Very often when I'm teaching any medieval work involving boars, I have to students that boars are big, scary animals. Even here in Troy (which is not exactly an urban area), most of my students believe that pigs come in two forms: plastic wrapped at Walmart, and helpful talking pigs (think Piglet, Wilbur and Babe).
Even farm hogs can be dangerous. I can remember as a kid hearing stories about farmers who would disappear, only to have their watch and glasses found in the pig manure. And these are domesticated hogs, not wild boars.
Next time I have a student scoff about the pigs, maybe I'll show them images of this wild hog, shot not too far from here. How would you like to meet THIS boar with only an ashwood spear protecting you?
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Richard,
ReplyDeleteThere's a verb missing in your first sentence.
If they watch Lost they might know that boars are scary -- at least for the moment.
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteI am so advanced that I have evolved beyond the need for verbs.
Scott, that is one ginormous pig. You know, I'm a town girl, pretty much, and I've been to county fairs. I've watched Deadwood and Hannibal and read accounts of the crazy, prostitute-killing serial killer on the hog farm in BC. I've read trashy medieval novels. I've seen Ol' Yeller. What is it that your students, who OMG live in Alabama, don't get about big feckin' omnivores with teeth being dangerous?
ReplyDeleteAlso, Is it Ol Yeller for the color? or for the sound he makes? I've always wondered.
Bede's World in Jarrow has an Anglo-Saxon demonstration farm with boars that are very large and scary. There are signs posted warning visitors not to put there hands too near the fence so that they won't be removed.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bedesworld.co.uk/bedesworld-farm.php
There's a scene early in "Sir Bevis of Hampton" in which the hero, having misplaced his sword, mounts a boar's head on his spear-handle and uses it to dispatch his enemies.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit, I hadn't pictured anything quite as ginormous as the monster in those photos.
Good thing the porcine set is neither arboreal nor braciating, as opposed to us hominids.
ReplyDeleteOne of the Hannibal Lecter novels, the one called Hannibal I think, has a scary scene with some boars.
ReplyDeleteOh, and the gangster in Snatch has a disquisition on pigs.
ReplyDeleteGeez, when I first saw these pictures I thought these are bears or some thing like that not pigs! This is kinda scary!
ReplyDelete