The Three Living and the Three Dead
About the work
Imported from the workbook's Full reassessment sheet, revised 7 October 2026 (record ID 100). The assessment below is the workbook's comparative judgment under its stated criteria; source links and limits are retained.
Workbook assessment: Spread only
Date or witness: Late 13th–15th centuries; famous English image c.1310
Region: Western Europe
Workbook date-sort bounds: 1275 CE to 1500 CE; these bounds are not automatically invention or disappearance dates.
Description
Well-dressed living people encounter their future dead counterparts, with a repeated warning that the living will become what the dead now are. Arundel MS 83 II f.127 is a c.1310 example.
Evidence of adoption or transmission
The encounter with dead counterparts recurs in poetry and visual art.
What remains uncertain
Recurrence of an instructive religious formula is established; independent adoption by ordinary people is not demonstrated by the cited sources.
Workbook revision note: Reassessed using grassroots criteria