Table Of Content

Animals in Medieval Literature Saints A l e Holy and Noble Beasts x a n The saint and animal story in medieval Encounters with Animals in d e and Animals saints’ Lives has a long tradition – explored in r Medieval Literature detail here. The volume ranges from the very beginning of the genre in the Late Antique DAVID SALTER east, through the early medieval western European adaptations, including those of Through an analysis of literary sources, the book explores the broad range of IN THE MIDDLE AGES attitudes towards animals and the natural world that were current in Western Ireland, to the twelfth century, concluding S Europe during the later middle ages. The way in which human identity is with a new assessment of Saint Francis’s I inextricably bound up with the animal kingdom is particularly evident in NA dealings with animals. medieval hagiography and romance, where the holiness of saints and the heroism The author argues that stories of saints and I of knights is frequently revealed through miraculous encounters with wild beasts. TN animals were drawn from a variety of sources, The book examines how, through their depictions of animals, medieval writers including scripture and classical literature, reflected upon their own humanity while simultaneously exploring the meaning HT and also elements of folklore; they had clear of more abstract values and ideas. ES spiritual meanings, which were adapted to the development of the Church, and its Bestiary A M relationship to the people in the medieval Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Bodley 764 IN West. DD Almost as soon as the genre became RICHARD BARBER D standardised, its appearance in saints’ Lives Excellent translation from the Latin original makes for fascinating reading about beasts, A showed new inﬂ uences deriving from the fund L real and imaginary, of the medieval world. EVENING STANDARD of popular folklore. The relationship between N E [The illustrations are] beautifully reproduced; the elegantly translated text is a mixture of Church and rural folklore is also explored, both medieval reality, Christian symbolic explanation and the literally fabulous. COUNTRY LIFE I through unusual examples of the genre of saint AM Bestiaries, of which Bodley 764 is an outstanding example, are a particularly and animal story, and through a case study of characteristic product of medieval England, giving unique insight into the G twelfth-century miracle cults from the north of A medieval mind. Richly illuminated and lavishly produced, they were luxury E England. objects for noble families. Their three-fold purpose was to provide a natural L history of birds, beasts and fishes, to draw moral examples from animal behaviour, S DOMINIC ALEXANDER received his Ph D from S and to reveal a mystical meaning – the phoenix, for example, as a symbol of Queen Mary, University of London, and Christ’s resurrection. currently teaches history at Barnet College, North London. www.boydell.co.uk www.boydellandbrewer.com Jacket illustration: St Cuthbert praying in the sea, having his feet dried by sea otters, detail from ‘Life BOYDELL & BREWER Ltd B and Miracles of St Cuthbert’ by Bede (BL Add O Dominic Alexander PO Box 9, Woodbridge IP12 3DF (GB) and Y 39943, f.24). D 668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620-2731 (US) E L This content downloaded from 155.69L.24.171 on Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:39:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Saints Aimals.indd 1 16/04/2008 16:15:30 saints and animals in the middle ages This content downloaded from 155.69.24.171 on Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:39:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms This content downloaded from 155.69.24.171 on Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:39:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Saints and Animals in the Middle Ages Dominic Alexander THE BOYDELL PRESS This content downloaded from 155.69.24.171 on Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:39:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms © Dominic Alexander 2008 All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner The right of Dominic Alexander to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 First published 2008 The Boydell Press, Woodbridge ISBN 978–1–84383–394–9 The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA website: www.boydellandbrewer.com A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library This publication is printed on acid-free paper Typeset in Perpetua by Word and Page, Chester, Great Britain Printed in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire This content downloaded from 155.69.24.171 on Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:39:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms contents Acknowledgements vii Abbreviations viii Chapter 1. Reading the Lives of the Saints 1 Chapter 2. The Formation of the Tradition 20 Chapter 3. Monks and Animals in the Medieval Wilderness 38 Chapter 4. The Irish Variant 57 Chapter 5. Sainted Princesses and the Resurrection of Geese 85 Chapter 6. The Hermit and the Hunter 113 Chapter 7. The Holy Wilderness: Farne Island and the Cult of Saint Cuthbert 132 Chapter 8. Animal Sanctuaries of the Middle Ages? 152 Chapter 9. Saint Francis and the Thirteenth Century 169 Bibliography 181 Index 191 This content downloaded from 155.69.24.171 on Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:50:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms This content downloaded from 155.69.24.171 on Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:50:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms acknowledgements The origins of this book lie in an early postgraduate paper given to the Early Medi- eval Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research in the mid-1990s. First thanks therefore go to that seminar for many years of rigorous education in how to do medieval history. Particular thanks are due to Michael Clanchy, and especially Alan Thacker for a great deal of discussion, good advice and encouragement over the years, beginning as the final supervisor of my doctoral thesis, and generously con- tinuing thereafter. I would like to thank the publisher’s reader for many helpful sug- gestions, and the Isobel Thornley Bequest Fund for a grant towards the publishing of this book. I would specially like to thank Elaine Graham-Leigh, who had to live with the long gestation of this book, for her unstinting intellectual engagement with the project, for much work reading multiple drafts of the book, and for unfailing confidence and encouragement. I would also like to thank Angela Graham-Leigh for all her hard work proofreading, and to Anne Alexander for preparing the index. All mistakes remain my own. vii This content downloaded from 155.69.24.171 on Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:50:57 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms abbreviations AASS Acta Sanctorum (Brussels, Antwerp, Paris, 1643–1940). MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica MGH SS Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Sciptores in folio (Hanover 1826–) MGH SSRM Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum (Hanover 1884–). PL Patrologia Latina, ed. Jacques Paul Migne (Paris 1841–64). Rolls Series Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores, or Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages (London 1858–96). viii This content downloaded from 155.69.24.171 on Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:51:34 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms In memory of David G. Alexander (1939–1980) This content downloaded from 155.69.24.171 on Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:51:34 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms