Summerbook #9: The Deorhord

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The Deorhord: An Old English Bestiary, by Hana Videen

This followup to The Wordhord was a lovely read.  Videen uses her wordhord format to write a bestiary, explaining how medieval people loved to used animals as examples of Christian ideas.  

Plus I always enjoy learning about Old English words, because they are often cognate with both modern English and with Danish.  Deor (animal), which in English evolved into deer, is also related to Danish dyr (animal).

Videen has sections of everyday animals, 'wonder' animals (such as elephants), creatures that especially symbolized good and evil, and just plain mysteries.  The good animals are the lion, deer, phoenix, and panther, and the evil ones are the whale, snake, dragon, and wolf.  The mysteries are usually taken from Alexander the Great's writings about his conquest of India; one sounds kind of like a crocodile, except that it has a head like the moon and also crocodiles were well-known.  Another might possibly be a rhinoceros, but it has three horns and is described as considerably larger than any land animal.

A delightful read, full of fun anecdotes and animal legends.  For example, you might know that hedgehogs gather food for their families by rolling over berries so they get stuck on the prickles, but did you know that when badgers dig tunnels, they pile the earth on another badger (who lies supine), which is then dragged out and turned over?    

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