Medieval Halloween: Signs in the Sky, Strange Children, etc

Depiction of the sky over Nuremberg on April 14th, 1561.

From William of Newburgh's 12th-century chronicle, "History of English Affairs," these stories aren't really about Halloween, but they do feel a little Halloween-ish. There's no Michael Myers, zombies, or vampires, but there are strange portents in the sky, toads locked in stone, faerie banquets, green children, and a good number of demons.

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3 Things:

• At Stanford's Arcade, an article on heavenly portents and fire from the sky during the Little Ice Age.

• At Medievalists.net, an article on the history of monsters, monstrosity, and dehumanization.

• On the British Library's medieval manuscripts blog, charms against evil from their collection.

Sources:

• The Church Historians of England, translated by Joseph Stevenson. Seeley's, 1856.

• Watkins, C.S.. History and the Supernatural in Medieval England. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

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