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A raven settled onto a certain tree beside a road, and with him his chicks. While he was sitting, he then carefully advised the chicks that he had, so that they would be cautious. Then a man came walking along the same road, and the raven said to his chicks: This is the one that we need to be the most careful about, and you, if you see him bending to the ground, flee quickly. To which one of the chicks responded: Even if he doesn\u2019t bend over, I intend to flee when he approaches. Good, said the father, and I won\u2019t otherwise worry for you. But my other chicks, I\u2019ll warn them to be cautious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> The implication of the Romulus<\/i> version of this fable, as I see it, is that it\u2019s good to be on the safe side. While the father had used the example of a human bending over as something to be particularly watchful for, presumably because he could be picking up something to throw at the birds, one of his sons declares that he will flee at the man\u2019s approach regardless, and it is this assertion which dispels his father\u2019s worry for his future safety; it is yet to be seen whether his other offspring will be as cautious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> Marie\u2019s version of The Raven and His Chicks, while it similarly portrays a parent teaching their young to fear humans, ultimately has a much different message about caution. The parent corvid in Marie\u2019s version (a crow rather than a raven) specifies that his son ought to watch out for a man bending over to pick up a stick or a stone, and flee at the sight (lines 5\u20138).<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> \u201cIf I don\u2019t see him bend over, and he doesn\u2019t have anything in his hand, then do I need to move?\u201d inquires the chick (Si jeo nel vei, fet il, beisser \/ n[e]\u2019en ses meins rien man\u00efer, \/ [me] dei jeo dunc[es] rem\u00fcer, <\/i>lines 9\u201311). At this point, the parent declares that he needn\u2019t teach his son anything further, and that he is off to aid his other children. The implication is that the young crow is discerning when it comes to human actions and what they portend, and that he knows to be cautious, but not excessively so. And indeed, animals who regularly encounter human (or non-human) threats must strike a balance between their own safety and the need to find crucial resources such as food. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p> <\/p> The raven fable, in the Romulus Anglicus cunctis<\/i>, is left without a moral. In both the Romulus<\/i> and Marie\u2019s collection, the raven\/crow fable is immediately preceded by the fable of The Hind Instructing Her Fawn. In this fable, a mother deer similarly warns her offspring to be wary of humans, such as the hunter they see nearby. However, rather than simply absorbing her advice, the son talks back, arguing that the hunter must in fact be afraid of them. After all, why else would he be sneaking around and hiding in the bushes? The mother reiterates that the man, and particularly the weapons he bears, are deadly. The moral, in the Romulus, is that \u201cfools don\u2019t foresee harms or dangers and don\u2019t fear them, until they feel them\u201d (Sic stulti dampna vel pericula non prevident nec pertimescunt, donec ea senciunt<\/i>).[3] The na\u00efve young fawn seems to represent such fools, whereas his wiser mother can more accurately read human behavior and identify threats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p> Of course, in real life, a young bird or deer would learn fear from another animal\u2019s sudden change in body language, or their alarm call, or even their scent, not from a verbal explanation. Humans, though, can learn through storytelling. Research in psychology has suggested that children readily learn to fear through verbal information\u2014particularly when the information comes from an adult, rather than a peer.[4] Fables both show and<\/i> tell, in a sense, when they combine memorable narratives about another\u2019s ill-fated end (or prudent evasion of disaster) with explicit moralizations. These stories are not meant to be taken literally; after all, The Raven and His Chicks isn\u2019t meant to teach young readers that they should run away at the sight of a man bending to the ground to pick up a rock. Rather, readers are prompted to extrapolate from the animal scenario and apply this to more abstruse, though no less real, dangers. Fables teach, perhaps, not simply what to fear, but how<\/i> to fear. \u00a0<\/span>Fear can be life-saving, but excessive or unnecessary fear can prove maladaptive. As for what might constitute a maladaptive level of fear, the two versions of the raven\/crow fable discussed above seem to draw the line in different places; the Romulus<\/i> version advocates greater wariness than Marie\u2019s version, which suggests that wisdom lies in knowing both when to flee and when not<\/i> to.<\/p>Linnet Heald <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> [1] L\u00e9opold Hervieux, Les fabulistes latins depuis le si\u00e8cle d’Auguste jusqu’\u00e0 la fin du Moyen \u00c2ge<\/i>, vol. 2 (Paris : Firmin-Didot, 1884), p. 612.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> [2] Charles Brucker, ed.<\/i>, Marie de France: Les Fables, \u00e9dition critique accompagn\u00e9e d\u2019une introduction, d\u2019une traduction, de notes et d\u2019un <\/i>glossaire, 2nd ed. (Paris\u2013Louvain: Peeters, 1998), pp. 334-7.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> [3] L\u00e9opold Hervieux, Les fabulistes latins, <\/i>vol. 2, p. 612.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> [4] A. P. Field et al., \u201cWho’s afraid of the big bad wolf: a prospective paradigm to test Rachman’s indirect pathways in children,\u201d Behaviour Research and Therapy<\/i> 39, 11 (2001): 1259-76. https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/11686263\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fables often warn by example, with an animal character\u2019s mistakes leading to their death. Grievous errors, the morals further emphasize, can be avoided by a reader who learns from the fable\u2019s message. The two medieval fables discussed below have no deaths within the narrative, only the threat of it. Both feature parent animals\u2014a raven or … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/files\/2024\/03\/Aberdeen-Bestiary-fol.-37r-magpies.png\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/files\/2024\/03\/Aberdeen-Bestiary-fol.-37r-raven.png\")
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PhD in Medieval Studies
University of Notre Dame\n\n\n\n