“Think on the Bludy Serk:” Allegory and Figura in Henryson’s Minor Poem

Abstract

This essay analyzes the allegorical mode of the previously understudied poem by Robert Henryson, The Bludy Serk. In Serk, a knight saves a lady whom he loves from an evil giant, dying in the process. This story is then compared to the story of Christ's Passion, and the poem concludes by identifying the two stories as, in some sense, the same story. This narrative mode is best described using the concept of figura as understood by Erich Auerbach in his essay on the subject. Serk is the only poem in Henryson's corpus which seems to employ this manner of constructing its narrative(s) and is relatively unique among lyrical poems about Christ's Passion in the later Middle Ages. In this regard, it seems to be innovative, and merits future study by Henryson scholars and students of allegory alike.