“And this feende, that hadde power to make woman conceive”:The Demonic Seed in Supernatural Pregnancies

Alongside discussions on supernatural maternity in medieval romances, this presentation explores cases where, although the mother is human, her pregnancy is not. Whilst a number monstrous pregnancies were related to the mother’s transgressions, I look to cases where the monstrous child comes directly from the father. I draw on Middle-English romance accounts of Merlin, Sir Gowther, and related traditions: heroes whose origin is traced to a union, most times non-consensual, between a woman and a demonic being (although other supernatural creatures may also appear). I explore the influence of the ‘demonic seed’ of the father on the child’s temperament, as romance re-imaginings of Aristotle’s one-seed theory, seen in Generation of Animals (4th century BC), were used by medical authors to explain the idea that only the male could produce the child. This theory appears to dominate in the accounts of demonic fathers traced in this study, although how this is selectively deployed differs. At times, the seed is a narrative gear that explains a mortal woman’s supernatural pregnancy and the remarkable, albeit morally dubious, nature of her offspring. On other occasions, however, I argue, the father’s seed is a less obviously determinative, as in the case of Merlin, since the child transcends his father’s biological influence. As magical heirs, these sons are authoritative individuals who have their power explained by their supernatural origins, whilst the conception itself brings great costs to their mothers, who navigate rape, shame, and forced pregnancy, exposing the anxieties medieval authors held concerning demonic pollutions.