ABSTRACT
There is a perplexing moment in the romance of Bevis of Hampton when Bevis–down and out, just escaped from seven years in prison–hears that his beloved Josian has been married off against her will, and that his horse Arondel is in prison for violence against Josian’s new husband. The horse is, in many ways, the quintessential zöopedagogue of romance, one uniquely suited to educating humans about the value of loyalty, submission, and teamwork. The horse is a near-constant companion throughout the knight’s training, contests, and battles, and he teaches lessons that only a horse can teach. Romance offers unique insights into the inter subjective relationship between knights and horses. It might seem obvious that romances would be concerned with the horse’s active role in promoting knightly accomplishment. By casting horses as the teachers of knights, as promoters of chivalric virtues, romances place these creatures at the very heart of the mechanism by which human cultural values are created and sustained.
