Why Are There Violent Rabbits In The Margins Of Medieval Manuscripts?
May 24, 2016 9:32 PM Subscribe
Found my new tattoo.
posted by benzenedream at 9:48 PM on May 24, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by benzenedream at 9:48 PM on May 24, 2016 [4 favorites]
I didn't know that cowardice was associated with rabbits along with the other associations we still make today (passivity, helplessness, innocence). Interesting to see what medieval people found amusing, though on the topic of anthropomorphically violent wildlife perhaps our tastes have not changed that much.
posted by coolname at 9:51 PM on May 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by coolname at 9:51 PM on May 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
So basically, geez, why not?
posted by happyroach at 9:51 PM on May 24, 2016
posted by happyroach at 9:51 PM on May 24, 2016
Came for "what, behind the rabbit?" Was not disappointed.
posted by spacewrench at 9:52 PM on May 24, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by spacewrench at 9:52 PM on May 24, 2016 [6 favorites]
Why Are There Violent Rabbits In The Margins Of Medieval Manuscripts?
For the same reason that you will also find butt-licking cats in the margins of medieval manuscripts - because after copying the same three pages out of the First Book of Judges 32 times, monks started to get bored.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:53 PM on May 24, 2016 [18 favorites]
For the same reason that you will also find butt-licking cats in the margins of medieval manuscripts - because after copying the same three pages out of the First Book of Judges 32 times, monks started to get bored.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:53 PM on May 24, 2016 [18 favorites]
there’s no mistake that the Anglo-French word for rabbit (“conil”) metamorphed into the 14th century word coney, and the Spanish root word for rabbit, conejo (which is pronounced almost exactly the same as the rather perjorative modern word coño) metamorphosed into a term for the lady’s area.
Well, guess what the Latin word cunnus means and why Romance languages have words that descend from it ("conejo" comes from Lat. cuniculus but has a pre-roman origin unrelated to cunnus, btw). And it's not that it's pronounced remotely similar, it's that conejo is to coño as pussy is to cunt.
posted by sukeban at 10:16 PM on May 24, 2016 [9 favorites]
Well, guess what the Latin word cunnus means and why Romance languages have words that descend from it ("conejo" comes from Lat. cuniculus but has a pre-roman origin unrelated to cunnus, btw). And it's not that it's pronounced remotely similar, it's that conejo is to coño as pussy is to cunt.
posted by sukeban at 10:16 PM on May 24, 2016 [9 favorites]
It's product placement from Holy Hand Grenade LLC.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:18 PM on May 24, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:18 PM on May 24, 2016 [4 favorites]
I found this on Tumblr yesterday, a shop that creates machine embroidery patterns from marginalia in illuminated manuscripts. Crazy rabbits.
posted by annathea at 10:18 PM on May 24, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by annathea at 10:18 PM on May 24, 2016 [4 favorites]
It's product placement from Holy Hand Grenade LLC.
Of course you know this means war.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:29 PM on May 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
Of course you know this means war.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:29 PM on May 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
oh lol i bet i will be the very first to make a totally original and clever monty python reference
posted by poffin boffin at 10:47 PM on May 24, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 10:47 PM on May 24, 2016 [7 favorites]
some lovely dirt over ere
posted by mwhybark at 10:55 PM on May 24, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by mwhybark at 10:55 PM on May 24, 2016 [3 favorites]
oh lol i bet i will be the very first to make a totally original and clever monty python reference
Oh, shut up and go and change your armor.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:10 PM on May 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
Oh, shut up and go and change your armor.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:10 PM on May 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
Attention! Attention!
Ladies and gentlemen, attention!
There is a herd of killer rabbits headed this way and we desperately need your help!
posted by sapagan at 11:52 PM on May 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
Ladies and gentlemen, attention!
There is a herd of killer rabbits headed this way and we desperately need your help!
posted by sapagan at 11:52 PM on May 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
Well, guess what the Latin word cunnus means and why Romance languages have words that descend from it ("conejo" comes from Lat. cuniculus but has a pre-roman origin unrelated to cunnus, btw). And it's not that it's pronounced remotely similar, it's that conejo is to coño as pussy is to cunt.
Coney Island is so named because of the rabbits (formerly?) living there. Coney-->cunny-->bunny.
Like rabbits, ladies and gentlemen.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:56 PM on May 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
Coney Island is so named because of the rabbits (formerly?) living there. Coney-->cunny-->bunny.
Like rabbits, ladies and gentlemen.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:56 PM on May 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
I was on a business trip to Detroit about a decade ago and the people I was working with kept telling me about a "coney restaurant" they needed to take me to, that coney restaurants were all over the place in Detroit, and how great it is to eat a good coney. I was completely fascinated that I'd never heard that there was a part of the 21st-century U.S. where eating rabbit was a delicacy, and wondered how it would be cooked, but then was disappointed to learn that "coney" was short for "Coney Island hot dog", which isn't a phrase used in my part of the country.
Now as I write this I'm inclined to wonder if I was subconsciously influenced in my misunderstanding by the scene in Michael Moore's Roger & Me about Flint, Michigan, where a former factory worker vigorously clubs a rabbit to death because after being laid off from an automotive plant she ekes out a living raising rabbits and selling their meat and pelts.
posted by XMLicious at 12:58 AM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
Now as I write this I'm inclined to wonder if I was subconsciously influenced in my misunderstanding by the scene in Michael Moore's Roger & Me about Flint, Michigan, where a former factory worker vigorously clubs a rabbit to death because after being laid off from an automotive plant she ekes out a living raising rabbits and selling their meat and pelts.
posted by XMLicious at 12:58 AM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
I found this on Tumblr yesterday, a shop that creates machine embroidery patterns from marginalia in illuminated manuscripts. Crazy rabbits.
And here's something I found on Tumblr: Medieval Rabbits t-shirt.
(Courtesy of the fantastic Etsy if You're Nasty blog.)
posted by lollymccatburglar at 2:12 AM on May 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
And here's something I found on Tumblr: Medieval Rabbits t-shirt.
(Courtesy of the fantastic Etsy if You're Nasty blog.)
posted by lollymccatburglar at 2:12 AM on May 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
Proof of bunnicula.
posted by museum of fire ants at 3:06 AM on May 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by museum of fire ants at 3:06 AM on May 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
Awaiting a paper proving that all these violent rabbits were the work of a single traveling scholar with a persistent nightmare that he felt compelled to doodle about in the margins of books that he was consulting.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:06 AM on May 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:06 AM on May 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
This puts Bugs Bunny's penchant for drag in a whole new light.
posted by briank at 5:40 AM on May 25, 2016
posted by briank at 5:40 AM on May 25, 2016
Awaiting a paper proving that all these violent rabbits were the work of a single traveling scholar with a persistent nightmare that he felt compelled to doodle about in the margins of books that he was consulting.
I'm picturing this scholar as a nervous, quiet, academically-inclined rabbit, terrified that his parents are going to cut off his funding and send him off to war.
posted by Catseye at 5:49 AM on May 25, 2016
I'm picturing this scholar as a nervous, quiet, academically-inclined rabbit, terrified that his parents are going to cut off his funding and send him off to war.
posted by Catseye at 5:49 AM on May 25, 2016
Okay, but seriously, do any MeFites know why a barber with a wooden leg was the funniest thing in the world to Medieval folks? Is it like, whoops, he must have slipped and cut his own leg off?
posted by No-sword at 5:51 AM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by No-sword at 5:51 AM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
(Courtesy of the fantastic Etsy if You're Nasty blog.)
Now that is a black hole of strangeness if I have ever seen one.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:51 AM on May 25, 2016
Now that is a black hole of strangeness if I have ever seen one.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:51 AM on May 25, 2016
- I know a man with a wooden leg that's a barber.
- That's amazing, what does his other leg do?
posted by Segundus at 5:58 AM on May 25, 2016 [13 favorites]
- That's amazing, what does his other leg do?
posted by Segundus at 5:58 AM on May 25, 2016 [13 favorites]
I was completely fascinated that I'd never heard that there was a part of the 21st-century U.S. where eating rabbit was a delicacy, and wondered how it would be cooked, but then was disappointed to learn that "coney" was short for "Coney Island hot dog", which isn't a phrase used in my part of the country.
To bring this full circle - the most plausible explanation for why Coney Island was named thus, though, was because there used to be a lot of rabbits on it.
I feel your pain, too - my freshman year of college, I decided to treat myself and go out to a restaurant close to my dorm for a solo dinner, like a sophisticated New York woman about town. I got all dressed up, made a reservation and everything, and after perusing the menu the maitre'd handed me, I settled on the intriguing-sounding "Coney Island Tube Steak" for my dinner choice - and then they brought me an elegantly-plated pair of hot dogs on buns surrounded with fries, and I felt like a big stupid doof.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:43 AM on May 25, 2016 [7 favorites]
To bring this full circle - the most plausible explanation for why Coney Island was named thus, though, was because there used to be a lot of rabbits on it.
I feel your pain, too - my freshman year of college, I decided to treat myself and go out to a restaurant close to my dorm for a solo dinner, like a sophisticated New York woman about town. I got all dressed up, made a reservation and everything, and after perusing the menu the maitre'd handed me, I settled on the intriguing-sounding "Coney Island Tube Steak" for my dinner choice - and then they brought me an elegantly-plated pair of hot dogs on buns surrounded with fries, and I felt like a big stupid doof.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:43 AM on May 25, 2016 [7 favorites]
Okay, but seriously, do any MeFites know why a barber with a wooden leg was the funniest thing in the world to Medieval folks? Is it like, whoops, he must have slipped and cut his own leg off?
Comment on the original article suggests that barbers often served as surgeons as well, including performing amputations. So, yes, whoops he cut his own leg off.
(See also, the full script of "Sweeney Todd" where in addition to challenging Pirelli to a shaving speed contest, they also duel over pulling a tooth.)
posted by dnash at 7:58 AM on May 25, 2016
Comment on the original article suggests that barbers often served as surgeons as well, including performing amputations. So, yes, whoops he cut his own leg off.
(See also, the full script of "Sweeney Todd" where in addition to challenging Pirelli to a shaving speed contest, they also duel over pulling a tooth.)
posted by dnash at 7:58 AM on May 25, 2016
Why are there so many medieval paintings of people battling large snails?
posted by Panjandrum at 8:26 AM on May 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Panjandrum at 8:26 AM on May 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
Or maybe the scribes just had imaginary friends named Frank who only ever appeared wearing frightening lagomorph costumes.
posted by ckape at 10:41 AM on May 25, 2016
posted by ckape at 10:41 AM on May 25, 2016
The question is not why are there violent rabbits in the margins of medieval manuscripts.
The question is why did we stop drawing violent rabbits in the margins of documents.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:54 AM on May 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
The question is why did we stop drawing violent rabbits in the margins of documents.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:54 AM on May 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
Another previously (predating the reddit post that Panjandrum links) - snail combat in the margins of medieval manuscripts.
posted by exogenous at 11:25 AM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by exogenous at 11:25 AM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
Memes of another age
posted by Jacqueline at 11:50 AM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Jacqueline at 11:50 AM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
Exactly, if anything this is an example of how consistent we are. I am only going to refer to dank drolleries from here on in.
posted by Iteki at 12:50 PM on May 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Iteki at 12:50 PM on May 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
On a side note, a mommy rabbit just made her bunny's nest (there are 5) in the middle of where I was about to put the kid's sandbox in the back yard this past weekend. So, they're cute, but clearly no sandbox this summer.
In short, rabbits are sociopathic and hate kids. They should be feared.
posted by Nanukthedog at 2:19 PM on May 25, 2016
In short, rabbits are sociopathic and hate kids. They should be feared.
posted by Nanukthedog at 2:19 PM on May 25, 2016
In Alice Through the Looking Glass, the March Hare is recognisable as Haigha, the Queen's messenger, by his "Anglo-Saxon attitudes". This is what Carroll was referring to!
- http://aliceinwonderland.wikia.com/wiki/March_Hare
- https://vovatia.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/ive-got-an-anglo-saxon-attitude/
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posted by Rhaomi at 9:41 PM on May 24, 2016 [14 favorites]