Table Of ContentAnimals 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
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Saints Aimals.indd 1 16/04/2008 16:15:30
saints and animals in the middle ages
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Saints and Animals
in the Middle Ages
Dominic Alexander
THE BOYDELL PRESS
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© 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
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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
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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
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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
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In memory of David G. Alexander (1939–1980)
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