Medieval Ghost Stories is a collection of ghosts, nightstalkers and unearthly visitors from parallel worlds from the eighth to the fourteenth centuries; they have been found in monastic chronicles, in sagas and heroic poetry, and in medieval romances. In a religious age, the tales bore a peculiar freight of spooks and spirituality which can still make hair stand on end; unfailingly, these stories give a fascinating and moving glimpse into the medieval mind. Look only at the accounts of Richard Rowntree's stillborn child, glimpsed by his father tangled in swaddling clothes on the road to Santiago, or the sly habits of water sprites resting as golden rings on the surface of the river, just out of reach... ANDREW JOYNES is a freelance writer, historian and broadcaster.
