Demons and Genies of the Land in the Middle Ages

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Demons and Genies of the Land in the Middle Ages

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LECOUTEUX (Claude).
Local demons and geniuses in the Middle Ages.

Imago, 1995, octavo, 218 pp., preface by Régis Boyer, 9 illustrations in the text, bibliography, index, paperback , cover. illustrated.

 In the heart of a wild, untamed nature, man, exposed to invisible dangers, has long felt like an intruder, a usurper. Any installation, any colonization, was first of all a conquest over a primitive and supernatural presence – most often threatening – that of the demons and geniuses of the land. Scrutinizing popular traditions, sagas and stories, Claude Lecouteux, an eminent specialist in the Middle Ages, finds traces of archaic fear in the face of the countless unspeakable creatures that haunt virgin spaces. At the origin of numerous rites, it identifies the desire to ward off dangers and terrors, to make genius propitious and to organize, on specific sites, its coexistence with man. This remarkable work thus illuminates the primordial role of places in the development of many beliefs and reveals the root of an ancient respect for nature which meets our most current ecological concerns.

 In the heart of a wild, untamed nature, man, exposed to invisible dangers, has long felt like an intruder, a usurper. Any installation, any colonization, was first of all a conquest over a primitive and supernatural presence – most often threatening – that of the demons and geniuses of the land. Scrutinizing popular traditions, sagas and stories, Claude Lecouteux, an eminent specialist in the Middle Ages, finds traces of archaic fear in the face of the countless unspeakable creatures that haunt virgin spaces. At the origin of numerous rites, it identifies the desire to ward off dangers and terrors, to make genius propitious and to organize, on specific sites, its coexistence with man. This remarkable work thus illuminates the primordial role of places in the development of many beliefs an