#because I think if I get a d it’s no more transy for me with an agreement with my dad

[harley-the-pancake]

Someone remind me to be gentle with myself.

[a-lesbian-of-ice-and-fire]

Spotlight on Transi Tombs, Medieval Memento Mori

*CW Death and Grief, obviously, Real-World Religion, Artistic Representations of Death and of Bugs, Worms, and Frogs

Because I have officially shown images of these on my page now I thought I would make a little blurb about one of my favourite Medieval Monuments, Transi Tombs. Do they appear in ASOIAF? Absolutely not, though they should have because they are both relevant to the themes of the books and badass, how are these not what the Crypt at Winterfell contains. Still, I felt like images of them were thematically appropriate for inclusion in a post references the story of Viserra Targaryen, a promising young person who died before her time. Onto the real history bit!

A Transi Tomb is a tomb or coffin that depicts a “Transi,” which is just a polite scholarly way of saying a rotting skeleton. They’re a type of Memento Mori (artistic reminder of death) Monument, also called a Cadaver Monument, that appears in the Late Middle Ages or approximately 1250-1500 CE (that is, just before the Renaissance). At the time they appeared, Europe was facing war, cyclical famine, and a plague that may have wiped out as much as a third of the population of some regions, death was on everyone’s mind. I think Transi Tombs are hauntingly beautiful and maybe you will too. 

Here is one:

Unknown (to me, some tourist took this).

The tombs, in their day were a reminder that everything in life is transient, a reminder of ones own mortality and the questions that poses. Often they were meant to remind a Medieval Christian that they should maybe think about squaring things with G-d, and make sure they were going to be levelling up when they died. They’re all the more beautiful today, worn by time and crumbling further, a reminder of how long someone once alive has been absent.

Sometimes, the effigy might also have included carvings of creepy critters like worms or bugs or frogs that might feed on the flesh of a decaying corpse as well. Get ready:

Tomb of Francois I de la Sarra, at the Chapel at La Sarraz

See? That’s not so bad! Yes, those are worms, yes I know they are huge, and yes those are frogs eating that young man’s genitals.

Just to prove that us historians aren’t as boring or humourless as we seem, some Transi Tombs are called “double decker,” because they include double decker bus style depictions that juxtapose the person as they looked in life with a projection of what they might look like now that they’re dead. Here we go again:

John Fitzalan, 7th Earl of Arundel, at Arundel Chapel.

Worst bunkbed ever, but still incredibly beautiful!

Here’s another one:

Alice Chaucer (yes, that Chaucer), Duchess of Suffolk, at St Mary's Church, Ewelme.

Here’s one in a book:

It’s double decker AND has bugs and worms, lucky you. In case you were wondering the caption includes something that roughly translates to “Check out my figure!” and I have a feeling she doesn’t mean the top one!

These tombs were all the rage for while- everything is transient woooOOOOooo- and I just think they are the bees knees. 

Finally, I think, because I’m in charge here, we will end with this incredibly stunning memorial:

René of Chalon, Prince of Orange, St. Etienne in Bar-le-Duc

I used a picture of his ribcage in my Viserra Targaryen aesthetic post, he's holding his own heart aloft.

“Such as I was you are, and such as I am you will be. Wealth, honour and power are of no value at the hour of your death.” -From the Medieval poem “The Three Living and The Three Dead”