Podcast Summary:

New Books Network – Interview with Sara Petrosillo on “Hawking Women: Falconry, Gender, and Control in Medieval Literary Culture” (Ohio State UP, 2023)
Host: Yana Byers
Guest: Sara Petrosillo
Date: January 19, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode of "New Books in History" explores Sara Petrosillo’s book Hawking Women: Falconry, Gender, and Control in Medieval Literary Culture. Petrosillo, Assistant Professor of English Literature at the University of Evansville, discusses how the practices and metaphors of falconry shaped both literary and lived experiences of gender in the medieval world. The conversation traverses literary analysis, historical archives, metaphor, women’s agency, and the enduring resonance of falconry.

Main Themes and Purpose

• Investigation of falconry as a potent metaphor for gendered control and liberation in medieval literature.
• Unpacking the intersection of poetic treatises, hunting manuals, and conduct literature to understand the regulation of women through metaphor.
• Exploring the historical reality of women’s participation in falconry as both practitioners and symbolic figures.
• Tracing the evolution of falconry’s metaphors—how their meanings shifted across centuries, especially in relation to women’s roles.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Intellectual Genesis of the Book

• Personal and Scholarly Roots: Petrosillo’s fascination began during her time in Brindisi, Italy, where Frederick II—author of a famous falconry treatise—was a local icon. Her academic interest crystallized around metaphors of women’s bodies and their regulation in literature.

  “I started thinking about this book...before I was in grad school...the more research I did about [Frederick II], the more intrigued I became.” (03:18)

• Encountering the Metaphor: Connections between the training of falcons and the societal training of women led her to see falconry everywhere, in archives, daily life, and poetry:

  “I started seeing them everywhere...all over poetry and even...the airport and see the hired falconers for pest abatement...” (05:22)

2. The Singular Importance of Frederick II’s Treatise

• The Treatise Explained: De Arte Venandi cum Avibus (The Art of Hunting with Birds), written by Frederick II, is highlighted for its systematic, artistic approach to falconry beyond mere practical advice.

  “Frederick said...I want to elevate what has hitherto really just been a kind of collection of practical knowledge to talking about this as an art.” (07:45)

• Scope and Influence: It is extensively detailed (over 100 folios, several versions) and foundational to both falconry practice and ornithology.

  “Even ornithologists look to it as...when ornithology was established, even before they get to the training part.” (09:14)

• Experiential Emphasis: Frederick insists true learning in falconry is experiential, needing apprenticeship—books alone are insufficient.

  “You really can’t learn the training by reading. You have to just go out and find someone to apprentice.” (07:27)

3. Distinguishing Falconry from Other Forms of Hunting

• The Solitary Hawk: Unlike dogs, hawks are solitary, cannot be trained through affection or social hierarchy, and are highly sensitive to food and weight.

  “You cannot rely on those same...methods as with dogs, that they’re not companionate animals.” (09:45)
  “It is all about the weight...keeping the weight at the perfect level.” (10:41)

4. Falconry as a Metaphor for Gender and Control

• Intertextual Connection: Petrosillo reads literary works, like Marie de France’s Lays, alongside treatises on hawking and poetry, and conduct manuals for women.

  “I wanted to bring in...poetry treatises...conduct manuals for women...” (14:09)

• Case Study—Marie de France's "Yonec" and Manuscript Context:

  • In the Harley 978 manuscript, a hawking treatise (a French verse translation focused on capturing and enclosing a hawk) appears directly before Marie’s Lays, suggesting intentional association.
  • In “Yonec,” a woman, confined by marriage, is visited by a goshawk (with falconry jesses), transforming into a lover—a metaphor for liberation.

  “...maybe there’s something about the kind of poetics of training these birds, the interaction...and specifically...that strange paradox of enclosing the bird so that it can grow stronger...” (18:18)

• Material Evidence: The manuscript pairing of hawking treatise and Lays is proposed as evidence of medieval readers’ recognition of the metaphoric power of falconry.

  “...there was a connection for medieval readers...this manuscript provides that evidence.” (18:18)

5. Reassessing the Gendered Metaphor

• Female as Default: In falconry, the female is larger and stronger—the default bird for training and for poetic reference—unusual in patriarchal language.

  “Every time a falcon or hawk is mentioned in a treatise, the name for the bird is specifically female...the male is called a Tear Soul because he’s a third...smaller.” (23:54)

• Against Automatic Misogyny: Previous scholarship sees the metaphor as demeaning. Petrosillo challenges this, arguing earlier references evince respect:

  “There was reverence for the strongest of the species, which was the female.” (24:24)

• Temporal Shift: By Shakespeare’s era (Taming of the Shrew), the metaphor grows more overtly misogynistic, but this was not its medieval origin.

  “I’m arguing that by the time we get to Shakespeare, the metaphor...it has been...altered and manipulated and the misogyny is so much more apparent. But...in the 12th century...this comparison is not automatically a degradation.” (26:02)

6. The Lived Reality: Women as Falconers

• Active Participants: Medieval women, both aristocratic and middle-class, practiced falconry—a fact attested by art, seals, payment records, and literature.

  “Middle class and aristocratic women...chose the symbol of a woman with a hawk...the most common symbol that they would choose.” (31:33)
  “There are records...women are paid for caring for hawks, for raising hawks, for treating diseases in hawks, and for training them.” (33:20)

• Agency and Liberation: Falconry offered women rare forms of agency and physical and symbolic freedom.

  “It represented for them something that they could do that was active...some of the only moments of freedom that they felt.” (32:01)

7. The Practice of Falconry (How It Works)

• From Capture to Flight:

  • The ideal hawk (a ‘brancher’) is captured, hooded and sealed (eyes covered), isolated with the falconer for acclimation, and gradually trusted with increasing light and freedom.
  • Bonding is built through food rewards and patience, carefully managing the bird’s weight and hunger.

  “He would stay in the muse with the hawk, enticing it to come to the glove with small bits of...meat. And he would recommend also whistling a tune...” (36:11)

• Aesthetics over Utility: For Frederick II, the goal was not just catching game but achieving the most beautiful flights—artistry and performance trump practicality.

  “The point is not to catch game...most important...is to have hawks that are trained in a way where they create the most beautiful flight...the chase...more important than if he gets the prey.” (41:27)

8. Animals, Humans, and Literature

• Integrated Lives: Medieval nobility shared intimate daily space with animals; hawks were constant companions, objects of reverence and diplomacy.

  “They’re with them all the time. And because so much time is put into training a hawk, there is for sure a reverence towards them.” (28:18)

• Falconry in Literature: Birds in literature often stand in for humans, with stories like Chaucer's "Parliament of Fowls" and "Squire’s Tale" dramatizing bird-human communication and emphasizing female agency.

  “Chaucer’s...where the female eagle, the dominant...species...these birds are presumably...wild birds...” (29:47)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Ubiquity of Falconry:

  “I started noticing them in real life and in fiction and in the poetry, medieval literature, everywhere.” (05:22)

• On Marie de France’s "Yonec" and Metaphor:

  “And then for readers specifically, I think women readers...that same feeling of, I’m reading this within a manuscript, but I can kind of take the things I’ve learned and...have it do something expansive for me...” (20:21)

• On Female Falcons and Language:

  “Every time a falcon or hawk is mentioned...the name for the bird is specifically female...what would it be like for a human female who...lives...in this society..where man stands in for people...what would it be like for them to have this intimate relationship with...the opposite was true.” (23:54)

• On the Medieval Metaphor’s Meaning:

  “There was reverence for the strongest of the species, which was the female.” (24:24)

• On Women as Practitioners:

  “Why would someone choose—if falcons...are meant to be derogatory—why would they all choose that? I don’t think that it was unequivocally derogatory. I think it represented...moments of freedom...” (32:01)

• On the Praxis of Modern Falconry:

  “I got to start in California and got to do it with a group of women...watching her with her bird, she anticipated its every move...” (43:36)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Sara’s intellectual background and inspiration: 02:26–06:13
• Frederick II’s treatise and influence: 06:40–13:58
• Falconry as metaphor and in literary analysis (Marie de France, Harley 978): 15:42–22:45
• Gender in falconry metaphors, female as default, links to Shakespeare: 23:20–27:05
• Women as real-life falconers in medieval Europe: 31:21–35:29
• Detailed explanation of falconry practices: 36:02–41:25
• Aesthetics and poetics of falconry: 41:27–43:26
• Sara’s falconry experience and teaching: 43:36–46:08
• Sara’s next research project (womb metaphors): 46:37–49:17

Style & Tone

• The episode strikes a warm, curious, and scholarly tone, blending personal anecdotes, deep reference to primary texts, and a commitment to recovering women’s historical presence and agency.
• Petrosillo is passionate and eloquent, often turning canonical stories inside out with careful reading and lived experience.
• The discussion is accessible but rich in detail, making the subject engaging for scholars and general listeners alike.

Conclusion

Sara Petrosillo’s Hawking Women opens new vistas on medieval literature, reframing both falconry practice and metaphor as sites of female agency, not merely subjugation. By examining both literary and historical records, Petrosillo uncovers the nuanced ways medieval people—particularly women—both shaped and were shaped by their relationships with hawks. Throughout this episode, listeners receive not only a scholarly overview but a sense of the thrill and beauty of falconry and its metaphoric afterlives.

Host’s Recommendation:

“Spend some time with Hawking Women: Falconry, Gender, and Control in Medieval Literary Culture...it’s a fascinating read.” (49:28)