Simon Ings

The beauty of medieval bestiaries

Spiders, owls, elephants and dragons appear alongside dog-headed men and tusked women in a wealth of texts explaining the world in the most vivid terms then available

Three cats, as depicted in the 12th-century Aberdeen Bestiary [Bridgeman Images] 
issue 11 November 2023

  • The Deorhord: An Old English Bestiary

    Hana Videen

    Profile, pp. 352, £15

How to hunt an elephant. Find a tree and saw most of the way through it without felling it. Sooner or later an unwary elephant is bound to lean up against it. Down comes the tree and down comes the elephant, which, since it has no joints in its legs, will be unable to get up again.

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