NEW! SC - beavers

[Laura C. Minnick]

Hello everyone!

Seumas and I were In The Basement yesterday for a bit (and we lived to
tell the tale!), going through the books in search of my _Shoes and
Pattens_ book (wonderful book- you all need one!) and I came across the
box with my bestiary books in it. Pulled up _Medieval Bestiaries: Text,
Image, Ideology_ by Debra Hassig (Cambridge, 1995) and out of curiousity
opened it up to the section on beavers, which I had remembered as
especially good... and broke out laughing (Seumas will attest to this)
and yelling "Oh! Ras will loooove this!"

According to Dr Hassig (who I know- she did a visiting prof term here at
Oregon), all of the bestiary texts in the main group (that is, complete
ones) agree in the essential information on the beaver. To whit: hunters
pursue the beaver for his testicles, which are valued for their medical
powers (hence the name _Castor_), so to save his life the beaver will
bite off his own testicles and throw them in the hunter's path.

(Don't all groan at once, gentlemen...;-)

Apparently the moral of the story (and that is what bestiaries are
largely about- drawing morals [usually Christian] from the natural life
around us) is that just as the beaver tosses his testicles to the hunter
to save himself, so the faithful should toss aside their vices and so
renounce the Devil.

The pictures in the bestiaries tend to feature the disembodied testicles
quite prominently, even enlarged, brightly colored, against gold
backgrounds- and the beaver lying on his back exposing himself, to
discourage the hunter.

Since Ras mentioned again the meat vs. fish fasting issue, I must go on
the make the next point, which has a very strange tie-in...

It seems this 'casting away of vice', etc., was appropriated by the
clerics in their pursuit of holiness, and the vice to be cast away was
of course sexual in nature- to take that which offended and give it back
to the Adversary...

However, when it comes to eating beaver, the most information we have is
indeed monastic. Gerald of Wales, in the 12th century reports that monks
consumed beaver tails during fast times because they were held to be
fish according to 'Antique authorities' (I looked in the notes- Gerald's
_Topographia Hiberniae_ and the _Itinerarium Kambriae_ refer to Pliny's
_Naturalis historia_) He also reports that barnacle geese were believed
to grow on trees in Ireland, and that they could be eaten during fast
times because they were not 'flesh' Now the beaver lived in water, which
fit the monastic definition of fish, but apparently Gerald disagreed
that a four-legged, furry animal was a fish.

Also interesting- to me at least- was that the monks felt fish to be
superior food because as far as they could tell, it did not reproduce
sexually and therefore did not inflame passion. Similar reason as why
the Cathars generally allowed fish but not meat, milk, etc- it was seen
as asexual.

So Ras, are you planning to go beaver hunting? ;-)

Bad 'Lainie. heh heh heh.