This text looks at both the representation of literal monsters and the consumption and exploitation of monstrous metaphors in a wide variety of high and late-medieval cultural productions, from travel writing and mystical texts, to sermons, manuscript illuminations and maps.

This text looks at both the representation of literal monsters and the consumption and exploitation of monstrous metaphors in a wide variety of high and late-medieval cultural productions, from travel writing and mystical texts, to sermons, manuscript illuminations and maps.

Presents an interdisciplinary study of one of the crucial elements of medieval imaginations of the world: blood. This book shows how blood affirms the body as one of the major tenets of medieval thought. It is suitable for those interested in the history of the body across a wide range of disciplines: medieval history, and history of religion.

In this ground-breaking account Bettina Bildhauer shows how, from the earliest silent films to recent blockbusters, medieval topics and plots have played an important but overlooked role in the development of cinema.