[Ansteorra] honor and animals
Hugh & Belinda Niewoehner
burgborrendohl at valornet.com
Fri Apr 16 09:40:07 PDT 2010
Ritter Dieterich Kempenich von Eltz:
> Animals do not have a sense of honor; you are confusing, among other traits,
> loyalty with honor.
Sir,
I do not think that Her Grace is trying to say that any animal has a
sense of honor. Medieval mind sets, however, used symbolism of certain
traits or behaviors of animals to represent virtues and vices of
humans. (At the risk of starting another tread, I don't make
assumptions as to what emotions, etc. animals have since I can not
communicate with them in their language. I've seen cats appear to be
embarrassed which means they have some form of self esteem. I've seen
animals grieve, show affection, etc. Being a fan of Ender's Game, I try
not to judge other species quickly).
But back to the point of this discussion, if you read my previous post,
the people of the Middle Ages would see a certain behavior or trait in
an animal as a characteristic of a human's virtue.
From the same source:
A peculiarity of the wolf is that it cannot turn its head, because there
is no joint in its neck, but must turn its whole body
when it wishes to look behind, thus symbolizing people stiff-necked and
stubborn in sin.
That does not mean wolves are stiff necked and stubborn--mine was a
sweetie, but she could not just look over her back, but had to turn at
least her front half around to see behind her.
Another example:
The cock typifies both vigilance and liberality, because it is always on
the watch, and when
it finds anything, it does not eat it, but calls the hens together and
divides it among them.
I think this is an interesting study and might make people think about
what they choose for their arms. What we think of as a marvelous
creature to represent us might not have the same meaning to the Medieval
mind.
Thanks Your Grace Willow for bringing it up.
Ismet
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