O domine libera animam meam! Visualizing purgatory in Anglo-Saxon England

This article examines Anglo-Saxon images relating to the afterlife and considers how authors and artists in early medieval England may have attempted to represent the fate of the soul immediately after death and before the last judgement. Although there are a relatively high number of images of heaven and hell from early medieval England, it is more difficult to identify representations of the interim fate of the soul, partly because this fate was not fixed or static: this meant that it was more difficult to represent souls in the interim as distinct from heaven or hell, but also that it may be more difficult to identify such representations where they do exist. The article demonstrates that in one eleventh-century manuscript there is certainly a representation of the interim fate of the soul and argues that this should be understood as a visualisation of purgatory. By exploring the contemporary thought-world within which the fate of the soul immediately after death was understood and conceptualised, it is possible to understood how a range of images may have been understood in relation to the afterlife, particularly those used to illustrate the psalms.