Legions of Pigs in the Early Medieval West (Yale Agrarian Studies Series)

This is a stimulating and impressive book, and a pleasure to read. Kreiner has given us a wide-ranging analysis of the role and impact of pigs in Western European society from late antiquity through the early Middle Ages. She covers a huge amount of ground -- everything from ecology, cosmology, law, linguistics and art -- in a style that's academic but also accessible and even playful. Broadly speaking, her aim is to show how how pigs fit into society and how they served as a reflection of, and vehicle for, Westerners' thinking about their world.There were a few places where I thought perhaps she overstated the uniqueness of the pig as a figure of thought: that pigs were "shaping human institutions" (p.9) seems like a dressed up way of saying they were important and society had to deal with them. However, for the most part the book is lucid and measured in its use of evidence, and Kreiner's central point that the "fleshiness" of pigs signaled both danger (of the flesh) and promise (through the flesh of Christ) struck me as subtle and well explained. The many angles from which Kreiner considers her subject are a great strength of this study, distinguishing it from the only other piggy book on my shelf, Claudine Fabre-Vassas's "The Singular Beast," which is limited to cultural and folkloric representations. By the last chapter all the pieces are tied up and Kreiner brings a nice sense of closure through the evocative notion of "mud to cosmos," with which she begins and ends.In the Introduction, Kreiner thanks her mentor Peter Brown, and Brown's presence can be felt throughout these pages like a far-off, warming sun. Channeling the master, Kreiner writes beautifully and she brings to her learned work a deep sympathy for her subject as well as a sense of splendor. Highly recommended!

Interesting topic and very well written. Bought as a present for my husband, he was pleased.