Easter is coming and with it the common imagery of painted eggs, christian lamb and the easter rabbit. Eggs as symbols of life and resurrection (even if hijacked form pagan traditions), lamb as symbol of Christ… This all made some sense but rabbits?
According to some scholars rabbits were associated with germanic spring and fertility godess Eostre, and were later connected with christian easter by attempts to coverup and root out her celebrations with christian ones. It was a common practice at the time. Curious of when exactly it might have happened I digged into old manuscripts (at least those published on the internet), hoping to find first associacions of rabbits with christian celebrations. In vain however i looked for these creatures in pre christian and early christian iconography. In general this animal seemed to gather little attention. Yet moving forward in history, first in XII century and later in XIII and XIV century manuscripts finaly I have found them…
Oh where have you guided me trecherous curiosity!
The truth I have uncovered was more horrible than I could have imagined, for the rabbits I found were ones of horror and nightmare! Rather than eggs and happines, the medieval rabbits, armed with bows, clubs, swords and spears brought war and ruin to the lands of men.
Images of rabbit invasion. Neither peasant nor king was safe.
Judging on the date of the manuscripts it seemed that somewhere in XIII century a savage war broke out between with humans (and allied hounds it seemed). Striking down knights and laying siege to castles. For almost two hundred years, the manuscripts show signs of this epic struggle, with rabbits evidently scoring many victories and taking many captives.
Evidence of advanced rabbit civilization and their mockery of christian faith.
For these rabbits were no mere sevage animals, but beasts of most cunning intellect, capable of creating technological civilization, with leaders, rituals and even courts of justice! Yet what justice could be served by such foul monsters? Clearly the hearings were but a parody of any legal process! Yet lucky were the ones who died instantly of their spears or arrows, for the trials of captives (weather hound or man) ended often with public and cruel execution. Beheading, slow hanging, beating to death or even skinning alive such were the methods these evil monsters killed their victims. I wil spare you dear reader the image of these atrocities. Yet, if you are brave enough you will easily find these on the web.
Rabbits condemn a captive for gallows. Could this proud monster on the left of the bottom image by one of their war leaders?
Yet for all the horrors the killer rabbits inflicted upon men and dogs, suddenly in XV century they dissapear form christian chronicles and artwork replaced with nice, benign pets we all know today, depicted often accompanying Christ, Mary or the Saints.
In the end my research left me with more questions and answers. What caused these ferocious rabits to take arms against men? Was it an uprising against the hunters? Possesion by devils? Vengance of pagan Eostre for usurping her place? Many images show rabbits mocking christian liturgy. What rabbit Ceasar or Genghis Khan led them to to such victories that it took two hundred years to restore natural order of things? Perhaps a proud rabbit overseeing the imminent hanging of a captive depicted in Decretals of Gregory IX was one of such warlords? What heroic deeds put an end to this menace? What exactly was role of the dogs in extinguishing this threat? Finally what miracle destroyed this evil civilisation and turned beasts into harmless lovable beings?
So many questions! Is this a rabbit last stand? Could the unnamed dog king be a forgotten saviour of human civilization?
I guess we will never know, for all the records of these events were all but scraped clear from the annals, and overwritten later with unrelated content to preserve expensive velum. Only small illustrations left on the margins of these books testify of this epic struggle, allowing me to reconstruct it even if only in sketch. Trully it mus have been a terrifying, most evil foe for Damnatio Memoriae ( that is ereasure form history and records) was a fate granted for onlythe most foul deeds against laws of man and God.
For those who would like to remember, and honour forgotten heroes of this war please find at the top of this post set of rabbit invaders, that you can pit against Codex Manesse knights, hounds and hunters to recreate these great and tragic events.
Anyway, I wish You all a peacefull and happy Easter.
Yet looking in the eyes of a rabbit guarding your easter egges know that there was a time when these creatures were bringing terror and death, and if anything happens, consider that I have warned you.
MINILab Models 