| The Bestiary (MS Bodley 764) tells of a tree found in India that has fruit that is sweet and pleasant. The doves delight in the fruit and live in the tree. Dragons, who are enemies of doves, fear the tree and its shadow and cannot approach either. If the tree casts it’s shadow from the west, the dragons fly east, and if the shadow falls from the east the dragons fly west. If the dragons find doves outside the protection of the tree and its shadow, they kill the doves. The tree, its shadow and the doves are metaphors for God, Christ and the Holy Spirit, while the dragons are the devil according to the Book of Beasts. A rose, a glass of wine and the Bestiary, too, cast shadows. |
Off Center & Not Even 