216: The Scottish Bride

[upbeat music] If the Times or The Guardian existed back in the year 1100, then sometime that summer, folks would have read headlines screaming something like, "Return of the Revenants." Years later, and really throughout the 12th century, chroniclers were chock-full of stories of revenants.

Now, for those who may be unfamiliar with the term, revenants were medieval versions of what we today simply call ghosts.

However, there were key differences between revenants and ghosts that are worth mentioning.

Today, a revenant specifically denotes a vengeful or angry spirit who returns to his mortal coil in spirit form in order to exact revenge or beg for help in passing beyond mere death and into heaven itself maybe.

But to the medieval mind, revenants were something a bit different.

They could still seek revenge or even beg for help, but they were not spirits like we know them today.

They were more closely resembling zombies.

They were the actual rotting, stinking corpses of loved ones or neighbors or even fallen warriors, whole armies of them even in some stories.

And all across England in the, the year 1100 and afterwards, throughout, as I said, the 12th century, stories of revenants visiting family or wandering lonely streets at night popped up everywhere.

It's not necessarily that these occurrences happened more frequently.

Rather, it was the monks decided to write them down.

Historians and folklorists agree that stories of revenants were one of the many acceptable topics of conversations between people throughout the Middle Ages.

But again, it's just that it's interesting to note when these stories showed up in the records and compare them to what was happening in that area at the time, and there's a noticeable connection between actual events and this ebbing and flowing of these stories showing up in the records.

And as I said, in 1100, revenants reappeared in the records.

But why? Heavy hitters such as Orderic Vitalis, William of Newburgh, William of Malmesbury, the chroniclers of the Peterborough Chronicle and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles as, as a whole, and even Walter Map, throughout the century all referred back to William Rufus's death as a time of revenants appearing across the Kingdom of England.

This wasn't unique to England, mind you.

Uh, all across the continent, stories popped up at various times.

For instance, back in 1092 in Normandy, a priest named Walculn recorded the, the famous or infamous Wild Hunt, a terrifying supernatural army sweeping through the frigid forests at night.

You would not want to be caught outside while that was happening.

The question isn't whether these ghost stories were true or not.

The question is why were they written? It all seems like a fever dream of a more superstitious age, but when you overlay these stories with what was happening in the region, a clearer picture begins to take shape.

In fact, in my mind, it paints a clearer picture as to what people were thinking and feeling when these stories appeared.

As for Walculn, well, Normandy in 1092 was once again in an uproar.

And who happened to be pushing a massive army through Walculn's neighborhood when he mentioned the Wild Hunt in his records? None other than the terrifying Robert de Bellême.

So if there is a connection there, then what might the connection be in 1100 with the revenants a- reappearing all over England? King William II, William Rufus, tyrannical but effective, was mysteriously killed, and the true heir to the crown of England was currently not in England.