Dear all,
I am once more very short of time and can't comment on any of this
appropriately but would nevertheless like to throw in a few hurried remarks:
- fire and ice in hell
The combination of fire and ice is one of the most common elements in
medieval representations of hell. For Christian authors, the scriptural
basis was Iob 24,19 (ad nimium calorem transeat ab aquis nivium) linked
with Mt 24,51 / Lc 13,28 ("fletus et stridor dentium"). As a topographic
element of hell, you can find it, for instance, in Bede's report of the
Visio Dricthelmi (Hist. eccl. V 12 or 13) and in the Vision of Tnugdal.
It's difficult (at least for me) to put a first date to it. I think -- but
can't check at the moment -- that it occurs already in the second book of
Henoch (Secrets of Henoch). I also think -- but have no time to check my
texts thoroughly -- that the combination of fire and ice is *not* yet in
the Apocalypse of St. Peter and in the early long versions of the Vision of
St. Paul, yet the latter already has, at the end and climax of Paul's visit
to hell, a northern place in hell with the 'worm' of hell, where the damned
(those who deny the resurrection of Christ and of the flesh) suffer 'frigor
et stridor' without any contrasting or relieving heat: "et vidi illic uiros
ac mulieres in frigore et stridor<e> dencium. [...] Et interrogaui et dixi:
Domine, non est ignis neque caolor in hoc loco? Et dixit mihi: In hoc loco
aliut nihil est nisi frigus et niues: et iterum dixit mihi: Etiam si sol
oriatur super eos, non calefiunt proterea superabundans frigus loci istius
et niues." (ed. M. R. James, Apocrypha anecdota, Cambridge 1893, p.34). In
any case, the combination of fire and ice is widespread as a topographic
element in the later shorter redactions of this vision (e.g. short
redaction IV, which is also somewhere in our list archives: "in loco
glaciali, et urebat de media parte et de media frigebat"). As the initial
query was about a Welsh description of a place with frigor in hell, I would
conclude from this very hasty survey that we don't need to look for
classical precedents (or for Christian precedents drawing on classical
sources).
- bridge in hell:
Again a very popular motif. Our expert for this is Peter Dinzelbacher, _Die
Jenseitsbru"cke im Mittelalter_, Diss. phil. Wien 1973 (= Dissertationen
der Universita"t Wien, 104), yet I have to admit that somehow I have never
laid hand on this book. The most common notion of the bridge in (or
associated with) hell presents it as a sort of probe where the bridge can
be crossed only by souls without (or sufficiently purged of) sin whereas
the sinners fall off the bridge and are tortured by demons in the water or
fire below. The most funny version is the one in the vision of Tnugdal
where the visionary is guilty of the theft of a cow has to bring not only
himself, but also a cow across the bridge. I am not sure about the origins,
but the probationary bridge can already be found in Gregory's Dialogues, in
his his report of the visio cujusdam militis (Dial. IV, 36). The bridge can
also be found in Islamic tradition, and this influence can occasionally be
spotted in Christian texts which describe the bridge as being thin as a
human hair (e.g. one of the Italian versions of the Vision of St. Paul).
Sorry to be so sketchy (and apologies to those who have written to me off
the list and did not yet receive a reply),
Otfried
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