Monstrous Middle Ages

The monster pops up in a variety of contexts and performs various functions in medieval culture acting, most often, as a metaphor. These ten essays examine the 'meaning- laden ' monsters of the High and Late Middle Ages and the cultural uses of monstrosity within different agendas. The essays show that whereas the monster may appear on the surface to be a marginal entity in manuscript illuminations and various writings, it is in fact symbolically and ideologically central to many aspects of medieval culture often with gender, ethnic and religious connotations. Essays include Jesus as Monster (Robert Mills) ; Blood, Jews and Monsters in medieval culture (Bettina Bildhauer) ; Demonizing the night in medieval Europe (D Youngs and S Harris) ; Apocalyptic Monsters (A Pluskowski) .