I must admit to something… I’ve never seen the Princess Bride. I know, I know – c’est fou. How can a future medievalist never have seen this movie? But, as I’m focusing more on Medieval medicine these days, I wanted to find interpretations of medieval healers. The first thing I was recommended to view was Billy Crystal’s performance in the Princess Bride. If you haven’t seen the movie, like me, please feel free to watch the link below

I found it so interesting that medieval healers were seen as old, delusional people. Miracle Max’s home/work place is murky and dirty filled with strange instruments and bottled herbs. His way of healing the hero (the unconscious man I assume is the hero of the movie) is unorthodox. His babblings are fast-paced and almost delirious.

Is this how the present views medieval practices?

I must admit that I get a old giggle when people say, “how positively medieval?” I think that’s hilarious because most of the time the speaker actually wouldn’t know much about the Middle Ages except, perhaps, what he/she has seen on Game of Thrones.

I just wanted to write this post in order to go back on it later and paint a clearer, more accurate picture of medieval healers later on.

When you think of beavers, what do you think about? Well, they are DAM interesting.

Terrible pun, yes, but since I have been posting more and more about Ayurvedic Medicine, I thought that I’d write about Medieval medicine for this week – particularly medieval animals.

Beavers are such funny creatures. We mostly know them today as building dams and having cool tails. But, did you know that they were most coveted during the Middle Ages for their genitalia? According medieval bestiaries, compendiums of beasts full of tales and allegories about animals found in the Middle Ages,

“The beaver is hunted for its testicles, which are valued for making medicine. When the beaver sees that it cannot escape from the hunter, it bites off its testicles and throws them to the hunter, who then stops pursuing the beaver. If another hunter chases the beaver, it shows the hunter that it has already lost its testicles and so is spared.”

The allegory/moral of the story?

“If a man wishes to live chastely he must cut off all his vices and throw them from him into the face of the devil. The devil, seeing that the man has nothing belonging to him, will leave the man alone.”

So, why would people want to eat a beaver’s testicles? That doesn’t sound so appetizing…

Well, here’s why! Beaver testicles and vagina follicles can actually help with a few medical conditions because of the salicin in them from the willow trees the beavers eat turns into a salicylic-like acid like what is found in aspirin. This can provide pain-relief and has anti-inflammatory properties.

Here’s another interesting, if not more modern, fact about beavers. During the 17th century, the Catholic Church declared beavers to be a fish, thus making them acceptable to eat on Fridays during Lent.

Aren’t beavers just the coolest?

The quotes are from this website that has an amazing illumination of dogs with beaver testicles in their mouths: http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast152.htm.