NR - Birds in the Middle Ages

[Ulf Gunnarsson]

The folks back then didn't have TV.  No Discovery Channel.  No PBS. And no
History Channel, pardon the irony... Any knowledge of animals foreign to
their local area came from travelers tales or from copies of bestiaries, a
kind of animal encyclopedia.

So I pulled out the 12th c. bestiary translation I have to check out those
birds of Fionnagan's.  This is not the best example of a bestiary, but it
had some good stuff in it.

Vultures are slow flying, sharp-eyed carrion eaters that can foretell death
and conceive without copulation.

Aquila the Eagle is certainly the most noble of the birds, recognized for
acuteness of sight.  When it grows old and its eyes film over, it flies up
as high as the "circle" of the Sun, evaporating the fog from its eyes then
plunging down again into a fountain to cool its singed wings and to arise
again renewed.  The eagle will present its young to the Sun, holding it in
its talon while flying, as a sort of rite of passage.

Accipiter the Hawk is a thief and ravisher, "pillaging with cunning", but
recognized for the great spirit it has for its size.  It also pushes its
children out of the nest as soon as they are big enough, so that they will
not be lazy and expect someone else to feed them.  Hawks will subject
themselves to the hand of man, unlike many other birds.

There is Bubo the Eagle Owl, Noctua the Little Owl, and Nycticorax the Night
Heron, all night-loving "owls".  My bestiary has little to say of them.

That was fun.  You ought to read some of this stuff.  Especially the thing
about the pelicans...

Ulfie


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