Unearthing Medieval Vampire Stories in England: Fragments from De Nugis Curialium and Historia Rerum Anglicarum

This is a draft for the Third World Conference on Dracula, May 2003. Please do not quote from this text without contacting the author (jason.nolan@utoronto.ca)

Jason Nolan, PhD
Knowledge Media Design Institute
University of Toronto 

Introduction
This project has a somewhat strange genesis. It is located in a chance encounter with the first edition of Melton’s Vampire Encyclopedia a few  years ago. While looking through the section on English vampires, I noticed that Walter Map’s work text was cited as De Nagis Curialium, and it struck me that the word Nagis did not sound like Latin. So, with a quick internet search, I realized that Nagis was a typo. And that that moment I was hooked on finding out more about not just Map and William of Newburgh, but about how accurate the contemporary information was about these two who I vaguely remembered from a graduate course I had taken more than a decade ago. This paper is the first presentation of what I found. The goal of the overall project is threefold. The first step is to consider what is known of these two medieval writers and their work in the vampire research community, and compare it with more the traditional information available to medievalists. The second step is to generate new transcriptions of their Latin texts and make them available online. And the final step is to produce a modern English translation of their texts, so that the vampire community can access them without the errors that have been interpolated into them over the last seventy years. 

This paper will focus on Newburgh, with contrasting information on Map. I’ll, then describe the sections of Map’s De Nugis and Newburgh’s Historia of interest to vampire scholars. Next, I’ll provide a preliminary assessment of how their passages appear in the canon through the Summers’ (1929) work The Vampire in Europe,  how they were passed on by Donald Glut’s (1971) True Vampires of History, and finally found their way into Gordon Melton’s (1994) work The Vampire Book: the Encyclopedia of the Undead. 

The appearance of vampires in the literature of England is usually considered to be an early 19th Century event. John Polidori's “The Vampire” (1819) is usually cited as the first vampire story in England. Summers (1929), Glut (1971), and Melton (1994) however, correctly point to the 12th Century writings of Map and Newburgh as the earliest examples of vampire stories in England. Map's De Nugis Curialium or Courtier’s Trifles was written sometime before 1190 and Newburgh's Historia Rerum Anglicarum or History of English Affairs, completed around 1206, both contain stories that are vampiric in nature, though there are some issues as to how well they conform to modern definitions and tastes (Melton, 1994, 616). 

Both works have largely been passed over by contemporary scholars who locate the genesis of the modern vampire in either the early romantics, or the influence Greek and eastern European traditions. This ignores the interest in medieval studies and the widespread knowledge of Latin in the general public in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Even when Map and Newburgh are given consideration, the information that is passed down is somewhat vague and sometimes incorrect. Summers gives the most complete account, but it is far from what contemporary scholars would find useful or comprehensive. His sources are not well documented, and it is difficult to identify the passages he is translating with certainty. As it stands, vampire scholars must track down the texts in Latin, or hunt for the few translations that have been made by medievalists over the past 150 years to get an accurate sense of the content and interpretation.

William of Newburgh and  Historia Rerum Anglicarum
William of Newburgh, also known as William Petit or Parvus, was born in 1136  and lived as a canon  in the Abbey of Austin Canons of Newburgh in Yorkshire, joining sometime shortly after 1145, and dying there perhaps in 1208 (Hamilton, Stevenson).

Historia Rerum Anglicarum, or The history of the Affairs of England, covers a period from the Norman Conquest in 1066 up to 1198. The latter date is often cited as the date when the text was completed.  The work survives in five manuscripts, with only minor variations between them that do not change the general sense of the text. The work was published in 1567, and again in 1610, 1719 and 1856 (Gorman 1960; Hamilton 1856; Newburgh 1920; Stevenson 1856; Summer, 1929).

Newburgh’s work differs from some of the more famous medieval historians such as Geoffrey of Monmouth and Gerald of Wales, being cited for his “acute and sensible” observations and “clean and sober” style (Hamilton vi, Stevenson). The sense is that Newburgh stuck to the facts, whereas other historians were more interested in telling a good story. Stevenson notes that there were later revisions of some sections, but does not specify their extent. Newburgh explicitly eschews the “ridiculous fictions” of historians such as Monmouth, who wrote at length about King Arthur and Merlin, striving for greater historical accuracy in the traditions of St. Gildas and the Venerable Bede, in place of, as he puts it “mystical exposition” (Stevenson, 397).

Map and  De Nugis Curialium
Walter Map was  a “moderately well known” Welsh cleric, and is pictured in one illuminated manuscript  (Ms. French I, Vol. I, f.82) held in the John Rylands University Library, Manchester taking dictation from King Arthur (Brooke, xiii). Most of his fame is the result the false attribution a number of  “scurrilous” texts in Latin and French, but he was by no means an obscure individual (Brooke, xiii). He was probably born in the 1130s, and living until the first decade of the 12th century. At the height of his career he was Archdecon of Oxford under the patronage of King Henry II, and would be what we would think of as both a “scholar and a civil servant” (Brooke xvii-xix). He is noted as a friend Geoffrey of Monmouth, Gerald of Wales, both historians famous for their preference of entertainment over accuracy.  Brooks, in his 1983 edition of Map, goes out of his way to call Map “an expert liar” and his work, an “untidy legacy of an untidy mind”, suggesting that at best De Nugis is “still a draft”, and then notes that it “is not entirely aimless, and by no means so formless as has commonly been supposed” (Brooke, xxi, xxix, xxx, xxxiii). However there is a strong enthusiasm for Map’s picture of medieval life and his wit as a storyteller and satirist.

Maps’ De Nugis Curialium, or Courier’s Trifles, is largely a collection of interesting stories and anecdotes probably compiled posthumously, or at least unfinished at the time of his. And it is his only surviving or known work, after all the mistaken attributions have been swept aside. It survives in a single manuscript in the Bodleian Library Oxford (MS Bodley 851 (3041)) that includes a text of the famous poem Piers Plowman.

Dear Walter is a problem at best. Satire, obfuscation and deliberate fiction, calculated to “keep up his reputation for lying” seems to be the tools of Map’s trade (Brooke, xxxvi). What do you do with a text as ostensibly frivolous as Newburgh’s is earnest. Especially when the texts come from someone intimately linked with the court of Henry the Second and his wife Eleanor, who were themselves connected with what we call the Chivalric tradition and the art of courtly love, as represented in the works of Andreas Cappellanus, and others.

There are two compelling reasons to take a closer look at Map and Newburgh. The first being the Celtic connection. Newburgh openly attacks Celtic traditions, attempting to be an objective historian. Whereas Map is explicitly tied to the Welsh branch of the Celtic tradition on many fronts. As well, the Welsh tradition is deeply tied to Arthurian lore and the mystical quest for the Holy Grail. Yet both authors include vampire stories in their work. They are contemporaries, recording similar stories, albeit from different perspectives and with different intentions; Map’s goal is primarily to amuse and Newburgh’s is to instruct.

As well, it is this Celtic connection that potentially ties them, six centuries later, to authors such as Le Fanu and Stoker, among others. The second important link is the influence of the interest in Celtic and medieval studies on the 18th and 19th Centuries. Many scholars of the period were turning from the study of classical history to formal inquiry into Anglo-Saxon and medieval Britain. As well, pre-romantic and romantic poets were looking to the obscure past of British texts as sources for inspiration. 

There are two main reasons that Map and Newburgh have been under represented  in our contemporary thinking on vampires. The first is the fact that they wrote, not just in Latin, but Medieval Latin. Though this was not of much difficulty for the Victorian writer, and may perhaps suggest a more wide influence in Victorian vampire  literature than is presently known, few vampire scholars after Summers have the ability to work in Latin. The second is that both Map and Newburgh’s work remained relatively obscure until the 19th century, in comparison to other medieval historians such as Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace and Gerald of Wales who were influential figures for late medieval and early modern writers, such as Layamon, Thomas Malory, Shakespeare, and so on. However, there is no reason to assume that Map and Newburgh had no influence on the 19th century vampire. And future research may uncover connections.

In order to start to rectify this situation, and perhaps resurrect Map and Newburgh for vampire enthusiasts,  the core of my work is to present a fresh translation of the sections of their work of interest to scholars of vampire literature. I hope that this will allow for a renewed interest in this important, but often overlooked contribution to the vampire cannon. The translation will be accompanied by a critical over view of the potential influences of Map and Newburgh on later conceptualizations of vampires, and a contextualization of their stories within the contemporary milieu.

Summers’ Translation
There is no bibliography in Montague Summers’ The Vampire in Europe,  though there are copious notes, however  inconsistent according to contemporary standards.  However,  in The Vampire, Kith and Kin,  Summers cites both James’ 1914 edition and the Tupper, Bladen Ogle translation (1924) as sources for De Nugis. For Newburgh, Summers cites Hans Claude Hamilton’s 1856 edition Willelmi Parui De Newburgh. Historia Rerum Anglicarum: Recensuit for the Latin text. He does not reference a translation, and a quick comparison of the translations available suggests that he did his own translating from the Hamilton’s edition. 

He does not quote Map or Newburgh in Kith and Kin, but he does clarify his plan:
The Vampire, his Kith and Kin will be shortly followed by The Vampire in Europe, in which work I have collected … numerous instances of vampirism old and new, concretely illustrating the prevalence and phases of the tradition in England and Ireland… and many other lands. In this volume will be found related in detail such famous cases as that of Arnold Paul, Stanoska Sovitzo, Millo the Hungarian, the vampires of Temeswar, Kisilova, Buckingham, Berwick, Melrose Abbey, Croglin Grange, and many more.
I have not had the opportunity to check all of Summers’ rich bibliography for references to Map and Newburgh. Potential texts include: Erah’s Key to Vampyrology, Witchcrafte & Dæmonologie for Guidance of ye Slayers. The Watchers' Society, Cambridge, 1751, and Dudley Wright’s  Vampires and Vampirism, 1914. It is worth noting that Frayling’s Vampyres notes the uneven work of Summers and Wright, and describes the followers of Summer as “slavish” (Frayling, 1991, 5, 424). In fact, according to Elizabeth Miller, Summer’s library was bought by Sir Devendra Varma, and is still in his family’s possession.

Newburgh in Summers
For Newburgh, Summers only references the Second Division, chapters 14, 27, 28, and the fourth division, chapter 12.  Consulting the Tupper/Olge translation of 1924, we note that the second division, 13, and forth division chapter 8 (similar to chapter II.13), and chapter 10,  also contain elements worth considering. Summers’ translation is largely consistent with others consulted for this paper, differing on a few interesting points. His inclusion of the word “uncorrupt” in relation an exhumed body in the story set in Buckinghamshire, and his generalization of the ambiguous title of “Alnwick Castle” are two obvious examples (Summers, 81, 85). There is only one use of the word vampire in any section of the Newburgh translations.  In only one instance does  Summers explicitly use the word  “vampire ” for the Latin sanguisuga, “…they realized that this vampire …had battened in the blood of many poor folk” (38).  Stevenson’s 1856 translation of Newburgh is less specific, though it does point in a direction that from our perspective, seems vampiric enough: “…laid bare the corpse, swollen to an enormous corpulence, with its countenance beyond measure turgid and suffused with blood” (661). For some reason, it is unclear what Stevenson does with sanguisuga. Carley identifies sanguisuga “blood-sucker or a leech” (Carley, 2003b).

As with other medievalists, Stevenson notes that the location of Alnwick Castle is in doubt. He calls it “Anantis castle, though suggests that it may be Annan or Annand in Dumfriesshire. Or possibly Anand castle that belonged to the family of Bruce (661). Compared to Stevenson, Summers embellishes the text with the sort of commentary expected from a vampire enthusiast. At various points, Summers switches from translation to explanation without any clear markers in the text. It is at these points where all other explicit references to vampires are made. 

Map in Summers
The sections that focus on Walter Map, contain numerous interpolated comments that may mislead a casual reader as to the true vampiric content in the texts: “I that curious but fascinating work, which breathes the very spirit of the Middle Ages, the De Nugis Curialium of that even yet more curious person, Walter Map, there are several accounts of Vampires, and this further goes to prove that the tradition was very strong in England about this time” (Summers 88). Note that other scholars affectionately refer to Map as something of a master liar. When discussing the story of Eric Wilde on the following page, Summers includes the following passage: “…the wanderings of spirits and… troops of demons appear at night, and to see them is death, and bands of Dryads and Vampires” (Summers, 89). I have not been able to identify this passage as being in Map at all. It appears to be a quote from some other source, but to a casual reader, it would appear as if the story comes from Map. Summers’ continual assertions that these stories are about vampires, and the ambiguity regarding where translation and commentary begin and end make it easy for the reader to believe that Map and Newburgh are telling vampire stories. This may be the case, but Summers makes it hard to be sure.Though, to Summers’ credit, he does note that “no mention at all was called to the accounts of phantasms and vampires” by medieval scholars of his day, though he goes on to say that “the tradition of the vampire is hardly to be met with in any quarter, and this fact is the more remarkable when we consider the histories of William of Newburgh and Walter Map and not thence how prominent was the belief in earlier times. (Summers 99)

Glut’s version of Summers
Glut’s True Vampires of History (1971) is dedicated to Summers. And though Glut introduces some minor typographical errors, he otherwise seems mainly to have lifted sections from The Vampire in Europe without any other modification, and provided précis of others. The difficulty is that the formatting of The Vampire in Europe does not make any clear delineation as to what is translated text and what is Summers’ interpretation. No quotation marks, block quotes, or other indicators as to where the translation ends. As a result, Glut seems to have incorporated some of Summers’ text without  checking to see what belongs to Map and Newburgh and what belongs to Summers.

Glut does not question Summers, stating “Vampirism was strongest in England during the Twelfth Century. In Walter Map’s De Nugis Curialium, his treatise on the Middle Ages… we find several accounts of English vampires… (17). He goes on to include Summers’ quote about “bands of Dryads and Vampires” unaware that it is probably a reference to another text (18).

An interesting change is made by Glut in reference to Map’s Second Division, Chapter Fourteen where he calls the demon “a diabolical vampire…” and refers to her as a vampire on three other occasions (Glut 20, 21). In one instance, Glut drops the final e in “vampire” (38). Other changes made by Glut are the addition of section titles, such as “The Vampire Husband”, “Concerning the Berwick Vampire”, “Vampires of Melrose Abbey and Alnwick Castle” (23, 27, 30).

Melton’s version
As mentioned, I first came across Melton’s title for Map’s work as De Nagis and realized that there could not be a word Nagis in Latin. Melton’s Encyclopedia is praiseworthy in that it has kept the knowledge of Map and Newburgh alive, and is a valuable tool for those with a general interest in what they wrote, if accuracy is not important. But his entries do not challenge anything that Summers wrote, and in some situations relied solely on Glut redactions rather than going back to Summers.  The sections relating to Alnwick Castle, Berwick, Melrose Abbey are précis of Glut (Melton 11, 45, 399) The sections on vampires in the United Kingdom and  William of Newburgh cite both Summers and Glut (Melton 615-7, 682-3). Walter Map does not warrant an entry of his own, it seems.

Interestingly enough, Melton says that the stories of Map and Newburgh, as quoted in Summers and Glut, “contain many elements of the classical vampire tales of Eastern Europe, but each are missing an essential element—any reference to the drinking of blood” (Summers 616). As noted previously, both Summers and Glut use the word “vampire” which may not be a reference to blood drinking, but is pretty unambiguous, regardless of how sanguisuga should be translated. As well  Summer’s wording“…they realized that this vampire… had battened in the blood of many poor folk” is pretty unambiguous; batten in this context meaning ‘to be strengthened.’

Conclusion
It is not enough to say that we should all follow medievalist’s and Latinist’s interpretation of what Map and Newburgh said, though Carley (2003a) recently told me that no medievalist considers Map or Newburgh to have made reference to vampires implicitly or explicitly. We can, however, safely state that we have presently identified no literature outside of Summers, Glut and Melton that make this connection. As well, medievalists are aware of the interest in these texts by vampire researchers (Carley, 2003a) and treat the connection as both humorous and conjectural. That said, we define the terms of our own field, and it is up to us to come to a conclusion as to the relevance of the writings of Map and Newburgh to later vampire literature. This can only be done, however, with research into the original texts and the various translations available, and a critical eye to any scholarship that slavishly follows Summers’ fanciful interpolations and creative redactions if our work is to be of use to anyone; research scholar, general reader, or tourist looking for vampiric haunts.

The biggest question, however, is why do these vampiric stories appear at the end of the 11th century, recorded in Latin, the language of  serious people, only to disappear from any records in England for the next 600 years?
Bibliography
Botting, Fred. (1996). Gothic. London: Routledge.
Brooke, C., James, M. R., Mynors, R. A. B.  (1983). De nugis curialium (Courtiers' trifles). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Carley, James P. (2003) Personal conversation. March 12, 2003.
Carley, James P. (2003) Electronic Mail. March 18, 2003.
Copper, Basil. (1973) The Vampire in Legend and Fact. New York: Citadel.
Dudley Wright (1924) The Book of Vampires. In David J. Skal, (2001)Vampires: Encounters with the Undead. New York: Black Dog. Pp. 17-22.
Frayling, Christopher. (1991) Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula. London: Faber and Faber.
Gelder, Ken (1994) Reading the Vampire. London: Routledge.
Glut, Donald F. (1971). True Vampires of History. New York: H.C. Publishers.
Gorman, John C. (1960) William of Newburgh’s Explanatio Sacri Epihalamii in Matrem Sponsi. Freibourg: The University Press.
Hamilton, A. C. (1856). Historia Rerum Anglicarum Willelmi Parvi, Ordinis Sancti Augustini Canonici Regularis in Coenobio Beatae Mariae de Newburgh in Agro Eboracensi. Londini: Sumptibus Societatis. Vol. 1.
McNally, Raymond, T. and Florescu, Radu.  (1994) In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires. New York Houghton Mifflin.
McNally, Raymond, T. and Florescu, Radu. (1974) A Clutch of Vampires: These Being Among the Best from History and Literature. London: New English Library.
Map, W., M. B. Ogle, et al. (1924). Master Walter Map's book, De nugis curialium, Courtiers' trifles. Englished by Frederick Tupper and Marbury Bladen Ogle. London: Chatto & Windus.
Melton, J. Gordon (1994). The Vampire Book: the Encyclopedia of the Undead. Detroit: Visible Ink.
Miller, Elizabeth. (2003). Personal Conversation. March 17, 2003. Ft. Lauderdale Florida.
Newburgh, William of (1920) Selections from the Historia rerum anglicarum of William of Newburgh. C. Johnson trans. ed. London: S.P.C.K.
Skal, David J. (2001) Vampires: Encounters with the Undead. New York: Black Dog.
Stevenson, Joseph. (1856). The Church Historians of England: The History of William of Newburgh: The Chronicles of Robert De Monte. Vol. IV, Part II. London: Seeleys.
Summer, Montague (1928) The Vampire, His Kith and Kin. London: K. Paul Trench, Trubner. [http://www.vampgirl.com/summersindex.html]
Summer, Montague (1929) The Vampire in Europe. New York: Dutton.