ABSTRACT
On the imagined borders between the animal and the human, one finds the medieval wild folk, who populate many medieval romances. The madman’s inner turmoil becomes externalized through his wild appearance and through his wild life away from civilization, yet at the same time, the wild folk image suggests penance and eventual restoration. More typical than the carnivorous wild folk is their portrayal in peaceful coexistence with the animals that normally avoid humans. The wild man either rips her apart and eats her or merely shows great excitement and attempts to seize her, both responses again underscoring the wild folk’s bestiality and sexuality. A significant difference between the romance hero-wild folk and the saint-wild folk is that the saint enters the wilderness and the ascetic life voluntarily and rationally while the romance hero flees there in madness. The medieval romances that describe their mad heroes as wild men clearly draw on the dual traditions of the wild folk.
