Misbehaving Beasts and Humans: Animal Crimes and Animals as Symbols

NEYRA, ANDREA VANINA

Leeds

Congreso; Leeds International Medieval Congress 2023; 2023

University of Leeds

Animals, real or symbolic, inhabit chronicles and hagiographic texts from Central Europe in the 10th and 11th centuries. They perform “crimes” ‒sometimes instigated by human beings‒, they attack churches or ecclesiastics in acts which are usually interpreted as a symbol of obstacles, signs of misfortune or even miraculous resulting events. This paper aims to explore such occasions, in particular when the animals involved are an expression of adversities which need to be surpassed by ecclesiastics whose authority or influence is questioned by other lords or needs to be established/secured. The documentary corpus includes texts such as the Vita Burchardi, Thietmar’s Chronicle and Brun of Querfurt’s Life of the Five Brethren. The question behind this research is to what extent such stories contribute to build or reinforce the ecclesiastics´ authority or impact in specific (mostly troubled) contexts.