This anthology addresses from many perspectives the problem of preparation for death and the memory of the deceased. The authors are historians and church historians who are investigating the subject in a wide geographic area, and the time period covers more than half a millennium. The majority of the studies deal with the kingdom of Sweden (including Finland), Iceland, and, more generally, Scandinavia, Lesser Poland, and the diocese of Winchester, in England. The approaches and materials of the articles vary considerably but the focus of the studies is mainly on elite views on preparing a good death. Most commonly, authors approach the topic through a limited set of individuals (Kirsi Kanerva, Cindy Wood, Anu Lahtinen) or through urban materials (Dominika Burdzy and Mia Korpiola). Otfried Czaika's analysis is based on about seven hundred funeral sermons, from which he finds examples to study the Swedish situation in the second half of the seventeenth century. The examination extends also more generally to the memory of the deceased. Czaika also discusses how “Everyman and everywomen” were prepared for death (144). Riikka Miettinen's study of how those who committed suicide prepared themselves for death takes the process even closer to ordinary people. People often witnessed these cases. Witnesses usually represented subgroups of society, or even marginal groups.
The source materials used by the authors include Icelandic sagas, private letters, wills, legal and other normative texts, account documents, judicial sources, and the above-mentioned funeral sermons. In other words, the quality and quantity of source material vary greatly, which, of course, has also influenced researchers’ approaches and methods. For example, Kirsi Kanerva examines the image of the “strong-willed people” through three saga cases. Miettinen's text is based on nearly three hundred court cases. Miettinen and Mia Korpiola show in their writings how Swedish (and indeed Nordic) culture was still largely oral for a long time during the early modern period. Contrary to, for example, religious, normative, or private material, the minutes of the courts did not mention “good death” at all but focused mainly on matters relevant to legal practices.
Korpiola's multidimensional text focuses primarily on deathbed confessions, with the help of the norms of King Magnus Eriksson's town law and legal practices in Swedish towns from the Middle Ages to the seventeenth century. Dominika Burdzy's review is based mainly on previous research literature and focuses on Lesser Poland's cities, especially Kraków, through wills and legal and religious documents. The long-term approach, widely varying themes, and wide geographic area allow comparative perspectives. An important finding is that the differences in preparing for death are not significant across Northern Europe and have varied in time across the research area.
The book shows how the people of the Middle Ages and the early modern period tried to prepare for death throughout their lives. Hopes for the future lay in the afterlife. This view becomes clear, for example, in the chapter by Cindy Wood on the bishop of Winchester, William Wykeham (1366–1404), and in Czaika's chapter. Finally, Anu Lahtinen has written, from a variety of source materials, an interesting study of situations in which some Swedish nobles in the Reformation era had to pay with their lives for the changes in the political atmosphere. This anthology is a valuable addition to the study of its subject. As both editors notes in their introduction, and as Bertil Nilsson states in his concluding remarks, the findings also open up opportunities for further research.
