Medieval Rabbits The Weird History of Mischief

If you’ve ever fallen down the rabbit hole of medieval manuscripts (pun absolutely intended), you’ll know bunnies were not the sweet background extras we imagine today. In the margins—those decorative borders scribes loved to fill—rabbits arm themselves with swords, arrest hunters, and occasionally stage full-blown revenge sagas. Clearly, rabbits were the original chaos gremlins.

Wait… why are rabbits hunting people?

In real life, rabbits are prey animals—timid, fluffy, snack-sized. But in medieval marginalia, artists loved flipping reality on its head. Scholars call this the “world turned upside down”: the hunted become the hunters; the small bully the mighty. When you see a rabbit with a spear or a posse of bunnies hauling off a bound human, that role reversal is the joke.

TL;DR: everyone knew the “normal” hunt scene—so turning it inside out made medieval readers grin.

“Killer rabbits” were a whole mini-genre

This wasn’t a one-off gag. Across 14th-century manuscripts, you’ll spot rabbits chasing dogs, jousting, and even conducting solemn funerals. Two fan-favourite sources for this mayhem are the Smithfield Decretals (a legal text with wildly imaginative English borders) and the Gorleston Psalter (c. 1310)—both brimming with drolleries (aka medieval visual jokes).

Drolleries = medieval meme culture

These comic marginal scenes are called drolleries—visual in-jokes that flourished in the 14th–15th centuries. Think of them as medieval memes: familiar setups (hunts, jousts, processions) remixed with absurd role reversals and animals behaving badly. Rabbits landed the punchline because everybody knew they were timid… so seeing them swagger with a sword still triggers the same delighted whiplash today.

Greatest hits: swords, funerals, and band practice

A few motifs you’ll see again and again:

• Armed and dangerous: rabbits brandishing swords or lances, flipping the hunter/prey script.
• The solemn procession: bunnies carrying a bier like tiny furry pallbearers (yes, really).
• Band practice: rabbits playing instruments and clowning around—marginalia loves music jokes.

Was there deeper symbolism?

Sometimes. Hares and rabbits could signal fertility and vitality in medieval thought. Mix that with a topsy-turvy gag and you get extra layers: the small and prolific suddenly overpower the powerful. That said, a lot of the joy is simply slapstick inversion rather than hidden code.

So why would they drink tea?

Because if any animal has the patience for a perfect steep, it’s the one that waited 700 years to ambush the hunter. Picture it: a rabbit in a tiny helm, pausing between acts of medieval mayhem to sip a hot brew before its next border-patrol. World-turned-upside-down logic says the prey gets the last laugh and the first cuppa.

Fancy some rabbit mischief at home?
Explore our Medieval Rabbits designs → /collections/medieval-rabbits