Pilgrim Reindeer in Pisa, 1348 a free multimedia novel by Thomas A. DuBois, University of Wisconsin-Madison

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 Part II. The Hansa Lands and France. 32. The Road to Metz [November 11, 1347]

In this chapter, I wanted to explore what it would mean to have never travelled by wheeled vehicle before. The wheel effect is something I notice often when biking, and it occurred to me that a medieval viewer would attach supernatural meanings to it, even though I've never read of them doing so in any text. I also wanted Bávlos to continue his sorting of Sámi and Christian cosmology, figuring out who the devil corresponds to in Sámi mythology and which afterlife destination is which. The detail of hell being cold is a familiar one in the Nordic region, where the hot, flame-infested hell of Central European imagination seemed simply too pleasant. The exception, of course, is Iceland, which had its own volcanoes to help people imagine the terrors of a firey hell. From here on, Bávlos will be regarding the Plague as a manifestation of Ruto, whom he equates with the Christian devil.