Legends and Satires from Mediæval Literature

by Unknown

Then the prior and the convent commended him to God and went forth, shutting the gate. The knight took the way leading to the field where was the hall of stone. The hall was the work of no earthly workman; it was cleverly made in fashion of a cloister, with pillars on each side. When the knight had stood a long time, marvelling, he entered. Soon, thirteen wise men appeared, all dressed in white habits and with their heads newly tonsured. Their leader, advancing, saluted the knight, and then sat down to instruct him: "I shall counsel thee, dear brother, as I have many another who has passed this way, to be of good faith, certain, and without doubt, for thou wilt see, when we have departed, a thousand fiends and more to lead thee to torment; take note that if thou dost obey them in the slightest thing, thy soul will be lost. Keep God in thy heart, and think how He suffered from His wounds. Unless thou dost as I tell thee, thou wilt go to hell, body and soul, and be lost eternally. If thou dost speak God's high name, they cannot harm thee." When he had thus counselled the knight, the leader and his fellows commended him to God, and with benign looks went forth from the hall.

Owain, left there in dread, began to lament and call upon God. Soon he heard a piteous cry; he could not have been more frightened if the heaven had fallen. When he had recovered from the fear caused by that cry, there came flocking in a crowd of fiends, fifty score or more, loathsome things altogether. Crowding around the knight they laughed him to scorn, saying that he had come in flesh and skin to win the joys of hell forever. The master fiend, falling upon his knees, said, "Welcome, Owain; thou art come to suffer penance for thy sins, but thou wilt get no benefit, for thou shalt have torments, hard and strong and tough enough because of thy deadly sins. Never hadst thou more mischance than thou shalt have in our dance when we begin our sport. However, if thou wilt do our bidding, since thou art dear to us, our whole company will bring thee back with tender love to the spot where thou didst leave the prior. If thou dost refuse, we shall prove to thee that thou hast served us many a year in pride and luxury, and all our company will thrust their hooks at thee." Owain answered, "I forsake your counsel, and will endure my penance." When the fiends heard this, they made a great fire in the hall, and binding him fast, feet and hands, they cast him into the midst of it. He called upon our Lord, and at once the fire vanished; no coal nor spark was left, through the grace of God Almighty. As soon as the knight saw this he grew bolder, realizing that it was the treachery of the fiends to try his heart.

Then the devils went out of the hall, leading the knight with them to a strange place, where nothing good entered, only hunger, thirst, and cold. He could see no tree, could hear no sound of wind, yet a cold blast blew that pierced his side. At last the fiends brought him to a valley where the knight thought he must have reached the deepest pit of hell. As he drew nearer, he looked about, for he heard screaming and groaning, and he saw a field full of men and women, each lying face downward, naked, and with deadly wounds. They lay prone on the earth, bound with iron bands, screaming and wailing, "Alas, alas, mercy, mercy, mercy, God Almighty!" Mercy there was none, but only sorrow of heart and grinding of teeth, which was a grisly sight. That sorrow and misery is punishment for the foul sin of sloth. Whosoever is slow in God's service may expect to lie in purgatory in such torment.

That was the first pain that they inflicted on him, and after he had recovered, they took him to a place where he saw more misery. Men and women crying out, "Alas!" and "Welaway!" lay there, faces upward, as the others had lain with faces downward, with feet and hands and heads nailed fast to the earth with nails glowing red. Owain saw loathsome fiery dragons sitting upon them; on others sat black toads, newts, adders, and snakes that ate them, backs and sides. This is the punishment of gluttony; for the love of God be warned, since that sin flourishes all too widely. Owain thought a wind blew among them so bitter and so cold that it overthrew all who lay in purgatory. The fiends quickly leaped upon the sufferers and tore them furiously with their hooks. Whosoever, man or woman, is guilty of impurity in this life, shall suffer in that prison. The fiend said to the knight, "Thou hast been unclean and a great glutton, also; into this torment thou shalt be thrust unless thou wilt return speedily the way thou didst come." Owain said, "Nay, Satan, further still shall I go, through the grace of God Almighty." The fiends would have seized him, but he called upon God Omnipotent, and they lost all their power.

They then led him into a spot where men never did any good deeds, but only shameful and villainous ones. In the fourth field this was, full of torments. There were people hanging by the feet from burning iron hooks, others hung by the neck, the stomach, the back, and in other ways too numerous to mention. Some were hanging by the tongue, and their constant cry was "Alas!" and no other prayer. In a furnace with molten lead and burning brimstone boiling over the fire were many folk. Some lying on gridirons glowing against the flames were people whom Owain had once known, but who were now entirely changed through the penance they suffered. A wild fire surged among them, and all whom it seized, it burned, ten thousand souls and more. Those that hung by feet and neck were thieves, or the companions of thieves, and wrought men woe. Those that hung by the tongue and ever sang "Alas!" and cried so loudly were backbiters in their lives. Beware, man or wife, if thou art fond of chiding! All the places the knight came by were full of the pains of purgatory. Whosoever takes the name of God in vain, or bears any false witness, suffers strong pains there.

Owain saw where a grisly-looking wheel turned; huge it was, burning like a brand as it wound around, and covered with hooks. A hundred thousand souls and more were hanging from the wheel. The fiends turned it about so fast that Sir Owain could not recognize anybody there. Out of the earth came a burning blue fire; it smelled foully, and it went around the wheel, burning the souls to a very fine powder. The wheel that runs thus is for the punishment of covetousness that now reigns everywhere. The covetous man has never enough gold or silver or even ploughs until Death fells him. The fiends said to the knight, "Thou hast been covetous of winning land and men; upon this wheel thou shalt be placed unless thou wilt return at once to thine own country." When he refused, the fiends seized him, bound him fast upon the revolving wheel, and cast him in the midst. When the hooks tore him and the fire burned him, he thought of Jesus Christ. An angel bore him from the wheel, and all the fiends there could do him no harm.

Further he was led in great pain, until they came to a mountain that was red as blood. Men and women stood on it, in misery, it seemed, for they cried as if they were mad. The fiends then said to the knight, "Thou art wondering about these men who make such doleful cheer. They have deserved the wrath of God; soon they shall have such a drink as they will not think pleasant." No sooner had he spoken than there came a blast of wind that took fiends and souls and knight up almost into the firmament, and then cast them down into a foul-smelling river that ran under the mountain of fire as an arrow from a cross-bow. It was as cold as ice, and no one can describe the pain that he suffered. Owain was almost drowned in the water, and became so frenzied and faint that he was well-nigh lost. As soon as he could think upon God he was brought out of the water and carried to land. That pain is the punishment of wrath and envy. Envy was the blast of wind which cast him into the smelling water. Let every man beware of it.

They led him forth quickly until they came to a hall whose like he had never seen before; out of the hall came such heat that the knight began to sweat. He saw so foul a smoke that he stopped, and when the fiends perceived it they were pleased. "Turn again," they began to cry, "thou shalt die, unless thou dost withdraw." When he came to the hall door he saw misery, a half of which he had never imagined. The hall was a place of torments; those folk who were in that prison were stripped of all happiness, for the floor of the hall was full of pits, round and filled to the top with brimstone, brass, copper, and other metals all molten. Men and women stood in these, screaming and crying as if they were mad; some stood up to the waist, others to the breast, and some to the chin. Each man according to his guilt was fixed in that torment, to suffer that great heat. Some bore around their necks bags full of pennies glowing with fire, and such meat they ate. These were usurers in this life. Beware, men and women, lest such sin hinder you. And many souls there walked upright, bearing false measures and false weights, which fiends sat upon. The fiends said to the knight, "Thou must bathe in this lead before thou go hence; because of thy usury and thy sin, thou must wash thyself somewhat." Owain feared that torment, and called upon God Omnipotent and His mother Mary. He was borne out of the hall, from the pains and all the fiends, when he made that outcry.

Soon he was frightened by seeing a flame of fire, mighty and thick, spring out of the earth, like coal and pitch. Of seven colors was this fire, and some of the souls burning in it were yellow, some green, some black, some blue, and some like adders. They were woful indeed. The fiends took the knight to the pit, and said, "Now, Owain, thou mayst find solace, for thou shalt shake with our fellows in the pit of hell. These are our birds in our cage, and this is our court and our castle tower. Dost thou think, Sir Knight, that to those who are brought here anything is sharp? Now turn again, ere it be too late, before we thrust thee into hell gate, for thou shalt never issue out of it by means of any crying or calling upon Mary, or by any other trick." The knight was firm, so the fiends seized and bound him, and cast him far down into that dark, evil, reeking prison. The farther down they thrust him the hotter it was, and he suffered cruelly. With good will and steadfast heart he called upon God Omnipotent to help him out of that torment, and he was borne up out of the pit, otherwise he would have been lost until the day of his death. That suffering, which lasts forever, is for the foul sin of pride.

Outside the pit he realized how God had rescued him. His clothes were torn to pieces, his body was burned all over, and he knew not which way to go. He changed color when he saw more fiends, none of whom he recognized in that strange place. Some of them had sixty eyes that were loathsome and grisly, some had sixty hands. They said, "Thou shalt not be alone, but shalt have us for company, to teach thee the new laws, as before thou didst learn them in that spot where thou wast among our fellows." The fiends then led the knight towards a foul-smelling body of water, such as he had never seen. It was many miles in breadth and black as pitch. Owain saw passing over it a very strong but narrow bridge. The fiends said, "Lo, Sir Knight, seest thou this? This is the bridge of paradise; across this thou must go, and we shall hurl stones at thee, and the wind shall blow thee over and work thee woe. Thou wilt never pass over this without falling into the midst of our fellows to dwell forevermore. When thou hast fallen down, then all our company will come and wound thee with their hooks. We shall teach thee a new sport, for thou hast served us many a day, and we will lead thee into hell."