Medieval ghost stories featured rotten flesh, the walking dead and spoon‑stealing spirits
Stories of wandering spirits and the restless dead were common in the Middle Ages. These ghostly encounters were recorded in a wide variety of medieval literature.
Medieval ghost stories featured a variety of supernatural entities, from shape-shifting spirits to the walking dead, which terrified villagers. These tales, written by monks at Byland Abbey in the early 15th century, combined folklore with religious doctrine to instill a moral and religious message in the readers. Ghosts were often depicted as seeking help from the living, with one story recounting a spirit stealing silver spoons and pleading for the return of the stolen items to avoid suffering the same fate as his former self upon death.
The stories also emphasized the importance of religious faith, as demonstrated in a tale where a man named William de Bradeforth commanded a ghost to depart in the name of the Lord. However, not all ghosts sought to communicate with the living; some were described as violent revenants, whose remains were mutilated to prevent their return.
Archaeological evidence from Wharram Percy suggests that such postmortem mutilations may have been practiced in medieval times, further reflecting the fears surrounding the walking dead.
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