| Sumario: | The fifteenth-century alliterative Scots poem The Taill of Rauf Coilȝear is rich in both natural imagery and comic scenes of mismatched social gatherings. It belongs to a popular genre of late medieval narrative, but this version of the king-and-commoner story is unique in its persistent metaphorical use of natural imagery to explore the gulf between nobleman and commoner. One of the most effective devices the poet of Rauf Coilȝear uses to dramatise and exteriorise the king and the commoner's slowly developing understanding of one another is the theme of 'wickit wedderis'. Moments of high and low visibility throughout the poem interrogate the possibilities of truly seeing one another, and they paradoxically enable new understandings between the king and collier. This study first explores the generic complexity of The Taill of Rauf Coilȝear and then provides close readings of three crucial moments of high and low visibility. The poem's minutely observed weather-swept landscape provides an ecocentric textuality that obscures some truths but also allows for gained knowledge and personal growth, and levels the field, enabling a nuanced questioning of social caste and power, as well as a particularly poignant exploration of the ethics of fellowship.
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