Popular religiosity, it is now well-known, has always maintained an unsuspected autonomy of development, often so divergent from the official liturgy as to require repeated coercive interventions by the hegemonic culture, which however were never completely decisive. This evidence establishes an important qualitative difference in the definition of the "permanence" of pagan gods, since, although their survival is attested, in a surreptitious manner, even within religious representations of Christian origin, it is still popular culture, and peasant culture in the first place... Among the many cases recorded in literature, of folklore figures in which vestiges of more archaic divinities are discernible, a suggestive example, in my opinion, is offered by one of the protagonists of the Roman de Renart, namely the she-wolf Hersent, wife of Isengrino and presumed cause of the perennial hostility between the fox Renart and the wolf. There are two branches, in particular, that seem to bring together almost all the beliefs linked to the character of Hersent and they are, predictably, branch II and branch VII: The first, where Hersent's adultery with Renart is narrated, the second, in the long indictment against her held to Renart by the kite Hubert. - [Author]

Language: Italian

ISBN: 978-88-6058-137-2