Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies.

Some medieval imagery and perception might at first seem funny from a contemporary perspective, but research on the ways people lived with their animals in the past compared to the somewhat different way one lives with them today is quite rewarding. The study of the crocodile and other exotic or mythological animals is more rewarding and interesting still, as it sheds light on how people perceived things they might have never seen, but which were still familiar and ordinary to them. Thus, when one reads a sentence like: “Among some curiosities, there is the medieval superstition that crocodile ointment returns youth and good looks, which is why it was used by old women of loose morals and prostitutes,” which is the first reference to the medieval crocodile I ever came across, one thinks that this is a topic worth looking at in more depth. The results of the research, the differences in the perception of the object in question that develop with time, the various meanings applied to the same thing over a certain period, and the rising awareness about one’s own language and thought patterns may just come as a surprise. - [Author]

Language: English