LIKE A HOUND UPON ITS QUARRY: NOBLE ANIMALS AS ELEMENTS OF KNIGHTLY MATERIAL CULTURE, CA. 1350–1425.
This paper offers an assessment of why animals fit into the ontology of the late medieval knight’s material world. Animals—living, represented, heraldic, funerary, and metaphorical—were seen as possessions of, and creations produced by and for, their masters. Although horses and hawks were a reifica...
| Publicado en: | Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval & Renaissance Studies Vol. 56; pp. 159 - 191 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of California at Los Angeles, Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies
2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=189020871&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 189020871 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00696412 TIY jtl: Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval & Renaissance Studies issn: 00696412 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2025 vid: 56 pid: 20754 pub: University of California at Los Angeles, Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies artinfo: ui: 189020871 10.1353/cjm.2025.a972545 ppf: 159 ppct: 32 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 5.9MB tig: atl: LIKE A HOUND UPON ITS QUARRY: NOBLE ANIMALS AS ELEMENTS OF KNIGHTLY MATERIAL CULTURE, CA. 1350–1425. aug: au: Williamson, Robert su: Material culture Ontology Masculinity Metonyms Social bonds sug: subj: Material culture Ontology Masculinity Metonyms Social bonds keyword: animals armor culture dogs masculinity materiality ab: This paper offers an assessment of why animals fit into the ontology of the late medieval knight’s material world. Animals—living, represented, heraldic, funerary, and metaphorical—were seen as possessions of, and creations produced by and for, their masters. Although horses and hawks were a reification of the knight’s elevated position in battle and society, I argue that perhaps no beasts were as closely tied to him in life as his dogs. We begin with an examination of the role of canine companions in affective spectacle. From the feasts in the great halls of the Count of Foix to Richard II’s surrender at Flint Castle, greyhounds acted as prostheses for the emotional display of elite men. In several episodes, these animals permitted their masters to show an affective side to knightly masculinity. We then turn to perhaps the most notable role of hounds: as metonyms for the behavior of men in acts of great violence. The medieval hunt was a tool for homosocial bonding, a test of loyalties, and a theater of prowess where the lines between noble man and animal tended to blur in the minds of aristocrats. The hunt was not for the sake of sport. It was didactic. In chivalric texts and images, representations of predators and prey allowed knights and their recordkeepers to displace the meaning of the hunt onto other realms of knightly self-fashioning. With reference to hounds and contemporary armor, duels, battles, and political rivalries were sometimes reimagined as ritual hunts or made more meaningful with allusion to the beasts and bloodshed of the chasse. In the process, the bascinet-wearing and brigandine-clad knights at the center of these episodes fashioned themselves as something more than human. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval & Renaissance Studies is the property of University of California at Los Angeles, Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval & Renaissance Studies holder: University of California at Los Angeles, Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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