Wild Men in the Middle Ages: A Study in Art, Sentiment and Demonology

by Richard Bernheimer

SEE OUR PHOTOS! This 224-page hardcover was published by Harvard University Press in 1952. Interior pages appear unread, and in like-new condition, with minimal yellowing. There is no dustcover. The hardcover looks nice, with very minimal wear and with sharp edges and corners. The spine is slightly faded, with very nice black lettering. The binding is solid; like new. Overall, a very nice conditioned volume. Please see our 3 photos of our book - on a white sheet.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art

275 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1952

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to find, but worth the hassle if you can snag it.
Bernheimer breaks down the "wild man" of medieval Europe through a variety of lenses: myth, ritual, academic and, yes, erotic!
Don't get excited. There are illustrations but most of them aren't erotic or flattering to our half-mythological hirsute b-boys. What the hell? you might rightly ask. "Wild men" were a ubiquitous trope that permeated medieval thought, art, and ritual, perhaps second only to the witch. I can't say female counterpart because there were wild women, too, centuries before the VHS series came out.
Interestingly, Bernheimer places the "wild ones" in a similar framework that some scholars use precisely for witches and witchcraft: as a remnant of some pre-Christian pagan holdover. Berny links contemporary wild-manism to all kinds of strange fertility rituals, even the old tradition of 12th Night/Carnival matrimony and the charivari.
I could go on forever, but I have to shave my back. Incredible stuff, this one.

[Bill Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent old school folklore exploring the pan-European myth of the wild man, a figure found on numerous family crests, churches, and manuscripts. Bernheimer makes a convincing case for the wild man being a remnant of early rituals, preserved through festivals and fairs, fundamental as the earth and almost as universal. The only flaw in the book is the poor reproduction of the many plates illustrating the text and someone would do the world a huge favor by reprinting the text with proper illustrations to accompany it.

Once one begins to look for the wild man, he's everywhere, from Fennimore Cooper to the anti-heroes of mid-20th Century film, to AVATAR, KING KONG. Really a dazzling book and absolutely recommended.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful for my thesis. I know Bernheimer is considered the authority on wild men but I must say that I find Dorothy Yamamoto much better.

[dragonhelmuk]

Interesting book which has at least given me an overview of the topic, but if you're interested in Britain go read "Nebuchadnezzar's Children" instead. Wish I had.

This comment is the most insightful thing ever said on the subject of Lancelot.
"For Yvain and Tristan such insanity is a passing state caused by grief or jealousy, and they recover from it quickly, once the appropriate remedy is applied to them. Lancelot, whose emotional balance is more precarious, suffers four separate shocks of insanity.”

At least the author keeps throwing out amazing comments like this:
“An imaginary creature capable of being overwhelmingly brutal and oppressive, and yet prone to erotic passion could hardly have arisen out of any subjective experience but that of nightmares, which so often contain a sudden transition from the monstrous to the sexual”

I know certain people who would be pleased with this idea, but it is actually painful to read this sort of ignorance in an academic book:
"There are thus two guardians of the forest of Brocéliande, one charged with the safety of the animals, the other of the spring: a division which has long been recognized as due to Chrétien’s eagerness to raise the first husband of Laudine to the rank of a knight worth defeating. In the original Breton myth, which Chrétien transformed to suit the assumptions of his hearers, the wild herdsman was probably the guardian also over the miraculous spring, and thus had the authority to release or restrain all the explosive forces in his magic empire… It is likely also that it is Chrétien himself who is responsible for the incongruous appearance of this wild man, which could hardly have come out of the popular myth”