Publisher Description

What did medieval people call the animals they lived and worked with? Why did they give them the names they did? This book sets out to answer these questions. Drawing evidence from literary, documentary and material sources, it surveys the surviving evidence of pet-naming from the period, as well as examining the labels given to livestock and working animals, and the folk-names given to wild birds and beasts. Alongside building up a corpus of names, the conventions that directed animal naming in the Middle Ages are considered, as well as how proper nouns behaved when given to non-human organisms. Through its inquiry, the book lays bare the period's larger attitudes towards animals, their functions and identities, and at the same time sheds light on how the Middle Ages conceived the natural world as a whole and its relationship with human beings and their culture.

Table of Contents

1: Where Are You?: Naming and its Questions2: Uncommon Nouns: Hunting for Animal Names3: Former Address: Naming Before the Middle Ages4: Type Casting: Naming and Species5: Improper Nouns: Human and Animal Names6: Final Call: Conclusions7: Select Bibliography

Review

"Introducing Medieval Animal Names by Prof. Ben Parsons presents to its readers with a lively overview of the names medieval people gave to both their domestic as well as wild animals, how these names came to be, and even a bit of etymology and grammar in how proper names of functioned in the English language when used in regard to non-human animals. Whether your interest is in medieval history, natural history, the history of languages, or if you simply enjoy particularly interesting books, Introducing Medieval Animal Names is a book well worthy of your attention."-- "The Well-Read Naturalist"

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