My family loves bunnies. They’re cute, fluffy, come running when they hear a bag crinkle, and magically bring you candy on a certain holiday that we’ll be celebrating this week. However, as cute as these little creatures are, apparently Monty Python and the Holy Grail got it right in suggesting that they are actually ruthless killers with a taste for vengeance. That’s why today, I’ll be talking about these fluffy little psychos and the history behind their disturbing appearances in medieval manuscripts.
The first time one of these killer bunnies made an appearance on a page was in a manuscript from Arnstein Abbey in Germany which was written in the 1170’s. The page depicts a hunter being hung on the decorated letter T while two rabbits point and seemingly laugh at him. From there, the theme of psycho bunnies seemed to continue as they popped up more and more on the pages of medieval texts from the 14th century, often appearing in bordering, illuminated letters, or in what can only be described as medieval cartoon strips. They were so popular that the English poet, Chaucer, made mention of them in Canterbury Tales and the “Heege Manuscript” shows that they were popular in medieval bard songs. Truly, they seemed to hop around in the minds of the people of Europe as examples of their adventures have been found in French, Spanish, and Belgian manuscripts from the time.
The most elaborate depictions of these merry little murderers came from the Smithfeild Decretals, a medieval cartoon strip that was created in the 1340’s. This cartoon strip shows the tables being turned on the hunter as a bunny with a bow shoots him in the back and he and his buddy tie up the wounded hunter in the next panel. In the third panel, they take him to the bunny judge, who finds the hunter guilty of crimes against rabbit-dom, and the overly-buff bunnies take him away and exact their revenge by beheading him. In a series of different panels, the bunnies continue their reign of terror by going after the deceased hunter’s hound, but instead of beheading it, they hang it from a tree.
However, these weapon-wielding bunnies weren’t always bad. Sometimes, they were depicted as being little bunny knights or lords, jousting and hunting on the backs of snails, dogs, or other rabbits. Other times, they seemed to get along with the humans, being portrayed as background characters or weirdos coming out of trumpets (a-la a copy of the story of the Holy Grail).
But why were these bunnies so popular? Who created them?
To answer the second question first, we’re actually not sure who is responsible for coming up with the idea. That has unfortunately been lost to history, as far as I can tell. On the other hand, we do have an answer to why the rabbits were so popular and the answer lies in the time in which they were created. The Medieval Ages were a dark and oppressive time in which most people were pretty much just glorified slaves known as serfs. If you did something to offend the church, your lord, or someone else, you were in danger of losing your life. Heck, if the wind blew the wrong direction, you would die. Basically, life sucked. If something was funny, you kinda clung to that and that’s where the killer bunnies come in. They represented an idea of “What if the tables were turned?” and this was appealing to the medieval people. It was a glimmer of happiness in their otherwise crappy lives. Even today, these bunnies are still popular amongst bunny-lovers, fantasy nerds, and history geeks because they are so outlandish.
So next time you run into a bunny, be grateful that it doesn’t have an axe to mug you for carrots.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
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