Aurochs and Auks

John Burnside

From Shelf: Favourite books I read in 2021

Essays on extinction, death, renewal and continuity by the acclaimed writer and poet. Prompted by his own near death experience Burnside reflects on the stories of the auroch, the great auk, and of humanity.

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 (Bos primigenius), 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 Great Auk, a curious bird whose extinction in the mid-nineteenth century was caused by human persecution and before stepping into multiple extinctions of the outer and inner world.