Benton Ludgin - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

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Papers by Benton Ludgin

Medieval monsters command the attention of their audiences, both past and present. It would there... more Medieval monsters command the attention of their audiences, both past and present. It would therefore be a mistake to dismiss these creatures as mere distractions. Lurking in the liminal zones between Christian civilization and the natural world, monsters existed in medieval minds as flesh and blood beings and also acted as projections of their creator’s worries. Focusing on Beowulf’s Grendel and the “monstrous races” called blemmye and cynocephali, this presentation describes how medieval monsters and their habitats were imagined both as real creatures and places, and as actors and stages where the Middle Ages projected their cultural anxieties

Medieval monsters command the attention of their audiences, both past and present. It would there... more Medieval monsters command the attention of their audiences, both past and present. It would therefore be a mistake to dismiss these creatures as mere distractions. Lurking in the liminal zones between Christian civilization and the natural world, monsters existed in medieval minds as flesh and blood beings and also acted as projections of their creator’s worries. Focusing on Beowulf’s Grendel and the “monstrous races” called blemmye and cynocephali, this presentation describes how medieval monsters and their habitats were imagined both as real creatures and places, and as actors and stages where the Middle Ages projected their cultural anxieties

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