Visions
This chapter focuses on the visionary otherworld of the early Middle Ages, wherein the damned can improve or even be saved, the living can see death, and the dead can return. In these visions, the percipients and their audience were negotiating the conventions for exchanging merits and demerits, sentiments of contrition for past deeds or wicked thoughts, and the comprehension of otherworld realities. The chapter then looks at six visionary narratives recorded from the mid-seventh to the mid-eighth centuries. These visionary narratives represent the experiences of living persons in the land of the dead. The chapter also discusses the narrative and visual aspects of visions. In the narrative, the soul moves from one scene to the next. Some areas they visit have names, others physical descriptions. As a visual experience, the soul sees the victims suffering and the environments or agents that inflict it.