Every year I and some of my closest friends make a number of regular pilgrimages to some of the best book sales known to man. Now, while I won’t be bragging about any of my latest finds, I was quite happy with a few. And I won’t share the details of where they are, either. We’re a greedy lot.
But among the latest acquisitions was The Fables of Odo of Cheriton, translated by John C. Jacobs.
I know what you’re thinking:
But it isn’t that Odo.
I had never heard of Odo or his fables, but when I spotted the book I thought of one person: Laura Gibbs. And of course she’s put his fables online (check the link above for the Latin).
What’s more, she’s written an article about him recently: ‘Christianizing Aesop.’ It’s worth your time.
You are in for such a treat!!! Odo is my favorite of the medieval fabulists, because he really TELLS the stories, in his own way, as opposed to being a kind of editor or transmitter of an existing collection. He includes items that are clearly local folklore, bestiary material – all kinds of stuff including fables you won’t find anywhere else, like the toad and his slippers! Jacobs’ book is a delight – with a nice introduction, and some interesting notes also.
There are copies of Hervieux’s edition of Odo in Latin at GoogleBooks. Sometimes a page is missing or blurred, so I’ve flagged multiple editions of Hervieux’s Odo book in order to have access to multiple options in case of a missing page – here are the ones I’ve flagged:
http://tinyurl.com/djzrpt
Evan Millner recently added an Aesop’s fable by Odo to the Tar Heel Project… imagine that: bringing Odo back to life in such a 21st-century way. Wonderful! Here’s Evan’s story:
Vulpes et Lupus in Puteo
by Evan Millner & Odo
http://tinyurl.com/oqo59k
Have fun!!! :-)