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Well, this looks like quite an interesting book, LNS. THe author, John Layard, was a big influence of Peter Redgrove. Redgrove's The Black Goddess is one of my all time favourites. Perhaps a bit more psycho-analytical than you're looking for.
This page gives a good cross-cultural overview. Apparently, the moon is assoicated with hares in some African nations, as in contains a hare's silhouette when looked at in that part of the world (with a bit of imagination).
From the link about hare folklore in the UK:
Man has for centuries respected, even feared, the hare because of its perceived powers of solitude and remoteness. Active at night, symbolic of the intuitive, and the fickleness of the Moon, the hare was an emblem of unpredictability. Like the Moon, which always changes places in the sky, hares were full of mystery and contradictions. The moon was perhaps the most powerful symbol of birth, growth, reproduction, death and rebirth. The hare was endowed with similar earth-bound powers.
We seem to have solitariness, a lunar and magical association, possibly related to their fecundity (I'm asusming - do hares breed like well, rabbits?). Also, a trickster aspect - see Bugs Bunny, Uncle Rehmus etc. Interestingly enough, the first of the African stories in that link - hare as a messenger between moon and sun reminds me of that very famous kids book of which I can't remember the name .... arrgh ... it was full of riddles which pointed to the location of a buried hare-shaped amulet ... what was it? |
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