Heath, Diane

This book is an introduction written for both the scholar and the interested lay reader. It presents a fascinating topic - the medieval dragon - in an accessible and lucid manner that educates, entertains, and enthrals - exactly as medieval dragons themselves did.

Introducing the Medieval Ass considers the fascinating ways that medieval people understood the ass, or donkey. A beast of burden and metaphor for human behaviour, medieval authors used the ass's assumed traits - irrationality, humility, stubbornness, sexual perversion - to educate, entertain, and enthral.