Jenseitsbriickeim Mittelalter(Dissertationender Universitat Wien 104),
Wien 1973, 85ff., 99ff., id. and H. Kleinschmidt, 'Seelenbriicke and Briickenbau im mittelalter lichen
England,' Numen 31 (1984), 242-287.
13. The eschatologyof Montaillou is given by EmmanuelLe Roy Ladurie,Montaillou,villageoccitande
1294 a 1324, Paris 1975, 576ff., esp. 592ff. (The English and Germantranslationsof this book are not to be
used, being very much shortened).
14. Migne, Patrologia Latina 172, 864; Cf. Frederic C. Tubach, Index Exemplorum,Helsinki 1969,
nums. 1050%1492, 247, 1669, 5037.
15. Cf. Peter Dinzelbacher, Judastraditionen,Wien 1977, esp. 53ff.; Albert Gier, Der Sinder als
Gebrauchstexte
anhand der Theophiluslegende,
Frankfurt
Beispiel Zu Gestalt und Funktionhagiographischer
1977.
16. Hanns Swarzenski,Monumentsof RomansqueArt, London (new ed.) 1974, fig. 289.
17. Cf. D. de Chapeaurouge, 'Die Rettung der Seele,' Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch
35, 1975, 9-54
(covering the early Middle Ages only).
18. Five times Christ and his mother have to appearin orderto bring to heaven St Dorothea of Montau
in Frauenklosterndes Mittelalters, Zurich(d.1394); Siegfried Ringler, Viten- und Offenbarungsliteratur
Miinchen 1980, 323.
19. Similar representationsare dealt with by Ph. Halm, 'IkonographischeStudien zum Armen-SeelenKultus,' MinchnerJahrbuchder BildendenKunst 12, 1921/1922, 1-24.
20. Tubach (as note 14) nums. 1606, 869, 3705, 4118, 4407, 4982; Edwards (as note 7) 127 (15th
century illumination);Helene Nolthenius, Duecento,Wiirzburg 1957, P1.72 (excellent romanesquerelief).
21. The literatureis quoted in the LexikonderchristlichenIkonographie3, 1971, 255-265, supplemented
by Dinzelbacher(as note 1) 2191088and T. Petersen, 'Budskabettil meningheden,'Den IkonografiskPost 1,
1975. The fullest account remains Kretzenbacher(as note 5).
22. F. Paasche, 'St. Michael og hans engle,' Edda 1, 1914, 33ff., 69. Cf. Moltke Moe, SamledeSkrifter
III (Instituttet for sammenlignendekulturforskningSerie B/IX), Oslo 1927, 293ff.
23. Tubach (as note 14) nums. 232, 1492a, 4031.
24. E.g. VitaS. Furseic.7-13, ed. W. W. Heist, VitaeSanctorumHiberniae(SubsidiaHagiographica28),
Bruxelles 1965, 39ff.

THE WAY TO THE OTHER WORLD

85

25. VisioBaronti c. 12, MonumentaGermaniaeHistorica,SS rer. Merov, 5, 386f.

26. B. de Gaiffier, 'Pesee des ames,' Recherchesde science religieuse39/40, 1951, 52, 222ff. and
Kretzenbacher(as note 5), 120-126.
27. Tubach (as note 14), num. 4180.
28. A very common motif on which I am preparinga study.
29. MonumentaGermaniaeHistorica,Epistulaeselectae1, 7ff. I partly use the translationof Howard R.
Patch, The Other WorldAccordingto Descriptionsin MedievalLiterature,Harvard 1950 (reprint New York
1970), 101. There is an Old English translationof this letter, ed. M. Konrath, 'Eine altenglische Vision
vom Jenseits,' Archivfiir das Studium der neuerenSprachen139, 1919, 30ff., and, without knowledge of
Konrath's print: K. Sisam, 'An old English Translation of a letter from Wynfrith,' ModernLanguage
Review 18, 1923, 253ff.
30. VisioAlberici,ed. M. Inguanez,MiscellaneaCassinse11, 1932, 81ff., cf. P. Dinzelbacher(as note 12),
32ff., 60f.; id., 'Die Vision Alberichs und die Esdras-Apokryphe,'Studienund Mitteilungenzur Geschichte
des Beneditkinerordens
87, 1976, 435-442.
31. 'Quare daemones appellantur gigantes? Quia daemones superbi et elati sunt ...' Honorius
Augustodunensis, in Prov. 16, Migne, Pat. lat. 172, 323. Folktales also idenitfy giants and devils, c.f.
Valerie H6ttges, Typenverzeichnis
derdeutschenRiesen-und riesischenTeufelssagen,Helsinki 1937.
32. Visio Thurkilli,ed. Paul G. Schmidt, Leipzig 1978.
33. WeimarerAusgabe 32, 502ff. Cf. Nigel Palmer, The Germanand Dutch Translationsof the 'Visio
Tundali',Thesis Oxford 1975, 182f, now printed as Visio Tnugdali,Miinchen 1982, 209f.
34. Tubach (as note 14) num. 1727; LegendaAurea of Jacobus de Voragine, transl. Richard Benz,
Heidelberg 8th ed. 1975, 552f. (I quote this translationand not the edition by Grasse, because Benz claims
to have used better manuscripts,cf. ibid. xxxvii).
35. Cf. Otto Wimmer, Handbuchder Namen und Heiligen,Innsbruck, 3rd ed. 1966, 586, 591, 604.
36. Gen. 28, 11ff.
37. Chroni .,. Petershausen
c. 18, ed. Otto Feger, SchwdbischeChronikenderStauferzeitIII, 1956 (reprint
1978) (to be found as well in MonumentaGermaniaeHistorica,SS 20, 624-682).
38. Visio Gunthelmi,ed. G. Constable, Revue BeIndictine66, 1956, 92-114, with addenda:id., Cluniac
Studies,London 1980, vi, 106f.
39. Snorri Sturlson, Heims Kringler,transl. Samuel Lang, London 2nd ed. 1964, 1/2, 364. A pictorial
representationis to be found on a panel in the cathedralof Trondhem(ca. 1280), Eugen Kusch, Alte Kunst
in Skandinavien,Niirnberg 1964, nr. 174.
40. Ed. George Ph. Krapp, The Legend of St. Patrick's Purgatory ... Baltimore 1900, 72; cf.
Dinzelbacher (as note 12), 153f.
41. Cf. Aurelien Sauvageot, Les anciensFin,nois,Paris 1961, 80 and Pl.V.
42. Piispa HenrikinSurmavirsi,ed. and transl. Urpo Vento, Helsinki 1967, 9. The legend came into
existence in the late 13th century, cf. M. Kuusi, S. Konsala edd., SuomenkirjallisuusI, Helsinki 1963, 303.
43. The literatureis given in the LexikondesMittelaltersII, 606, s.v. Brendan.
44. The literatureis given idid. I, 354-366; in the Lexikonder ChristlichenIkonographieI, 94-96, and in
the KindlerLiteraturLexikonI, s.v. 'Alexanderroman'(ed. 1970: 899-911).
45. M. Ebert, 'Die Bootfahrtins Jenseits,' Prdhistorische
Zeitschrift12, 1920, 179ff.; HermannUsener,
Bonn 1889ff., III, 214ff.; Hilda R. Ellis, TheRoad to Hel, Cambridge
Religionsgeschichtliche
Untersuchungen,
1943; K. Straubergs, 'Zur Jenseitstopographie,'Arv 13, 1957, 56ff., 67; Reallexikonder germanischen
AltertumskundeIII2, 241ff.
46. DialogusMiraculorum11, 33, ed. Joseph Strange, Koln 1851, II, 296: 'ad Rheum ire' = to die. Cf.
also Prokopios, Gothika4, 20, where the dead have to cross the Channel.
47. Felix Liebrecht ed., Gervasiusvon TilburyOtia Imperialia,Hannover 1856, 18.
48. The source of this story are the 'Gesta Dagoberti' c.44, MonumentaGermaniaeHistorica, SS rer.
Merov, 2, 421f. Cf. Patch (as note 29) 23518;Dinzelbacher(as note 1), 94. The BrothersGrimm inserted it
into their DeutscheSagen num. 439, giving the reference 'Chronique de Guill(aume) de
Nangis' (cf. the
edition of the Sagen by Lutz Rihrich, Zurich 1974, 621), but it is not in the edition of Guillaume by H.
Gerand, 1843.
49. I follow Ado of Vienne (d.875), Chron. a.a.696, Migne, PatrologiaLatina 123, 117.
50. A typical change is to be noted in Jacobus de Voragine'sLegendaAurea:here some monks hear the
demons rowing and are saved themselves only by appealingto the Blessed Virgin;cf. Benz (as note
34) 597.
Many other legends too were altered in order to use them for the growing devotion to St. Mary.
51. Think of the ship Naglfar, made of the nails of dead men, too; cf. e.g. Karl
Weinhold, Altnordisches
Leben,Stuttgart 1938, 328.
52. E.g. Huon d'Auvergne(12/13 century);cf. D. D. R. Owen, The Visionof Hell,
Edinbugh 1970, 185.
53. I. 3, 109. Cf. Th. Silverstein, 'The Passage of the Souls to
Purgatory in the Divina Commedia,'

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PETER DINZELBACHER

Harvard Theol.Rev. 31, 1938, 53-63.

54. 18, Iff.
55. Cf. P. Quintela, 'MotivgeschichtlicheBetrachtungenzu den "Barcas"des Gil Vicente,' Romanische
Forschungen56, 1942, 345-385; E. Asensio, 'Las fuentes de las "Barcas"de Gil Vicente,' Bulletind'Histoire
du Theitre Portugais4, 1953, 207-238.
56. Reinhold Kohler, KleinereSchriftenII, Berlin 1900, 267ff.; Wolfgang Stammler, Wort und Bild,
Berlin 1962, 45ff. About the volcanos cf. Dinzelbacher (as note 1), 94ff.
57. Ibid.
58. The importanceof materialthings as nuclei of crystalizationfor oral traditionshas been stressed by
H. R. Ellis Davidson, 'Folklore and History,' Folklore85, 1974, 73-92. The many instances of sinners
tormented in hell by fiery horses (cf. e.g. Owen (as note 52), 16, 21, 180, 186, 199, 286ff.) do not seem
connected with Theoderic's legend.
59. The examples for the use of the Pegasus in medieval art cited in the Lexikon der christlichen
IkonographieIII, 414, are not unquestionable.
60. Cf. ibid. I, 607ff.
61. There is perhaps an allusion in a text quoted by Patch (as note 29), 262.
62. Cf. note 44 and Tubach (as note 14), num. 125.
63. R. H. Moormann, ChurchLife in England in the ThirteenthCentury, Cambridge 1955, PI.III.
Another example which shows a French illumination of the 14th century is in Pierre Boglioni, ed., La
Culturepopulaireau MoyenAge, Quebec 1979, 213.
64. Giancarlo Vigorelli, Edi Baccheschi, L'opera completadi Giotto, Milano 1966, num.27; Henry
Thode, Franz von Assisi und die Anfdngeder Kunst der Renaissancein Italien, Wien 1934, Tafel 1If.
65. Many of the aforesaidconceptions were still popularin the 19th century(the soul travellingby cart,
horse, ship, etc.); cf. OskarSchwebel, Todund ewigesLebenim deutschenVolksglauben,
Minden i.W. 1887,
276ff. It goes without saying that most of these ideas appearin various non-Europeanmythologies as well;
cf. e.g. M. Gouweloos, 'Les aventures et le voyage de 'Fameapres le deces,' Le FolkloreBrabancon1971,
93-139.
66. Psalm 83:7.
67. Ed. Hans Marcus, Palaestra 194, Leipzig 1934, vs. 339ff.
68. Ed. Franz Sandvoss, Berlin 1877, 49 (vs. 66, Iff. = ? 29).
69. Cf. e.g. a sermonedited by FranzK. Grieshaber,DeutschePredigtendesXIII. Jahrhunderts,Stuttgart
1844, II, 92: the devil binds the sinner with chains, "dc ist dc er in ierret an allen den wegen die zum
himelrich gant", in order to hinder him on all ways leading to heaven.
70. Cf. e.g. Walthervon der Vogelweide 26, 13ff. (as note 2, 34), mord,brant,wuocher,nit, haz, gitekeit
(murder,arson, usury, envy, hatred, avarice).
71. Cf. Patch (as note 29) 188f.
72. Ed. Phileas Lebesgue, Paris 1908; cf. Owen (as note 52) 158ff.
73. Cf. Lexikon der christlichenIkonographieII, 243ff., and Wolfgang Harms, Homo Viator in Bivio,
Miunchen 1970, esp. 158ff. I have not been able to see W. Knippenberg, 'De brede en de smalle weg,'
BrabantsHeem 33, 1981, 106-114.
74. Tubach (as note 14), nums. 4111-3.
75. Ed. Josef Klapper, Erzdhlungendes Mittelalters,Breslau 1914 (reprint Darmstadt 1978), 165, cf.
312f.
76. Some examples, illuminations of Guillaume de Digulleville's works, are given by G.
Ludwig,
'Giovanni Bellinis sogenannte Madonna am See in den Uffizien,' Jahrbuch der Preussischen
23, 1902, 163-186.
Kunstsammlungen
77. Dino Buzzati, Mia Cinotti, L'operacompletadi Bosch,Milano 1966, num. 21A.
78. I do not doubt that this interpretationof mine, suggesting itself, can be found in the
very vast
literatureon Bosch; cf. at least Walter S. Gibson, HieronymusBosch, Frankfurt1974, 101ff.
79. Cf. Heribert Reiners, Das Minster unsererLiebenFrau zu Konstanz,Konstanz 1955, 240.
80. E.g. Samuel C. Chew, ThePilgrimageof Life, New Haven 1962, fig. 132; Lenz Kriss-Rettenbeck,
Bilder und ZeichenreligiosenVolksglaubens,
Miinchen 1963, Abb. 52.
81. Cf. LexikonderchristlichenIkonographieIV, 61ff.
82. Scala coeli mj., Migne, Pat.Lat. 172, 1230; cf. id., Speculum Ecclesiae, ibid, 857.
83. Ibid. 1176.
84. As note 77, num 21C.
85. Oskar H. Sommer ed., The VulgateVersionof theArthurianRomancesIV, Washington 1911, 23ff.
86. Chew (as note 80), fig. 101e, shows a later version; for the woodcut cf. ibid. 147.
87. Libro c. 21, cf. 49, 76, ed. Umberto Meattini, s.l. 1975, 78f.
88. Cf. Janet Bord, Mazes and Labyrinthsof the World,London 1976.

THE WAY TO THE OTHER WORLD

87

89. Passio c.4, ed. Herbert Musurillo, TheActs of the ChristianMartyrs, Oxford 1972, 106-131.
90. A. Watson, 'The Speculum Virginum with special Reference to the Tree of Jesse,' Speculum3,
1928, 445-469; the later literature(which does not deal with the ladderespecially) is given in the Lexikon
der christlichenIkonographieIV, 185-7.
91. P. Dinzelbacher, 'Die Messersaule,' BayerischesJahrbuchfir Volkskunde1980/81, 41-54.
92. Cf. Dinzelbacher(as note 12) 145f.
93. 7,5ff. On further spiritual ladders see ibid. 142ff. and the Dictionnairede Spiritualite ascetiqueet
mystiqueIV, 62ff. A most impressive late medieval example would be the ladder described in a lauda
attributedto Jacopone da Todi (d.1306), ed. Franco Mancini, Rome 1980, 319ff. (4a).
94. As proposedby T. Eriksson, 'L'chelle de la Perfection:Une Nouvelle Interpretationda la Peinture
Murale de Chaldon,' Cahiersde civilisationmedievale7, 1964, 439-449.
95. Trajanand Odilia:cf. Leopold Kretzenbacher,Legendenbilder
aus demFeuerjenseits
(Osterreichische
Adademieder WissenschaftenPhilosoph.-Hist.K1.,Sitzungsberichte370), Wien 1980, to be supplemented
by J. Szoverffy, IrischesErzdhlgutim Abendland,Berlin 1957, 48ff. Edwin: Edwards(as note 7), 83.
96. Cf. my forthcoming study on this subject.
97. Eriksson (as note 94), 449.
98. Vs. 509, ed. Eva Vilamo-Pentti,De Sainte Leocade(Annales AcademiaeScientarumFennicae ser.B
67,2), Helsinki 1950, 139.
99. Vs. 541ff., ibid. 141.
100. Cf. Dinzelbacher(as note 1) 169ff.
101. Liberspecialisgratie 4,36, ed. R. L. J. Bromberg,Het boekder bijzondere
genadevan Mechthildvan
Hackeborn,Zwolle n.d. (1965), 242.
102. Cf. KajetanEssler, EngelbertGrau, Der BunddesHl. Franziskusmit derHerrinArmut, Werl 1966,
91f. (c.5).