Knowing Nature

Bear–Human Bestiality in the Gesta Romanorum

Bibliographic Data

ID8935156
AuthorsJennifer Alberghini (corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume132
Issue2
Pages189-207
Publication date2021-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFolklore (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0015587x.2021.1894833
OpenAlexW3170545414
LanguageEN
References cited18

The exemplum ‘Two Princes Born of a She-Bear’ from the Gesta Romanorum is unique in its joining of two different folktale types. Billed by twentieth-century editors as ‘Androcles and the Lion’, which reflects the story’s opening, the majority of the plot resembles the ‘Strong John’ narrative, also referred to as ‘Juan Oso’ or ‘John the Bear’, with its story of bestiality. Yet it differs from most of these tales of a bear–human child as well, first by changing a male bear abducting a human woman to a human father and bear mother, and then by having three children split along gendered lines into different species. Looking at this adaptation in light of the medieval encyclopedia tradition and ideas about human and non-human animals, this article argues that the text poses questions about the superiority of humans, the distinction of species, and the necessity of women. Although the story seems to make an effort to preserve ‘natural’ hierarchies, it also leaves open the possibility of dismantling them

Art · Encyclopedia · Genealogy · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Plot (graphics · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · History · Mathematics · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity

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