Witches, Werewolves, and Fairies: Shapeshifters and Astral Doubles in the Middle Ages

I picked this up over the winter as a companion to my collection of factual medieval history. We can learn a lot about a culture through its myths and legends. Stories inform our view of a culture's norms, beliefs and customs. Besides, who doesn't like a good horror story or two?Lecouteux's title is very misleading. Reading the intro it becomes all too clear that this is a dissertation on his theory that we can find proof of the supernatural through "first hand accounts" of people who claim to have crossed the other side only to return to tell their tale. He claims the church ignores "true" accounts of the supernatural yet does not say why.The first part of the book deals with stories of people (mostly monks) who fall ill, are presumed to be dead, yet left unburied, and "return" to the living claiming their spirit left their body. He lists names and dates, yet not one word on the story of their journey to the other side! Seriously, here is one account: Alberic of Settefratti, who entered the monastery of Mont-Cassin around 1211-1213 at the age of ten, had a vision while in a illness-induced coma for nine days and nine nights". Wow, you can see why this is so convincing! It goes on like this for several pages.I had to move on. Surely this gets better, right? Wrong. Next we tackle dreams and proof of spiritual visits. Here is another gem:At the Trinity Monastery in Caen, a woman lived a cloistered life, concentrating on certain shameful sins, until she died. One of her companions, sleeping in the room where she had given up the ghost, saw in a dream the dead woman burning in hell and being tortured by evil spirits. A spark from hell's fire hit her eye waking her up." It was confirmed that what she had seen in her dream", said Guibert of Nogent," she had actually suffered physically; the real evidence of her wound came to confirmed the authenticity of her vision"I'd bet she was really bitten by a spider. In fact several more "true" accounts talk of having dreams in which daemons throw hot stones, only to have the dreamer wake up with "burned" flesh. Have you ever seen the effects of a recluse spider bite? The flesh around the wound looks burned. I bet this is more in line with what is going on here.I decided to put the book aside. This in no way is informing me of a past culture and isn't even engaging to read. Cross this one off your list folks, it's not worth your time or money.

An awful lot of readers appear to fail to understand this book. I am convinced that this is due to the quality of the translation. Readers are warned that the text will come across in a disorganized way and the arguments presented will not be altogether clear as a result.The thesis is that certain pagan concepts regarding the soul are noticeable within the written records of the Medieval period, and that those concepts transformed over time, making their way into folklore, history and imaginative literature, thus remaining alive in the Western mindset.For example, the chapter on werewolves explores the way older pagan notions of the Double were made acceptable to Christian sensibilities through the introduction of the idea of demonic possession, and thus the modern idea of the werewolf has some small relationship to an ancient concept.The book does NOT make an argument that the described phenomena actually exist! It is dealing with the transmission of ideas from culture to culture. Whatever the author's beliefs may be, they are not implied by this text.Outside of scholarly circles, this subject is of interest to Pagan Reconstructionists and Neopagans as another angle on the beliefs of the peoples of pre-Christian Europe. Possibly someone with a strong interest in folklore or fairy tales might also be interested. Otherwise, for the general reader who "digs werewolf fiction", I imagine this book would be almost completely uninteresting and opaque.

Though the title seems a little fanciful, it is actually far from that. I recommend this book as a reference to those researching ecstatic journies. The author compares medieval texts (translated with excerpts of original text) of different cultures describing accounts of supernatural phenomena. If familiar with the topic you will thoroughly enjoy this book. I am really happy I bought it.

One of my ALL-time faves...if the house was burning down an I only had 5 minutes this & Pythagorean Tarot would be grabbed!

I enjoyed this book alot

Translation problems forgiven, this book is well written but has just a couple of problems that I feel are incorrect or ignored. Unlike the good Lecouteux I am neither scholar nor expert but have read a fair amount especially concerning Werewolves and theriomorphs. I like the exploration of Christian beliefs corrupting or reimagining older faiths views on the spirit, double, etc and it seems credible. My problems are minor but include a lack of evidence of Werewolves which when killed or discovered are transformed in front of witnesses which seems to add an extra burden to the idea that all Werewolves have a "body" laying somewhere as if asleep. Also he states (translation possibly here) that the Avars became the Huns. To my limited knowledge it was the Alans who became the Huns and the Avars probably descended from the Huns. These among other things make this an interesting read but not, for me, a definitive one.

A very interesting read. Learnt a lot on the myth and folklore of different countries. Fast delivery and well with the price.

Received my book, but the cover was snagged and folded at several places... was this book a used copy because I paid for a new one...

Me encanta el libro, aunque si estás interesado en aspectos más tenebrosos y/o metafísicos no es lo que buscar.El único detalle es que el envío tardó mucho.

An extremely well researched and written presentation.I tend to wariness with translated publications,but with this book,the author's stance on this engrossing subject is abjectively clear.A fascinating subject,on which information is extremely rare,brings with it a startling(to some),long lost and hidden truth which is now indefinitely recovered and safe from further acculturation.