Swan knight misericord 'Chevalier au cygne' according to French legend
Two fish, probably carp. It is assumed that the donors were fishmongers.
The Exeter Misericords
The tip-up seats in the back row of the choir stalls (occupied in medieval times by the dean and other officers, the vicars and the canons) were called misericordiæ because they "compassionately" alleviated the strain of unsupported standing through long services.
With his long-flowing vestments a cleric could give the appearance of standing upright, while in fact resting fairly comfortably. "Stall" is simply the Old English word for "standing-place"; from the late 12th century on, references are found to seats in the stalls designed to tip up and reveal a ledge resting on a carved corbel on which the occupant could support himself. The misericords of Exeter cathedral are the oldest existing set in England, started as early as 1230 and finished before 1279. (There is no record of them in the Fabric Accounts.)
The Exeter misericords are survivors; they have provided the rear seats for at least five sets of choir stalls, being inserted into each new set as these were installed. They originally formed part of the choir stalls of the Romanesque cathedral, which were sited in the transepts and the eastern part of the nave. When the choir of the Gothic cathedral was furnished in the early 1300s - Bishop Stapeldon providing a large part of the funding - new stalls were built and the misericords moved to form part of the rear seats in time for the dedication of the High Altar in 1328.
The carvings under the seats have many themes. Many depict ‘stiff-leaved' foliage or grotesque creatures bursting into leaf. Some show inventions of the medieval bestiary or mythological creatures (centaurs, mermaids, a cockatrice and asp, wyverns and bird figures); others depict living creatures such as lions, leopards, fish and birds, others legends; human forms are found in all sorts of poses and there are two which directly refer to Biblical characters. Of the total of 50 misericords, 48 were carved in the 13th century one in the early 14th and one far cruder carving (depicting Herod), in the 15th century.
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