Some readers might remember the television show _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ from back in the day. The leading superhero Buffy constantly eviscerated all kinds of demons in her neighborhood in sunny southern California, because — unbeknownst to local residents — it was located right on top of a Hellmouth. Turns out, the show’s writers weren’t just making the idea of the Hellmouth up. Medieval people did.
Beginning in Early Medieval Britain, the spiritual universe where the damned endured a torturous inferno was popularized in art as a gigantic beastly mouth, swallowing the miserable souls. Scenes such as this brought beliefs about the afterlife as an immediate and frightening concern to the forefront of people’s imaginations.
Accompanying imagery of the Hellmouth eventually grew depictions of another Medieval concept called “The harrowing of Hell.” (See second image.) This was the belief that after his death, Jesus descended into Hell, wrecked up a ton of demons, and freed a whole bunch of humans suffering in the Hellmouth. The image shows Christ walking atop the gates to Hell and pulling Adam out of the beast’s mouth, while the devil is imprisoned with a neck halter and handcuffs. The Harrowing of Hell isn’t directly described in the Christian Bible, but belief in this episode was extremely strong.
Source(s): Image one, the Taymouth Hours, BL, Yates Thompson MS 13, f. 142v, early 14th c. Image two, St Albans Psalter, 12th c, p 49. British Library, Medieval Manuscripts Blog, 18 Oct 2017, “Highway to Hell,” Alison Ray.
