The Holy Greyhound: Guinefort, Healer of Children Since the Thirteenth Century

Author / Editor
Schmitt, Jean-Claude.

Title
The Holy Greyhound: Guinefort, Healer of Children Since the Thirteenth Century

Published
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Physical Description
215 pp.

Description
An exemplum of Stephen of Bourbon, written sometime before 1261, reveals and condemns an odd heresy. Near Lyons, a story has gained currency of a greyhound, slain by its noble master in ill-considered haste, after it had saved the knight's infant from an intruding serpent.
The research uses the methodologies of folklore, archaeology, literary criticism, and history to interpret the significance of this legend in its medieval context and a magical healing rite that survived in the region until the nineteenth century.

Chaucer Subjects
Background and General Criticism.