Wilhelma z Newburgh Noc Żywych Trupów

Abstract

Although William of Newburgh’s 12th-century chronicle Historia rerum Anglicarum regularly appears in scholarly papers, researchers focus their attention only on a small portion of the text. They write either about the famous prologue, in which the chronicler criticises Geoffrey of Monmouth for making up a fantastic history of ancient Britain, or about the extraordinary tales of the dead rising from their graves. This apparent contradiction — a critical and rational author writing about unreal beings — has not attracted much attention. William applied the same criticism with regard to Geoffrey and the information he had about th e revenants. This is visible when the chronicler’s tales are placed against a broader background of other narratives about revenants. What also deserves closer scrutiny is the structure of the chronicle and the way in which William introduced the various stories. As a result it will become obvious that in the case of this chronicle we are dealing with a deliberately structured narrative in which the author regularly uses stories he regards are true in order to illustrate good and bad deeds. For him, these are not fictional constructs, but events the status of which is determined on the basis of accounts by reliable witnesses. He approaches them carefully and determines their veracity, looking for other information about the subject. Whenever he has — from our 20th-century perspective — a rational explanation of an extraordinary event, he recounts it. However, in the same way he also confirms the veracity of the stories about revenants.