6 - Memory and Trauma:

Summary

This chapter examines the dream vision of Walchelin the priest, as retold by Orderic Vitalis in Book VII of his Ecclesiastical History. This episode has been analysed several times as evidence of the growing importance of purgatory in religious life. Utilising the insights of Elisabeth van Houts into the credibility of witness testimonies, gender and how memory can be anchored in material objects, it argues that this excursus in Orderic's work, presented as an oral narrative, functions as both memory of trauma, and a gendered story of reclaiming power and authority through its re-telling. Walchelin's own, apparently scarred, body can be read as a 'peg' for structuring his memory of a supernatural event. The inclusion of Walchelin's brother as one of the nightmarish host seen by Walchelin introduces a family dimension that, it is argued, makes the story relatable to Orderic's own life as well. The chapter will first outline the story, then examine the ways in which Walchelin established his authority as a witness to Orderic, and finally explore how Orderic himself both remembered and 're-membered', that is, literally put flesh on the bones of, the story in his text.