Introduction
The wodewose
Seven Deadly Sins
The day of Doom
A medieval zoo
A hungry dragon
The pelican
Iconoclasm
A wealthy benefactor
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One of the most popular fables from the medieval bestiary was that of the pelican. Bearing scant resemblance to the bird we now call by that name, the pelican's foremost attribute was restoring her dead chicks to life by feeding them from the blood of her own breast. In this way she was likened to Christ sacrificing himself for the redemption of his "children", mankind.
Images abound of the pelican "in her piety": this striking example is at Ufford. Still bearing glorious traces of original colour (though I suspect that blood may have been retouched), she sits atop the extraordinary 18ft-high 15th-century font cover for which this lovely little church is most famous.