The Animal Mind in Medieval Lit

The relationship between the animal mind and human nature in medieval literature

portrays certain issues that still affect Western thought. These issues include the danger of

human superiority above animals and nature in general, some of which are explored in Susan

Crane’s Medieval Animal Studies: Dogs at work and Lisa Zunshine’s Theory of Mind and

Experimental Representations of Fictional Consciousness. Such issues can be seen in such texts

as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in which an immortal green man challenges a lowly human

knight to death; and Bisclavret, in which a werewolf is respected and given place in a household.

These texts show how supernatural narrative elements affect humans. Both stories deal with how

medieval writers approached literature about the mind and the ‘mind’ of nature.

The start of this conversation lies in animal studies. Crane starts off her article with a

brief introduction of what this area entails, which begins with the interdependence of humans

with animals. It seems that the critical issue here is that these writings challenge certain threads

of thought about the supremacy of humans. In other words, there is a danger when people

assume that humanity is superior to animals. This could lead to an attitude that interactions

between species are entirely ignored as the significance of interactions across species would

diminish. Such attitudes can be especially harmful in certain kinds of literature. More

specifically, without the perspectives gained by animal studies there would be much less to talk

about regarding Bisclavret, as the werewolf would be disregarded in terms of its own beastliness,

with emphasis placed only on its human mind. This would be harmful as there would be no

discussion surrounding the significance of the werewolf’s behavior based on its animal instinct.

Crane continues her discussion in how medieval literature itself is involved with animal

studies, specifically the literature’s relation with the book of Genesis and the creation story.
There is an important distinction of how medievalists understood animals and the rational

thought of humans, as Crane begins a discussion on how animals are not so different when it

comes to language. The important point here is her assertion that “Medieval writers often

consider how a knight and warhorse, or a hunter and a hound, enter one other’s consciousness as

they accomplish some task that would happen differently, or would not happen at all, were both

parties not responding to one another.” Certain tasks, certain social functions within the ‘human

world’ would not even exist without our interdependence with animals. Even our so called

‘human’ culture is not purely founded on humanity.

I think these ideas on the interdependence between humanity and nature are paramount in

these medieval discussions. For instance, the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight seems to

put the frailty of humanity and the cycle of nature at odds with each other. There seems to be

more at play with how the green knight behaves in relation to the other knights. There is an inter-

relation between human behavior and how nature plays in with cognitive functions. The cyclic

return of nature to life urges humanity to grieves its own demise, and expands the function of

social interactions with forces outside itself.

Crane also addresses the function and social position of Guard dogs in relation to human

responsibility and honor. At this point in her discussion there are several variations on a

medieval story of a man and his guard dog. These stories illustrate the ethics of killing animals,

as opposed to older ethical positions that animals treated as just property. The main point of the

guard dog story is that in an interdependent relationship with animals, there is a lot more at stake

when humans kill animals. A couple variations of the story includes the man exiling himself after

sending his wife to prison, as he seeks atonement for the killing of his dog. In effect, this shows

that his honorable standing in society with fellow humans is lost after the unethical treatment of
his dog. The importance of inter-relations across species shines in this example, as such relations

also are displayed in Bisclavret. It seems that the position of the werewolf would be paramount

in exploring similar ethical dilemmas in justifying the werewolf’s attack on his former wife and

her lover.

There seems to be a sort of domestication in such complicated relations, as Crane further

develops in her ideas about cross species communication and overall narrative of domestication.

She relies on certain thought in literature and other fields that rely on terminology studies about

signals. Communication relies heavily on the existence of how actions or words signify the

world around us. Behavior is heavily encompassed in signals, and how society functions. Of

course this also brings in other scholarship about the intrinsic value of language itself, but it

seems that issues of structuralism will suffice in this thread of thought.

Crane states, “In a single sentence of Geoffrey of Burton’s Life and Miracles of St

Modwenna, ‘domesticus’ first denotes a wolf ‘against the course of nature suddenly made tame

[domesticus]’ and next denotes the species this wolf no longer attacks: ‘from then on he lived on

beasts of the chase, never venturing to kill any farm animals [domestici].’” Domestication

basically meshes the will across species, letting people and dogs occupy the same living space.

Humans decide which animals will be allowed to share their space, and dogs will also follow that

will. In the attack on the werewolf’s former wife, these threads of thought of domestication sheds

light on how the werewolf is treated within the power of people, but also expands these themes

of devotion in relationship.

To delve more deeply in why the cognitive side of medieval thought matters to our inter-

species discussion, Zunshine’s article demonstrates more fully about cognitive interpretation.

Zunshine articulates that readers of our current time do not pick up on the significance of certain
medieval conventions. This convention is shown in medieval works when a character’s behavior

is described in vivid detail. Zunshine states that “the default interpretation of behavior reflects

the character’s state of mind,” as medieval writers would signify how characters feel through

certain gestures. Interpretation relies on how these behaviors are contextualized, as such

conventions do not include stated emotional states. This thread of scholarship will be paramount

in discussing the mental states of the werewolf and the green knight, as their humanity is not as

apparent as other characters and must be discussed through their behavior.