ELEFANT – Niederländische Literatur

Elefant – E.3 – III.2 Tierepos

The elephant plays no role in Middle Dutch animal epic. However, on some woodcuts from the later printed tradition (17-19 cent.) an elephant is shown as part of the court or as one of the spectators of the duel between → fox and → wolf.

Paul Wackers

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Elefant – E.3 – IV.1 Narrative Texte

Großepik: There are only two epical texts in Middle Dutch in which elephants play an important role. The first is Jacob van Maerlant’s Alexanders geesten (a verse adaptation of Gauthier de Chatillon’s Alexandreis), which tells the history of Alexander the Great. During his eastern campaigns he meets elephants as war animals but also as pack animals. The second is the Heinric en Margriete van Limburch. A large part this epic is located in Constantinople and an important part of the plot is a war with the Saracens. In this war elephants are used. In quite a few romances the name olifant is given to a horn (the most famous one is of course Roelants horn in the Middle Dutch translation of the Chanson de Roland).

Geschichtsschreibung: In Jacob van Maerlant’s Spieghel Historiael, the longest world history in Middle Dutch elephants function a number of times when parts of eastern history are told.

Paul Wackers

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Elefant – E.3 – IV.3 Diskursive Texte

Liturgische und theologische Texte: Bibelübersetzungen: The bible mentions sometimes elephants. These places are rendered in the Middle Dutch bible adaptations and translations (Rijmbijbel, Historiebijbel van 1361). Dirc van Delft allegorises in his Tafel van den kersten ghelove the anecdote from 1 Mcc 6,34 that elephants were given the juice of grapes to make them bold: so must we Christians become bold to fight against the sins by thinking about the blood of Christ.

Visionsliteratur: Elephants are shown (as sculpture) on the wall of a miraculous castle among the wonders of the world in the Reis van Sente Brandane.

Reiseliteratur: There is a Middle Dutch translation of Mandeville’s travels in which elephants function (→ E.2 IV.3).

Weisheitsliteratur: The Heimelijcheid der heimelicheden, Jacob van Maerlants translation of the Secreta secretorum, compares man and his properties with animals. Amongst others he is pure as an elephant (reine na den elpendiere). In the (mnfrk.) translation of the French version of Guillaume de Conches’ Moralia dogma philosophorum in the Nederrijns Moraalboek strength of mind is preferred to bodily excellence because animals excel always above men in material aspects. E.g., elephants and camels have always stronger and bigger bodies than men.

Medizinische Texte: In medical literature a form of leprosy is called elefancia. As reason is given that the elephant is the strongest animal (as leprosy is the strongest illness?). Or the name is given because the skin changes, becomes thicker and impure.

Paul Wackers

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Elefant – E.3 – II.1 Physiologus, Bestiarien

There is almost no bestiary material in Middle Dutch. Only in the (mnfrk.) translation of the Bestiaire d’amour (→ D.1 II.1) in the Nederrijns Moraalboek an elephant may be found. As in the original the birthing in the water is interpreted as the necessity to keep love hidden and the birthing of a young is compared to the accepting of her lover by a woman.

Paul Wackers

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Elefant – E.3 – II.2 Tierkunde, Enzyklopädik

The elephant is treated in Der naturen bloeme, Jacob van Maerlant’s rhymed adaptation of Thomas of Cantimpré’s De natura rerum (→ C.II.2). Elephants are large and very strong. They have a trunk and two tusks. They are very loyal and brave and are used by the Persians and the Indians for war. A castle with up to 50 soldiers is put on their back. They carry their ›riders‹ into the enemy ranks. The tusks have medicinal properties: they help against illnesses of the blood. Elephants are afraid of mice. They fight with → dragons. They may be captured by sending two naked virgins into the wilderness, one with a sword and one with a cup. The elephant comes when he hears them singing. He enjoys their purity and falls asleep. The virgin with the sword kills him and the other catches his blood in her cup. This is interpreted allegorically: the elephant is Christ, the virgin with the sword is the synagogue (or the Old Testament), the virgin with the cup the church (or the New Testament). Because an elephant has no knee joints, he does not lie down to sleep but leans against a tree to get his rest. So another way to capture him is sawing up the tree. The elephant leans and falls and is unable to get up, so he may be caught. Because of the missing knee joints an elephant gives birth in the water: so the mother can help her child to rise after birth. Elephants mate when they are 15 years or older. They have sexual intercourse only seldom and are monogamous. In this they should be an example for all people. – The elephant is also treated in the 15th century prose translation of Bartholomeus Anglicus’ De proprietatibus rerum. [the Dutch text has not been edited and I have on the moment no access to a microfilm].

Ausg.: Jacob van Maerlant: Der naturen bloeme, ed. M. GYSSELING, 1981.

Lit.: A. BERTELOOT/D. HELLFAIER (ed.): Jacob van Maerlants »Der naturen bloeme« und das Umfeld, 2001.

Paul Wackers

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Elefant – E.3 – III.1 Fabel

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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