Weather or Not: First Crusader Conceptions of Meteorology and the Miraculous

Abstract

Recent historians of the First Crusade have written that appearances in the sky were important to crusaders because they were signs of divine approval, served a narrative function, and indicated God's plan of an upcoming apocalypse, but a comprehensive explanation of what these phenomena reveal about crusader beliefs of the natural world beyond a narrative explanation remains up for debate. While twelfth-century narrative writers often used meteorological phenomena as a narrative support, it is possible to explain how crusaders understood the role and function of both ordinary and unusual phenomena within their view of the natural world by examining the descriptions and explanations of meteorological events in accounts of the First Crusade. Crusaders' perspectives on meteorological phenomena can be understood by examining whether writers perceived and catalogued events as rare or regular, and if writers interpreted and understood these events as meaningful or insignificant. Understanding how crusaders and chroniclers perceived and described meteorological phenomena and appearances in the sky through a comparison of the combinations of these four attributes reveals that crusaders did not have a universal understanding or interpretation of meteorological events. Rather, this incongruity demonstrates that some of these early twelfth-century writers viewed the acquisition of knowledge of the natural world as a worthwhile endeavor.