Afterlife worlds in Old Spanish texts of the 12th–13th centuries: Commentary on medieval translations

Abstract

Depictions of the afterlife (places of bliss and suffering, heaven and hell) appear in medieval literature in several genres. Traditionally, these are “afterlife visions” and “miracles” (the article analyzes Gonzalo de Berceo’s Miracles of the Virgin Mary), which existed as a separate genre and as part of hagiography. At the same time, images of the afterlife are also represented in secular genres, in particular the Spanish Book of Alexander, which transformed the traditional topos in light of emerging medieval ideas about hell. The article analyzes the medieval topic of the afterlife, as well as various ways of creating the effect of the presence of otherworldliness (from direct description to creating an atmosphere of otherworldliness by appealing to the various senses and emotions of the listener /reader). A commentary on the relevant fragments of these texts shows that traditionally fantastic images in descriptions of the afterlife and its inhabitants (in the Latin Alexandriade and The Miracles of the Virgin Mary), in Spanish translations and adaptations take on a noticeably realistic and plausible appearance — hell in the Spanish Libro de Alexandre is arranged like a medieval city with all its mandatory attributes (walls, market, cathedral), and the appearance of Satan and his entourage in The Miracle of Theophilus from the collection of Gonzalo de Berceo (unlike the Latin original and the version by Gauthier de Coinci) is depicted as a religious procession.