The Sea as Multi-perspective Space in Late Medieval Fables. With Examples from ›Dialogus creaturarum moralisatus‹ and ›Speculum sapientiae‹

Abstract

The term ›multi-perspective space of interaction‹ aims at the intricacy of perspectives which result from the interplay of space and actors. This will be examined in regard to the fictitious space of the sea as it is presented in the Cyrillus-Fable ›The Whale and the Mariner‹ as well as in the fables ›The Five Pikes and the Fisherman‹ and ›The Pike and the Basilisk‹ which are included in the collection ›Dialogus creaturarum moralisatus‹. By incorporating intratextual relations between these fables as well as contextualisations (Bible, natural history), it may be pointed out that the sea or the space of water respectively as depicted in those fables can be understood as an ambiguous construct which consists of superimposed layers of natural, fictitious, and moral-allegorical aspects.