tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41767691568258381902024-03-18T20:36:20.464-07:00A Blog of Beasts!Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.comBlogger118125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-69455110415503578012015-06-03T07:25:00.001-07:002015-06-03T07:25:30.158-07:00Saint Francis and the Miracle of Manners<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Saint Francis is
probably the most popular of the non-Biblical saints, save perhaps Saint
Patrick or Ireland or Saint Diego, hero of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico.
What is it about his life that captures the religious imagination? It’s
probably because of how his tales are told to children as powerful
instructional fables. Many of the stories are about Saint Francis telling some
noisy animals to be quiet while he’s meditation or preaching, and the animal
obeying. Obviously, when we listen to a sermon, we should be quiet as well. Proper
veneration for idols is also encouraged by Saint Francis. When a spider
accidentally defaces a statue of the Virgin Mary, he’s encouraged to correct
his mistake. Singing pleasantly, avoiding pointless cruelty, and praying meditatively
are all encouraged to animals by Saint Francis, and are all encouraged
behaviors to churchgoers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What is
instructive here is to celebrate Saint Francis’ ability to enable animals to
act as humans. In “The Robin Redbreast Family”, for instance, Saint Francis is
pleased that the robins are acting as if they could reason. It’s their rational
behavior that is miraculous, and that allows Saint Francis to interact with
them. Saint Francis couldn’t punish the spider, for example, because he realizes
the spider doesn’t know any better, but by speaking seriously with the spider,
he’s able to impart a sense of rational behavior in it. The robin of “The Robin
Redbreast Family” is firmly established to be able to approximate human
rationality before it is punished for its cruelty. In “Now it is My Turn,
Sister Swallows!” Saint Francis is able to reason with the sparrows (“it is my
turn”) and get them to act like the humans in the crowd. In this way, rational
human behavior is made miraculous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Saint Francis is
said to have treated animals as the equals of humans, but if the point of his
stories are to demonstrate how he can elevate animals to human rationality, how
is it possible that he considers them equals? He clearly doesn’t believe that
all animals are exactly the same. Saint Francis does not like ants as much as
other animals “because of the excessive zeal they display in amassing supplies
for the winter.” He kills a giant snake and curses a young robin to an early
painful death, while other animals are only gently rebuked when they are in
error. He doesn’t reject the knowledge at the time that animals are driven by
particular instincts shared among the species. Saint Francis’ surprise at the
willingness of the birds to listen indicates that he’s well aware of how birds
act and to a certain degree think. Perhaps it’s just that he treats the animals
<i>as if</i> they are equals, rather than
truly believing that they are equals. He negotiates with the animals rather
than exhibiting a supernatural control. He can’t simply command the snake to
stop attacking people, or tell the robin to share its food more ethically. He
“humbly begged” (Sorrell, 401) the birds to listen to him, rather than
compelling them to. The fact that he can deal with the animals in this way is the
thaumaturgical element of his Sainthood. It’s what moves both him, his
companions writing about him, and the modern audience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This would seem
to lead to Lynn White’s “pan-psychic” theory, the belief that all animals have
some common sense of spirit that is even shared with humans. However, the
context that Saint Francis’ abilities are miraculous must be emphasized. Saint
Francis himself is “not a little surprised” that he is able to deliver a sermon
unto the birds. That he attempts it without knowing whether the birds will
actually listen does suggest that he holds a belief in a common spiritual need
within the animals. He had a great affection for animals, so he was continually
moved to fulfill that need. This isn’t the only reason he gives sermons to birds,
though. When the people of Rome reject him, he delivers his sermon to the birds
in order to demonstrate to the Romans how wicked and unfaithful they are. This
story suggests two things. One is that Saint Francis believes in the importance
of the sermon, an importance that may exist apart from the audience. Birds suit
him just as well as people. There are multiple biblical references to preaching
to non-humans. Sorrell mentions Psalm 148 the Hymn of the Three Children, but
in Luke 19:40, Jesus says “I tell you, if [my disciples] were silent, the very
stones would cry out.” Regardless of
whether this is a literal statement, it’s a powerful rhetorical message, which
may have inspired Saint Francis. Saint Francis is perfectly willing to
potentially embarrass himself to reach the ears of humans. When Pope Innocent
III tells Saint Francis to bathe with the pigs, he does so, demonstrating his
commitment to his cause and moving the Pope’s heart. The Romans mock him for
preaching to birds until he actually demonstrates that he can. This goes back
to the idea of instruction. If Saint Francis can have such an equitable and
harmonious relationship with animals, human rejection reflects poorly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This final point
brings up the question of power. Sorrell quotes White as suggesting that Saint
Francis miracles were an attempt to create a democracy of creatures,
supplanting the role of humans as the lords of creation. The idea of giving
animals human reason and thereby “elevating” them does suggest that there is
some anti-hierarchical activity going on in Saint Francis’ work, as does his
willingness to treat with them at all. However, the very essence of Saint
Francis’ abilities is that humans constantly have trouble maintaining that
hierarchy, if it even existed in the first place. Anyone who has a pet knows
that it takes a lot of work to get an animal to do what you tell it to do, and
pets are our friends. It’s impossible for a mundane human to command a wild
animal effectively. By giving the animals reason, Saint Francis is able to
reaffirm hierarchy. He’s able to convince animals to listen to him and to cease
interrupting his sermons, in doing so recognizing the proper authority of the
priest. His encounters in Rome demonstrate that he can reaffirm human
hierarchies as well. As a Saint, Francis should demand the attention of the
Romans and even the Pope. That they don’t is disorder. Saint Francis’ unique
charisma and humility, however, is able to move human skeptics just as well as
animals. The ultimate instruction of Saint Francis’ life, it seems, is the
power of polite society and respect and compassion for others.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">BKing</span></div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-35960511677993490282015-06-02T20:56:00.000-07:002015-06-02T20:56:23.286-07:00A Sermon to the Birds or the Burghers?
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When I think about St. Francis
preaching to the “brother birds of Rome,” I picture a fairly petulant young
man, rejected by snooty, wealthy Romans, marching out of the city grumbling to
himself, “Well if you won’t listen to me, I bet these birds will. You just
watch.” This image is not that far from what Thomas of Celano tells us
happened.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
And while the most famous “Sermon to the Birds” occurs not in Rome but in the
Valley of Spoleto, the sentiment of the content in both seems to be quite
similar: to preach a message meant for urban humans, but delivered to birds as
a means of humiliation. </div>
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Something that we did not talk
about much in class but has slowly become apparent to me is the contrast
between Francis’ interactions with “wild” animals and the very specific urban
situations he interacts with humans in. Thomas of Celano presents a number of
place names – Rome, Cannara, Bevagna, Alessandria, Gubio, Greccio<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
- that Francis visits, places that not just country monasteries or feudal
manors, but towns and cities. I want to draw attention to this not only because
it provides fodder that modern environmentalists seem to not use (what with the
need for urbanites to live with and respect creation), but because it seems to
indicate that parts of Francis’ ministry was directed at a group of people
living in specific socio-economic conditions. There always seems to be much
made of medieval urban environments as the ultimate birthplace of the middle
class, not as wealthy as the nobility but still better-off than the peasantry.
I would propose that, given Francis’ attempts to mediate between the urban and
the “natural,” his “Sermon to the Birds” should (and can) be read as applying
directly to urban Italians. </div>
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If we assume that Francis is
preaching to the birds lessons he really intends for humans, then his words
take on new meaning. He says, “My Bird Brothers and Sisters, you owe much to
God, and you must always and everywhere praise your creator and ever love Him
and thank Him.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a>
This statement’s relation to humans is fairly straightforward: humans, as well
as birds, should be in constant praise of God, which we agreed in class today
was a major concern of Francis’. </div>
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“For your freedom to fly wherever
you wish.” Could this be interpreted as the urban dweller’s freedom to move
between towns and villages, as opposed to the peasant tied to a specific plot
of land? Perhaps. Francis could also be referring to the urbanite’s burgeoning
ability to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">choose</i> an occupation. The
urban human has the freedom to choose their job (within certain limits) and to
change location in order to prosper as a result of that job.</div>
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“For your double and triple
clothing, for your beautiful colored feathers.” I see this as a reference to
the newborn middle class’ economic ability to purchase multiple garments of
clothing, and for such garments to be of a high quality.</div>
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“For your food which is ready
without your working for it.” In a city or town, the residents themselves are
not farming the crops or raising the animals they consume, at least not on a
large scale. Their food comes into the city without them having directly raised
it, much as the birds are fed by crops left exposed by a careless farmer. </div>
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“For your songs which your creator
has taught you, for your numbers which God’s blessing has multiplied, for your
seed being preserved by God in Noah’s ark, for the pure air which God has
reserved for you as your realm.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span></span></span></a>
Like Francis’ introduction, these statements’ connection to humanity is not as
veiled, for humans have also multiplied, were also on Noah’s ark, etc. </div>
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“God has made you noble among his
creatures: you neither reap your sow, yet God feeds you and gives you mountains
and valleys, rocks and high trees as refuges to nest in.” Certainly man is
“noble among [God’s] creatures;” in the hierarchy of Earthly creation, they are
at the top. But the urban human, specifically, does not reap or sow, as I have
said, but is fed. The proliferation of nesting locations for birds can be read
as the ability for humans to develop an urban community just about anywhere.
Rome, for example, is famously built on seven hills, while Francis visits many
towns in the Valley of Spoleto.</div>
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“And though you know not how to
spin or sew, He nevertheless protects and governs you without your being solicitous.
And he gives to you and your children the covering you need.” Admittedly, I
cannot think of a parallel between human activity and the domestic
incapabilities of birds. I will suggest that humans are also protected and
governed by God without having to ask for it, and they always receive what they
need. </div>
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“So your Creator loves you very
much, since He showers so many good things on you. Therefore, my Bird Sisters,
take care not be ungrateful and strive always to praise God.” Like the birds,
humans must always strive to praise God, because He loves them very much. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Some of Francis’ statements apply
to a more general swath of humanity, particularly those referring to the love
of God and the reciprocal love for God. However, some of the specific qualities
that Francis points out in the birds seem to fit (some more easily than others)
the developing urban situation that Francis often preaches in. In this context,
it would be worth considering the fact that a wolf is hungry and wandering
through the streets of Gubio. It is likely that the town encroached on the
wolf’s natural habitat, perhaps causing such a loss of the wolf’s preferred
food that it needed to take to attacking humans. Francis’ ministry, therefore,
not only points to the specific condition of living in an urban environment, but
also seeks to mediate the relationship between the urban and the natural. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I do realize that Francis did not
treat every animal he encountered as a lesson to urban Italians, and that he
often was concerned, as Sorrel points out, with returning both humans and
animals to an Edenic state.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span></span></span></a>
In the context of preaching directly animals, though, often as a rhetorical
technique against unwilling humans, it seems that the qualities Francis praises
and encourages the birds to praise God for are also qualities that are shared
by urban humans. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>RAE</div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
Brown, 40-41. </div>
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<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
Ibid., 40, 42, 74, 75, 81. </div>
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<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a>
Ibid., 43. </div>
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<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span></span></span></a>
Ibid., 44.</div>
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<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span></span></span></a>
Sorrel, 404. </div>
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Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-62116688292826866452015-05-29T23:40:00.001-07:002015-05-29T23:40:08.254-07:00The Many Species of Dragon<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rather like cats, dragons seem to have taken on a reputation for being especially symbolic creatures. As Samantha J. E. Riches describes, “a cursory study of the imagery, legends and lore associated with dragons and related monsters clearly demonstrates that these mythical creatures have a multiplicity of associations and can exemplify many different ideas” (“Encountering,” 197). The questions that our readings and discussion raised for me, however, was whether they were indeed a “special” type of animal in some way, more legendary than real, or simple, real creatures just like any others, with diabolical meanings attached to their wings instead of holy ones, just in a far away place—or even real creatures that one can encounter in one’s own backyard swamp. After our discussion, I believe I have come down on the side of “yes” to all of these, leaning more one way or another depending upon the context. As we ended up asking in class, can it truly be said that there is just a being of a “dragon” in the medieval era? Can we think of it rather as different species? Or perhaps different manifestations based on need? In the case of symbolic dragons, if they do indeed have any sort of enhanced symbolism, can we, as in the case of cats, possibly attribute that quality either to their physical form or their liminal role in the animal kingdom?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we saw in the case of Beowulf’s dragon, or rather dragons, even in just the one text there was the possibility of two interpretations of dragon-kind: Fafnir and what I will refer to as simply the Dragon (with a capital D, which I feel it deserves). For the first type, we see Fafnir, who is a crawling, snake-like creature without flight (Shilton, 68). Fafnir was also not originally a dragon, at least according the the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Volsunsaga</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and he therefore seems to be a much more direct representation of symbolism than the other. This dragon, we are told, was not originally a dragon. Instead, he was a man who was excessively greedy as well as being murderous, and he transformed into a dragon as a result of these failures of virtue (71). On the other hand, we have the Dragon, who Howard Shilton argues, though it may also have been assumed to be originally human, appears to be more literally an animal. This Dragon has flight, has the ability to “spew” fire and wreak havoc on towns, and flies wreathed in flame (67). Although it is possible that this Dragon was originally interpreted as the result of a transformation similar to Fafnir’s (72), in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beowulf</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, it is “a real dragon, it is a primordial creature, a beast” without, tellingly, Fafnir’s capacity for human speech (73). Although it is not a common creature, such a beast may have been regarded as something akin to a komodo dragon: unusual and foreign, but there (71). The Dragon is “evil” without intentionality rather than “Evil” (74). It does still share the non-virtuous features seen in Fafnir, however. This Dragon is associated with greed, hoarding treasure, and murderousness, “fuelled by the desire to appease its anger and malice” (74), though Shilton claims that it is not “immoral” (74). </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Though this is Shilton’s interpretation rather than necessarily that of the writer, this reminds me (of course) of the bestiaries, discussing the emotions of animals. An animal can perhaps be wrathful, but can it be sinfully wrathful in the same way as a human being? That question also brings again to mind the animal trials, where animals were put on trial for murder. Given our failure to make total sense of that extremely puzzling historical phenomenon, it is uncertain whether people ascribed intentionality to animal emotion and activity. In the transformation of Fafnir, though, there seems to be another, clearer similarity to the animal trials: the blurring between the animal and the human. Sinfulness in humans might create a real transformation into animality. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">In our other readings, more pieces of the dragon puzzle continued to reminded me of the animal trials through one interpretation of interaction with these creatures seen across multiple readings. The first is again in Shilton’s piece, where he describes the Dragon, arguing for its animality, as “an inimical force of nature,” evil only in the sense that “a natural phenomenon is evil” (Shilton, 74). Riches (interesting name for a dragon scholar, by the way) similarly describes some dragons in her more general piece covering dragon representations, “Encountering the Monstrous.” There are violent encounters between humans and these monsters, such as the famous battle between St. George and the dragon, but there also episodes of non-violent encounters between saints and dragons. In these, “a dangerous monster, symbolic of the hostile natural world, is contained and tamed rather than annihilated,” and it may be driven off by the sign of the cross or the saint’s injunction (Riches, “Encountering,” 208). In one story, discussed by both Peregrine Horden and Riches, a saint divides an area into separate parts using his staff, reserving one side for the continued life of the snakes (208). Rather than destroying them, the saint gives the snakes their own place to live where they will not be of harm to people. Does this sound familiar to anyone else? </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the week on animal trials, we puzzled over ecclesiastical animal trials and the habit of giving pest animals their own plot of land, which they were enjoined to take for their own in the stead of the land which they were then occupying. Do the saint and dragons stories give us a new way to think about those trials, in seeing them as a potential imitation of popular Christian methods for dealing with the holy world which apparently had worked before in Saints' lives? Or, ascribing less causality to the situation, which brings up chicken and egg issues, might we at least see them as a very similar manifestation of the view of the natural world in the medieval era? As Shilton argues, natural was not necessarily seen as Evil, or a force of Satan, although it could be, just as we see that the dragon could similarly be a diabolical symbol. Instead, it could just be a threat to be redirected, or, as Horden puts it, an “ecological hazard” to be removed, at least in some instances (46).</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The story of the saint dividing the island also appears in Horden’s argument for the dragon as a largely literal, physical, beast-representation of malarial sorts of disease. The dragon is the natural world (or malarial swamps and their products), and getting rid of the dragon is draining the swamp, getting rid of the source of disease. As we discussed in class, however, it is a bit unclear as to how the dragon can both be representative and literal, although Horden left me engaged with the lack of clarity in the issue rather than unconvinced. I think, again, the answer is "yes" to that either/or question. It is true that, as Professor Fulton Brown said, of course people did not see literal dragons—after all, we know now that dragons are imaginary (at least in this world/universe), and t</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">he most obvious rebuttal to this is again the bestiary argument: it depends on what you mean by “dragon.” Dragons as Albertus Magnus saw them certainly did exist, they were simply the gigantic snakes found in India, no more misrepresented than the elephant was. But I am not sure that we can totally discount people seeing dragons up close in dragon form, if we get into the psychology arena. I believe that it is in Keith Thomas’s </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Religion and the Decline of Magic </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that he mentions the idea that the imaginary things people see, or how they misinterpret what they see, depends on the time period. People arguably really did see armies battling in the sky in the aurora borealis or ghosts in flickering candlelight. I am not entirely sure that we can say that when a person visited a swamp and saw a monster, they actually saw a crocodile and just did not know its name, or they were simply misnaming a thing they never saw. Instead, they may have really seen what was, to them at that moment, a dragon. The point being, as Horden describes in the opening vignette of the malaria article, even recently an anthropologist was in a situation where someone told him there was a dragon afoot (45). Were dragons only distant comets in the sky and only off living in India where no one in Western Europe could have seen them personally, like the other monsters Wittkower describes (allowing again, in that instance, that there were indeed actual “monsters” as well)? Not necessarily, I think. The human brain is a pretty marvelous thing, and it has a tendency to see what it expects to see. In medieval, malaria-ridden France (malaria also causes hallucinations, does it not?), they very likely expected to encounter a dragon in that swamp, and perhaps they did! Going back towards the more metaphorical perspective, perhaps, in addition to the natural world seeming in many ways to be dragon-like, and vice versa, in terms of the relationship between wilderness, disease and medieval people. perhaps it helped to put a face and a physical form to an otherwise seemingly unknowable, unfightable evil.</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-2c202cf3-a371-bb20-0192-8c6833c51ed7"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Speaking of the physical dragon form, the question remains as to what inspires the rich symbolism of the dragon. Perhaps it is this idea of the dragon as linked to both wilderness and humanity, the possible forms of the dragon as both an animal and as a transformed human. Or is it just that the dragon is so mightily formidable? I believe someone referred to it in class as a “top-tier predator.” As it is described in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beowulf</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, at least, certainly. The Dragon is massive and terrifying. As we established, it is a force of nature, and as Shilton concludes, it is a naturally fitting counterpart for a hero (Shilton, 77). It is also reptilian, flying, poisonous, scaly, associated with fire, and man-eating, making it a good symbol for Satan. Again, it is a strong representation of wild, devastating nature. Given Horden’s hypothesis on the role of saints in driving out disease (73), as well as the role of the saint as hero and conqueror of the non-Christian, the dragon makes sense as an opponent. Similarly, as a force of nature, the dragon might be perceived as an agent of God (Riches, “Encountering,” 211). It could also be perceived as the uncontrolled female, a concept linked to animality, sinfulness, diabolism, Lilith, and the Fall from Eden, as Riches so disturbingly and compellingly argues in her second article, tracing the associations across related images and understandings of the Saint George legend (Riches, “St George,” 156-78). As we saw earlier in the quarter in Sperber's piece on categorical anomalies and symbols, it seems likely that the symbolic richness came less from it being a categorical anomaly among non-human animals (though, as I mentioned, perhaps it was a bit because of its liminal place on the edge of civilization/the human) and more to do with an obvious Biblical link and an intimidating and noxious physical form. Monsters, just in being monsters, might not necessarily be especially symbolic, but perhaps dragons, as incredibly large monsters with a close Biblical cousin, are.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SG</span></div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-5161362030770924032015-05-29T18:32:00.000-07:002015-05-29T18:32:38.189-07:00Monsters as Positive Figures in Medieval Thought<div class="MsoNormal">
In class, we discussed medieval conceptions to creatures we
know call “fantastic” or “monstrous” especially dragons. We looked at the
dragon as a thing of the wilderness and the swamp, a sign of a place inimical
to human life. It became very complicated, though, since it was clear that
medieval society viewed dragons and other monsters as very real. We eventually
learned that most of our conceptions of medieval monsters come from the Early
Modern period. The Satanic connotations of the creatures were more a product of
the humanists than any other group. So, that left us with the idea that often,
the creature was just another creature, created by God to beautify His
creation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, a situation that we didn't discuss is when “monsters”
have very positive connotations, instead of being symbolic of disease or
personified sins. The primary example of this is Saint Christopher, a holy
cynocephalus. His story, as told in the Nowell Codex (the Beowulf manuscript),
tells that he was initially unable to speak except in barks, which is supported
by the other tales of dog-headed men. However, through baptism, he gained human
speech. During his travels, he was captured by a pagan king, Dagnus. After
enduring various tortures, including being burned on an iron table and being
shot with arrows for an entire day, Saint Christopher reproaches Dagnus’
arrogance by striking him blind. After this, he does die and go to heaven, but
by mixing Christopher’s blood with dirt and applying it his eyes, Dagnus was
cured of blindness and promptly converting to Christianity (translation of the
Old English can be found at <a href="http://anglosaxonpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/saint-christopher/">http://anglosaxonpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/saint-christopher/</a>).
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It
seems to me that St. Christopher provides a useful consideration for us looking
at medieval attitudes towards monstrous things. It is the human, not the
inhuman, which is portrayed as wicked and cruel. In this case, then, it becomes
clear that our discussion was on the correct track regarding monstrous things.
As long as the individual believes in Christ, they shall be accepted and
redeemed by the Church. If the person does not, and seeks to harm and destroy
the will of God, then they shall be punished. Dagnus is punished by blindness,
but at the moment of conversion, he was redeemed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However,
there is a complication to the picture. Firstly, while St. Christopher was
holy, his kin were not. A different manuscript of the text tells us that
cynocephali are “from the country where men devour each other” (translation by
George Herzfeld, found at the site listed above). It seems, then, that the pagan
monsters are not viewed so favorably. It seems that these can symbolize the all-destroying
nature of sin. A “wulfes heafod” is the mark of an outlaw according to Edward
the Confessor, and so the rest of the cynocephali are symbolic of how those
outlawed from Christ’s society tear each other to shreds, mirroring the
self-blinding actions of Dagnus (the Old English claims that the points of two
arrows he had fired struck his eyes). St. Christopher, then, is the outlaw
redeemed, which certainly would be an encouraging tale for the actual outlaws
of England. In that sense, St. Christopher is a positive allegorical figure,
despite being a creature quite different from other humans.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Looking
at dragons specifically, Riches mentioned a different sort of positive
encounter with the beast. St. Ammon, she writes, “kept two dragons as guards
against persistent thieves at his remote monastery” (page 205). This encounter
is extremely interesting, as, unlike most cases we discussed in class, this is
an instance in which the dragon cooperates with the saint, and serves as a
protector rather than an enemy to be driven out. This reverses every
understanding other texts give us as dragons as being creatures of wilderness,
kept at the edge of society. In this case, in the micro-society of Ammon’s
monastery, the people are the creatures kept at bay, and the dragon is an
integral part of society. There is no reason to view these dragons as merely
symbolic, but as real things protecting the monastery. Admittedly, this
monastery is “remote” and is therefore part of the wilderness, bringing
Christian faith into the home of these beasts, but it makes it no less odd. St.
Marcellus, St. Senan, and many others drive out the beast in order to somehow
make the location habitable; Ammon uses the beast to do the same thing. Many of
the authors we read suggested that the driving out of the dragon symbolized man
controlling nature to suit his own ends. In this suggestion, the preserving of
the dragon could symbolize the simplicity of Ammon’s life; he does not need to
corral nature, but lives among it. The thieves then serve the role the dragons
used to; they are the creatures who stand against society. The wicked nature of
humanity must be kept outside of the monastery to preserve its holiness, and
the placing of the monastery in the wilderness where these beasts live and are
compelled by the power of God to protect it is a way to do this. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In this
case, the role of the dragons is undoubtedly a positive one. They are
protectors and guardians, bring security for the monks in Ammon’s monastery.
Just like with St. Christopher, the monstrous is not working against humanity,
but is preserving it. They are not Satanic, or even “evil”, as Shilton
describes Beowulf’s dragon, but beneficial parts of the divine Creation.
Sometimes, it is the humans who are the outlaws in need of saving, and those
from the margins are those who hold out and destroy sin. So, it is clear that a
discussion of whether dragons are primarily symbolic creatures in medieval
thought is incomplete without acknowledging that dragons can be positive
symbols instead of negative ones. As real things in this world, they cannot be
only things of the wilderness, living by rules completely apart from human
society, but as cooperators, placed by God as a marker and a tool for the saint
to utilize to redeem the world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
~AFB<o:p></o:p></div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-15811485139392285832015-05-29T11:46:00.004-07:002015-05-29T11:46:51.200-07:00Can We Evade the Scaly Claws of Euhemerism?<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
For all their insistence that we must
understand medieval dragons as “real,” since our medieval
subjects thought they were, our authors can give us frustratingly
little to grasp. Faced with the undeniably corporeal nature of beasts
that require physical smiting, they resort to euhemerism, with
varying degrees of awkwardness and ingenuity. Samantha Riches
unenthusiastically offers travelers' tales of “fearsome crocodiles”
(140, <i>St George</i>) though most of her examples on 141 seem more
like astrological or meteorological phenomena – meteors, comets,
ball lightning – than reptiles. (And ball lightning can indeed look
stunningly dragon-like, as here: http://bit.ly/1cmkmxb.) In another
article, she suggests that some might be read as “metaphors of
pre-Christian and heterodox beliefs” (197-198, “Saints”),
though she questions
Sabine Baring-Gould's contention
that one particular wyrm
represents “a serpent temple of upright stones” (quoted on 202).
Then of course there is Peregrine Horden's serpentine evasion of the
fact that his dragons in
“Disease, dragons, and saints: the management of epidemics in the
Dark Ages” are rather
straightforward euhemeristic stand-ins
for swamp diseases and other disagreeable features of wild wetlands.
Additional explanations not
mentioned by our authors include Vikings (with their dragon-prowed
ships), Roman legions (with their scaly armor), ancestral
memories of human sacrifice, a
Naga-worshiping silk merchant (this in a respected publication on a
dragon in 3<sup>rd</sup>
century Iran) and, of course,
a bevy of living
dinosaurs (who said
creationists couldn't be creative?). Those who suffered through <i>The
Thirteenth Warrior</i> may recall
its rather disappointing explanation of no less venerable a dragon
than Beowulf's nemesis – a band of cavemen riding ponies and
carrying torches.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Adrienne
Mayor's concept of “geomythology” is one slightly
more convincing evasion.
Fossils, she notes, have always been objects of great fascination to
humans, and stories have always been told about them. These tales
tend to combine attempts at reconstruction (what the animal looked
like in life) with an account of extinction (why such an animal is
not seen alive any longer). There are certainly dragon stories that
fit this template – one particularly notable example is the Dragon
of Klagenfurt in Austria, commemorated in a statue that seems to have
been based on a wooly rhinoceros skull unearthed nearby in 1335. But
geomythology cannot be invoked in every case – and even where it
can, evidence often suggests that bones supplemented existing tales
rather than shaping them entirely.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
problem with all of these ideas, much as we raised in class, is that
both simplistic euhemerism
and simplistic symbolism is that they assume a code that scholars can
and should break to read the truth. Any
story that fails the litmus test of modern scientific rationalism is
not a fundamentally different type of tale, but rather a simple
historico-cultural fact hidden behind a scaly cipher. Medieval
monks, in this paradigm, become tricky obfuscators whose meanings are
only made intelligible when we understand that by “dragon” they
meant “pagan,” or any other similar solution.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But
the cases in which these equations are most direct, the bestiaries,
complicate rather than clarify the picture. The
bestiary dragons at first seem rather straightforward – they are
exaggerated accounts of pythons, dwelling in distant Africa and
Nubia, and they symbolize the
Devil. But
what is striking is that
almost none of the bestiary
authors or commentators seem to have linked these exotic creatures to
the local legends and phenomena that they called by the same name and
pictured in roughly similar reptilian guise (Bartholomaeus
Anglicus, in a rare exception, does include a brief note about sea
dragons attacking ships – a
bit of a different category, in any event).
Otherwise, there
is no attempt to note that dragons were once a native species, or
were still occasionally seen jaunting through the air in times of
disaster. Of course, the formulaic and derivative nature of most of
these texts discouraged empirical observation and comment even on
more easily observable beasts. Yet
the conceptual gap remains troubling. The
question remains open of how much any one reading of “dragon” was
meant to bear upon any other instantiation of the category.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One instructive comparative account
might be the tale of the Black Shuck of Bungay. It is early modern
(1577) and canine rather than dragonish, but still useful. A
contemporary clergyman named Abraham Fleming described how, in the
midst of a fierce thunderstorm, a monstrous black dog (“or the
divel in such a linenesse”) ran down the aisle of a Suffolk church,
leaving scorch marks, structural damage, and two slain parishioners
in its wake. The setting and result make it fairly clear that Fleming
is describing a powerful lightning strike, an event that, while
awe-inspiring, neither resembles a hellhound nor dispatches its
victims in a similar fashion.
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Thunderbolts to black dogs – the
folkloric transition defies Horden's careful correspondences. The two
share nothing besides the capacity for sudden appearance and grim
fatalities. In this case, the logic is not one of direct
correspondences but . The Black Shuck story suggests that many
monsters, and dragons particularly, are in fact less real beasts than
a shape assumed by inexplicable phenomena. Their pattern
is drawn partly from the <i>draco</i>
serpents of Classical naturalists, but it seems equally true – and
here Le Goff may not have been as off-base as Horden makes out –
that the quintessential combat of knight and dragon derives from the
<i>Chaoskampf</i> motif
present in a vast range of Indo-European and Middle Eastern
mythologies. Many of the
major traditions out of which medieval European culture grew –
Biblical, Classical, Germanic – contain similar accounts of snaky
primordial chaos driven into retreat by divine power (YHWH and
Leviathan, Zeus and Typhon, and Thor and Jormungandr, respectively).
From this perspective, St.
George and St. Marcellus are participants in an age-old iconographic
tradition, and while they may have earned their place in it by
killing
a crocodile or draining a malarial swamp, there is no particular
reason to assume that their deeds needed to involve
anything with traditionally
dragonish features. Slaying a
dragon makes sense of the world, and in order for such a process to
be effective, dragons must be impossible creatures, twisting from
rather than inviting interpretation.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
-SLasman</div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-51193357161960439552015-05-27T18:12:00.001-07:002015-05-27T18:12:21.619-07:00Lovell whose dog? The multivalent bestial symbolism of medieval Europe<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One of the more vexing questions in
medieval animal symbology – and one barely addressed in our
readings for the week – is the tension between universal values (in
Western Europe, primarily but not solely Catholic Christianity) and
local cultures (delineated on a variety of ethnolinguistic and
political bases.) Symbolic discourse allowed the latter to prosecute
varying degrees of distinction from or assimilation with the former
through the use of multivalent symbols. Part of our difficulty in
interpreting these representational exchanges is determining the
extent to which <i>both</i> the
general and particular readings might operate upon a specific image
at the moment of production
or reception. These
readings are complicated by a huge diversity of contextual factors –
literacy, medium, ecology. We
should not, for instance,
necessarily assume a clean
relationship between the symbolic lions of authors who knew such
creatures only from Bibles and bestiaries, and those of writers such
as al-Isfahani (in reference to Saladin, mentioned on Cuffel, 214),
for whom lions were a significant feature of the
local fauna. By the same
token, we should not let our
modern empirical bias lead us to
assume that the former were more susceptible to rigid and formulaic
interpretations than the latter.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One
ubiquitous source of medieval animal system was heraldry, which may
have begun with the totemic beasts of the Germanic and Asiatic tribes
who invaded the dying Roman empire but by the High Middle Ages had
blossomed into a pictorial language encoding history, lineage, and
moral quality. As a test case of symbology, heraldry is particularly
useful, with its vast menagerie of beasts, real and imagined,
standing in for
clearly defined sociopolitical entities (noble families, towns,
nations, religious orders, etc.).
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Devilish
dragons and serpents were frequent heraldic devices – often, as
Samantha Riches notes in our readings for Thursday (“Encountering
the Monstrous,” 98) as emblems recalling a historic combat between
a knightly ancestor and a savage beast, but not always. Y Ddraig
Goch, Wales' red dragon, whose pedigree goes back at least to the
ninth century, is rather explicitly identified as an emblem <i>of</i>
the Welsh (rather than as an
enemy conquered by them).
Boars
and pigs, however derided
they may have been in Cuffel's intrareligious polemics, were
incredibly popular choices,
linked to bravery and fertility. Sows with piglets – the
visual basis for the incredibly demeaning <i>Judensau</i>
trope – were
rare but not unknown. They
survive on the town blazons of Morcote in Switzerland and Albano
Laziale in Italy, in both cases representing “abundance and
fertility.” Morcote's town website even claims that the sow and
piglets were the emblem of a religious order, the Antoniani Friars.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In
some cases, it is impossible to distinguish reality from insult. A
heraldic legend dating back to at least the thirteenth century claims
that upon converting to Christianity, the fifth-century Frankish king
Clovis relinquished his former shield, which sported three black
toads. Does this reflect a genuine tradition of ancient French toad
reverence? Or were “three black toads” the sort of stereotypical
– even caricatured - symbol that a medieval Christian thought might
appeal to a godless pagan? Taking the tale even further, some
ingenious, if fanciful, commentators have speculated that herein lies
the origin of various amphibian insults that the English apply to the
French.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Names are another site of contested symbolic meaning. Modern English
naming practice has shed many of its old beastly terms in favor of
Hebrew-derived theophorics, though it was once rich with them –
Eadwulf (fortune-wolf), Eoforhild (battle-boar), Osborn (god-bear).
(One does have the impression that most Anglo-Saxon names consisted
of a combination of two
nouns that the parents considered cool). Actually, one of the only
survivals of these Germanic creature names is “Rudolph” – which
of course has its own animal associations in English now. It and its
Saxon cognate Hrodulf mean “fame-wolf.” And
in a direct repudiation of the notion of universal symbolism, even
within Western Europe, a
cross-cultural look at names does
not reveal a clear typology
of positively and negatively associated creatures. Most animals that
became commonplace indicators
of evil or witchcraft – pigs, goats, rabbits, canines
– have, in one language or another, made for popular and desirable
names. “Son of a bitch” makes canine ancestry an insult; yet that
is nearly the exact meaning of Mac Con, the honorary epithet of an
ancient Irish king. And
naming could also move fluidly between signifier and signified –
Thibert began as a common Germanic name, became so deeply associated
with the cat in the <i>Roman de Renard</i>
that it was virtually synonymous with “cat” (as “Renard became
<i>fully </i>synonymous with
“fox,” replacing the Old French <i>goupil</i>
almost entirely), still remained an acceptable personal name, and yet
could be freely punned on with insulting feline allusions (as
Mercutio does in <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>).
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Given
this plethora of associations attending any one creature in any one
cultural context, we might ask whether animal symbols were too
overdetermined to have meaning outside of any specific instance of
use (such as Sara Lipton identifies for her heretical cats in “Jews,
heretics, and the sign of the cat in the <i>Bible mor</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>alis</i></span><span style="color: #545454;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>é</i></span></span></span><i>e</i>”).
Yet it seems that naming,
heraldry, and moralistic interpretations could and did come together.
Perhaps the best example is William Colyngbourne's famous 15<sup>th</sup>
century rhyme: “The cat,
the rat, and Lovell our dog / rule all England under a hog” (quoted
in Gray, 196). The “cat” and “rat” are puns on the first
syllables of William Catesby and Richard Ratcliffe's last names; a
silver dog was the heraldic emblem of Lord Lovell; and the “hog”
is a derisive reference to King Richard III's white boar badge.
Catesby and Ratcliffe, we might assume, were born with names rather
than destinies, and the silver dog and white boar were symbols chosen
and worn with great pride by Lovell, Richard, and their supporters.
Yet the rhyme requires a double vision, understanding the positive
identifications of these animals while attaching to them the moral
censure of a different symbolic system, in which they are vermin and
foul beasts, and the natural
order has been so perverted that a gross pig rules “all England.”
At least in this instance, different interpretations of beasts not
only could bleed together but needed to do so for meaning to be
constructed. It is perhaps this model, rather than more reductive
approaches, that offers the most productive prism for understanding
the creatures of reverence and insult in the diverse collective of
medieval Europe.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
-SLasman
</div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-76988919537863418092015-05-26T20:18:00.000-07:002015-05-27T07:23:28.944-07:00Complexity, especially cats<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Based on the variety of ways in
which they were discussed in the secondary source material we read for class
today, cats seem to be particularly good to think with in terms of their
complexity and many roles in medieval and early modern life. Cats, we learned,
are good for gloves, though only for the cheap sort.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[i]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a>
This actually surprised me a bit, if we make any assumption that value is
attached to difficulty of procurement: as Arya in <i>Game of Thrones</i> learned a few seasons (or books) ago, cats can be
rather difficult to catch, and they tend to put up a fight. If we are convinced by Barbara Newmann’s
argument in “The <i>Catte’s Tale</i>,” in
spite of her fictional primary source with which she tricks us, cats were also
pets and companions. Cats seem to serve as an emblem both for instinct and for
the natural order of the world, wherein cats hunt mice.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[ii]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a>
Conversely, rather outside that order, cats apparently have a fondness for
playing the fiddle, an unnatural, non-instinctual activity, and they are
associated with those ultimate inverters of order, witches.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[iii]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a>
In fact, as is well-exemplified by Douglas Gray in his aptly titled “Notes on
Some Medieval Mystical, Magical and Moral Cats,” cats seem to both have served
many roles and stood for a huge array of things. They can be the devil or God,
magical in the fairy sense or magical in the witch sense— as in, they might
actually be witches, occasionally.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[iv]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a>
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Given this wild variety of meanings
possible for just one animal, as we discussed at some length today, it seems
inaccurate to assume that, whenever an animal appears in any context, it likely
holds a particular symbolism. How, then, might we interpret a potentially
symbolic animal? Sara Lipton seems to have provided something of a solution to
the problem of determining which among any number of symbolisms one might
choose from in a given situation. Lipton examines cats in the context of a
couple of medieval Christian texts, working out how these texts built an
association between Jews, Christian heretics, and cats through images of
heretics kissing cats beneath the tail in a heretical ceremony, then in the
placement of cats alongside Jews. As Lipton describes, in one folio of the
Latin manuscript, a “Jew holds a domestic cat,” and the fact that the other
depictions of cats in the text are “so unusual and so graphic” leaves “no
doubt” that the cat should be interpreted as a symbol for heresy,<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[v]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a>
at least in this instance— and that seems to be the important part. Here, the
manuscript goes out of its way to make the symbol it intends clear, and the
associated symbolism suits the context for which it is being used. Lipton’s
reading, therefore, seems quite persuasive, while, as we discussed, Alexandra
Cuffel’s broader, less nuanced argument that projected symbolisms beyond their
context was arguably less so.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> As I
pointed out at the end of class, our class discussion on complexity and my
concluding argument for the importance of time and place can also be found in
fairly famous historical debate between Robert Darnton and Roger Chartier, and
it may be helpful to provide a bit more background on that here. Coincidentally
(or perhaps not— maybe symbolic complexity is one of the occult qualities of
cats?), this argument about symbolism happened to center on the symbolism of
cats in Darnton’s analysis of a massacre of those creatures by a group of
workers at a printing shop in France in the 18th century. In attempting to
explain why a massacre of generally harmless, useful animals struck the workers
as wildly funny, Darnton argues that this was because the cats were not just
cats.There is something about cats, Darnton argues, an “ambiguous ontological
position” that makes them, along with “pigs, dogs, and cassowaries,”
particularly suited for use in ritual and taboo symbolism.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[vi]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a>
Ultimately, in the cat massacre he is investigating, the massacre is funny
because cats represented witchcraft, the occult, women, charivari, and
cuckoldry: “Cats bore enormous symbolic weight in the folklore of France and
that lore was rich, ancient, and widespread enough to have penetrated the
printing shop.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_edn7" name="_ednref7" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[vii]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a>
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In return, Roger Chartier contends
in his review of Darnton’s book, rather
than being universally shared and agreed upon signs, symbols are “unstable,
mobile, equivocal.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_edn8" name="_ednref8" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[viii]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a>
A historian must pay extreme attention to context, and she likely should not
assume that every meaning and understanding is in play all at once, as Darnton
appears to do. Again, as we argued in class, it might be too easy to project
symbols beyond their domains and see things where we shouldn’t, such as in
assuming that every pig is meant to represent a religious group. As Professor
Fulton Brown also emphasized, it is similarly important to not assume that
every person is attaching the same symbolisms and, relatedly, holding the same
prejudices. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Plus, assuming one symbolism can
blind us to the symbolisms that are actually there, or a more complicated
picture, perhaps one in which the lived reality of the animal plays a
significant part. For example, in William Baldwin’s 1553 <i>Beware the Cat</i>, which Barbara Newmann mentions in her “The <i>Catte’s Tale</i>” article<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_edn9" name="_ednref9" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[ix]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a>
and which I am examining in my final project, cats appear as main characters in
a satire about Catholicism, were often associated with Catholicism at the time,
and at one point in the text, they are explicitly compared to both Catholics
and witches. These seem to be the most obvious meanings behind the cat
characters. However, the closing message of the text is that the reader should
beware of cats, who live in households and have the capacity to spy on their
masters. Cats, in this context, seem to also represent moral, state, or
neighborly surveillance in an England that was increasingly concerned with such
an issue in the 16th century, and this representation seems to rest in large
part on their real capacity to enter and leave households, see clearly, and
sneak about. I believe it would be a mistake, methodologically speaking, to
allow dominant, agreed-upon symbolisms to dictate the way we automatically read
an animal character. If we simply assume that cats represent heresy, or
witchcraft, or Jews, what are we missing out on about possible reflections of
real, lived interactions between people and animals? It seems to me, as well as
to a number of animal studies scholars, that universally subsuming animals to
their symbolism is doing them a disservice.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_edn10" name="_ednref10" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[x]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Finally, thinking about the many
symbolisms as well as the living animals behind those symbolisms raises a
couple of questions for me about symbolic animals in general. As Darnton
contends, cats are supposed to be some of the most richly symbolic animals out
there. After all, the title of this section was of readings had “especially
cats” at the end of it. Why is that, exactly? Is it, as Darnton contends, that
they are liminal sorts of creatures, or is that they have a particular, as he
describes it, “<i>je ne sais quoi</i>”?<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_edn11" name="_ednref11" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[xi]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a>
Is there something physically special about cats that makes them especially
symbolic? Or is this even true? As we discussed in class, and as a couple of
our readings mention, “Cats rarely appear in bestiaries, probably because they
are absent from the Bile and thus void of allegorical <i>auctoritas.</i>”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_edn12" name="_ednref12" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[xii]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a>
For such an apparently symbolic animal, it is also striking that, as Lipton
mentions, the cat does not appear as a common symbol in Gothic art, and
generally in bestiaries, those “that do include a cat refer merely to its
ability to see at night and to its skill at catching mice.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_edn13" name="_ednref13" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[xiii]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a>
Plus, in Chaucer, for example, cats appear— but they are just cats being cats.
Very often, in fact, they seem to be just cats being cats, doing what cats are
known to do best: hunting rodents and cleaning themselves.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Doves, on the other hand, as we saw,
have about a million pages of symbolism explicitly attached to them in the
authorities we have had a tendency to refer to for animal symbolism in this
class: the bestiaries. However, we do not historically think of the dove,
necessarily, as an <i>especially </i>symbolic
animal. It is a symbolic animal like all of the other symbolic animals in the
bestiaries. I think it is worth considering why this might be. Is it because,
while the bestiaries drifted out of fashion around the seventeenth century,
witch hunts and folk-tales, where we attach and find a lot of the cat
symbolism, stuck around longer, especially in popular memory? Do we, as
historians, think of cats as particularly symbolic anachronistically? Or is it
a preference for popular symbolism that we are displaying? What, exactly, makes
an animal lastingly symbolic, and can we assume that our preferences for them
are shared? Does it have anything to do with the animal itself or more to do
with us?</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As a closing thought, this may
simply have been a coincidental consequence of the selections of readings for
the course, but I found it particularly interesting that our authors did not
particularly link cats with women, except for an offhand remark that we found
in Newmann’s piece: “This feminist passage is especially interesting because
cats were so often used to vilify female sexuality.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_edn14" name="_ednref14" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[xiv]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a>
To again bring in Darnton, he insists that “Cats connoted fertility and female
sexuality everywhere.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_edn15" name="_ednref15" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[xv]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a>
Why do we not see this in these readings, and what might we make of, among a
number of listings of all the possible symbolisms of cats, this is not one of
them? Apart from coincidence, my only idea is that Darnton’s focus was later in
the early modern period, and perhaps the link with femininity developed more
heavily later on. Symbols, after all, are not static.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p>SG</o:p></div>
<div>
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<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="edn1">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[i]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Jones, 108.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn2">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[ii]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Jones, 98, 104.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn3">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[iii]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Jones, 99-101.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn4">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[iv]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Gray, 189-191, 198.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn5">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[v]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Lipton, 364.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn6">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_ednref6" name="_edn6" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[vi]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Robert Darnton. <i>The
Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History</i> (New York:
Vintage Books, 1985), 89-90.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn7">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_ednref7" name="_edn7" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[vii]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Darnton, 96.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn8">
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_ednref8" name="_edn8" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[viii]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span id="docs-internal-guid-3c1b0b22-95be-d9bf-281f-762b6793835b"><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Roger Chartier, “Text, Symbols, and Frenchness” </span><span style="font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Journal of Modern History </span><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">57 (1985):</span></span> 689-90.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div id="edn9">
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_ednref9" name="_edn9" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[ix]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Newmann, 418.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_ednref10" name="_edn10" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[x]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> See, for example, Susan Crane, <i>Animal Encounters</i> (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
2013).</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn11">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_ednref11" name="_edn11" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[xi]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Darnton, 89.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_ednref12" name="_edn12" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[xii]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Newmann, 414.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div id="edn13">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_ednref13" name="_edn13" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[xiii]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Newmann, 364.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div id="edn14">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_ednref14" name="_edn14" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[xiv]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Newmann, 415.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div id="edn15">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Phannie%20Geckofriend/Desktop/complexity,%20especially%20cats.docx#_ednref15" name="_edn15" title=""><sup><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[xv]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></sup></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Darnton, 95.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-82987072839251993382015-05-26T15:38:00.000-07:002015-05-26T15:38:26.491-07:00Context and Complexity: Cats, Pigs, and Jews in Art and Literature
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Throughout
the quarter, we have constantly been told and been saying that what we know or
believe about medieval animals is much more complex than what one author or
interpretation offers. At times, this response seems almost automatic – if an
explanation doesn’t explain everything or contradicts another argument, then
the disagreement is reconciled by a simple, “It’s really more complicated than
that.” Even Prof. Fulton Brown today commented on how quickly we concluded that
the use of animals for insult and disgust was a complex situation. I hope to
make it apparent that “complexity” needs to be more than an automatic response
to differing arguments; complexity must be discussed in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">context</i> of the scenario or argument
presented. It is context and specificity that lead to and enhance complexity. I
propose to make this point by discussing the arguments made by Alexandra Cuffel
in “Sign of the Beast: Animal Metaphors as Maledictions of Resistance and
Opposition” and in Sara Lipton’s “Jews, heretics, and the sign of the cat in
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bible moralisée.</i>”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
her chapter “Sign of the Beast,” Cuffel proposes that medieval Christians,
Jews, and Muslims all used similar visual vocabulary when talking about each
other, such as lions for Christians or donkeys for Jews. More importantly, when
one group was negatively targeted in the guise of an animal (Jews and donkeys,
for instance), some authors subverted the attack by playing up the positive
qualities of animal assigned to their group while pointing out the negative qualities
of animals the attacker identified with.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
However, a potential point of criticism arises from Cuffel’s tendency to make
sweeping conclusions about all Christians or Jews or Muslims based on the mass
of evidence she has gathered. For example, Cuffel cites a bestiary that states
the following: “Sows signify sinners, the unclean, and heretics,”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
which she uses to equate Jews with pigs. It is problematic that her source does
not explicitly list Jews in addition to sinners, the unclean, or heretics. She
does later admit, “Muslims are not mentioned in the bestiary texts, although
Christian hearers and readers could have substituted ‘Muslim’ for ‘heretic’ and
made an indirect association with certain animals in that way.” This implies
that the same substitution could be made for Jews, which is perhaps the route
her train of thought took. But regardless of the semantic structure of her
argument, the fact remains that Cuffel takes specific instances, such as pigs
associated with sinfulness and heresy, and generalizes them, implying that pigs
are always symbols of heretics and Jews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What
Cuffel should have done, and what Lipton does do, is focus on the specific
context in which statements are made. Lipton’s article discusses a specific
type of text, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bible moralisée,</i>
and specific images of cats and Jews within extant manuscripts of that text.
She proposes that the image of humans kissing the anus of cats arises as a
criticism of the teaching of Aristotle using Jewish commentaries in early 13<sup>th</sup>
century Paris.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a>
Lipton does not make some broad claim, like any time a cat appears in medieval
art it carries an association with heresy and Judaism, as Cuffel seems to do.
She is careful to confine the feline-Jewish relation to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bible moralisée,</i> and even goes so far as
to connect the contents of the manuscripts to the political and academic
situation that they were likely created in. She analyzes these images in a very
specific context, and keeps her analysis only in that context. </div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We
can see why Lipton’s form of analysis is preferable to Cuffel’s when we
consider other texts about medieval cats. Malcolm Jones, in “<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cats and Cat-skinning in Late
Medieval Art and Life,” discusses the use of cats for cheap fur, a topic he was
led to by a Hieronymus Bosch painting. But in seeking to identify the man shown
with a cat-skin in the painting, (which he names a “pedlar”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[4]</span></span></span></span></a>),
Jones does not even consider that the man must represent some sort of
Jew-hunter, because he has a cat skin and cats are symbols of Jews, so the man
must have symbolically killed a Jew. Nor does Barbara Newman, in her cruel joke
of an article “The Catte’s Tale” propose that a Barking abbess possessed a cat
as the result of some sort of hidden philo-Semitism. Why do neither Jones nor
Newman make such claims? Because given the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">context</i>
of the image or the alleged poem, those claims would be ludicrous. They could
have taken Cuffel’s approach and culled any evidence that would have supported
such ridiculous hypothetical claims, but instead, they restrained their argument
to a tightly-defined context of time and place of creation. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I may just
be harping on the need to be aware of context when stating that medieval views
are ambiguous or complex, because in our class discussions no one proposes such
laughable arguments as I have just proposed. We are implicitly aware of the
need to remain within the context of time, place, and argument, but as we begin
to write papers, it is important to be explicitly aware of it. Perhaps I am
just concerned about my own argumentative writing. </span>I admit, I was guilty
of being sucked into Cuffel’s way of thinking when reading her article. She
asserts that rabbits and hares were associated with Judaism, which I was
tempted to use to counter Stoker and Stoker’s claim that rabbits were souls in
need of salvation.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span></span></span></a>
If rabbits were a symbol of Judaism, then the pillow mounds they use as
evidence are actually somehow homes for Jews, rather than wandering Christian
souls. This whole line of thinking was related to my paper topic, but
admittedly, I neglected to consider that Stoker and Stoker made their argument
with specific evidence in a specific context of how rabbits were viewed. “It’s
more complex than that;” rabbits could be (and probably were) both
representatives of lost souls and the Jewish people, just as pigs and cats were
more than just stand-ins for Jews. Accepting complexity only works when
recognizing different contexts. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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RAE</div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
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<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
Cuffel, 205-209.</div>
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<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
Ibid., 226. </div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a>
Lipton, 373-377. </div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span></span></span></a>
Jones, 110. </div>
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<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span></span></span></a>
Stoker and Stoker, 270. </div>
</div>
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Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-45252378869631509162015-05-25T08:42:00.003-07:002015-05-25T09:56:34.539-07:00(Legal) Standing on All Fours: Animals in Modern Courts<div class="MsoNormal">
The role of animals in the courts has changed slightly since
Pigs were murderers sometime in the Middle Ages, but that does not mean that
animals have stayed out of court since. For this blog post, I wanted to examine
some other recent cases in which animals were the focus of a court ruling, and
see if there was any connection that could be drawn to the readings, in terms
of how animals were viewed in terms of the law.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The most notable
example to come out in recent years was the “Monkey Selfie” case which was
decided in 2014. Back in 2011, a wildlife photographer traveled Indonesia to
take photos of crested macaques. In the process, one of the monkeys took one of
the cameras, and somehow snapped <a href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/07/04/article-0-0CDC0E7D00000578-557_634x847.jpg">a
picture</a> or <a href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/07/04/article-2011051-0CDC0F0900000578-739_634x894.jpg">two</a>
which could be identified as a “selfie.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Wikipedia, who one would think would be an unlikely target for legislation,
became the defendant in a copyright lawsuit after they posted the macaque’s photo
on their website. Slater sued, claiming that the photos were in fact his, and
that Wikipedia could not post the image for free without payment or requesting
the photo from the him. . The Wikimedia company argued that the photos were in
the public domain, as they were taken by the macaque, and macaque’s are not
subject to copyright protection.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shortly after the controversy, and shortly before the case
were to be brought to court, The U.S Copyright Office released an updated
version of their Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, which governs
what is and isn’t considered to be copyrighted material. In it, they specified that
“Copyright law only protects the fruits of intellectual labor that are founded
in the creative powers of the mind.” Among the items which is declared outside
the bounds of copyright included murals painted by elephants, patterns occurring
in stones or skins, and, in what was certainly not coincidence, “a photograph
taken by a monkey.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Meanwhile,
law in the UK and Indonesia both illustrated that only a human creator of
content could receive copyright protection. With this distinction made by the
Copyright Office and with other laws internationally, the case was ultimately
never brought to court. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So if your dog ever plays fetch with your selfie stick, know
any photos taken are in the public domain. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What about examples <i>in
</i>court? In a paper written by Cass Sunstein at the University of Chicago Law
School, Sunstein examined in what cases animals would have legal standing to challenge
their mistreatment, and in what cases humans would be able to raise a challenge
on their behalf. Obviously, an animal cannot walk into a courthouse and file
paperwork, as thumbs and the use of utensils are prerequisites for filling out
said paperwork. But what about <i>representing</i>
an animal, or its interests? As it currently stands, one could not, for
example, represent a wounded bear in suit against a hunter. For one to have
standing on behalf of the animal, a presumptive plaintiff must show three
things. First, that an injury of some sort (physical or mental) has occurred,
second, that it was the result of a defendant’s action, and third, that the
problem would be redressed by a ruling in the plaintiff’s behalf.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
If, say, a company’s polluting a riverbed and killing fish, a fisherman <i>could</i> have standing if they can
demonstrate that the conditions have changed to the point that their annual
fishing trip can no longer be undertaken. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That
requirement of a personal, human effect has often been the focal point of arguments
on standing. In one case, <i>Animal Lovers
Volunteer Association v. Weinberger, </i>the plaintiffs sought to enjoin aerial
shooting of goats on a military enclave for which public access is unavailable.
The court held that standing was unavailable because the members did not visit
the enclave hence lacked any concrete injury. On the other hand, in <i>Japan Whaling Assn. v. American Cetacean Soc.</i>,
the court held that the organizations, who were dedicated to whale watching and
the study of whales, had standing, because the legislation they challenged
would have allowed greater whale fishing and, thus, removed opportunities to
study the animals.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
None of
this is to say that animals have the same legal protections as, say, a mailbox
or fence. In 2012, a California court ruled that pets, at least, are
fundamentally different than other forms of property. California’s Second
District Court of Appeals ruled that an aggrieved party was entitled to
compensation greater than just market value for an injured animal. Unlike if a
guitar or furniture was broken, the loss or injury to a domesticated pet would
be greater, tied to emotional distress and other factors. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Obviously,
we have come a long way from Pigs being on trial. Now, with animals lacking
legal standing, we don’t see animals trotted to the gallows. But as humanity
has become more environmentally conscious, we face a new series of issues. As
Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy had to grant petitions of pardon,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
different officials must decide the fate of animals in court. Today, though,
the rule of law is strictly human, and the right to trial is strictly human as
well. We may very well argue the idea of “Animal Rights,” but in terms of the courts,
all rights start with standing, and animals do not have standing now, and may
never. Someday, societies may look back at our relationship to animals as
barbaric, in the same way we look back at pigs on trial and scoff. But for now,
we live in a world in which humans can only protect animals, and only when they
themselves have been harmed. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->- Jeramee Gwozdz<br />
<br />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Jeong, Sarah. “Wikipedia’s
monkey selfie ruling is a travesty for the world’s monkey artists.” The
Guardian. August 6, 2014. Accessed May 24, 2015<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> ITN. “Monkey photo not
photographer’s, claims Wikimedia – video.” The Guardian. August 7<sup>th</sup>,
2014. Accessed May 24, 2015.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Chappell, Bill. "Who
Owns A Monkey's Selfie? No One Can, U.S. Says." NPR. August 22, 2014.
Accessed May 24, 2015.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Sunstein, Cass. “Standing
for Animals.” <i>Chicago Public Law and
Legal Theory</i>. The Law School, The University of Chicago.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Sunstein 18.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn6">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Dinzelbacher, Peter. “Animal
Trials A Multidisciplinary Approach.” <i>Journal
of Interdisciplinary history</i>, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Winter, 2002,) pp 405-421.<i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
</div>
</div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-60868992408659179042015-05-23T21:02:00.001-07:002015-05-23T21:03:00.977-07:00Renard and Animal Trials<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
After our discussion last class of
the moral and legal culpability of animals, I thought I would look back to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Trial of Renard</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I found two passages there that I think could
shed light on the relationship between justice and guilt with respect to medieval
animal trials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, it’s important
to note that Renard’s trial is conducted by anthropomorphized animals against
an anthropomorphized animals, and is not directly comparable to the trials of
pigs, rats, locusts, etc. held by real, institutional human courts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nonetheless, some issues raised in Renard’s
trial are relevant to the real-life prosecution of non-human animals.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The first
passage is spoken by Pinte the hen, upon her arrival in court with the body of
her sister, who has been killed by Renard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After explain the circumstances of her sister’s death, she bemoans, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>“But
no force<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Can bring justice to one who grins<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At threats, and doesn’t care two pins<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For anyone’s wrath.” (Trial of Renard, 102)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Can justice be done against someone (or something) who has
no fear of punishment or respect for authority?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Renard certainly understands the horrible things he’s doing, he just
doesn’t care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pinte’s remarks suggest
that for her, force is not enough, that justice requires some notion of
repentance or guilt on the part of the perpetrator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a much more common-sense principle
when it comes to human criminals, but it may also have been applied to
offending animals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joy Enders cites a
claim from Arthur Magnin that accused pigs would sometimes be tortured on the
rack, and “the cries which [the animals] uttered under torture were received as
confessions of guilt” (Enders).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter
Dinzelbacher cites another example, a trial in Leiden, in which a dog who had
bitten a child “confessed without torture” and was executed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What does
it mean for an animal to confess?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is
true understanding of the crime necessary for a confession to be valid?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the case of the pigs, it seems certain
that their squeals indicate intense pain rather than any understanding that
they’ve committed a crime, let alone a valid admission of guilt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s easier to understand a dog looking
“guilty,” but there’s still the question of whether they’re able to link their
punishment or scolding to a particular act of theirs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In absence of this understanding, can the
execution of the offending animal be considered justice?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The second passage is spoken by King
Noble, in response to Pinte’s complaint aginst Renard:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I feel great sympathy with you,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And wish somehow to relieve your woe.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Renard shall come if he will or no!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By what you shall see with your own eyes,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hear with you ears, you’ll realize<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How truly justice has been done.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Vengeance I’ll have on anyone <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For breaking the peace and murdering!” (Trial of Renard,
104)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here, justice is equated with vengeance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What matters is not the state of mind of the
punished, but the fact that they are punished in the appropriate degree for
their deed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bringing comfort to the
family of a victim is also a compelling reason for the trial and execution of
an animal, particularly one accused of murder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Dinzelbacher proposes that one of the reasons for animal trials might
have been “comfort derived the ritual ‘magic’ of legal formalism, and public execution”
(Dinzelbacher, 421).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the animal
community in the story, trying and punishing Renard would be a way to represent
assert control over a dangerous individual who scorns authority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a similar way for the family of a child
killed by a pig, the process of accusing, trying, and executing the pig might bring
some sort of satisfaction. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
W. A.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Bonus content:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>absurd-sounding
trials against non-human defendants are not yet a thing of the past <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Approximately_64,695_Pounds_of_Shark_Fins">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Approximately_64,695_Pounds_of_Shark_Fins</a><o:p></o:p></div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-88975554089117007212015-05-23T11:56:00.000-07:002015-05-23T11:57:49.935-07:00Humanimal<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The question arose in class on Thursday, why are we
even discussing the so-called ‘medieval animal trials’? While there is
certainly evidence that some very odd trials were conducted, we can say little
conclusively given the very limited nature of that evidence; namely, just about
everything we know of animal trials is based on and structured by the research
of one man at the turn of the twentieth century, E.P. Evans. This presents a
number of problems, that of trusting a single conveyor for all of this
information aside. Our idea about where and when the trials were conducted is
biased by where Evans concentrated his research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is questionable whether the two types of
trials described and exemplified in Evans’ research, the trying of individual
domesticated animals through criminal court systems and that of vermin in
ecclesiastical courts, are indeed variations of the same phenomenon. What’s
more, as Beirnes makes a point of saying, Evans’ research and the presentation
of his findings was motivated by contemporary concerns for animal rights and
penal reform (41). That said, by no means do I think these concerns of Evans
should disqualify his legacy, but they do help to situate it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Taking Evans’ data as it is, though, the question
is begged of why animal trials are even spoken of as a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">medieval</i> phenomenon. While it does seem to begin to occur with some
frequency in the 13<sup>th</sup> century, the record is thin, and the heyday
for animal trials, in fact, were the 15<sup>th</sup>, 16<sup>th</sup>, and 17<sup>th</sup>
centuries. On this count, we seem to be discussing an early modern phenomenon
rather than a medieval one—if such a distinction means anything at all.
Furthermore, the culmination of this “medieval” phenomenon, as represented in
the records we have, coincides with the burgeoning of the very enlightenment
ways of thinking that one would think would militate against it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I want to see if, for a moment, we can put
generalizations about all of Europe and the Middle Ages aside and think about
the facts as best we have them of these animal trials, and see, based on what
we know of the practices, what we can say. To restrict this exercise even more,
I’ll only consider criminal trials of animals, the particular cases of which I
think we can more readily believe to be instantiations of the same phenomenon.
Ok, really, my aim is to defend Enders’ article, “Homicidal Pigs and the
Antisemitic Imagination.” I was rather surprised by the wholesale dismissal of
Enders’ argument in class, which I find, even forfeiting her more ‘precarious’
claims (which, honestly, I don’t feel compelled to do), to be more than
plausible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">For one, I do not think we can deny that the trial
of a sow is a humanizing process. As many of our readings pointed out, the
courts went to great lengths to give individual animals going through the
judicial system the same treatment as human beings. Questions of will and guilt
aside, the trial of a violent animal involved the ascription of human qualities
to the animal on trial (209). The law punishes transgressions, but its domain
being the human, it cannot punish an animal for being an animal—which wouldn’t
appear to be a transgression anyhow. Nor, though, can it punish an animal for
being somewhat human (on the face of it, this would be an improvement), lest
the order of the world be quite upset. The law takes care of criminals; only
humans are criminals. Thus the whole process of making animals on trial human
enough such that they can be condemned for their inhumanity, for their
animality. Notice that it is a very human barbarity which is recast and
naturalized in the animal as it is put on par with the human criminal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The connection between the humanization of animals
on trial and the animalization of humans appears too obvious to me to ignore.
Are they anything but two sides of the same coin? What was it that human
criminals were punished for but the transgression of the boundary between human
and animal? This is the very sophistry Enders talks about by which “humanity”
is defined and nourished (204).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Another thing: a couple of the readings raised the
question of whom the trials and executions of animals were conducted for. Did
people think that other animals could gain some kind of moral instruction from
witnessing the execution of one of their peers? Probably not, but here’s what
we can say with confidence: the trials and executions of individual animals
were conducted and watched by human beings. Who do you think was affected by
and internalized the spectacular production of humanity and inhumanity and its
violent consummation? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Now the big question in regard to Enders’ argument:
the connection between homicidal pigs and the antisemitic imagination. If
humanity is defined, precariously, by its opposition to animality, marked off
by the dividing line between these categories, then what of the people who are
unwelcome in the human community? Is it at all a stretch (as seemed to be
implied in class) that Jews would be identified with the animal (as evidence
shows they were) and that there would be some sort of connection between the trials
and execution of humanized animals and the public attitudes toward animalized
humans (as the striking parallels indicate)? I want to join Ender in pushing
against a focus on the “symbolic importance” (Cohen 75) of animal trials, a
focus which can obscure the very real effects of violent public ritual. That
said, we should also keep in mind that the same ritual can have different
effects and meanings for different members of a community. There is a camp in
anthropology that views rituals as arguments made in the public sphere. Though
they may be condoned by authority, tradition, or majority, by the nature of
their being arguments, they leave room for both agreement and disagreement.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> I have more to say on this, but I just want to end
by re-iterating a point I was trying to make in class. The claim was brought up, and it was also in one of the readings, that it is inappropriate to
think of animal trials as animal cruelty because the animals received due
process of law and were in all respects treated as humans—indeed, we can think
of this treatment as quite charitably kind. I could hardly disagree more. A
cruelty/kindness model so far from saturates the possibilities of treatment as
to be useless. We would not say, ‘oh, at least that Christian fellow and his Jewish lover got due process of
law before being completely degraded and burned alive’ (Enders 223). I struggle
to see the resemblance between institutionalized cruelty, incorporation into a
system which is biased against you, and kindness.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span>
-JS</div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-13264632600012344422015-05-21T23:09:00.001-07:002015-05-21T23:09:27.018-07:00Were animals considered to be morally responsible?<div style="text-align: justify;">
In class, I suggested that perhaps, to understand medieval animal trials, one had to distinguish two types of guilt as applied to the animal defendants. The first type only concerns whether the accused in fact performed the deed in question, while the second type concerns whether the accused has a moral responsibility for doing that deed. I'm sure we all agree that an animal can be guilty in the first sense, but that the second sense is rather murkier. My thought was that maybe medieval courts distinguished between these two types of guilt—that they tried some or all animals with the end of determining their guilt in the first sense, while tacitly acknowledging that the second sense was less applicable to beastly defendants.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In this model of law, a convicted animal would be punished not in retribution for its moral failing, but because it was a member of society, and the preservation of societal order required that disruptors of that order be punished. (Note that I do not at all mean the "upsetting of social hierarchy" proposed in our reading, merely violation of the common peace.) Since the end of class, however, I have had doubts about whether my aforesaid hypothesis is actually any good. It would go some way toward reconciling the trials of animals with the thinkers who objected to the idea of animals' being able to commit crimes, yet there are various cases where such a model would not seem to fit.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There is the case of the sow whose piglets were spared "on account of their youth and their mother's bad example." Surely these can only be considered mitigating factors in that they mean the piglets could not have known better; they hardly affect whether or not the piglets ate of the child. Similarly in modern life, we are lenient to human offenders for their youth, but we would never think of refusing to replace a lightbulb because it burned out soon after we bought it. The piglets, then, must in some way be considered more like the juvenile offenders than like the lightbulb.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And again, there is the case of the man who had intimate relations with a she-ass. If merely the commission of the act were sufficient for conviction, the trial would have been a foregone conclusion. Yet, as witnesses testified to the jennet's good character, she was spared—again on grounds of moral responsiblity, not of mundane facts.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A new hypothesis which I think might cover all of these cases is as follows: perhaps the medieval idea was simply that, for every evil deed done, <i>someone</i> must be held morally responsible. Not every participant in the deed, but at least one. This would account for the immunity from prosecution of oxen and horses, since as we saw their owner is the one punished by the beasts' confiscation and auction. The owner, then, bears the moral responsibility. Pigs, probably for some of the reasons we discussed in class, were considered more independent agents—it was thus that they were so frequently held guilty on their own, and their owners not punished. In the case of the piglets, the sow was the one to bear the moral responsibility for the deed to which she had led them. (One may wonder what would have happened in court had the piglets done the deed on their own.)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I'm a bit happier with this hypothesis than with the last one, but it still doesn't account very well for the treatment of wild animals or the ecclesiastical actions against vermin. I wonder if any of you have thoughts in those directions?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
—Luke Bretscher</div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-73685379574304623702015-05-21T11:28:00.002-07:002015-05-25T08:15:52.201-07:00Why are a Fox and Wolf feuding? <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
In class, we tried to examine the
degree to which the characters in Reynard the Fox represented any degree of
symbolism or morality, as well as analyzing if these characters were more human
than animal, or animal than human. I think both of these could boil down into a greater question: why a wolf and fox in the first place? In trying to answer that question,
I went back to the Bestiary we examined, as well as the work of Albert the
Great, to see what I could find about wolves and foxes, in order to compare
them to the principle characters we see in the text. While nothing I found change my perception of
the characters behaviors, it is an interesting way of interpreting how people
may have viewed the animals naturally, and how they would have imprinted their
beliefs onto the characters. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I first
went to the Wisconsin Bestiary we reviewed at the beginning of the character.
Within that text, neither the fox nor the wolf were held to be virtuous. Quite
the opposite, in fact. According to the bestiary, both possess characteristics
of the Devil in their nature. The displays his devilish nature in the devious
manner in which he will sometimes hunt. According to the Bestiary, the fox,
when it has trouble finding food, will “rolls himself in red mud so that he
looks as if he were stained with blood.” After that, “he throws himself on the
ground and holds his breath, so that he positively does not seem to breathe.”
Through this method, the fox makes himself to look dead, and thus tricks birds
into thinking it is safe to sit next to him. The fox then “gobbles them up.”<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn1" title="">[1]</a></span></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn1" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This
behavior in the fox is said to be in the same nature as the Devil. The Bestiary
details the devils analogous behavior, saying “With all those who are living
according to the flesh he feigns himself to be dead until he gets them in his
gullet and punishes them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The wolf
too is devilish in nature, according to the Bestiary. From the Bestiary, “The
devil bears similitude of a wolf: he who is always looking over the human race
with his evil eye, and darkly prowling round the sheepfolds of the faithful so
that he may afflict and ruin their souls.” Further, the Bestiary explained that
the very nature of how the wolf moves and looks gives it properties not unlike
the devil. The wolf cannot look backward, and is always moving forward, in
which “signifies that this same Satan was at first forward among the angels of
light and was only made an apostate by the Hindward way.”<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn2" title="">[2]</a></span></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn2" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Personally,
I am less inclined to say the text as itself is filled with allegory and teaching
tools, and I rather feel much of what happened in Renard for entertainment
purposes. But these descriptions of the wolf and fox would give a hint as to
why these animals were chosen, as opposed to, say, two rival birds or two rival
cats. If we believe that these were perceptions that were widely shared (which
is hard to say), it would explain why these animals were perhaps chosen. For
animals who are in constant conflict, it would make sense that there is a bit
of the devil in them. Certainly the holy dove or angelic doe would be poorer
choices. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In order
to further examine the choice of these two animals, I went to Albertus, to see
what in the nature of these animals may have been reasons for their selection. I was looking for evidence of the fox as a
trickster or and the wolf as aggressive and vengeful (the latter of which
showing itself moreso in the Pilgrimage story arc). Examining Albertus’s
account of the fox would suggest that the fox had a reputation which would lend
itself well to playing a trickster in this novel. As Albertus wrote, [The fox] is
full of tricks and when a dog is following it, [the fox] leads its tail through
the mouth of the dog and leads it to and fro and thus sometimes eludes it.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
This, in conjunction with the Bestiary’s account of the deceptive hunting practices
of the fox, may give a decent explanation why the fox was chosen. Not only is
it a bit devilish, but it was perceived to be a trickster. If our unknown
author of Renard the Fox came up with the “trickster” angle before choosing the
animal, and if these perceptions of the Fox were common, it would help explain
why the fox was chosen. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
What of Ysengrimus? Albertus wrote
that Wolves are “rapacious beast, and hankering for gore.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
This would certainly apply to the wolves behavior in the pilgrimage. There wasn’t
quite as much on the wolf that was directly applicable to the rivalry that
happened between the fox and the wolf, but this does at least point to the aggression
of the animal and, thus, its propensity to engage in the kind of feud that occurred
between the two. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Within the
text, we see animals behaving in the way they do in nature, according to
Albertus and the bestiary. We also see the animals are reflective of their
worst traits, or at least what were perceived to be traits shared with the
devil. While we didn’t see Renard feign death, we did see him attempting to
trick birds into coming close enough to eat. While I’m still not convinced that
the characters are acting as strong allegories for any particular thing, I do
think the Bestiary and Albertus both give some clues as to why an author may
have picked these characters. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> - </span><!--[endif]-->Jeramee<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
P.S. For those, like me, who were further curious about
Renard’s ….physical encounter with Hersent, I was able to find the following:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The male fox has a bony penis and it copulates lying on its
side, embracing the female who is also lying on her side.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Wolves are known for their rapacity, and for this reason we
call prostitutes wolves, because they devastate the possessions of their lovers.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Wolves only copulate
on twelve days in the whole year.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not entirely sure if any of these quotes explain what
happened, but….maybe?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
P.P.S. <br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE">Also,
did someone say talking foxes?</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Bestiary 54<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Bestiary 59<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Albertus 1541<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Bestiary 56<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Albertus 1542<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn6">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Bestiary 56<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn7">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Bestiary 61<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn8">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Albertus 1518</div>
</div>
</div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-56622950377695301862015-05-15T14:58:00.000-07:002015-05-15T14:58:10.399-07:00Dove as symbol<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The Sign of the Dove is ostensibly
about a dove. It is about a bird, its coloration, its sigh and its nature. By
analyzing The Sign of the Dove in more depth, however, it becomes clear that
this text and image pairing is not solely a bird. Rather, it is about the sign.
The sign, this sign of the dove, was a way to use metaphor to extract meaning
out of a text and an image. Its purpose: to indicate the spiritual nature of
what’s signified. Metaphor is the medium through which this spiritual world is
visible. The Sign of the Dove was used, not to be looked at, but to be looked
through to the invisible, to the conceptual and the spiritual. To illuminate
the theological and determine that life of sublimity. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
While this image could illuminate
another world, it could also be used to collect knowledge about a place, a
world. The Sign of the Dove was part of a larger book—a book on many types of
birds and their significance. This book, like many texts and images we have
analyzed in this course, is a bestiary. It is an encyclopedia. As I have
mentioned in previous blog posts, I believe that these complications with the
express purpose of collecting knowledge about the outside world were very
powerful tools. Encyclopedias, bestiaries, indicate that the author is trying to
learn. They are trying to master some part of the physical environment.
Cataloging is a first step to having power over something. By cataloging these
animals, the authors of these bestiaries were attempting to gain partial control
over the animals contained therein. It can be imagined to be a respite from the
great fear of the unknown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The Sign of the Dove seems to be
something else, also. Not only was this other, spiritual world something that
could be used to understand complex topics—sin and love were two we touched
on—but the self. As we went on to discuss at the end of class, the Sign of the
Dove indicates the occurrence of an intricate psychology. By looking at this
text and image, one could understand themselves better through the aide of
looking at a particular creature. Again, we see here that people were
attempting to understand themselves and the world around them—to gain a grasp
of the world through cataloging language and, as evidenced here, through
metaphor.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
This world within a world signification
indicates, to me, something broader about how animals were used in the Middle Ages.
Throughout this course, we have been asking the question what are animals for?
What is their relationship to humans? Perhaps we can use the Sign of the Dove
to flesh out our understanding of that relationship. The use of metaphor in the
interpretation of the Sign of the Dove could be akin to the use of animals in
the interpretation of the world. That is to say, people used metaphor to
interpret an image of a dove to extract meaning out of the world around them. Within
this comparison, animals can take the place of metaphor, here. To people in the
Middle Ages, and perhaps to people now, animals can be used to extract some
meaning out of the world around them. Animals can be, and are, symbols. They
are symbols used to get at some larger meaning, to analyze the way in which
humans themselves navigate the world around them. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
We see this animal as symbol or
signifier just as we saw dove as signifier in the three ways outlined above.
First, as first and foremost a symbol. As we have seen before, animals were not
only economically useful, but also served as signifiers. Here, though, the
broader meaning that animals help humans to understand the spiritual world, the
natural world, what is real and what is not. Animals could serve as
approximations of what could seem to be ungraspable to the intellect. Next, as
a way of knowledge collection. To learn about animals is a way to learn about
the world. Animals live in the woods, and the woods can symbolize the great
unknown. By learning about small pieces of what lies in that great unknown, the
fright that accompanies that great void can be lessened. Finally, as ways to
understand people themselves. They also attained class distinctions, were
described in ways similar to humans. They were extensions of humans. By giving
animals certain characteristics, they could be used to help humans understand
more about their own world, their human world. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Many could give a counterargument.
In class, we asked some very good questions—why not just get a real bird? Why
interpret both the picture and text instead? What does this illustration do
that a flesh and blood animal does not? I will elaborate on these questions to
provide a counterargument. If we cannot just use a bird as a symbol in interpreting
The Sign of the Dove to examine the spiritual world and get closer to God, how
can we use flesh and blood animals to extract meaning out of the world of
humans? Aren’t flesh and blood animals not enough to use as a symbol, or an
interpretive device?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I believe that animals are enough
to analyze the human world. Metaphor is just different enough from matter of
fact speech, just as animals are just different enough from humans such that
they can be utilized as an interpretive device. I am trying to argue that animals
can be used to make sense of the human world just as metaphor can be used to
make sense of the spiritual world in the Sign of the Dove. In the former case,
the thing being analyzed, the human world, is broad enough such that animals as
interpretive devices makes sense. Not just animals as pictures and text, but as
animals. In the ways humans use animals to understand their world, it works. As
we have seen, humans have used animals as flesh and blood, when they keep them
as pets, or use them to fight, as textual representations, as when they are
described in bestiaries and representations of the hunt, and as painted
pictures, as in many of the unrealistic groupings of animals we looked at last
week. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So, animals are not perceived as
just flesh and blood. They are multifaceted, can be represented in many ways,
and in this way, animals can be used to interpret the human world. They can be
used to grasp something larger about humans that would not be achievable
without these animals. They are ultimately very valuable, just as the Sign of
the Dove is valuable, in that they help humans see beyond their visible,
graspable world into the invisible, the ungraspable. The human nature of the
world is graspable through the study of animals.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
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--B. Alderete Baca</div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-11276754728650380052015-05-13T10:53:00.000-07:002015-05-19T08:11:19.492-07:00The Animal Mirror<div class="MsoNormal">
The meditation of the dove with all its layers of significance
and signs was practiced to develop perspective. By contemplating the dove and
its properties, a human can find the traces of God in His own creation, and the
human can perceive beyond the visible qualities of life to the invisible and
sublime. Interpreting creation through animals allows the human to interpret
creation through himself, for the dove is a mirror to the human. Hugh of
Fouilloy outlines the three kinds of doves in Scripture and how they each
exemplify a unique method to cease from sin. To follow the dove of Noah, you
much cease from sin. To follow the dove of David, you must do battle against
sin. To follow the dove of Jesus Christ, you must seek salvation.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
The meditation of the dove will lead to instruction and then action for the
human who practices contemplation. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The dove is
a mirror to the human who searches for the invisible trace of God in nature and
for instruction for devout life. The human can identify with the dove, can take
on its characteristics in order to sincerely practice their love for God. The
dove can also become a mirror for the Church and the community. “The silvered
dove is the Church,” and its physical shape holds the source of spirituality.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This was
the atmosphere of the medieval world. As Dutton writes, “…the early Middle Ages
seemed awash with divine power.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Doves and other kinds of birds, beasts, and even the smallest insects were both
manifestations of God’s creation and agents of His will. But animal metaphors
were also used for courtly life, and instead of careful contemplation of
nature, human would identify themselves and others through stock
characteristics and behaviors of animals. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dutton implies
that Charlemagne’s own court was a mock menagerie in which his courtiers and
companions carried animal nicknames and communicated in animal code.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Charlemagne
himself was referred to as the lion because of the animal’s role as king of beasts.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
This association was determined by the nature and characteristics of the
animals in the same way Hugh determined the signs of the dove by its
properties. However, when the animal mirror is applied to the superficial
personality of an individual as opposed to trace of God left in a creature from
its creation, does the metaphor hold its significance? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Charlemagne
identified with the lion as a king, but he also knew himself to be the king of
humans and beasts. He played his kingly role by collecting exotic animals in
his forests to show the extent of his control over the natural world.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Significantly, he collected a variety of birds of paradise such as peacocks,
doves, and swans, and their presence in his menagerie were not ornamental. As a
lion, as a king, Charlemagne needed to display his control over a harmonious
and civilized paradise that housed birds and beasts. Using the characteristics
of the animals, Charlemagne could metaphorically and literary mirror his superiority.
But does the recognition of animal properties within the self translate to the
same kind of immersive introspective Hugh of Fouilloy was trying to stimulate
through his dove? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In some
ways I am quick to say no to my own question. It seems silly that Charlemagne’s
political strategy involving animal metaphors and peacocks could be made
similar to the deeply spiritual meditation conducted by Hugh’s dove. Yet, as
Dutton reminds his readers, the Middle Ages were deeply spiritual and deeply
animal. In a longer format I would tease out Charlemagne’s identification with
animals, especially the lion and the birds of paradise in his garden. Dutton
wants to suggest that the king’s plan for his animals was also meant to
associate him with Adam as he collected the creatures in Eden and gave them
names.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Perhaps this is the entrance to the comparison between the dove and the courtly
menagerie.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What
persists, though, is the emphasis on the qualities of the animal that will lead
to the central, invisible qualities of its creation. Medieval humans, I will
argue, were not insistent on the animal’s appearance or physical accuracy. Although
Hugh does spend a lot of time discussing the dove’s colors and form, his
descriptions are not accurate for a realistic bird found in wildlife, even if Hugh
does claim to have seen a golden dove. I believe the medieval observer was most
aware of an animal’s behavior as it compared to his own. In this way he could
more easily construct a metaphorical comparison and determine its place in the
divine plan. As Ohly details in his article, the purpose of the looking at the
dove for Hugh and others was to transcend the visible qualities and to perceive
its invisible characteristics: “It leads from the foundations of the sense
structure to its vault, from the earthly to the heavenly. Its essence is not
foreshortening, but extension to the sublime. It does not relativize by means
of an earthly view but is directed to the absolute and makes what has been
created transparent vis-à-vis the eternal.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> According
to this interpretation, the people of the medieval age care more about
interpreting the invisible nature of the animal than analyzing its physical
properties. While the properties of an animal are important to obtain perspective,
the goal is to mirror the dove’s behavior as a vessel of God’s creation and
support to Scripture. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Therefore,
the strange depictions of animals in medieval artwork, even those animals that
were available for direct observation, have one version of explanation. I argue
that medieval artists were too busy trying to capture the introspective trace
of God to feel the need to paint realistically or accurately. They were
creating images of the animals according to their nature, not always according
to how they looked in nature. <o:p></o:p></div>
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K. Beach<br />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Hugh 121<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Hugh 123<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Dutton 50<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Dutton
47<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Dutton 43<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div id="ftn6" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Dutton 54<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div id="ftn7" style="mso-element: footnote;">
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Dutton
56<o:p></o:p></div>
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Ohly 71<o:p></o:p></div>
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Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-40275964390174558932015-05-11T07:23:00.000-07:002015-05-11T07:23:28.712-07:00"Two Medieval Monks Invent Bestiaries"Following our discussion on naturalism and art and in anticipation of our discussion on aviaries, a fun little link: <a href="http://the-toast.net/2015/04/01/two-medieval-monks-invent-bestiaries/#jagBx6M1mwCLwZB4.01">http://the-toast.net/2015/04/01/two-medieval-monks-invent-bestiaries/#jagBx6M1mwCLwZB4.01 </a><br />
<br />
RAEAnimals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-73727947484161749252015-05-09T13:22:00.001-07:002015-05-09T13:22:37.704-07:00The Art Historian's Dilemma and Thoughts on Marignalia<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In Flores’ piece “The Mirror of Nature
Distorted,” the argument is advanced that there was a shift in the depictions
of animals in medieval art that corresponded to the changing intellectual
attitudes of the time. Medieval artists, it is claimed, were influenced more or
less by both the “allegorical” and “scientific” attitudes (Flores 4). As Flores
tells it, by the early modern period, allegory, symbolism, and instruction had
given way to a secular, scientific naturalism. The subtitle of Flores’ paper is
“The Medieval Artist’s Dilemma in Depicting Animals,” but the dilemma may
belong more to the art historian than it did to the artist. Following our class
discussion on Thursday, while a general shift in the style of representation of
animals throughout the Middle Ages is clear, the model Flores provides obscures
as well as explains—though a “realistic” aesthetic may have become dominant,
this in no way translates to the extinction of allegorical representation. In
particular, I would like to push back against the location of the motivation of
this shift in a “new aesthetic principle” (Flores 10).<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Art is an imitation of nature. Works of
art are successful to the extent that they achieve a likeness of nature”
(Flores 10). These are the words of St. Thomas Aquinas that Flores tells us are
a sort of motto for the naturalistic form of representation. While I do not
doubt that this standard is relevant for the elephant sketches of Matthew Paris
and illustrations in hunting manuals, it is not at all clear to me that this
standard was anything novel. To claim that the images which accompanied the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Physiologus</i> were not intended to achieve
a likeness of nature, as Flores implies, is inappropriate. Crucial is the
definition of “nature.” It might be more fruitful to take St. Thomas Aquinas’
words as a timeless standard for art. Thus, as we witness changes in the
likenesses on display in art, the question becomes, how did conceptions and
perceptions of nature change?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Evidently, what Flores and Resl mean by
“naturalistic” is a resemblance to the world as it comes to us through our
eyes. That Matthew Paris’ drawings of the elephant at the Tower of London are
naturalistic is to say that, relative to other drawings, they better resemble
what a real-world elephant looks like. Is it right to say that, for having seen
one in person, Matthew Paris better captured the nature of the elephant than
those who had drawn before him? But where is the dragon in his sketch? Or the
small elephant lifting the fallen elephant with its trunk? Taking Aquinas’
standard as a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">new</i> aesthetic principle
implies that the artists’ who did not have access to the actual animals they
drew could not imitate the nature of the animal. I have a sense that I may have
set myself a little bit of a trap though. It may be important to distinguish
between the natural animal and the nature of the animal. Anyhow, I suspect that
medieval scholars and artists would not readily agree that the legend of the
elephant and its symbolic, religious meanings were apart from the nature of the
elephant. Thus I take issue with Flores’ claim that “[i]n examining depictions
of animals during the Middle Ages, it becomes apparent that an artist’s ability
to reproduce nature is not necessarily the overriding consideration in his
creation of a work of art” (5). While this may simply be relocating the
allegorical/scientific distinction, I think it is important to ask, in evaluating
an animal image, what conception of nature or what facet of the nature of the
animal is being reproduced?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I want to shift gears here and ramble
briefly about a different aspect of the depictions of animals in medieval art:
the enjoyment, both of the artist and the audience. Animals are good to think,
and they are also good to draw and good to look at it. Resl acknowledges that
the care and enthusiasm manifest in animal depictions in religious contexts
goes beyond what was required by the moral and religious messages that the
animals were intended to, could have been intended to, communicate (199). Both
Resl and Janson too, in his discussion of apes in marginalia, recognize the
simultaneous futility and irrelevance of the question of meaning for many
instances of animals in medieval art. While it certainly varies and I am sure
that many of the tropes, in marginalia in particular, started off playing off
of particular set of meanings, it seems not implausible that much of marginalia
may be the elaborate doodling of highly skilled artists situated in a
particular tradition and thus inheritors of a particular repertoire of motifs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As somebody pointed out in class,
the apes and rabbits and other animals in marginal art are nearly always
situated in a crawling floral or leafy pattern. If I may speculate, I have a
little hypothesis regarding the role of marginalia. Writing has long been a
powerful symbol of artifice and civilization, and the beautiful penmanship of
medieval scribes was a particular peak. The orderly lines of text on the page
of a manuscript are an embodiment of the human. The margins of the manuscript
seem to serve as a sort of buffer zone, a liminal space between the human and
the nonhuman. Hence the ordered naturalness of the vines and flowers, but also
the confusion and upside-down-ness of apes absorbed in reading and giving
shaves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">-J.S.</span></div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-29581488650755943282015-05-08T19:11:00.000-07:002015-05-08T19:11:33.190-07:00More Animal Categories: Allegorical, Scientific, and Marginal Art
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In his
lengthy enumeration of depictions of elephants in medieval manuscripts in "The Elephant in Medieval Legend and Art", G.C.
Druce offers his own opinions on the artistic abilities of each artist, saying
such comments as “[This] is a realistic picture” or “The elephant is like a
pig,” and even that one “[displays] the artists’ disregard for natural
coloring.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In doing so, Druce slips into the all
too inviting trap of assuming that every medieval illuminator or artist
attempted to make their art as realistic as possible; some just had more skill
than others. He does not, as Nora Flores does in "The Mirror of Nature Distorted", recognize that there may in fact
be multiple purposes for depicting animals. Flores divides medieval animal art
into two categories: “allegorical” and “scientific.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
I would venture to add a third category, that of marginalia, which often
bridges the gap between allegorical and scientific and adds a complication to
our desired, neat categorical division. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
“allegorical” depiction of animals derives, according to Flores, from the
belief that each animal reflected something about the nature of God or of
humans. The life cycle of the elephant, for example, was held to be an allegory
of the Fall of Man. When the female elephant is ready to mate, she tempts the
male with a mandrake, as Eve tempted Adam. When she gives birth, her mate must
guard her from dragons, symbolic of the snake that tempted Eve. Typically, the
moral lessons one should learn from the animals dictated how they were drawn in
bestiaries; in some cases, “authority rather than reality direct[ed] their
composition.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a>
If ancient authors, such as the author of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Physiologus</i>, made a claim about a certain, creature, it would
likely be repeated by later authors, even if later observation of the animal
proved such a statement false. For example, it was commonly held that elephants
lacked knees, and when they leaned against a tree to sleep, the tree could be
partially cut and broken by the elephant’s weight, and the elephant
successfully captured. Even as knowledge of elephant joints spread, it is likely
that some artists chose to keep their drawn elephants jointless to match the
description of how an elephant could be hunted. As Bridgette Resl, in "Beyond the Ark: Animals in Medieval Art," writes, “What
mattered first and foremost, therefore, was ease of recognition. In such a
context it was more important for the subject to look typical than realistic.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span></span></span></a></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
“scientific” category of animal art is less straight-forward than “allegorical”
art. Flores claims, “By the mid-thirteenth century, artists were also looking
more critically at nature and using it more often as a model for their
creations.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span></span></span></a>
We see this most clearly in the elephant allegedly drawn from life by Matthew
Paris, who saw the elephant presented to Henry III for his menagerie. Paris
gets the placement of the knee correct, has a very natural-looking trunk, and
even places the tusks in the upper jaw rather than the lower (a flaw Druce is
rather fond of point out). But then again, of course Paris’ sketch looks more
natural than other illuminations; he actually saw an elephant with his own
eyes! But this does not mean that a realistic elephant, or any realistic
creature for that matter, suddenly lost its symbolic meaning. We are reminded
of the 17<sup>th</sup>-century paintings of birds in a park, a scene that is
entirely realistic, but perhaps has no meaning without an understanding of the
symbolism associated with each type of bird. Flores, then, goes too far with
her assertion that the “scientific” overtook the “allegorical” from the 15<sup>th</sup>
century on. As I have already mentioned, it was sometimes necessary for the
allegorical purpose of an animal to be clearer to a viewer than the animal’s
actual appearance. </div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Then there
is the question of marginalia. Are these drawings outside of the text still
related to the text? If not, what is their purpose, especially the incredibly
naturalistic marginalia of the Annunciation in the Hastings Hours? H.W. Janson,
in his chapter on marginalia in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Apes and
Ape Lore</i>, gives a number of examples of apes in the margins of manuscripts
in order to discuss specific tropes of apes in art; in those images he chose to
print with the chapter, the images are unfortunately separated from their
larger context on the page. For the sake of argument, let us assume they are
not easily connected to the text with which they appear. Janson goes too far in
stating at the beginning of his chapter “The Ape in Gothic Marginal Art” that
marginalia “have no illustrative function.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span></span></span></a>
I would propose that marginalia help bridge the gap between allegory and
science that we seem so desirous of creating. Searching for symbolism in each
marginal creature can often prove fruitless; as one student said in class
regarding a particular manuscript page, “I can explain the ape but not the man
with the crossbow.” When no symbolism can be found, what prevents us from
assuming this is the illuminator’s chance to work on their ability to draw from
nature? The Luttrell Psalter artist who drew an ape holding an owl on the back
of a goat (MS 42130, f.38r)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span></span></span></a>
may not have had the chance to see an ape in person, but their owl is fairly
naturalistic. If the typical meaning of ape and owl does not apply to the
accompanying text, then who is to say that the illuminator included it simply
because they were talented at drawing the owls they had observed around their
monastery? One could even come up with a scenario of the Hastings Hours
illuminator, tired of drawing only Biblical scenes they feel no connection to
and yearning to draw the butterflies they see in the cloister every day. Of
course, the anonymity of these artists is more of a hindrance than help in
explaining the exact purpose of marginalia. But I think it is safe to assume
that marginalia fall somewhere in the middle of Flores’ “allegorical” and
“scientific” categories, and therefore show to us that the division between the
two is not as distinct as, for ease of comprehension, we would wish them to be. </div>
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RAE </div>
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<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
Druce, 35, 42. </div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
Flores, 5. </div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a>
Ibid,, 27.</div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span></span></span></a>
Resl, 191-192.</div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span></span></span></a>
Flores, 10. </div>
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<div id="ftn6" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span></span></span></a>
Janson, 163. </div>
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<div id="ftn7" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span></span></span></a>
Ibid., Plate XXIIId. </div>
</div>
</div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-41395266931032751552015-05-07T11:16:00.000-07:002015-05-07T11:16:02.613-07:00Bonds with Beasts: How close were people to their animals in the Middle Ages?<div class="MsoNormal">
During class, we as a unit seemed to struggle with defining
the relationship that was developed between man and animal when it came to the warhorse. To varying degrees, we attempted to explain the relationship as it
compared to the readings we’ve done on falconry and on pets. In reflection of
the topic, I wanted to go back to the readings we’ve done thus far and see how
the interpretation of the human-animal relationship has compared to the
relationship between man and his warhorse. <o:p></o:p></div>
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First, what did we learn about the relationship between
nobles and their horses? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Bennett provided some idea of how this relationship was
developed. We learned that the horses needed to be trained extensively,
ensuring they were able to take commands and would be useful tools in battle. Bennett
explained that Stallions have some fighting qualities that may seem useful in
combat, but those behaviors had to be trained out. Biting and kicking, he said,
were not a useful tactic. Rather, the horses had to be obedient, and discipline
was what was required.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn1" title="">[1]</a></span></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn1" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br /></span></span></div>
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This is not to say the horses were simply instruments of
war. Bennett explains that there is an undoubted bond of affection formed
between rider and mount. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hyland, in talking about the Templars in particular, gives
further clues to how important the horse was to the rider. The rules of the
Temple, Hyland writes, contained over 100 rules relating to the horse, ranging
from equipment, maintenance, breeding, and acquisition. This, Hyland writes,
was just as present as the ‘praying factor’.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
This alone does not tell us emotionally invested the Templars were in their
horses, perhaps only going so far as to explain they were valuable and required
the most extensive care. Hyland also explains how valuable the horses were, and
how military units did what they could to ensure that warhorses were not lost
to the enemy.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
This great care could simply be a measure of the horses’ value.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The measure of how great this connection was between master
and horse could perhaps be a function of how invested the rider is in his
animal. Hyland explains the Templars had to provide their horses, but they were
supplied by the Temple once the horses were registered. In the event of a
horse’s death, the rider would be compensated by the Temple.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> I make the inference here that perhaps the
connection would be greater if the rider was the one who was tasked with being
the sole person to feed, supply, and maintain his mount. Sure, the rider may
have brought the horses to battle, but the point at which they can be compensated
for its loss, and the point at which they no longer feed it, would seem to me
as a point where the horse becomes less of a partner and more of a military
instrument which can be reimbursed. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hyland says the horses used in battle were either very stupid,
or a courageous partner to its rider. But Hyland also characterizes the actions
of horses in combat as the product of “the mastery of the man, instilled
through years of training and association.”<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn5" title="">[5]</a></span></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn5" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what can be made of the relationship between horse and
rider? Certainly, there existed some sort of bond, as had to naturally come
from the extensive training that occurred. At the same time, though, it’s
difficult to pinpoint exactly to what extent this relationship existed. The
sources seem to indicate the horses could just as easily been perceived
principally as instruments of war, and the connection through training was only
useful in that it made the horse perform better in combat. Templars in
particular did have to provide their horses, but all sources indicate that they
traveled with several horses, not one who they formed an incredibly strong bond
with. The fact that the Temple had such extensive rules for the horses could be
a sign, and the fact that the Temple was willing to pay the value of the horse
in the event of death, seems to indicate a military interest rather than an
intrinsic one. The rules ensured that horses would be properly prepared for
battle, and the financial commitment ensured Templars would be willing to bring
their horses to combat, lest they be out a significant financial investment.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How does our understanding of warhorses compare to other
house animals or falcons? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Smith gives us the only piece which directly compares horses
with a more conventional house-animal. In terms of dogs, most of what is
discussed relates to “function.” Smith talks at length about the functionality
of dogs, with hints of the relationship between animal and man. Primarily the
focus is on what dogs could do, with mentions relating to the use of dogs in
herding and home security. Smith does however mention a small hint of the
relationship between dog and owner, mentioning the probability that dogs were
kept unmuzzled (although this could again just be tied to the practicality of a
muzzled dog).<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn6" title="">[6]</a></span></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn6" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As to their status as pets, Smith states that the evidence
of that treatment is sparse and “pets” were in the minority. Rather, animals
were exploited for their furs, hides, meat, and labor.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So it’s hard to say horses are pets, because the evidence
isn’t really there that pets were a widespread phenomenon. This makes sense,
because most people likely lacked the wealth to sustain another non-human mouth
to feed. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But what about the elite, and their connection to animals?
How does the relationship compare to falcons and falconry? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Again, the language is focused on teaching and training. A
falconer must “teach his falcon” to hunt only the prey desired by the hunter,
thus creating a behavior “counter to [the falcon’s] natural inclination.”<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn8" title="">[8]</a></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn8" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span>
This is similar to what Smith said about the training of warhorses, that they
too needed to be broken of some of their natural behaviors. Frederick does talk
about the care that has to be taken to acclimate the bird to the trainer,
writing that the chief aim of the falconer should be to “train his hunting bird
to make use of all her faculties in his presence without any sense of terror.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
The falconry text goes to great lengths to talk about the relationship that
must form between bird and man, and its length is a testament to how much care
is given to the training of falcons. The process of prepping the bird, the
restoring of sight to the bird, soothing the bird, keeping it fed and trained,
all of this is important in making a proper falcon for hunting, but must be
done with the utmost care. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ultimately, the conclusion we can come to here is that there
certainly had to be a connection between man and animal, as there always has
been. The degree to which that connection is evident is based on the evidence
and sources we have. Perhaps that is the biggest shortcoming we have here. Perhaps
the conflicting view of the connection between falcon and horse and dog is a
product of the lack of primary sources. If there were more primary sources on
horses and sheep dogs like the one Frederick penned on falconry, we may have a
better idea of how close knights were to their horses. Without them, we’re left
looking at horses the same way that dogs and cats were apparently viewed, primarily
as animals with utility. Certainly, the evidence suggests that war horses were
likely viewed more in the way that falcons were, but without primary sources,
we are left mostly with the impression that war horses were certainly
companions to some extent, but the focus seems to be on the utility the animals
had in war. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->- <i>Jeramee Tiger Gwozdz</i></div>
<div>
<i>(It's a clever pun if you know my middle name is '"Tyler")</i>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Bennett 37<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Hyland 149<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Hyland 148<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Hyland 154<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Hyland 164<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn6">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Smith 874 <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn7">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Smith 881<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn8">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Frederick 106<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn9">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4176769156825838190#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Frederick 171<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-5148305882293436172015-05-07T00:46:00.004-07:002015-05-07T10:59:01.955-07:00Revising Revisionism: The Case of Medieval Heavy Cavalry<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In challenging cherished assumptions,
we must be careful that we are not simply reproducing past errors in
an inverted form. Trusting medieval illustrators on the size of
horses is neither more important nor more rigorous than trusting
medieval commanders on the importance of those horses, regardless of
their exact dimensions. Both Carroll Gillmor in “Practical
Chivalry: The Training of Horses for Tournaments and Warfare” and
Matthew Bennett in “<span style="font-size: small;">The
Medieval Warhorse Reconsidered” </span><span style="font-size: small;">stake
out positions within a new orthodoxy that largely discounts the worth
of heavy cavalry in medieval European warfare. But this position then
requires both to explain the cultural and documentary ubiquity of
armored men on armored horses. Bennett, having assembled some
contradictory evidence, is noncommittal - </span><span style="font-size: small;">“There
remains the question of just how much a warhorse – the specialist
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>destrier</i></span><span style="font-size: small;">
– existed as a vehicle for status rather than battle” (39).
Gillmor has no such qualms, asserting outright, </span>“The
infrequency of set battles in the period 1050 – 1300 and the
relative unimportance of mounted knights when set battles did occur,
must mean that horses were primarily trained to fight in
tournament-style contests” (18).
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This blog post has neither the space
nor the expertise to challenge the fine work and intriguing
conclusions of these historians. Suffice it to investigate
a few of their points – both
authors' discussion of
infantry effectiveness and Gillmor's account of tactics and the
cultural centrality of tournaments – before
comparing
the mustered evidence to how that evidence is expected to perform.
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">Ridiculing
the comparison of the knight with the tank, Bennett notes that, </span><span style="font-size: small;">“Most
academics, however, have been pointing out for a long time that
formed infantry will always see off a cavalry charge if they stand
firm and do not dissolve into panicky flight” (21). “</span><span style="font-size: small;">Formed
infantry” and “do not dissolve” are key here, because most
infantry – in antiquity, the Middle Ages, and even as late as the
</span><span style="font-size: small;">19</span><sup><span style="font-size: small;">th</span></sup><span style="font-size: small;">
century </span><span style="font-size: small;">–
were poorly trained and </span><span style="font-size: small;">minimally
motivated to participate in the feudal battles of their superiors</span><span style="font-size: small;">.
</span><span style="font-size: small;">Heavy
cavalry, after all, don't need to smash through enemy lines or
trample their opponents. The ordinary reaction of someone on foot who
is charged by a horseman is to turn around and run, and shock tactics
from ancient Assyria to riot policing have relied on precisely this
fear. As late as Waterloo, in 1815, Napoleon hoped that his
cuirassiers might break the Duke of Wellington's infantry, and their
failure to do so testifies much more to the discipline of the British
soldiers than to Napoleon's ignorance of what horses can or cannot
do. </span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> Likewise,
at Courtrai and Bannockburn –</span><span style="font-size: small;">
examples that Gillmor is quick to cite (17-18) </span><span style="font-size: small;">attacking
knights ran up against well-drilled </span><span style="font-size: small;">footmen</span><span style="font-size: small;">
in close ranks, united by loyalty to their commanders </span><span style="font-size: small;">and
homelands.</span><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">But in
accounting for these unusually capable infantry, we must also account
for</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">the
mounted knights' </span><span style="font-size: small;">apparent
belief </span><span style="font-size: small;">in
their own chances of victory,</span><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">to the
point of risking their own lives and those of their immensely costly
destriers.</span><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">Far from
representing the knights' failures to understand their own obvious
obsolescence, these defeats were likely shocking.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">Perhaps
most illustrative here is the detailed example that Bennett provides
to prove the uselessness of the heavy cavalry charge. On pages 33 and
34, he quotes Usama ibn </span><span style="font-size: small;">Munqidh's
</span><span style="font-size: small;">report</span><span style="font-size: small;">
of </span><span style="font-size: small;">the
crusader Prince </span><span style="font-size: small;">Tancred's
failure </span><span style="font-size: small;">against
Syrian footmen </span><span style="font-size: small;">at
Shaizar </span><span style="font-size: small;">in
1110.</span><span style="font-size: small;">
“You have these sergeants... in front of you,” </span><span style="font-size: small;">Tancred
berates his riders, “yet</span><span style="font-size: small;">
you are not capable of moving them!' They answered, 'We fear only for
our horses; otherwise we would have crushed and pierced such enemies
with our lances'... They then made several charges against the men of
Shaizar, and lost seventy horses, but could not move the enemy from
the position that they had taken up.” </span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">For
Bennett, this showcases the knightly charge as a futile and rarely
successful tactic. But it seems to me that Munqidh's account in fact
suggests the opposite. In 1110, Tancred</span><span style="font-size: small;">
was 36, </span><span style="font-size: small;">an
experienced commander who had been </span><span style="font-size: small;">engaged
in more or less continuous crusading warfare for fifteen years
leading up to the confrontation at Shaizar. </span><span style="font-size: small;">Either
he was an unusually stupid man who had been unusually lucky in his
earlier battles – or he was acting according to his experience that
a frontal assault of well-equipped horsemen was usually sufficient to
see off opposing infantry. That he persisted in this conviction even
as his men were beaten back time and again, sustaining the grievous
and hard-to-replace loss of seventy warhorses, indicates that Tancred
was </span><span style="font-size: small;">surprised
and frustrated by</span><span style="font-size: small;">
the extraordinary,</span><span style="font-size: small;">
unexpected t</span><span style="font-size: small;">enacity
of the Syrians. </span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">In
certain situations, fighters (including knights themselves) did
indeed “fight better” on foot, as Bennett states on 36. But his
subsequent grudging admission that they did not always do so –
indeed, that the cases when they did were unusual enough to warrant
special mention by the chroniclers – should suggest that commanders
like Tancred were not fools to invest in their heavy cavalry and
expect it to achieve victory.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Carroll Gillmor's article is even more
selective in its use of sources and fixation on certain exceptions.
Its focus on the Frankish empire in the centuries around the turn of
the first millenium does indeed create a very different picture of
cavalry warfare from the smashing charges of cliché medievalism. But
generalizing from the Bretons – an isolated and culturally distinct
population at the margin of Europe – is almost certainly
unjustified. Rather than providing a pattern that High Medieval heavy
cavalry likely imitated, Regino's Bretons seem to be performing a
difficult but recognizable maneuver, somewhat similar to what the
Spanish later termed the <i>caracole</i>.
It represents one
adaptation of heroic mounted
warfare
to a more organized military model, based
on evasion, missile weapons, and, yes, swift lead change to produce
circular sweeping maneuvers and feigned retreats. But
the Bretons seem to have abandoned these tactics as they became
culturally and politically assimilated with the French – certainly
there are no later references to distinct Breton maneuvers
in the battles of Jean de Montfort or Bertrand du Guesclin.
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
history of cavalry in the West is, to some degree, a history of the
alternation of these evasive
tactics
with an
alternate approach
based on direct charge and close combat. This opposition can be seen
in accounts of the confrontation between Darius' javelineers and
Alexander the Great's lancers in the late 4<sup>th</sup>
century BCE, all the way through the tactical innovations of Gustavus
Adolphus' <i>hakkapel</i><i>i</i><i>it</i><i>t</i><i>a</i>
against the Imperial pistoleers at Breitenfield and Lutzen during the
Thirty Year's War.
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In
places, the evidence is in clearly unresolved dissonance. On
page 15 of the
article, Gillmor attempts to
undermine Bachrach's challenge of the importance of the stirrup by
asserting that feigned retreats would have been “very difficult to
accomplish” without them. And yet they were accomplished without
stirrups, by riders across vast swathes of Eurasia - Spain, North
Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia – almost from the moment that
cavalry enters the historical record. That such tactics were not only
possible but widespread suggests that we know very little about the
actual techniques used in historical
horsemanship, and that attempting to apply modern standards to
them is perhaps a futile
exercise.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Finally,
the insistence on knights as
primarily “athletes”
(20)
is, I think,
charming but misguided. No modern polity has staked its survival on a
NASCAR competition. Medieval kings routinely bet their kingdoms on
armed confrontation, and the list of monarchs killed while fighting
(<i>as</i>
knights – that is, mounted
and wearing armor) is ample
testimony to
the stakes
attached to the martial
skills honed in tournaments
(as well as a persistent
reliance on the charge and melee combat).
Of course the
line between the tournament and warfare was blurred – both featured
weapons, ransoms, and death. But one suspects that Richard III, whose
recently-discovered body is a forensic catalog of the
effects of close-combat weaponry on human flesh,
would disagree profoundly with Gillmor's
assertion of the tournament as
the ultimate test of knightly ability.
An imperfect but perhaps more apt analogy might be modern fighter
pilots like the Thunderbirds,
whose aerial displays are indeed stunning spectator sports, performed
at great cost and substantial personal risk. But no one would argue
that the Air Force exists primarily for such entertainments.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
-SLasman</div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-17832893562026925822015-05-06T21:41:00.002-07:002015-05-06T21:43:33.051-07:00Why are Infantry Good Against Cavalry, and Why Do Charges Sometimes Work?<div class="MsoNormal">
In
class, we substantially discussed the nature of the warhorse, and the way in
which it was portrayed. We accepted, following the opinions of Hyland, Bennett,
Davis, and others, that the height of a medieval warhorse was only about 15
hands, instead of the massive horses modern imaginations conceive for the
period. We also rejected the idea that cavalry forces could or would “ride down
any foot in its way” (Bennett 21). Instead, we followed historical evidence, such
as what Gillmor described, to prove that complicated and nimble maneuvers like the
feigned retreat were the effective strategies of medieval knights. We also
noted the specific instance in which the mounted charge was recorded as being
highly effective: the Battle of Dyrrhacium in 1081 and possibly the Battle of Ascalon
in 1099. However, we did not discuss for the most part why infantry forces were
so potent against cavalry, and what made Ascalon different. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Infantry
tactics in early medieval Europe revolved around one concept: the shield wall.
Essentially, as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, a long line would be formed
using a significant amount of the infantry forces, all equipped with a large
shield, especially a kite shield, which covers a soldier’s legs. The soldiers stand
next to each together, so that the shields defend the front and sides of the
entire army. In addition, as the Bayeux Tapestry shows, the most common weapons
would be spears or swords, which are held past the wall to kill any fighters
who approach. In addition, as the Anglo-Saxon poems <i>The Battle of Maldon</i> and <i>The
Battle of Brunanburh</i> describe and the Bayeux Tapestry pictures, archers
were placed with the shield wall to pick off as many people as possible. At the
Battle of Hastings, the wall was supplemented by the Dane-axes: large (nearly
as tall as a man according to the Bayeux tapestry) two-handed axes which in one
panel of the tapestry is shown killing a horse in one blow. To an onlooker, the
shield wall would provide no targets then, but rather be a solid barrier with a
spikes sticking out of it, much like the fortifications used since Roman times.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The
shield wall proved to be a hugely effective strategy even against other
infantry forces. At the Battle of Maldon in 991, the poet claims that two men
held a narrow strait against several hundred Vikings, who eventually resorted
to deceit to cross. For cavalry, a charge against that would be unthinkable. The
first reason for this is that horses “prefer not to step on people, but will
often do anything to avoid it”. There is a large crowd of people very close together
in a shield wall with no space for a horse. In that case, the animal would balk
at the idea of running at all close to so many people. The second reason why
any charge is laughable is that the horse would have to run directly onto a
wall of sharp objects. Not only is this against the horse’s nature again, but
it is against the riders! As Gillmor and Bennett mention, the bond between
horses and riders would be extensive. In order to support the training and the
maneuvering of the battle, the horse and rider must understand each other and
communicate instantly. Such training would be sure to create a bond of
affection between rider and horse. It is for that reason that in 1110, knights
were recorded as avoiding a charge by saying “We fear only for our horses”
(Bennett 33-34). Even if the opposing infantry were not in a shield wall in the
same way the Anglo-Saxons were at Hastings, the same principle applies. A
charge might shatter some shields, as the Bayeux Tapestry shows when depicting
the shield wall, but it would certainly kill the horses. Such an action would
be a tactical disaster by any measurement, meaning that a simple charge could
not work against a cohesive shield wall for multiple reasons.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So why
was the charge demonstrated as effective multiple times at the end of the 12<sup>th</sup>
century? It seems that at both major instances, the only reason the charge was
effective is due to an error on the opposing side. At Dyrrhacium, a battle
between the Normans and the Byzantines, the Norman charge is documented as
thoroughly effective. It is interesting to note that, as the Byzantine writer
Anna Comnena noted, the feigned retreat failed to draw out the shield wall.
However, it seems that the Byzantine army was concerned enough with the Norman
feint that a charge actually broke into the army. The reason for this,
according to some historians, was that the couched lance was thoroughly
documented as the tactic of the Normans. The extra impact of the direct charge
seems to have been enough to disrupt the Byzantine formation. However, it is
worth noting that Comnena describes the Norman knights as immediately being
routed by the horse’s panic after the charge. So, while it was effective, the
same battle proves the idea that horses were opposed to running straight into
masses of enemies.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At
Ascalon, the tactical error seems to be that the Fatimid army was simply not
ready for battle. In an account by Fulcher of Chartres, the Fatimids were
caught unprepared for the attacking Crusaders. In this case, a charge would be
highly effective, as “one-to-one, the weight of the warhorses did count”
(Bennett 36). It would not matter what gear the Fatimids used, their lack of
formation would have lost the battle.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, it
is clear overall that it is the formation of the infantry more so than the
details of gear that deterred the warhorses. A well-organized infantry block
would win against a much larger group of cavalry, but if a charge could be
enacted through some opening, it was possible for a group of knights to
obliterate a much larger force.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
~AFB</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sources:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gillmor, Caroll, “Practical Chivalry: The Training of Horses
for Tournaments and Warfare”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bennett, Matthew, “The Medieval Warhorse Reconsidered”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Davis, R.H.C, “The Warhorses of the Normans”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bayeux Tapestry, scenes 2 and 3 of the Battle, accessed from
<a href="http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/">http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Liuzza, R.M, <i>The
Battle of Maldon</i>,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
https://web.utk.edu/~rliuzza/514/pdf/The%20Battle%20of%20Maldon.pdf<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Comnena, Anna, <i>The
Alexiad</i>, trans. E.R.A. Sewter, Penguin Books, 1996<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Haldon, John, <i>The
Byzantine Wars: Battles and Campaigns of the Byzantine Era</i>., Tempus
Publishing, 2001<o:p></o:p></div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-85161940527526514962015-05-06T15:26:00.004-07:002015-05-06T15:26:29.907-07:00Speaking of animals used in warfare...<br /><a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140310-rocket-cats-animals-manuscript-artillery-history/">German Rocket Cats!</a><br />
-SGAnimals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-76642799130060520832015-04-30T17:54:00.001-07:002015-05-07T10:50:02.638-07:00Parks and Nature<div class="MsoNormal">
Yellowstone National Park is seen as a place where nature
has been undisturbed and where truly wild animals can live. Of course, the very
act of ordering a park alters the animals within as their populations are
maintained by human influence. Injured or sick animals are rescued and treated,
and special efforts are made to encourage breeding. In medieval Europe, these
effects were far more pronounced. The creation of artificial fish ponds and
glades would have transformed the medieval landscape. In the park, there is a
tension between artifice and the natural world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Syke describes the legal transformation that overtook the
English environment. Before the Norman conquest, wild animals were considered “nobody’s
property.” (162) Both Sykes and Birrell agree that the introduction of the park
system to Britain was a method of expanding noble property. By declaring parts
of the forest necessary to protect, the king established dominion over more and
more land. The new protections afforded to quarry animals led to an increase in
game on owned property. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Birell describes the extent to which deer parks were altered
and maintained for the deer population. Nobles would create artificial pools
for the deer to drink from, provide food for the deer during winter, and “watchers”
would be hired to make sure young deer survived into adulthood. Even though the
deer were considered “ferae”, or wild creatures, their treatment had many of
the hallmarks of domestication. These populations were kept so artificially large
and stable that it was possible to produce detailed records of just how many
there were in a given area. Birell also observes the amount of venison that park-owning
nobles were able to consume. The availability of the meat suggests that the hunting
of deer was not so difficult.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wolf hunts would have dramatically transformed the European
environment. The nobles went to great trouble to hunt down wolves,
extinguishing their populations in some parts of Europe, but it’s not clear
why. Wolves were seen as dangerous, but there were very few records of actual
wolf attacks harming humans or livestock, even as human expansion brought them
closer to wolf habitats. This proximity was probably responsible for much of
the anxiety, but this would also probably have not been enough to motivate
noble efforts to hunt wolves. Despite the challenges involved in hunting
wolves, Pluskowski writes that hunting wolves was not seen as a glamorous
activity. Phoebus’ illustrations reflect this, as he depicts the huntsmen
trapping wolves, instead of the nobles engaging them in close combat as they
did the pigs. Wolf pelts were sold, but very rarely. Still, the nobles did
expend resources clearing their parks of wolves, destroying the British wolf
population. There was something about wolves that endangered the noble way of
life.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It may be that the cause for the wolf hunt was to further
enforce the boundaries of the park. Wolves hunting deer are doing the same
thing as peasants poaching on noble property: depriving the nobles of hunting
targets. The wolves are just as much poachers as criminal peasants. Pluskowski
finds that deer and wild boar made up the majority of the wolf’s diet. As such,
the only property the wolves truly threatened were the deer and the boar. With
the preponderance of legal protection put in place for the deer, it’s easy to
imagine that the gravest anxiety wolves presented was their threat towards
quarry populations. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bravery is often attributed to the hunter in medieval
literature. This bravery was required by two aspects of hunting. The first was
the physical challenge. Many stories were told of hunters who died in the
pursuit of a particularly rare quarry. Theibeaux describes an attraction to the
myth of Heracles, who is “forced to expiate his wrongs by pursuing and
controlling fantastic and noxious beasts…” As we’ve discussed, most of the
beasts that the noble might encounter on a hunt were already controlled and
pursued by his huntsmen. To prepare for the hunt, the huntsmen would track down
the quarries, prepare a route by placing dogs and men at certain points, and
then allow the noble to give chase. The more noxious beasts would have been
already killed. Still, there would have been some merit to the idea that the
hunt could be dangerous. A wild boar could kill with its tusks, and one famously
killed a king of France. However, most of the danger of hunting would have been
mitigated by the properties of the hunt.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The idea of the untamed wilderness also allows for a personification
of nature. In the hunting legends, hunters pursue their quarries and evade
perils and vices. While medieval Europe did not have the same dichotomy between
nature and civilization we had today, the wild world was anthropomorphized to
hold a seductive danger. The transpierced stag that Theibeaux describes
symbolizes this temptation. For this sort of personification to work, there had
to be some difference between the woods and the manor. The image of the harried
stag, for example, simply can’t exist in a forest where every challenge to its
existence has been solved by the owner of the park.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The economic reason for parks was to generate deer and
establish larger domains for nobles. A cynical approach to the concept of the
park may suggest that the mythologizing of the hunt was necessary for
justifying this kind of economic expansion. Today’s national parks also serve
an economic purpose, generating tourism money and leasing parts of the park to
the lumber industry. Poaching on these parks is still illegal, for the same
reasons as it was in medieval times. However, the popularity and importance
that parks receive can’t be solely explained by an economic rationale.
Scientists carry out real environmental studies in national parks, despite
their artificial nature. We genuinely see these places as wild and natural, and
the human interference that allows these parks to exist is justified as
sustaining this natural environment. With the romantic attention paid to the
park in medieval times, the same might be said for then.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
BK</div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-83012750687852235602015-04-30T07:13:00.003-07:002015-04-30T07:15:03.555-07:00Hunting Prey, Wild or Domestic?<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
In 968, Emperor Otto I sent
Liudprand, Bishop of Cremona, on a diplomatic mission to Constantinople.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his report to the German emperor,
Liudprand misses no opportunity to disparage the eastern empire, painting a
picture of a gaudy, weak, and effeminate culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the ways he does this is to criticize
their hunting practices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the
Byzantine Emperor Nicepheros invites Liudprand out on a hunt, he promises that
the bishop will marvel to see the enormity of his hunting preserves, and his
wild donkeys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Liudprand is unimpressed
by the quality of the landscape, complaining that it is “hilly, overgrown, and
unpleasant” (Liudprand, 261).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the
prey appears, Liudprand reports to Otto, “there rushed toward me some of those
creatures they call wild donkeys… the very same kind as are tame at
Cremona.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same color, the same shape,
the same ears, equally vocal when they begin to bray, not uneven in size, the
same speed, equally tasty for wolves” (Liudprand, 261).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same can be found in the market at
Cremona, but they “are called domesticated, not wild donkeys, and are not
bare-backed, but bearing loads” (Liudprand, 261).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
This distinction between the
hunting of wild and domestic animals sheds some light on the practice of deer
farming in Norman England described by Jean Birrell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deer seem not to fit easily into either of
these categories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were certainly
managed and actively cared for, and on such a scale that Birrell argues they
must be considered “a significant aspect of medieval agriculture” (Birrel,
113).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time, she emphasizes
that despite the immense skill and effort put into managing deer herds, medieval
sources did not<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>consider the management
of deer equivalent to the raising of other livestock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are few records of deer in medieval
agricultural treatises, although some estate records do describe the wardens’
duties regarding their care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
included driving out predators and competing foragers, stocking the parks and
forests with food, and even constructing covered shelters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On some occasions the landscape itself was
altered for the deer’s sake, fields were plowed for grass, and streams and
pools were dug or modified.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Despite their deeply involved
management and care, there are many ways in which deer are distinct from any
other kind of managed livestock in the middle ages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, there is no real conceptual
distinction between the deer enclosed in deer parks (those that we can most
appropriately call “farmed” deer), and the deer in the open forests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is true that fallow deer, introduced to
England by the Norman conquerors, were more commonly found in deer parks than
the native red and roe deer, but all three species were both farmed and managed
in open forest in differing degrees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Indeed, farmed herds were often supplemented by driving wild animals
into the park, constructing “deer leaps” which allowed them to jump into the
enclosed park but not out again, and by shipping individual deer between
parks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, it seems that there are not
distinctly “wild” and “domestic” deer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are just those that are enclosed and those that aren’t.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
There was reluctance in medieval
thought to characterize deer as livestock animals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why is this the case?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were managed with similar methods,
although not to the same degree, as other livestock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps it is because there weren’t visible
differences between the wild and farmed animals, like there may have been in
other species.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this regard, I think
it would be interesting to look at medieval attitudes toward boars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We haven’t read much about them, but from
what I understand, there was generally a conceptual distinction between the
wild boar, a beast to be hunted, and the domestic pig, a farmed livestock
animal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were presumably
distinguishing visible characteristics and behaviors by which to define the two
types.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, in his article on the
impacts of the Normans on English hunting practices, N. J. Sykes says that evidence
of wild boar is sparse in the archaeological record of post-conquest England, and
that this may be because it is difficult to distinguish between the remains of
wild and domestic pigs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He goes as far
as to say <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“it must be assumed that… the
wild boar recorded in many medieval documents, for example, as at the Christmas
feast held by Henry III in 1251, were in fact domestic pigs” (Sykes, 166).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
If wild pigs were so biologically
similar to domestic pigs, why the conceptual distinction and different treatment?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why were some farmed and others hunted, some
killed on the chopping block and others chased and fought as noble
adversaries?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conversely, why weren’t
deer killed on the chopping block?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even
when they weren’t being chased by nobles <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">par
force</i>, deer were still taken by a regularly employed huntsman.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Birrell suggests that this reluctance
to regard deer as tame animals, despite their pampered existence, was due to
the social symbolism of the hunt: “in hunting literature, the beasts were,
indeed had to be, wild animals for the brave and the skilled to seek out and
hunt down” (Birrell, 114).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The idea of
the noble conquering the wild beast fits well in the other two examples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps it would have been unseemly for Henry
III to admit that the centerpiece of his Christmas feast was nothing more than
a farmed hog, as opposed to the nearly identical (but much more ferocious!)
wild boar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is to Nicepheros’s benefit
to characterize his donkeys as marvelous wild beasts, a gift of which “will be
no small glory for Otto” (Liudprand, 261).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>On the other hand, to imply that someone is hunting a domestic animal
would be to insult his courage and prowess.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Liudprand relates how he was immediately dismissed after snidely
commenting to the Byzantine emperor that he’d seen similar donkeys in Italian
markets: “he gave me license to go, having sent me two wild goats” (Liudprand,
261).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To maintain the symbolism and
social significance of the hunt, it was necessary to maintain the fiction that
the hunted animals were truly wild beasts to be subdued by the noble lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In reality, they were anything but.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
W.A.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Sources:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">N.J. Sykes, “The Impact of the Normans on
Hunting Practices in England,” in </span><i><span style="color: #444444; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Food in Medieval England: Diet and Nutrition</span></i><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">, eds. C.M. Woolgar, D.
Serjeantson, and T. Waldron (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp.
162-75.</span><span style="color: #444444; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Jean Birrell,
“Deer and Deer Farming in Medieval England,” </span><i><span style="background: white; color: #444444; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Agricultural History Review</span></i><span style="background: white; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #444444; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;"> 40.2 (1992): 112-26.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Squatriti,
Paolo. <i>The Complete Works of Liudprand of Cremona</i>. Washington,
D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2007.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176769156825838190.post-12977494252636452812015-04-29T21:54:00.000-07:002015-04-29T21:54:05.908-07:00Banal and Enchanting<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yesterday
in discussion, we began and ended the class period asking the question: what is
the hunt? What is its purpose? How is it depicted? What do we make of the
metaphor of the hunt? We began the class by looking at the illustrations in
Gaston Phoebus’ book, and ended considering the hunt’s depiction in literature.
To further our discussion, I will discuss the metaphor of the hunt—how the hunt
can be at once banal and enchanted and how this duality can highlight how
important animals were in both high and lowbrow activity. The fact that the
hunt, an activity that involved animals in all aspects, was depicted both in
extreme, germane detail in Phoebus’ book and canonized as enchanting and transcendent
in literature, as Thiebaux discusses, reinforces the integral role animals
played in medieval society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">First,
I will discuss the illustrations that accompany Phoebus’ book. In class, we
talked about how detailed each species was depicted, how the artist shows the
animals in context. And not only one animal—the whole range, young to old—and
animals engaged in a variety of activities. The fox eats a goose, for example.
What is striking to me is not only the myriad species the artist chooses to
depict, but also the detail he goes into. This indicates that animals were not
viewed in a monolithic way. There was not one iteration of a species of animal
with a set behavior and characteristics. Animals were individual with distinct
attributes. This indicates a nuanced view of animals. They were known. Their
known status allowed animals to be integrated into the knowledge systems of
hunters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This
detail mimics the detailed steps of the hunt itself. Thiebaux describes the ten
steps of the hunt. This degree of detail indicates the knowable quality of the
hunt itself. It was studied; it was quantified. This indicates the day-to-day
aspects of this event. It was banal and involved many steps—quite a bit of
waiting, of tracking the deer, of the limerer going off into the deer park to
search, of the nobles waiting for the limerer to declare he’s found a
warrantable hart. This necessitated a very close relationship with both the
dogs and the deer. The huntsman must know how the deer live, and how the dogs
detect them to do his job well. There was little glamor in this pursuit,
however. The hunt can be seen in literature as a noble pursuit. This is because
it is from the nobleman’s point of view. In actuality, the noblemen waited and
drank and picnicked while the huntsmen searched for deer—benefiting from the
work of others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now,
I will discuss the depictions of the hunt in literature. Just as there is a
banal side to the hunt, there is an enchanted side. The art form used to depict
the hunt, poetry, is important in this case. Poetry pushes a person to focus on
the current moment, on the glistening now. Day-to-day pursuits may be discussed
in poems, but they are often teased apart to reveal the extraordinary in the
banal. That is to say, not every detail is accounted for. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This
enchanted quality mimics the extraordinary in the hunt. The extraordinary
quality is revealed in literature, in what is written about the hunt. The
activity of hunting could bring the hunter into a “transcendent universe,” it
could “placed [the hunter] under enchantment”. Despite the fact that actual
hunting is mostly waiting, it is depicted as a noble, high-class, form of art.
There were myths that hunting made a person free of sin, or nobler, there were
illusions to the hunt as a Journey. Thiebaux, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Stag of Love</i>, says that the verb <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">malmene </i>was used to describe the hunt—the same verb used to
describe “martyrs, heroes and lovers driven to the extreme or suffering to
death.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This
extreme that was used to describe the hunt was being used to describe nobles,
benefiting from the limerer’s work, to kill a deer, an animal whose population
was controlled and culled, in a deerpark, a curated bit of land made for their
own enjoyment. The noble attained glory while the huntsmen did the work of pursuing
and finding the deer. In fact, according to Thiebaux, lower officials did the
skinning and butchering of the deer. The noble had no part in this bloody
pursuit. After the hunt was over, he returned to the manor, having sweated out
his bad humors in his day of picnic. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We see that the hunt was both
quotidian and extraordinary. There is one element common to both the banal hunt
and the enchanted hunt: animals. In the banal hunt, huntsmen had close
relationships with their dogs. The dogs became an extension of the huntsmen
themselves—there were specific pet names used to refer to the dogs, they were
cared for in kennels, they were spoken to in a particular manner at different stages
of the hunt. The working relationship between man and animal was strong. In the
enchanted hunt, the stag was seen as iconographic. In both, the human animal
relationship was a key part of making the hunt what it was. Without animals,
the hunt could be neither banal nor quotidian. Without the animals, there is no
hunt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And so I return to the question with
which I began: what do we make of the metaphor of the hunt? I say that making
the hunt into a metaphor does not contort its significance. It stretches what
the hunt is through the means of language and literary illusion. This is
because of the medium through which the hunt is being described: poetry. How
could an activity, comprised mostly of waiting and tracking be translated into
literature? It would be curated—not in a negative way, but simply because a
poem in and of itself is curated. To discuss the metaphor, however, strikes me
as an activity in skirting the point. I feel the fact that animals could be
made banal and enchanting, boring and ennobling, shows their integral nature in
medieval life.</span> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">--RAB</span></div>
Animals in the Middle Ageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10809281152134119502noreply@blogger.com1