All About the Research: Magic
Today, I’m starting a new blog series about my research. I’m quite hands on, and to help make A Dragon’s Destiny pack a punch, I wanted to make sure toe include some church history. Don’t worry — what’s coming up is not a sermon, but some interesting facts from Church History and how magic was regarded in the Middle Ages.
I’ve been lucky. When it comes to writing, I love to dive in and find topics that speak to me. With A Dragon’s Destiny, it was no different. This one took me down the rabbit hole to the Middle Ages — a time of extreme change, and where Religion and Politics scratched each other’s back.
As a theologian, I’m enthralled with the stories of history — the people, places, and cultures fascinate me. When I happened upon the course, Magic in the Middle Ages, I knew I had to take it.
Being able to weave my romantic fantasy (also considered to be a paranormal romance) with historical truths as to the religious persecution, the rise of Christianity over paganism, specifically the Norse Pantheon, and all with a dragon — well, I can’t express how overjoyed I was to create it.
Here is just a small taste of what I learned:
In the Early Middle Ages, magic was not considered demonic, necessarily. There were different degrees of magic, i.e, the magic that was a part of nature, which was regarded as more neutral, and called natural magic. However, the magic that was considered demonic, which morphed into what we understand magic to be as now, and became synonymous with witchcraft, persecution, and the Inquisition, was based on the reaction of medieval theologians questioning the essence of omnipotence of God, and that of faith since an „other“ was being asked for assistance instead of God.
The understanding of magic which we have today, has a close relative in the magic of old, and was not considered to be part and parcel of the demonic world or demonology.
Can’t wait to share more of what I’ve learned from my research soon!
What is your opinion regarding magic?
