The Silent Sneeze of the Early Middle Ages * Richard Matthew Pollard ** Abstract People in Antiquity and the early Middle Ages sneezed, just as today. Few historians have considered what they did in response, however, and what they thought about this disruptive reflex. This chapter shows that while sneezes were indeed linked with divination, as has long been recognized, they had myriad other associations. Their role in augury and particularly the Bible may have lent them an unsavory character. Nonetheless, sneezes retained an important role in medicine, and this could have influenced the content of medieval gardens. More notable than anything else is the silence of the early medieval sneeze: never associated with the plague, it is likewise absent from whole genres of literature. We do not even know what someone would have said to a sneezer in this era. Keywords Sneezing; early medieval history; divination; social customs; ancient medicine; early medieval medicine; Biblical exegesis; pharmacology. Introduction One of Paul Dutton’s greatest strengths has been to remind us that something fascinating lay right under our noses. As Jo Story observed of * My thanks to Paul Dutton himself for (unwittingly) suggesting the title of this chapter. Thanks also to David Langslow, Claire Burridge, Nicoletta Palmieri, Nicholas Everett, Natalia Lozovsky, and the anonymous reviewers, without whom this chapter would have been poorer. Special gratitude goes to Lydia Philpott and the editors of this volume for their patience. The corpus of sources I amassed is so large that I was unable to discuss each and every element here: for a complete listing of what I have found, see DOI 10.34847/nkl.9050zae3. ** Département d’Histoire, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada.