«An eilond ðat sete one ðe se sond»: il fascino ambiguo della balena nel Bestiario medio inglese

Abstract

The whale, due to its immense size and somewhat monstrous features, has always fascinated men, arousing at the same time feelings of terror and wonder, of dismay and amazement. This hybrid creature, straddling the terrestrial and aquatic worlds, fish and mammal at the same time, has fueled the proliferation of myths and legendary narratives, starting from the biblical tale of the cetacean that swallowed Jonah, to the stories of Sindbad the Sailor or the monster Jasconius from the Navigatio Sancti Brendani, up to Melville’s epic Moby Dick. Through a rereading of the whale’s chapter from the Middle English Bestiary, the essay intends to offer a glimpse into the ambiguous nature of this creature, symbol of the devious and seductive devil. The motif of the deceptive perfume and the illusion produced by the whale with its island-like appearance are allegories of the tools that the devil uses to lure unwary men and drag them ineluctably into eternal damnation.