Magic and the Supernatural in Medieval English Romance (review)

Corinne Saunders’s assertion, “no full-length study exists that brings together literature and the rich and complex cultural history of magic and ideas of the supernatural” (p. 11), shapes both the nature and the structure of her analysis. By emphasizing “cultural history,” her investigation is strictly guided by classical and medieval, that is, premodern notions of magic and the supernatural, which are presented in chronological fashion. The first chapter, “Classical and Biblical Precedents,” thus, treats both the practices and beliefs found in antiquity, such as the belief in daimons (in folklore associated with liminal places and in Neo-Platonism with tutelary spirits), magoi (originally members of the Persian or Median priestly caste), mageia (healing or natural magic), goteia (malign practice associated with fraud and deception), and the strix (like the celebrated witches, Medea and Circe).

In the Old Testament “cultic prohibitions against magic are prominent across the Bible, and sorcery, pollution and prostitution collocate” (p. 43). In the New Testament Christ’s miracles are set against the work of magicians. The demonic was also developed through the idea of Antichrist, believed to be the offspring of Satan and a human mother, a motif informing the Merlin legend in the Middle Ages.

Chapter 2 continues the discussion of the medieval supernatural by focusing on prohibitions, folk practices, and learned magic. Saunders identifies a gradual shift from a positive view of daimons in Neo-Platonism to an increasing anxiety about magic in theological discourse (first voiced by St. Augustine) that “reflects a shift in emphasis from paganism to heresy, as well as new concerns about occult learning” (p. 78). Prohibitions against magic are found in both canon law and secular law codes, a central issue being harm. In spite of these official prohibitions, both the belief in and the practice of magic continued. Saunders points to charms, magic rituals, and incantations (folk beliefs and practices) and to the rise of a learned tradition that included astrology as part of the magic arts (the others being sorcery, divination, augury, and illusion), the knowledge of plants and stones, and of alchemy.

Against this background the use of magic and the supernatural in romance is analyzed and presented in the next five chapters. Saunders, first, turns her attention to white magic, which appears to allow “romance writers most freedom and scope for creative development” (p. 117). The emphasis is on medicine, healing, and protection, or natural marvel, and wondrous workmanship. Healing magic, for instance, is found in Guy of Warwick, Ywain and Gawain, Beves of Hamton, and Partonope of Blois, a healing that is accomplished by either medicinal stones, plants, balms, or potions. “Intention is crucial in the context of magic” (p. 118). Love magic is exemplified by the potion prepared by Isolde’s mother, which is instrumental in causing Tristan and Isolde to fall in love in the older versions of the story.

From healing elixirs and love potions the discussion progresses to wondrous objects and marvelous technology. Often the wondrous objects are ambiguous, as illustrated by Emaré’s robe that “occasions both love and hate, pure and perverse desire, and causes separation” (p. 139). This multivalence of the magical sign is intimately bound up with the illusory nature of magic, a feature informing Chaucer’s Franklin’s Tale. Chaucer is careful to stress the optical illusion created by the clerk—the rocks only seem to be away. No transformation of substance has taken place, a metamorphosis attempted in vain by the demonic Canon, whose abuse of alchemy only creates the illusion of changed substances.

Black Magic, that is, the practice of “nigromancy,” is the subject of Chapter 4. “Nigromancy” and sorcery are treated in romance as near-synonyms, along with witchcraft. “It may include the power of invisibility, metamorphosis or shape-shifting, manipulation of mind or body for the purpose of love or power” (p. 154). Malicious intent and misdirection of learning characterize “nigromancy.” Witches like Medea, the paradigm of the...