"Ayenst trauelynge fendys by nyghte": Simple medicines, practical innovation, and the premodern conceptualization of the nightmare

Gordon, Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7778-2555 2022. "Ayenst trauelynge fendys by nyghte": Simple medicines, practical innovation, and the premodern conceptualization of the nightmare. Preternature 11 (2) , 225–257. 10.5325/preternature.11.2.0225

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Abstract

Sleep paralysis, as it is known today, was one of the most remarked-upon maladies in premodern medicine. The feeling of being choked during sleep was usually seen by physicians as being caused by an abundance of melancholic humors. Others interpreted the experience as a supernatural attack. However, the distinctions between medical and “superstitious” remedies against nightmares were rarely so clear cut, especially given the belief that demons were able to manipulate the bodily humors. In this article I will chart the various substances—plant and stone—that were traditionally believed to assuage the symptoms of the nightmare. I will examine how “hot” herbs, such as peony, and minerals with occult heating properties, such as gagate, could rebalance the dangerously cold and heavy vapors that provoked a nightmare attack. It will be seen that even seemingly “magical” apotropaic practices were entirely rational within the milieu of humoral theory.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Publisher:	Penn State University Press
ISSN:	2161-2196
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	27 March 2023
Date of Acceptance:	25 April 2021
Last Modified:	22 Nov 2024 01:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/157585

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