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In reply to Steven Botterill's question: > >* Corentin or Cury, bishop (sixth century?) > >- first bishop of Cornouaille, whose see is now at Quimper > >- he kept a fish in a well, and he would daily cut off part of the > >fish, return it to the water, and take it out the next day completely > >recovered, and then repeat the procedure again > > As ever these thumbnail sketches tantalize... What in tarnation was the > point of the good bishop's piscatorial scission? Do the hagiographers > indicate that they found this behavior somehow admirable, and, if so, why, > or do they see it as merely remarkable? Are there symbolic/theological > implications (given the fish's history as a Christian symbol I can see > possibilities in several directions...)? It seems to me to be a Christian adaptation of a much older tradition. Of course, the symbolism of the fish and rebirth is quite appropriate for a saintly bishop but the idea of animals eaten today yet alive again tomorrow is one that one finds, for example, in Norse mythology where boars in Walhalla can be killed and consumed one day and hunted all over again the next. I am sure the folklore expert Malcolm Jones can give many more examples of this. Sophie Oosterwijk University of Leicester %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%