In one scene, one of these animals grabs a sword in his mouth, wedges it in a tree, and hurls his breast at it in an aborted suicide attempt born out of grief. For 10 points each:
[10m] What animal companions are the subject of a “grateful” motif in medieval literature as seen in the tales of the knights Wolfdietrich and Yvain, who earn their loyalty by slaying a dragon.
ANSWER: lions [or löwe or lëwe]
[10h] In this country’s folklore, the hero Bruncvik gained a trusty lion sidekick after helping it slay a dragon. A figure analogous to the U.K.’s Spring-heeled Jack named Pérák allegedly terrorized this country’s Nazi occupiers during WWII.
ANSWER: Czechia [or Czech Republic; accept Czechoslovakia; reject “Slovakia”]
[10e] Despite lacking a dragon, the grateful lion motif may have evolved from the tale of Androcles, a fugitive slave who earns a lion’s loyalty by removing one of these objects from its paw. In a later tale, St. Jerome does the exact same thing.
ANSWER: thorn
<KT, Beliefs>