Voix Off: News on the Doyle Owl

News on the Doyle Owl

Recent archeological evidence has revealed that the famed “Doyle Owl,” a Reed College dorm gargoyle which has been secretly circulating among Reed students, staff and faculty for as long as anyone can remember, was in fact carved from the large stone originally located on the grounds of the Sorbonne, where students affectionately referred to it as the Pet au diable. The huge stone was stolen in the fifteenth century by François Villon and a number of fellow pranksters (Villon writes about the incident in his famous book Le Roman du Pet au diable), and has been secretly handed down ever since. It was carved into the shape of an owl and mounted as a gargoyle by a Free Mason involved in the construction of Reed College’s Old Dorm Block, before being stolen by another member of the Confraternity of the Owl and recirculated among the college’s student body. Its present location is unknown.