Article published In:
Reinardus: Yearbook of the International Reynard SocietyEdited by Baudouin Van den Abeele and Paul Wackers
[Reinardus 20] 2008
► pp. 29–39
This paper explores the curious image of ‘the hare on the hearthstone’ – a sign of the impending Day of Doom in late medieval literature – investigating reasons why such an apparently harmless creature should be considered a harbinger of misfortune. By addressing a broad range of written sources, it builds up a picture of the hare as a symbol of otherness and instability whose intrusion into the very centre of domestic security would indeed provide a cause for profound unease.