Abstract: The present study revisits a well-known scene in the medieval legend of the Siete infantes de Lara , when Gonzalo outrages Lambra by bathing his hawk in front of her. Early falconry treatises describe this practice as a method of taming and training them. Being larger and stronger than their male counterparts, female birds were often used to hunt bigger, more vigorous prey. This context suggests that Gonzalo bathes his bird to demonstrate an ability to exert control over an unruly female—and does so in a way that contributes to the legend's gendering of Lambra. Such an interpretation can be further supported by imagery in other premodern texts that associate women with wild or domesticated birds of prey as well as seals from the period featuring aristocratic ladies as falconers. Finally, I will show how falconry and avian gendering relate to later renditions of the legend recorded in the Crónica de 1344 as well as in romances. These sources recount how Gonzalo's mother Sancha dreams of a hawk landing on her fist before it attacks Lambra's husband Ruy. He has lost his bird on a hunt and will soon suffer a bloody death at the hands of Mudarra, Sancha's half-Moorish stepson.
Ryan D. Giles (Fri,) studied this question.