When Brendan and his brethren approached, the waves remained still in their motion as though frozen. They found the man sitting upon a rough and craggy outcropping. When the waves crashed in from every side, they struck him up to the top of his head, and when they receded, they exposed the bare rock upon which this unfortunate person was sitting. Whenever the wind caught the cloth that hung before him, it lashed at his eyes and forehead.
Blessed Brendan began to ask this man who he was and for what crime he had been sent there and why he had deserved to suffer such a punishment. He responded, “I am the most unfortunate Judas, the worst of all merchants. I am in this place not due to my own merit, but thanks to the mercy of the unutterable Jesus Christ. This place is not reckoned as a punishment for me, but as an indulgence of the Redeemer because of the honor of the resurrection of the Lord.” For it was the Lord’s Day [Sunday] that day. “For it seems to me when I sit here that it is as though I was in a paradise of delights because of the fear of the torments that await me this evening. For I burn like a mass of molten lead both day and night in the bowels of the mountain that you saw. Leviathan dwells there with his minions. I was there when it swallowed your brother, and for this reason Hell rejoiced, sending forth huge gouts of flame, which it always does when it devours the souls of the impious. I have this refuge here every Sunday from evening until evening, and from Christmas Day until Epiphany and from Easter until Pentecost and on the Purification of the Virgin Mary and on the Feast of her Assumption. At all other times, I am tormented in the depth of Hell with Herod and Pilate and Annas and Caiphas. Therefore, I beg you through the Redeemer of the world to deign to intercede for me with the Lord Jesus Christ so that I have the power to remain here until dawn tomorrow, so that the demons will not torment me because of your coming and carry me off to my evil legacy, which I bought with blood money.” Holy Brendan said to him, “Let the Lord’s will be done. You will not feel the demons’ sting until tomorrow.”
Again, the man of God asked him, saying, “What is the purpose of this cloth?” Judas replied to him, “I gave this very cloth to a leper when I was the chamberlain of the Lord, but it was not mine to give, for it belonged to the Lord and his brethren, so I gain no relief from it; it is more of a hindrance to me. As for the iron tongs on which the cloth hangs, I gave those to the priests of the temple to hold up their cooking pots. The stone on which I sit, that I placed into a hole on the public road to protect the feet of pedestrians before I became a disciple of the Lord.”
When the evening hour cast its shadows, behold an innumerable multitude of demons eclipsed the face of the sun, crying out and saying, “Depart from us, man of God, for we cannot approach our comrade until you move away from him, nor do we dare to have an audience with our prince until we return his friend to him. You have taken our morsel from us; do not defend him from us tonight.” The man of God said to them, “I do not defend him; it is the Lord Jesus Christ who has allowed him to spend the night here until dawn.” The demons responded, “How do you invoke the name of the Lord over this man, when he himself was the Lord’s traitor?” The man of God explained, “I command you in the name of the Lord not to harm this man until the morning.”
And so, when that night had passed, at the crack of dawn when the man of God was preparing to depart, behold an infinite number of demons covered the face of the abyss, crying out with harsh voices, saying, “O man of God, cursed be your coming and your going, for on this night our prince beat us with the worst possible blows, the reason being that we did not present to him this cursed captive.” The man of God said to them, “Your curse does not pertain to us, but to you yourselves. For the one you call accursed is blessed, and the one you bless is accursed.” The demons responded, “Unfortunate Judas will receive a double dose of torments over the next six days because you defended him last night.” The venerable father said to them, “You have no power hereafter, nor does your prince, but the power of God endures.” He added, “I command you and your prince in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ not to bear this man off to more torments than he suffered before.” They responded, “Are you the lord of all, that we should obey your words?” The man of God said, “I am his servant and whatever I command in his name, I have authority concerning those affairs that he concedes to me.” And so, the demons followed him until they could see Judas no longer. Then they turned around and lifted that most wretched soul among them with great speed and wailing. Afterward, holy Brendan and his followers sailed southward, glorifying God in all things.
INTO THE DEEPEST DARK: THE VISION OF TUNDALE (c. 1150)
The Visio Tnugdali (Vision of Tundale) is without doubt the most graphic and horrifying tour of Hell composed before Dante’s Inferno in the fourteenth century, but it remains little known among modern readers. Written in 1149 by an anonymous Irish monk residing in Regensburg (in modern Bavaria), this tableau of Hell differed from its late antique and early medieval predecessors in a number of important ways. First and foremost, the main character of the story, an Irish knight named Tundale, was a terrible sinner. Unlike the monks who populated earlier visions of the otherworld, Tundale, as he is conducted through Hell by his guardian angel, is also forced to submit to the cruel torments that he witnessed as a reminder to avoid sinful behavior when his soul was later reunited with his body. Second, the author depicted the topography of Hell with unprecedented attention to texture and detail. The infernal regions were a vast landscape of towering peaks, dark valleys, fetid swamps, and bottomless pits traversed by roads and bridges and inhabited by demons, monstrous creatures, and menacing characters, like the hellish innkeeper Phristinus. Likewise, the torments described in the text are especially lurid and visceral. Third, when Tundale plumbed the deepest pit of Hell, he glimpsed Satan himself, a monster of unrivaled size bound in eternal torment to a fiery grill. No other text from this period described the prince of Hell so vividly in the throes of agony, forever punished in the act of dispensing punishment to others. While scholars are quick to characterize the Vision of Tundale as a precursor to Dante’s Inferno, it stands on its own as the most fully realized, and therefore the most terrifying, vision of Hell produced in medieval Europe. Its grisly imagery captured the popular imagination, spawning translations in numerous languages and inspiring nightmarish paintings of the afterlife by the Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450–1516) and his many imitators.
1. WELCOME TO HELL1
ON THE DEPARTURE OF TUNDALE’S SOUL.
Tundale said that when his soul departed from his body and he realized that it was dead, mindful of his faults, he began to grow frightened and had no idea what to do. Truly, he was afraid, but he did not know what he feared. He wanted to return to his body, but he was unable to enter it; he wanted to go further on, but he was frightened on every side. And so, this most wretched soul pondered his options, mindful of his faults, confessing in nothing except for the mercy of God. Then after hesitating for a little while and weeping and crying out, this trembling soul still did not know what to do. At last, he saw a great multitude of unclean spirits coming toward him, so many that they not only filled the entire house and courtyard, in which the dead man tarried, but also there was no place throughout the quarters and streets of the city that was not full of them. Moreover, as they surrounded that miserable soul, they were eager not to console him, but to bring him to the verge of tears, saying, “Let us sing the song of death owed to this poor soul, because he is the child of death and fuel for the fire that does not go out, a friend of the shadows, an enemy of the light.” And they all turned to him, gnashing their teeth at him and with their claws they tore at their own horrid faces in their excessive rage, saying, “Behold, poor soul, the people whom you chose, with whom you will descend to burn in the depth of Hell. Nurturer of scandal, lover of discord, why are you not proud? Why do you not commit adultery? Why do you not fornicate? Where is your vanity and your empty delight? Where is your unrestrained laughter? Where is your bravery, that a
llowed you to insult so many? Why do you not wink now with your eyes, as you used to do? Will you not drag your foot, nor speak with your finger, nor contrive evil with your depraved heart?” Terrified by these and similar words, the wretched soul could do nothing other than cry, awaiting death delivered to him without delay by all of the unclean spirits in attendance. But the almighty, holy, and merciful Lord, dispensing all things well by his secret judgment, did not desire the death of this sinner and agreed to offer a remedy to him alone after his death; indeed, the Lord tempered his misery, as he wished.
ON THE ARRIVAL OF THE ANGEL SENT TO MEET TUNDALE’S SOUL.
For the Lord sent his angel to meet Tundale’s soul. Watching him coming from a distance like the brightest star, Tundale held his gaze upon him without wavering and hoped that he would receive some counsel from him. Once the angel had approached him, he greeted Tundale, calling him by name, saying, “Hail, Tundale, what are you doing?” Seeing a handsome youth—for the angel had a beautiful countenance among the sons of humankind—and hearing himself called by his own name, with tears that poor man blurted out with joy in such a voice, “Oh, lord father, the sorrows of Hell surround me; the snares of death have seized me.”2 The angel said to him, “Why do you call me lord and father? You had me with you always and everywhere and you never judged me worthy of such a name.” Tundale responded, “Lord, where have I ever seen you? Or where have I ever heard your very sweet voice?” The angel responded to him, “I have always followed you from the time of your birth, wherever you went, and you never wished to comply with my counsels.” And pointing to one of the unclean spirits that had insulted Tundale with curses more so than the rest, the angel said, “Behold, you followed this one’s counsels, and you neglected my will entirely. But because God always puts mercy before justice, his undeserved mercy will not be absent, even for you. Be very happy and untroubled, because you will suffer only a few of the many torments that you would have suffered if the mercy of our redeemer had not come down to you. Therefore, follow me and lock away in your memory everything that I show to you, because you have to return to your body again.” Then that soul, terrified beyond measure, went with the angel, leaving behind the body over which he had been standing. Hearing this and realizing that they could not carry him off, the demons and other evil creatures, which had threatened his soul a few moments before, raised their voices to heaven, saying, “O how unjust and cruel is God, for he mortifies them as he wishes and revives them as he wishes, not as he promised: to render each one according to his own work and merit. He frees souls that should not be freed and damns those that should not be damned.” And with these words, they rose up against each other and, in whatever way they could, they struck one another with blows and then, leaving behind an excessive stench, they retreated with great sadness and disdain. Moving forward, the angel said to Tundale’s soul, “Follow me.” He responded, “Oh, my lord, if I go any further, they will tear me away and drag me into the everlasting fires.” The angel said to him, “Do not fear them, for there are more on our side than on theirs. If God is with us, who can stand against us? Indeed, two thousand fall on our left side and ten thousand on our right, so that nothing will approach you. Nevertheless, you will examine with your own eyes and witness the punishment of sinners. And you will suffer, just as I said, a few of the many torments that you deserve.” And as soon as he finished speaking, they set out.
THE PUNISHMENT FITS THE CRIME1
THE FIRST PUNISHMENT: THE MURDERERS.
When they had proceeded together for a while with no light other than the splendor of the angel, at last they came to a very terrible valley of shadows covered by a dark shroud of death. It was very deep and filled with burning coals. It had an iron lid that seemed to be six cubits thick sitting atop of the brightly burning coals.2 The stench of this place exceeded all of the tribulations that this soul had suffered up to this point. A multitude of very wretched souls fell upon the iron lid and there they were burned until they were reduced entirely to liquid, like fat rendered in a frying pan. Then, even worse, they were strained through the iron lid, like wax is strained through a cloth, and restored again to torment in the burning coals of the fire. When he saw these things, that soul was terrified and said to the angel, “Alas, my lord, I ask if you could please tell me what evil deed these souls have done to deserve such torments.” The angel said to him, “These are murders, the killers of fathers and brothers. This is the first punishment of the perpetrators and their accomplices and after this they will be led to even greater torments, as you will see.” “And will I suffer this, too?” Tundale asked. The angel replied, “Indeed, you deserve to, but you will not suffer now. It is true that you are not a killer of your father or mother or brother. You are a killer nonetheless, but there is no charge against you now. For the rest, take care, so that when you return to your body, you will not merit a punishment more grevious or greater than this.” And he added, “Let us proceed, for we have a long way yet to go.”
CONCERNING THE PUNISHMENT OF SPIES AND TRAITORS.
Then they came to a mountain of extraordinary size, a place of great horror and immense solitude. The mountain provided a very narrow path for those wishing to cross. For on one side of the path there was a putrid fire, sulfurous and dark, while on the other side there was icy snow and a horrible hail-ridden wind. On one side and the other, the mountain was ready to punish souls; it was full of torturers, so that no route appeared to be safe to those who wished to cross it. These torturers wielded fiery iron tongs and had very sharp tridents at the ready, with which they pierced any souls trying to cross and dragged them to torment. While those wretched souls suffered punishments enveloped in the flames, they were pierced by the tridents and thrown into the snow. Then they were thrown back once again from the pounding hail into the fiery flames. When he saw these things, Tundale was afraid and asked the angel, who walked ahead of him, “I ask, lord, since I can clearly see the ambushes prepared for my destruction, how can I take this route?” The angel answered, “Do not fear, but follow me or walk ahead of me.” And then the angel went first and Tundale followed, as before.
CONCERNING THE VALLEY OF THE PROUD AND THEIR PUNISHMENT.
As they made their way cautiously out of fear, they came to a very deep valley, very putrid and covered in shadow. Tundale could not determine its depth, but he could hear the roar of a flaming river and the wailing of the multitude suffering in its depths. A fetid smoke rose up from the sulfur and from the bodies below, which exceeded all of the punishments that he had previously seen. A very long plank measuring a thousand feet long but only one foot wide extended over the valley from one mountain to another like a bridge. Only the saved could cross this bridge. Tundale saw many souls fall from it; no one except for a single priest was able to cross it unharmed. This priest was a pilgrim, who carried a palm branch and was dressed in a pilgrim’s cloak; he bravely crossed first before all of the others. Then Tundale, spying the narrow path and recognizing the eternal ruin below, said to the angel, “Alas, poor me! Who will free me from the path of this death?” Looking upon him with a kind face, the angel responded, “Do not fear. You will be freed from this situation, but after this you will suffer another.” And walking ahead, the angel held Tundale and led him across the bridge unharmed. And after they had crossed that narrow way, safe and relieved, Tundale said to the angel, “I pray, Lord, please show me, whose souls are these that I see tormented in this way?” The angel said to him, “This truly horrible place is the valley of the proud; the putrid and sulfurous mountain is the punishment of spies.” And he added, “Let us go, until we arrive at other torments even worse than these.”
CONCERNING THE GREEDY AND THEIR PUNISHMENT.
Then with the angel in the lead, they set out on a long and tortured and very difficult path. After they had labored much and made their way through the shadows, Tundale saw an incredibly large and intolerably horrible beast not far away from them. This monster exceeded every
mountain that he had ever seen in the enormity of its size. Its eyes were truly like burning hills. Its mouth was gaping open so wide that it seemed to Tundale that it could hold nine thousand armed men. Moreover, in its mouth it had two parasites and these were very unnatural with twisted heads. One of them had its head up against the upper teeth of the beast and its feet down against the lower teeth; the other was just the opposite with its head down and its feet raised against the upper teeth. They stood like columns in its mouth, making its maw look as though it was divided into three gateways. A fire that never died belched out of its mouth, split into three parts through these three gateways and into this fire the souls of those sentenced to damnation were forced to enter. An indescribable stench billowed from this mouth. The crying and wailing of the multitude in its stomach echoed through the mouth; no wonder, since many thousands of men and women were suffering dire torments inside. In front of its mouth there was a host of unclean spirits forcing the souls to enter. But before they entered, these spirits attacked them with many lashes and blows. When Tundale had watched this horrible and fearful spectacle for a while, at once helpless because of his great terror and in fear of his own spirit, with a tearful voice he said to the angel, “Alas, alas, my lord, are these things that I see not clear to you, and why do you approach them?” The angel said in response, “We cannot complete our journey in any other way unless we stand in judgment personally before this torment. For no one except for the elect can avoid this torment. This beast is called Archeron, who devours all of the greedy. It is written in scripture concerning this monster: ‘He will swallow the river and he will not wonder and he will trust that the river Jordan will flow into his mouth.’3 These figures, who have been placed between his teeth and in his mouth, are giants and in their own times they were faithful in their way, but their names are not known to you. Indeed, they are called Fergusius and Conallus.”4 Tundale said to him, “Alas, lord, this disturbs me. You said that they were faithful in their way. Why does the Lord judge them worthy of such blows?” The angel replied, “All of these things that you have witnessed up to now are great kinds of punishments, but before you return you will be able to see even greater torments.”
The Penguin Book of Hell Page 9
