The Hound and The Hawk: The Art of Medieval Hunting - Softcover

Cummins, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1842120972 ISBN 13: 9781842120972

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001

Synopsis

Hunting was a training for war and a rite of manhood, a powerful and ritualistic pastime, the sport of kings. In vivid and engrossing detail John Cummins shows us the appropriate methods for hunting all kinds of deer, boar, wolves, foxes, bear, otter, birds hare - even unicorn. Hunting and hawking run throughout medieval art and literature, providing not only narrative motifs for tapestries, romances and sagas but also metaphors for war and combat, for Christianity wrestling with the dark forces of paganism, and for sexual pursuit and conquest. Dr Cummins' book ranges over a dazzling diversity of sources - poems, ballads, letters, court directives, royal accounts, gamekeepers' handbooks, psalters - to recreate and interpret the cosmos of medieval hunting and falconry, the skills and techniques, superstitions and beliefs. Richly illustrated from a variety of sources, The Hound and the Hawk shows us a pageant of medieval and Renaissance life lived in its grandest, most flamboyant, most allusive manner.

About this title

About the Author:

John Cummins was born in Hull, and educated at the University of Manchester. He gained his Ph.D. at the University of Aberdeen, and is currently Reader in Spanish there. He lives in Aberdeen.

About this edition

• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1842120972
• ISBN 13: 9781842120972
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352