Medieval Animals

The aim of this book is to explore the characteristics of the medieval dragon and discuss the sometimes differing views found in the relevant medieval text types. Based on an intimate knowledge of the primary texts, the study presents new interpretations of well-known literary works, and also takes into consideration paintings and other depictions of these beasts. Dragons were designed not only to frighten but also to fire the imagination, and provide a suitably huge and evil creature for the hero to overcome—yet there is far more to them than reptilian adversaries. This book introduces the medieval dragon via brief, accurate and clear chapters on its natural history, religion, literature and folklore, and concludes with how the dragon—from Beowulf to Tolkien, Disney and Potter—is constantly revived.

This book is an entertaining, informative and enchanting introduction to its subject—just as those medieval banes of the farmyard, the Fox and the Vixen, were enchanting in escapades from fables and funny tales, from beastly epic poems and bestiaries, and from medieval material culture (in Danish wall-paintings and Dutch manuscript illustrations and statues, stained-glass and Italian mosaics). There exist books on medieval fox stories and on the animal's iconography, which are important themes in this study, but this book is the first holistic approach to all types of manifestations of foxes in medieval culture—from medical recipes and fur trade, to Bible commentaries and hunting manuals.

Introducing the Medieval Ass presents a lucid, accessible, and comprehensive picture of the ass's enormous socio-economic and cultural significance in the Middle Ages and beyond. In the Middle Ages, the ass became synonymous with human idiocy, a comic figure representing foolish peasants, students too dull to learn, and their asinine teachers. This trope of foolishness was so prevalent that by the eighteenth century the word 'ass' had been replaced by 'donkey'. Economically, the medieval ass was a vital, utilitarian beast of burden, rather like today's ubiquitous white van; culturally, however, the medieval ass enjoyed a rich, paradoxical reputation. Its hard work was praised, but its obstinacy condemned. It exemplified the good Christian, humbly bearing Christ to Jerusalem, but also represented Sloth, a mortal sin. Its potent sexual reputation—one literary ass had sex with a woman—was simultaneously linked to sterility and, to this day, 'ass' and 'arse' remain culturally-connected homophones.

• Birds have always been a popular and accessible subject, but most books about medieval birds are an overview of their symbolism generally: owl for ill-omen, the pelican as a Eucharistic image and the like. The unique selling point of this book is to focus on one bird and explore it in detail from medieval reality to artistic concept. • This book also traces how and why the medieval perception of the swan shifted from hypocritical to courtly within the medieval period. With special attention to 'The Knight of the Swan', the book traces the rise and popularity of the medieval swan through literature, history, courtly practices, and art. • The book uses thoroughly readable language to appeal to a wide audience and explains some of the reasons why the swan holds such resonance today by covering views of the swan from classic to early modern times.

What did medieval people call the animals they lived and worked with? Why did they give them the names they did? This book sets out to answer these questions. Drawing evidence from literary, documentary and material sources, it surveys the surviving evidence of pet-naming from the period, as well as examining the labels given to livestock and working animals, and the folk-names given to wild birds and beasts. Alongside building up a corpus of names, the conventions that directed animal naming in the Middle Ages are considered, as well as how proper nouns behaved when given to non-human organisms. Through its inquiry, the book lays bare the period's larger attitudes towards animals, their functions and identities, and at the same time sheds light on how the Middle Ages conceived the natural world as a whole and its relationship with human beings and their culture.