As early as 1850, the magnificently-named bibliophile the Comte de Bastard theorised that a particular marginal image of a snail was intended to represent the Resurrection, since he discovered it in two manuscripts close to miniatures of the Raising of Lazarus. There has been much scholarly debate about the significance of these depictions of snail combat. For more on the gorgeous Gorleston marginalia, please see our posts here and here) Speculum, 37: 358–367.Knight v Snail II: Battle in the Margins (from the Gorleston Psalter, England (Suffolk), 1310-1324, Add MS 49622, f. What’s so funny about knights and snails? Available at. There are theories that snails might represent a aristocratic medieval family, or that weirdly snails represent death, and that the knights represent the. Distribution, structure, functions and origin of a Eurasian children’s rhyme about the snails. The snails' shells coil thethe wrong way round, supposedly representing. Anyway, this topic attracted my attention because of a study-in-progress on land snails in 16th/17th century still-life paintings. the mystery of knights fighting giant snails in medieval manuscripts (fig. MS 72 The Giant Snails of the Island of Calonak, Folio 4v, Les Secrets de l’Histoire Naturelle, c. Following another different interpretation, those pictures are teasing scornfully those who were still believing in the prehistoric rituals about snails (often described as ‘Lombards’ or ‘Tailors’, who wear armours and bear weapons because they are afraid of the ‘magic’ power of the animal), that is those who were still believing in the ‘magic’ strong (ritual) power of these small animals, and were still telling rhymes and traditions about its ritual importance“.ĭifferent points of view on this remarkable topic, of which I doubt we will ascertain its origin. (These drawings are not the only embellishments in medieval manuscripts, either. Following the first interpretation, they picture in a parodic and mocking way the clash between the Christians (the warrior) and the Pagans (the Snail, representing a strong and still well-known set of beliefs linked to the prehistoric rhymes and rituals about the snails, still surviving). When I wrote to Giovanni Grosskopf about his research, he answered: “In my view, two interpretations are possible for those pictures, according to each case.
In 1929 the Russian philosopher and literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin coined the term carnivalesque, which is a literary mode that subverts and liberates the assumptions of the dominant style or atmosphere through humor and chaos. found in the margins of medieval prayer books and secular manuscripts. Anyhow, the framework seems to be a religious context. Killer rabbits in medieval manuscripts: Smithfield Decretals, c. Radio 4s Knight Fights Giant Snail explores the world of medieval marginalia. An interesting contribution is given by an anonymous Norwegian medievalist (blogging as ‘Steffen’), whose conclusion is that the snail stands for humility (Anonymous 2013a, b). Cornu aspersum served as model.įor the moment, alternative hypotheses and suggestions on the origin and meaning of this motif of ‘knight versus snail’ remain in debate. While it will always remain a guess, one is tempted to suppose that e.g. The most precise illumination is found in the Macclesfield Psalter, a manuscript from ca. However, this motif has also been noted in folklore studies of traditional rhymes from several other countries and regions (see Grosskopf 2013, especially notes on entries 15, 512 in his database).Īll snails are not recognisable at species level, but there is little doubt that they are land snails.
Randall (1962) has noted that the motif of a man combatting a snail originated in northern France around 1300, and later spread to Flemish and English manuscripts. In a number of medieval manuscripts, illuminations have been found of a (stylized) land snail opposing a knight (see e.g., Pyrdum 2009, Biggs 2013). This covers a quite different scientific discipline, i.e. It was provoked by a link that David Robinson sent me (thanks again!).
Those of you who think that historical snail pictures are ‘cool’ (or maybe just funny), even if they are not of Neotropical species, might be interested in this post.
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