harrowing
nounEtymology By surface analysis, harrow + -ing.
1
The process of breaking up earth with a harrow.
- The field received two harrowings.
2
Suffering, torment.
3
Ravaging; hostile incursion; spoliation; intentional widespread destruction.
- Scientists who complain about the helplessness of politicians might consider the desolation in England which followed the harrowing of the north by William the Conqueror or the state of the Palatinate long after the end of the Thirty Years War[.]1956 April 23, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Chicago, page 122, column 1:
4
Christianity Christ's ravaging or hostile incursion of Hell, conducted between his crucifixion and resurrection, in which he liberated the souls of the righteous held captive by Satan.
- As in other myths, like Christ's harrowing of hell, the initiate descends into the netherworld for the magical three days.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 178:
- In the harrowing, Christ sweeps down upon death, hell, and the Devil, smashes down the doors of hell, and triumphantly carries the just off to heaven.1986, Jeffrey Burton Russell, Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages, →ISBN, page 108:
2 more examples
- The motif of the harrowing of hell was highly influential in the Insular world.2002, Michael W. Herren, Shirley Ann Brown, Christ in Celtic Christianity: Britain and Ireland from the Fifth to the Tenth Century, →ISBN, page 157:
- But Juliana's uniquely powerful chaining of the devil is surely meant to recall Christ's harrowing of hell.2013, Robert E. Bjork, The Cynewulf Reader, →ISBN, page 153:
- Derived terms
- harrowing of hell