Ilmutusjuttude teisenemisest Saksamaal ja Skandinaavia maades aastatel 1350-1700
On the Transformation of Apparition Stories in Scandinavia and Germany, c. 1350-1700

Summary/Abstract: The article explores the transformation of apparition stories after the late Middle Ages and the Reformation in Scandinavia and the Lutheran parts of Germany. Angelic apparitions replaced the former Catholic Marian and saint apparitions. Lutheran apparitions did not, however, lead to the establishment of a cult, nor was the place where apparitions had occurred viewed as sacred. Theologians have argued that while a number of apparitions (and apparition stories) were true and useful (historiae), many of them were perceived as fiction (fabulae). Since the apparition stories contain a number of recurrent elements, the author observes different factors, which might have influenced the development of these elements. A number of motifs have stayed active and are used in new stories by common knowledge, ecclesiastical teaching and practice, oral communication and cheap broadsides and pamphlets recounting accounts of former apparitions.

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