Doctrine, politics and purgation: The vision of Tnúthgal and the vision of Owein at St Patrick's Purgatory

Abstract

The article takes two vision-narratives set in Ireland in order to explore eschatological beliefs and ideas about the geography of the hereafter during the twelfth century. The visions are examined in the context of traditions of vision-writing, the authors' likely motives and the political context in which they wrote. The emphasis then shifts to how the visions of Tnúthgal and Owein fit into Jacques Le Goff's model of how ideas about Purgatory came to be formed. It is suggested here that both visions, but especially that of Owein, were essentially conservative in their presentation of the hereafter. The Vision of Owein did not mark a radical departure in the presentation of a discrete purgatorial state, but rather was closely based on existing eschatological paradigms. In the conclusion a new explanation of Purgatory's evolution is suggested which gives more weight to ‘popular’ perceptions of stories like the Vision of Owein as an agent of change.