Aurochs and Auks

‘Aurochs and Auks’ is a deeply moving and intelligent meditation on the natural processes of death and extinction, renewal and continuity. Prompted by his own near-death in a time of pandemic, John Burnside explores the history of the auroch, the wild cattle that has become the source of so much sacred and cultural imagery across Europe, from the Minotaur and the Cretan bull dances to Spanish corrida traditions. He then tells the story of the puffin-like Great Auk, a curious bird whose extinction in the mid-19th century was caused by human persecution. In the final essay Burnside proposes an alternative way of being – a richer, pagan deep-ecological narrative where we could abandon notions of human exceptionalism and accept our rightful place amongst the family of species.