Arthurian metamorphoses: the Gato Paul

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13136/2284-2667/160

Keywords:

Cath Palug, Chapalu, Gato pau, Medieval monsters, Chivalry books, Matière de Bretagne.

Abstract

King Arthur’s battle with a monster has been documented since the second half of the 12th century and is repeated in numerous later texts. Sometimes the monster is identified as Cath Palug (Mabinogion) or Chapalu (French texts); on other occasions it is known as Chat de Lausanne (Estoire de Merlin), but the fearsome animal is hardly ever described, so that it is not easy to identify it in the catalogue of monstrous beings. The long survival of the «gato pau» allows it to be recognised as the beast Gaturas (Tristan de Leonis) and as a «baboon» in the 16th century.

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Published

2020-12-29

Issue

No. 8 (2020): Metamorphosis of chivalric motifs and digital culture

Section

Monographic

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Carlos Alvar

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