Myths of aerial tollhouses and their tradition from George the Monk to the Life of Basil the Younger

[Extract] In this article, I will offer explanations—rooted in monastic practice, social pressures, and literary taste—for why the tollhouse myth went from almost unknown to widely popular in the ninth and tenth centuries. I explore this rise primarily through George the Monk’s version of the tollhouses and the two patristic florilegia that he appends to his tale, though I will also discuss the Life of Basil the Younger. Scholars have long pointed to George as a witness to the tollhouse myth, and Marinis has noted, albeit briefly, the signal importance of George’s use of florilegium. He writes, “Unique for its time, George’s attempt to establish a narrative of the afterlife based on the collection of relevant sources heralds a mentality that would become prevalent from the eleventh century on.”21 George, I argue, testifies to transitions in both the conceptualization of the postmortem and anthology’s role in the articulation and legitimation of this myth.