The barnacle goose myth is a widely reported historical misconception about the breeding habits of the barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) and brant goose (Branta bernicla).Amongst the plethora of published sources on this myth, the two principal sources are: van der Lugt, M. (2000) Animal legendaire et discours savant medieval;la barnacle dans tous ses etats., Micrologus, 8, 351–393.;and, HeronAllen, E. (1928) Barnacles in nature & myth (London). One version of the myth is that these geese emerge fully formed from goose barnacles (Cirripedia). Other myths exist about how the barnacle goose supposedly emerges and grows from matter other than bird eggs.
The etymology of the term "barnacle" suggests Latin, Old English, and French roots.The Oxford English Dictionary reports the barnacle goose as a bird, of which the breeding place was long unknown, and was formerly believed to be produced out of the fruit of a tree growing by the seashore, or itself to grow upon the tree attached by its bill, also called tree goose, or to be produced out of a shell which grew upon this tree, or was engendered as a kind of 'mushroom' or spume from the corruption or rotting of timber in the water. The etymology of the term "barnacle" is probably Middle English "bernekke" or "bernake" which is identical with Old French "bernaque", and the medieval Latin bernacae or berneka. The history of the use of this word is traced back as far as the 11th or 12th centuries; see, Müller, F. Max, 1871, Lectures on the Science of Language. London: Longmans, Green. v. 2. pp. 583–604. Muller suggests that "bernacula" might be a variant of "*pernacula", a possible diminutive of "perna" 'a kind of shellfish,' afterwards confused with "*bernicula", a supposed aphetic form of "*hibernacula", which might be applied to the barnacle-goose from its being found in Hibernia (Ireland). Also called Solan Geese. See, Hulme, F Edward (1886) Sampson Low, p.168. There are no references in pre-Christian or pre-medieval books and manuscripts. The main vector for the myth into modern times was monastic manuscripts and in particular the bestiary.See, Sprouse, S. J. (2015). The Associative Branches of the Irish Barnacle: Gerald of Wales and the Natural World. Hortulus, 11, 2.
The myth owes its long-standing popularity to an early ignorance of the migration patterns of geese. Early medieval discussions of the nature of living organisms were often based on myths or genuine ignorance of what is now known about phenomena such as bird migration. It was not until the late 19th century that bird migration research showed that such geese migrate northwards to nest and breed in Greenland or northern Scandinavia.Kenicer, G. J. (2020). Plant Magic, Edinburgh, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh; pp 150–151.Mayntz, M. (2020). Migration: Exploring the Remarkable Journeys of Birds. London: Quadrille; pp 110–111; the following article provides a comprehensive historical account of the Barnacle Goose Myth, Lappo, E. G., Popovkina, A. B. & Mooij, J. H. (2019). About geese growing on trees The Medieval interpretation of the Barnacle and Brent goose origin. Goose Bulletin, 24(July), 8–21; retrieved from https://cms.geese.org/sites/default/files/Goose%20Bulletin24.pdf (25 January 2021). Not all the sources referenced are available in English.
Early references
An early, but not the first reference to the myth of the barnacle goose, is in the eleventh century Exeter Book of Riddles.Details from the following: Tupper, F. (1910). The Riddles of the Exeter book. Boston Mass.; London; Tupper, F. (1906). Solutions of the Exeter Book of Riddles. Modern Languages Notes, 21(4), 97–105.; Tupper, F. (1903). The comparatives Study of Riddles. Modern Language Notes, XVIII(1), 1–8.; and, Elliott van Kirk Dobbie and George Philip Krapp, eds, The Exeter Book, Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), pages 185–6. The riddle NUMBER 10, is asked as follows:
To which the anticipated answer was "The Barnacle Goose".SOPER, H. (2017): Reading the Exeter Book Riddles as Life-Writing. The Review of English Studies, New Series, Vol. 68 (287): 841–865. Doi: 10.1093/res/hgx009; BAUM, P.F. (1963): Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book. – Duke Univ. Press, Durham, North Carolina, USA. In addition see, Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book Cathedral Library MS 3501. See, https://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/history-heritage/cathedral-treasures/exeter-book/ The Exeter Book of Riddles noes not specify the "correct" answer. See, van der Lugt, M. (2000) (below) for his reservations, and Donoghue, D. (2016) An Anser for Exeter Book Riddle 74, in: S. B. Peter & H. Nicholas (Eds) Words and Works: Studies in Medieval English Language and Literature in Honour of Fred C. RobinsonUniversity of Toronto Press), 45–58.
In Ray Lankester's Diversions of a Naturalist (1917) Lankester, Ray. 1917. Diversions of a naturalist (Methuen and Co Ltd: [S.l.]). there is evidence of a serious literature debate arising from the work of Max Muller (1868),Muller, Max. 1868. Lectures on the science of language : delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in February, March, April & May 1863 : Second series (Longmans, Green). together with a French Zoologist, Frederic Houssay,Houssay, Frédéric. 1895. 'Les Theories de la Genese a Mycenes et le sens ZOOLOGIQUE DE CERTAINS SYMBOLES DU CULTE D'APHRODITE', Revue Archeologique, 26: 1–27. George Perrot and Charles Chipiez.See, Perrot, Georges, and Charles Chipiez. 1894. History of art in primitive Greece. Mycenian art ... Illustrated with ... engravings ... and ... plates (London,). The debate centered on the possibility that the barnacle goose myth could have been known to early Mycenaean settlers –1100 BCE. Lankester claimed that drawings, often seen on Mycenaean pottery, were an interpretation by contemporary artists of the features of typical geese. Lankester pointing out the way the Barnacle Geese were represented, wrote that the solution was:
He goes on to suggest that "it is fairly evident that the intention has been to manipulate the drawing of the leaf or fruit so as to make it resemble the drawing of the goose, whilst that in its turn is modified so as to emphasise or idealise its points of resemblance to a barnacle".
He summarises the possibility that Mycenaean drawings of birds – especially the goose – seen on pottery shows that the barnacle goose myth was known to settlers on the Greek islands, a thousand years BCE. He concludes his observations as follows:
There is an absence of evidence to support his claim from Greek or Roman folklore. Neither Aristotle or Herodotus or Pliny the Elder make any explicit reference to this myth. Buckeridge 2011 doubts the claims made by Edward Heron-Allen (1928) as follows:
Myth in ancient Rome
Many writers reference Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historiae as an early first century Roman source for the myth.For example, "Barnacle Goose: The Bird That Was Believed to Grow on Trees", https://www.amusingplanet.com/2020/03/barnacle-goose-bird-that-was-believed.html; and, "The Associative Branches of the Irish Barnacle: Gerald of Wales and the Natural World–By Sarah J. Sprouse", https://hortulus-journal.com/sprouse/ ) This belief is a myth itself.The most exhaustive treatment of the citations and myths concerning Pliny's Naturalis Historiae are to be found in Heron-Allen, E. (1928) Barnacles in Nature and in Myth. [With plates.] (London), esp. at pp 56–57, 128 (Fn. 32, 158, 174 (Fn. 281,283). Pliny the Elder did not discuss the barnacle goose myth. Pliny's Naturalis Historiae is an early encyclopaedia that expands his views on the physical and natural world. While he makes extensive reference to "Geese", e.g., goose fat, he does not mention Barnacle Geese and their origins in his sections on Marine Animals and Birds.The Naturalis Historiae Natural History (Pliny) consists of 10 volumes, containing 37 "books" or topics. Marine animals and birds are found in V.III, Books 8–11.
The first printed copies of Naturalis Historiae appear in the late 1480s. A 1480 version of Naturalis Historiae was printed by Andreas Portilla in Parma in Northern Italy. A copy of this book was owned by Hector Boece at the time he wrote his account of the barnacle goose myth.Boece wrote his Historia some twenty years after he became the first Principal of the College of St. Mary in Old Aberdeen, which became King's College, now the University of Aberdeen after it merged with Marischal College, Aberdeen in 1860. In addition to Hector Boece's copy, he University of Aberdeen, has six other copies of the Parma edition of Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historiae. Namely Alexander Berculai, Patricius Chalmer, Robert Irwing, Alexander Irwyng, Richard Irwyng and Roberti Strachan. It is impossible to be certain if Hector Boece was influenced by Pliny. Almost certainly Boece would have been aware of the myth from his time at the Collège de Montaigu in the University Paris where he worked with Erasmus and when he was a student at the University of St Andrews. Boece is most likely to be influenced by Topographia Hibernica, compiled by Gerald of Wales around 1188.
Medieval bestiary
The most important way that the barnacle goose myth was propagated during the early medieval period was through bestiaries. Bestiaries described a beast real or imaginary and used that description as a basis for an allegorical teaching.See, https://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/ for details of the Aberdeen Bestiary. While it does not include the Barnacle Goose among its beasts, it is a good example of the standard of the work of early scribes. Also see, See, Benton, Janetta Rebold. 1992. The medieval menagerie : animals in the art of the Middle Ages (Abbeville Press: New York), or, Baxter, Ron. 1998. Bestiaries and their users in the Middle Ages (Sutton Pub. Courtauld Institute: Stroud London) esp. pp 212–213. As this period was intensely religious, Monastic orders, Churches, Universities and royalty acquired and copied manuscript versions of Bestiaries repeating and building and moralising stories about animals. Animal stories, both real and mythical, were used. As people were dependent on wild and domestic animals for their survival, they had an obvious interest in the world and its animals around them. Jews as well as Christians considered most of the Hebrew Bible which contains many references to animals, to be sacred.See, Podwal, Mark H. 1984. A Jewish bestiary: a book of fabulous creatures drawn from Hebraic legend and lore (Jewish Publication Society of America: Philadelphia) including text from other sources such as Greek Physiologus.The Physiologus is a collection of moralized beast tales. It was one of the most popular books of the Middle Ages, appearing in most of the vernacular languages of Europe, as well as Greek (its original language) and Latin. It was the basis of the later bestiaries, which added to the stock of stories and to the moralizations. Many versions of it were written by a variety of authors, both in prose and in verse; some left off the moralizations, while others expanded on them. see, See, Curley, Michael J. 1979. Physiologus (University of Texas Press: Austin; London); also, http://bestiary.ca/prisources/psdetail869.htm.
Bestiaries were not text-books of zoology but religious works. They described the world as it was known and understood by clerics, monastic writers, and the nobility, and they gave earlier mythical stories a sense of authority and weight.
Emperor Frederick II and other reported eyewitnesses