The pig’s doom: Animal butchery, gender relations, and a new solution for Durham Proverb 10

• Autores: Erik Wade
• Localización: Selim: Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature = Revista de la Sociedad Española de Lengua y Literatura Inglesa Medieval, ISSN 1132-631X, Nº 25, 2020, págs. 187-192
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The Old English and Latin Durham Proverbs are famously obscure. Durham Proverb 10 describes a man sitting on a pig; the man jokes that what happens next is up to the pig. Scholars have read this as a possible marital joke, since the man is called a ceorl or maritus ‘husband’, yet this article suggests that the context is that of pig butchery. Medieval art frequently shows pigs being butchered by a man sitting on top of them to hold them down. Moreover, they often show the butchery performed by a man and a woman, suggesting that this proverb was a reference to an activity that a couple performed together, rather than a sexist commentary on marriage.