Few animal tales among those included in the early Latin Phystologus and its later French translations and adaptations have undergone such strange changes as that of the Aspis, the Adder or Asp. As an example of man’s imagination in contact with an ancient belief, the short description of the Asp and its subsequent accretions reveal some of the many ways in which the mediaeval mind treats material of a fabulous nature. - [Author]

Language: English