Magical Albino Deer
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Legend (and the occasional sighting) suggests that albino (or more accurately, leucistic) deer haunt the southeast woods of the University. These mystical deer appear in legends of Medieval Europe and function as psychopomps--guides for the soul to another world! If you are (un)lucky enough to see one, are you brave enough to follow where it leads?
For some medieval narratives of white deer, see
Brook, Leslie C. “Guigemar and the White Hind” Medium Ævum 56, no. 1 (1987): 94-101.
Chrestien de Troyes, Erec and Enide. Trans. Ruth Harwood. Cline. Athens: University of Georgia, 2000.
Fomin, Maxim. "Hunting the deer in Celtic and Indo-European mythological contexts". In: Celtic myth in the 21st Century: The Gods and their Stories in a Global Perspective. University of Wales Press. 2018, 73-87
Marie de France,”Guigemar” in The Lais of Marie de France: a verse translation trans. by Judith P. Shoaf
Images
the Wilton Diptych white hart