Miniature of the Three Living and the Three Dead, with the Anglo-Norman poem 'Le dit des trios morts et trios vifs' below, from the De Lisle Psalter, England (East Anglia), c. 1308 – c. 1340, Arundel MS 83, f. 127v

The dialogue between the two groups is sometimes explicit, as in the relatively early example above from the early 14th century De Lisle Psalter (Arundel MS 83). Beneath a miniature of three kings encountering three corpses is an abridged version of the Anglo-Norman poem Le dit des trios morts et trios vifs which describes the ensuing conversation. Interestingly, above this double-register miniature is a series of inscriptions in the English vernacular, giving additional voice to the characters. The Three Living cry out: ‘I am afraid’ (Ich am afert), ‘Lo, what I see!’ (Lo whet ich se), and ‘Methinks these be devils three’ (Me þinkes hit bey develes þre). And the Three Dead reply: ‘I was well fair’ (Ich wes wel fair), ‘Such shall you be’ (Such schel tou be), and ‘For God’s love, beware by me’ (For godes love bewer by me).

" Only the living, a hawking party (footnote) as so often in English versions of the subject, now remain. The Three Dead were probably painted on an area of now replastered wall, shown in part at the right. "

" Two of these figures are crowned – the one at the left, with a sceptre is certainly a king – and, unusually, the central one may be, as she appears, a woman – her voluminous draperies look more like female than male garments, and there is no reason why a high-born lady should not be included in the party – falconry was a passion for many female aristocrats. Certainty is impossible though, and this might alternatively be a young prince. The third figure, at the right, has a close-fitting cap tied under the chin of the kind associated with medieval clerics and/or scholars. This man has a hawk on his hand, as perhaps the central figure also did once. "

" There are several other paintings at Belchamp Walter and one of the finest, the Virgin suckling the Christ Child, is newly on the site. All, including a rare example of the The Pelican in its Piety, more familiar in carved woodwork and stone or in manuscript illustrations, were under whitewash until fairly recently, but they will be here in due course. "

" In 1373 Edward III commanded ‘the sheriff of Oxfordshire to declare that all bridges should be repaired and all fords marked out with stakes for the crossing of the King “ with his falcons” during the approaching winter season’.
(English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages, JJ Jusserand , trs. L. Toulmin Smith, Methuen, 1961, p. 42.) "

" † in page heading = Diocese "

" I am doing research into wall paintings depicting the late medieval "legend of the three Living and the three Dead" (dit des trois morts et de trois vifs). Most of these approx. 120 murals appear on the walls of chur ches in (mostly) small villages throughout all of Europe. Of all these wall paintings, about 40 of these were to be seen in England, of which a large number still survives, one of these apparently in the Church of St Mary's, Belchamp Walter.

In the summer of last year, I have made a (cycling) tour in Norfolk, Suffolk and Northamptonshire to visit churches with murals depicting the aforementioned "legend". Enclosed you will find a few photographs of representations of this "legend" in other Churches in East Anglia. I do hope these will be of interest to you. To continue my research I am "collecting" information on the representations in other churches in England. As I understand from my information, there is a 14C wall painting in your Church: a group of three Kings.

I recieved this information from Mrs Kate Weaver, Field Officer of The Churches Conservation Trust, Norwich.

She wrote me that in St Mary's, Belchamp Walter, in which her father was vicar, years ago, wall paintings were to be seen which included "part of this story". Enclosed I send you a copy of the photocopy she has sent to me.

The presence of the remains of the "legend" in St Mary's really amazed me, because even in Tristram's, The English Wall Painting in the fourteenth Century, London, 1955, no reference was given to this part of the murals.

I very much hope there are photographs of the murals in St Mary's, especially the remains of the depiction of the three Living and the three Dead. If there are, please could you send these to me. Hopefully (again) there is also a church guide of your church.

I very much hope you will be able to help me in my "search". All costs concerning these requests, I will gladly pay back to you. Please let me know the way of payment you prefer. If there is anything I could do in return, please ask me. "

" Thank you for your letter of the 20th of August and the enclosed church guide.
Thank you also for inviting me to meet, but I am sorry to tell you I was in England, together with my wife and son, in July and August this year on a new "discovery-tour". On the 15th of July we visited the churches of the Belchamps, - Walter, - Otten and - St Paul.

We liked all three churches very much, but in particularly the church op Belchamp Walter, because of the wall paintings and the beautiful setting. I also made pic tures of some of the murals of which I include a number. Compared with most of the murals I have studied this year, the murals of Belchamp Walter's church rank among the best I have seen. I was very glad to read you are interested in the story behind the legend of the three living and the three dead, of which unfortunately only the part of the living is to be seen in your church of Belchamp Walter.

The "story" was popular in the whole of Western Europe in the late middle ages and, as I hopefully can prove, more popular than elsewhere in the England of the XIV and XV century. The "legend" is essentially the encounter between three living persons and three animate skeletons who address the living with the words: "What you are, so once were we; what we are, so shall you be". In most cases the story was painted on the north wall of the nave, as is in your church. In the neigbourhood of Belchamp Walter other depictions of the legende are and were to be seen. In Kentford and Great Livermere the representations of the legend are still to be seen; in Dalham, Bardwell and Alpheton (all places in Suffolk) the wall paintings have been destroyed in the XIX century, but the depictions were recorded.

Enclosed you will find a booklet with some articles on the subject, which I hope are of interest to you.

I thank you again for answering my letter, and hopefully we will meet in future in St Mary the Virgin, Belchamp Walter. "

" This is a modern copy of what was originally below the painting of St Christopher at Belton. At the time that the copy was made, the speech-scrolls issuing from the mouths of all three of the Living (on horseback at the left) were still legible. The first man (nearest the centre) is saying “benedicter, what want ye?”, the second “A wondrous sight is this that I see”. The third says “…will I flee”, and suits the action to the word by turning his horse round. The three men are kings, and their clothes and horse-trappings are very elaborate. "

" The Three Dead are at the right and all are naked skeletons. The encounter is set in a landscape with undulating hills in the background, and the Dead stand beside a structure I have not yet managed to identify.

Whatever this turns out to be, it is its presence here, along with the wayside Cross in the centre of the painting and the fact that the kings are on horseback that convinces me that this was not painted by an English artist In particular, I have not yet seen a wayside Cross or Calvary in an English painting of the subject, and I doubt if there are any, but this detail is so common in French versions as to be normal.

There is nothing inherently unlikely in the idea that an artist from France or the Low Countries came to paint at Belton – Hermann Scheere, the great Flemish miniaturist, worked in England in the early 15th century. And if I am right, did our Continental painter also work at Gisleham, only a few miles away? "