The elephant functions in two Middle Dutch fables, both from the non-Aesopian tradition. In the translation of the Dialogus creaturarum (nr. 89) some animals try to malign the elephant because he does not bend before the → lion king. He does this, however, because he has no knee joints and the king accepts that the elephant honours him in his heart. In the translation of the Cyrillus fables’ (4, 10) (→ C. III.2) an elephant explains to a snake how terrible lewdness is. Both fables are based on traditional properties of the elephant from the bestiary tradition.
Paul Wackers
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