It's amazing how there really is 'nothing new under the sun', as the saying goes. If I said that in this post I was going to write about people being impregnated by horrific creatures whose offspring then burst violently out of their bodies or about hybrid dragon monsters, living creatures made from metal, you would probably think I was talking about something from the realm of science fiction, about face-hugging aliens or Transformers. But I am not. About a thousand years ago these were the horrors dreamed up (literally perhaps) by the author of the remarkable Vision of Tundale which recounts the three day journey of the Irish knight Tundale to hell and then heaven. The journey is arranged by God to cure Tundale of his sinful ways and put him back on the right track and his guide for the journey is his guardian angel. The 'alien offspring' and the hybrid monster are the next steps in the 'program'. It just goes to show - the best 'horrors' reflect our deepest fears, and these have been with us from the very beginning. The next trial Tundale discovers is a fearsome creature which appears to be a hybrid dragon made of flesh and metal. It is huge, has wings and has iron and steel claws and an iron nose! The dragon creature sits in the middle of a frozen lake swallowing and regurgitating the damned. Inside the monster's belly they burn until, just before they are utterly destroyed, they are defecated out! Lovely. Soon, they came upon a hideous creature that filled Tundale with terror. It seemed more evil and dangerous than anything he had ever seen before, with two enormous black wings and with claws of iron and steel protruding from its feet. Its neck was long and slender but held a huge head in which burned two red eyes, set wide apart, and its mouth was wide and spat fire in a seemingly inextinguishable stream. Its nose was tipped with iron! The beast sat in the middle of a frozen lake swallowing terrified souls which burned inside its body until they were nearly wasted away, but then they were expelled from this horror in the creature's excrement and left until they had recovered and become whole once again. They were sorely bruised from this ordeal! They cried out in pain, just like a woman in childbirth. They suffered greatly for their sins. (Translation by Richard Alan Scott-Robinson from the Eleusinianm Website) But that's not the worst of it. While they are inside the belly of the hybrid creature they are impregnated with serpent-like monsters which then burst out from inside them. I had no idea until I read this that Ridley Scott was a such a big fan of medieval hell-vision literature! Then things began to bite at them from the inside; snakes and rats! When they understood what was happening, they made such a huge and terrified lamentation that the noise of it filled all of Hell! Never has such a noise been heard from men and women before! But the moment of unimaginable horror could not be avoided when the snakes prepared to emerge, not only from the private parts but from every limb, head and feet, back and side! They slid through abdomen and chest, and through every joint. They made their exit all at once, sparing neither flesh nor bones. They were long with iron heads and tails with barbs! And when their tails became caught as they pulled themselves from the holes that they had made, they turned their heads inward again and gnawed at the flesh and bone, exposing all the joints and biting until all the insides had been consumed, thrusting their heads in and out. But still their tails were caught! The soul's whole body was alive with a writhing, gnawing, flaying and tormenting such that the screams of terror might have risen up to Heaven itself, so hideous it all was. The souls cried in anguish and lamented their foolishness and their sins! But they were not delivered from this pain, the cycle was renewed and they had to endure it again and again! (Translation by Richard Alan Scott-Robinson from the Eleusinianm Website) Celibacy is for life!The angel explains that this terrible punishment is for unchaste clerics and monastics. In other words the punishment for those who have not kept their vows of celibacy is greater than for those who simply let their lust and passions run away with them. 'Lord, this is a dreadful sight,' said Tundale to the angel. 'I think this is worse than anything I have ever seen.' But thankfully Tundale is only forced to suffer once. Then his guardian angel comes and rescues and heals him before inviting him on the next 'leg' of the journey. But at last the creature expelled Tundale and he swelled up as though he would burst, he was so full of worms and snakes pressed tightly together inside him that only their hideous escape could release them. But then Tundale saw the angel standing patiently before him. The angel touched Tundale with his hand and brought him out of this nightmare. (Translation by Richard Alan Scott-Robinson from the Eleusinianm Website) Vulcan's ForgeThat nightmare may have finished but the pain goes on. There is something even worse ahead. The angel leads Tundale to a fiery place where he sees diabolical smithies at work. They are doing as smithies do, beating a molten substance into shaped ingots. But Tundale sees that what they beat is not metal, it is the molten souls of the sinners. And so they continued along the dark and lonely path until at last they came to the bottom of the deep valley. Tundale stood aghast at what he saw! It was full of smithies. Evil-looking blacksmiths were holding great hammers in their hands and hot glowing tongs, casting distraught and weeping souls into the forges and then taking them out again and beating them on the anvils with their hammers. The master of the smithy was the Roman god Vulcan and, like all the others, smoke was coming from his mouth. (Translation by Richard Alan Scott-Robinson from the Eleusinianm Website) Tundale asks the angel if he must endure this punishment too and is horrified (but perhaps by now not too surprised) to learn that he must. It is interesting to note again the blending of christian and classical imagery. The master of this terrible forge is the Roman god Vulcan, the god of fire. Originally as the Italian god of fire Vulcan's work had largely negative association, i.e. with fire as destructive. But when Vulcan became associated with the Greek god of fire (Hephaestus) he could be thought of as a more creative influence. Vulcan's forge was located, (according to the Roman poet Virgil), underneath mount Etna. Here is his description of Vulcan's smithy where he produces firebolts for Jupiter. The Cyclopes were working the iron in the vast cave, Brontes and Steropes and naked Pyracmon. In their hands was a thunderbolt, partly finished and partly yet to be finished, one of very many which the Father (i.e., Jupiter) hurls to the earth from all over the sky. They had put onto it three rays of twisted rainstorms, three of watery clouds, three of red fire and the winged south wind. Just then they were adding the terrifying lightning to the weapon and the penetrating flames of [Jupiter's] anger. In another part they were working on the chariot of Mars and its winged wheels, with which he stirs up men and cities. They were busily polishing the fearsome aegis, the weapon of aroused Minerva, with serpents' scales and gold. It had entwined snakes and the Gorgon's head itself turning its gaze. (Aeneid 8. 424:38) Tundale is one of thousands who are hurled into the forge. The temperature in the forge is so great that the souls become like steam, molten lead or white hot iron. Then the devils get to work hammering 'as if they were mad'. We should imagine crazy, brutal hammering. The blazing hot souls are then suddenly cooled in a gigantic trough which itself brings grizzly pain. Tundale was led to the smithy. Two of the smiths came running up with glowing tongs and white-hot pokers in their hands; they grabbed at Tundale and led him into a place of grim torture. Tundale was thrown into a forge that was glowing white, orange and blue. Air was blown from a great bellows until the furnace was hot enough to melt iron. Tundale began to burn, he and thousands of others for souls were cast into these flames a thousand at a time. Many were turned to steam, others to molten lead or to white-hot iron. Then with iron hammers the devils laid into them as though they were mad. They threw a thousand souls at a time into a long quenching trough just as men temper iron and steel, and that was a grisly pain to feel! This torment was very prolonged, and yet, they could not fully die. These fiends, black and dirty from the coal and the iron, each consulted with his fellows how he could best inflict the most grievous harm – they did not tire of their work! Each ingot was smashed open and the souls released once again and each passed into the next smithy. 'Have you taken from these souls all that you want?' they would cry. 'Throw them over here, then, and let me see what I can do with them!' (Translation by Richard Alan Scott-Robinson from the Eleusinianm Website) They roared and screamed and gesticulated, urging the souls to be handed over, receiving them with hooks and red-hot tongs. They thought they were not worked enough! The devils thrust them into and out of the furnace, burning them in hot flames until they were almost fully consumed. (Translation by Richard Alan Scott-Robinson from the Eleusinianm Website) Left here without help Tundale would have been heated up, melted down and beaten relentlessly over and over again. You get the impression that these smithys are never satisfied! Thankfully for Tundale the angel is at hand and as usual, rescues him. After a while, Tundale was released from this terror, much to the displeasure of Vulcan and his fiendish blacksmiths. All the other souls, however, had to remain where they were. In the Latin version as translated by Eileen Gardiner the angel asks Tundale if he thinks the pleasures of the flesh he so enjoyed in his life were worth this pain. Not surprisingly Tundale is unable to reply "since after such punishment he did not have the strength to speak" (Gardiner). Seeing things from a purgatorial perspectiveTundale's journey is not finished but his suffering is. He has tasted the horror of the punishments that awaits him if he doesn't repent and start 'living right'. He has atoned for his sins and through his torments has has come face to face with the reality of how serious his sin is. That's how this justice system works. Here in the fires and tortures of the afterworld a sinner such as Tundale (and the readers or hearers of the tale) sees how terrible their sins are. In God's justice the punishment matches the crime. The fact that the punishments are so terrible reveals to us all (not just to Tundale) how appalling these crimes really are. The aim of the vision is not just to terrify the reader into godly living but to reveal to the reader the true nature of sin. In other words we the reader ask ourselves 'If this is the justice that our sins merit, then our sins must be horrifyingly wicked'. Tundale must now go on deeper and lower, to the very pit of hell itself to the place where Satan is kept bound and where the damned are tormented forever in the very body of Satan. Just as the punishments had revealed to Tundale how ugly, horrifying and disordered his lifestyle is, so too the image of the master of this place of fire and terror, the beast whom Tundale discovers he had been serving up to now, will once and for all rid him of any illusions about his life. You might also be interested in . . .
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April 2016
GalleryThis blog is as much about images as it is about text. Below is a slideshow of the pictures and images used in this blog. Click on any of the pictures to go to the post where that image is featured.
PostsLocating Paradise #1 In a Garden, Far, Far Away
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #5 'Stuck in the Middle With You'
The Resurrection According to Rahner
Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #4 'And Who by Fire'
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #3: Held in the Balance
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #2: Once, Twice, Three Times a Sinner
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #1: The Broad and Narrow Gates
Daily Dante 7: Many Rivers to Cross
Daily Dante 6: 'You Gotta Serve Somebody'
In Hell Everyone Can Hear You Scream. The Vision of Tundale #3
Teeth, Spikes and Cleavers: At the Sharp end of Hell. The Vision of Tundale #2
'No Pain No Gain': The Vision of Tundale #1
'Hellzapoppin':
Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #2 'It's The End of the World as We Know It (and we feel fine)'. Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #1
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #2 Blinded by the Light
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #1: Glorious and Immortal
Daily Dante 5: What the gates said.
Daily Dante 4: When I find myself in times of trouble
Daily Dante 3: I'll take you there
Daily Dante 2: Fierce creatures
Daily Dante 1: If you go down to the woods today
In Seventh Heaven or 'What Enoch Did Next'
A World of Fire and Ice: Heaven according to Enoch
The Power and the Glory: Visions of God as king in the Hebrew bible
The Beautiful Bestiary of Catherine Cleves: Monsters and Demons in detail.
Heaven is for Real: Heaven as a physical space up above the sky
Resurrecting the Dead or Reviving the Flowers? The loss of resurrection faith in Judaism.
The Defeat of Death #1: The promise of resurrection in the Isaiah Apocalypse.
The Defeat of Death #2: Death as a hostile power and promise of God's victory in Isaiah
Scary Monsters and Super Creeps: The 'Last Judgement' according to Stefan Lochner
Hell in the Hospital: The 'Last Judgement' of Rogier van der Weyden in the Beaune altarpiece.
'Hell' in the New Testament #2: The gates of Hades shall not prevail
The Hours of Catherine Cleves: Imagining hell and purgatory in Catherine's prayer book
'On Earth as in Heaven': The kingdom of God as a revelation of heaven
'Hell' in the New Testament #1: Gehenna
Lost in Translation #1: How the King James version got it so wrong about hell
Heaven is not our home
Domes, Depths and Demons: The cosmology of the Hebrew world
A Bigger God
"See you in Sheol" - Sheol, the common destination of all
Heaven, Hell and Christian Hope
BooksBelow are some of the books which have helped me the most in the research and writing for this blog. Click on any image to find out more about that book at its page on Amazon uk.
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