The gate of the year

Bas-relief of the XII century representing a wolf, from the Abbey of Sainte-Marie-de-la-Règle, destroyed in 1819, now in the Musée Municipal de l’Evêché et de l’Email, Limoges, Limousin, France. In the Christian worldview the wolf took on a markedly negative connotation: fierce and cruel, it has become the very image of the Devil who afflicted humanity. Its favorite prey was the lamb, which represented the chastity and innocence of the Savior. When hit by hunger, its voracity was proverbial and could went up to cannibalism, when it devoured its own cubs. “Nonetheless, to the flesh of any animal the wolf does prefer the human flesh. It is a great devourer of baby girls, like Little Red Riding Hood, whose first version is testified in the region of Liège around 1000 A.D.” (Pastoureau 2012, p. 75). Still on the threshold of the Modern Era, “the wolf was, all things considered, a feared and mysterious animal (because it lived in the woods) and terribly present […] At the level of conscious representations, it was a bloodthirsty animal, enemy of humans and flocks, companion to hunger and warfare” (Delumeau 1978, p. 63).

[Image: http://www.passion-histoire.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=27729&start=30]




Animals

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Bas-relief of the XII century representing a wolf, from the Abbey of Sainte-Marie-de-la-Règle, destroyed in 1819, now in the Musée Municipal de l’Evêché et de l’Email, Limoges, Limousin, France. In the Christian worldview the wolf took on a markedly negative connotation: fierce and cruel, it has become the very image of the Devil who afflicted humanity. Its favorite prey was the lamb, which represented the chastity and innocence of the Savior. When hit by hunger, its voracity was proverbial and could went up to cannibalism, when it devoured its own cubs. “Nonetheless, to the flesh of any animal the wolf does prefer the human flesh. It is a great devourer of baby girls, like Little Red Riding Hood, whose first version is testified in the region of Liège around 1000 A.D.” (Pastoureau 2012, p. 75). Still on the threshold of the Modern Era, “the wolf was, all things considered, a feared and mysterious animal (because it lived in the woods) and terribly present […] At the level of conscious representations, it was a bloodthirsty animal, enemy of humans and flocks, companion to hunger and warfare” (Delumeau 1978, p. 63). [Image: http://www.passion-histoire.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=27729&start=30]