Magic in the Middle Ages

A few fascinating things I've learned while doing research for my fantasy book.

Feb 19, 2025

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I’ve never spent so much time reflecting, thinking, and brainstorming about my story in the past few weeks (that’s probably why I’ll need to scrap nearly my whole first draft. Sigh).

My book is of the fantasy genre and I realized that, of the gazillion things I have to pin down for my story, the magic system is one of them. Yeah, no little thing either.

Therefore, to get some inspiration, I took a look at Coursera, which has a course titled “Magic in the Middle Ages”1. I found it helpful and fascinating, so much so that I’d like to share with you three things I’ve learned from it. If you are into the fantasy genre, you may find them interesting too.

Magic: real or not real?

One of the very first topics broached in the course is the understanding of magic from a historical point of view. Why did cultures of the past believe in it? Was it because it was the only way they had to explain phenomena they couldn’t understand? Was it a cultural construct, a way to regulate and control people’s emotions, their relationship with power, and their sense of community?

These questions assume one thing: that magic isn’t real. By asking them, we may end up misunderstanding a vital element that has been part of human culture since the very dawn of its existence—an element which for some people and traditions still is a reality.

Am I saying that magic is real? Not really. What I’m saying is that, maybe, it doesn’t matter. The professors of the course are very clear that their goal isn’t to prove or disprove the existence of magic: that would be missing the point. Magic was for a person of the Middle Ages a reality—for peasants, nobles, and clergymen—therefore, if we intend to truly understand those times, it needs to be treated as such.

I had to ponder on this. Maybe magic was “just” a belief, but what happens when a belief populates your daily life? Can a belief become your reality2? How deeply do your mind and beliefs affect you?

So, this was a fun little mind-bending thought that gave me pause. Onto the next.

The Church vs. Magic

This may be an addendum to the first point, but still.

I kinda knew it already, but it landed during the course: the reason why the Christian Church was after magic was because they believed in it. They thought it was a threat.

For Christians, as for most Jews, demons were angels who had betrayed their creator and turned to evil. […] These authors perceived magic as a threat to Christian beliefs, for it offered an alternative power that could help against adversity.

Church versus Magic: The Early Middle Ages, 2:30

The whole reason the Christian Church was after magic wasn’t because they thought it was false, but because they thought that it drew power from something else which wasn’t God.

If it wasn’t God, it must have been the Devil or demons, they thought.

That’s how the act of magic (or seeking for it) turned into a proper act of heresy.

I guess I could have realized it sooner (and I also kinda did, I just didn’t think about it that deeply), considering the Inquisition and its hunt against witches, but well.

Necromancy

Until now I’ve always referred to “magic” without really explaining how it looked like exactly in the Middle Ages. It took different forms:

✨ Divination—reading, for example, upon entrails of animals, the flight of birds, or premonitory dreams to tell the future; in some cases also to affect it.
🌩 Manipulating the weather—controlling the power of thunder and lightning.
🧿 Sorcery—producing various objects (amulets, charms, potions…) to heal, protect, or harm others; counseling people about future endeavors; and all sorts of things such as binding the soul of people to objects or creating incantations through rituals and more.
☠ Necromancy—the ability to commune with the dead and unleash evil forces among the living.

This is not a complete overview of the magic practices in the Middle Ages, but you get the idea.

Now, here is my last interesting tidbit of information: necromancy.

(Probably), the word originated from the Greek terms necro (= dead) and manteia (= divination). At first, it was the ritual of communing with the dead to “divine” the future or other secret knowledge. But, through time, it turned into the more nefarious business of dealing with demons—serving them and adoring them in exchange for favors and such.

When we think about magic and the Middle Ages, of course one of the first images that we may conjure is that of the witch, typically a woman figure. In truth, for a long while, before the witch fever started, magic was practiced by both women and men.

Not only that: necromancy was a men-only type of practice.

Not only that: necromancy was mostly practiced by men of the clergy.

The reason is that necromancy required the study of complex books written in Latin—a skill that only men in the clergy had. So, yeah, some low-level churchmen dabbled in necromancy. Of course, if they were discovered, they had to go through trial and mostly ended up burned at the stake.

Even though I got some good inspiration from this course, I’m still so far from done with my research! Still, I’m happy I stumbled upon this. I’ve learned some fascinating stuff.

If you’re a writer like me, what kind of weird topics did you find yourself researching because of your stories? Any fun facts to share? Let me know by simply replying to this email, writing me at ryeyoubs@gmail.com, or leaving a comment!

Take care,

Rye Youbs