WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY
Compiled by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)
Vol. 1, No. 40: August 30, 2022
Cryptozoology
101
The constellation Cetus (Latin) = Ketos (Greek), is
commonly mistaken for a whale, but in reality, it is a sea-dragon (like the legendary
kraken). Here it is pictured accurately by Sidney Hall in his 1825 collection
of constellation cards, Urania’s Mirror. (Image
Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
“The
Kraken”
By
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
Below
the thunders of the upper deep,
Far,
far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient,
dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The
Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About
his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge
sponges of millennial growth and height;
And
far away into the sickly light,
From
many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered
and enormous polypi
Winnow
with giant arms the slumbering green.
There
hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening
upon huge sea worms in his sleep,
Until
the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then
once by man and angels to be seen,
In
roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.
“Fantastic Beasts in Fact and Fiction”
By
Rob Chappell, M.A.
Adapted
& Condensed from Cursus Honorum
IV: 3 (10/2003) & VII: 7 (2/2007)
Fantastic beasts are creatures
that have haunted the human imagination for millennia but do not (as far as we
know) exist in Nature. Recent decades have witnessed a dramatic upsurge of
interest in fantastic beasts, as can be seen in a plethora of books, movies, TV
shows, video games, and clothing based on cryptozoology (the study of “hidden
animals”). It seems that dragons, unicorns, griffins, phoenixes, and their
fabulous kin have found a new home in popular culture after a few centuries of
obscurity. These exotic creatures are not only fascinating in and of
themselves; they also help us understand the worldview and mindset of the
people who told (and still tell) stories about them.
Most of the fantastic beasts
that inhabit contemporary works of speculative fiction have not been invented
out of thin air by modern authors. Instead, these fabulous creatures were
described by ancient and medieval scholars who sincerely believed in their
actual existence. Relying on Classical Greek and Roman scientists (like Aelian,
Aristotle, and Pliny the Elder), medieval European scholars catalogued and
classified a cornucopia of fantastic beasts in books called bestiaries. These
were often illustrated with elaborate paintings, and the accompanying text was
sprinkled with informative tidbits about the animals’ behavior and
characteristics.
Whether or not fantastic beasts
are still lurking in unexplored regions of our planet (or perhaps on other
worlds in the Universe), we can still enjoy them and appreciate the stories,
poems, music, and art that they have inspired people to create since the dawn
of civilization.
Recommended Resources
Here are some recommended
readings on fantastic beasts that this author has found useful (and enjoyable!)
in the course of researching his own writings. Happy hunting – and beware of
the basilisk! J
·
In the
Epic of Gilgamesh (2nd millennium BCE), the world’s
first superhero, an early Mesopotamian king, has epic battles with fantastic
beasts as he undertakes dangerous journeys to the far reaches of the known
world.
·
The Classic
of Mountains and Seas (late 1st millennium BCE) is a compilation
of traditional Chinese legends and lore about the geographical regions of East
Asia and the animals (many of them fantastic beasts) who lived there.
·
The Old English epic Beowulf
(8th century CE) has the titular
character, a warrior-hero from Scandinavia, do battle with two amphibious
monsters and a fire-breathing dragon!
·
The Book of Beasts by T. H. White (2010) is an
English translation of a Latin bestiary that was compiled in 12th-century
England, accompanied by line drawings and explanatory notes.
·
The Griffin and the Dinosaur by Adrienne Mayor (2014) presents well-grounded scientific research and insights
from Classical mythology as the author explores the origins of fantastic beasts
within the context of ancient fossil discoveries.
An
illumination from the Biblia Ambrosiana (1238 CE) showing
(clockwise from left) the Behemoth (a land-dwelling dragon), the Ziz (a
griffin), and the Leviathan (a sea-dwelling dragon). Image Credit: Public
Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
“Yet
Gentle Will the Griffin Be”
By
Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931)
The
moon? It is a griffin's egg,
Hatching
to-morrow night.
And
how the little boys will watch
With
shouting and delight
To see
him break the shell and stretch
And
creep across the sky.
The
boys will laugh. The little girls,
I
fear, may hide and cry.
Yet
gentle will the griffin be,
Most
decorous and fat,
And
walk up to the milky way
And
lap it like a cat.
“An
Introduction to Unicornology”
By
Rob Chappell, M.A.
Adapted
& Condensed from Cursus Honorum VI: 8 (March 2006)
A perennial favorite among
legendary animals is the unicorn, a creature that has captivated the human imagination
since prehistoric times. Possibly based on mistaken sightings of wild oxen, or
perhaps on ancestral traditions of an extinct one-horned creature (see the
illustration below), the unicorn remains a perennial favorite despite continued
scientific skepticism about its existence in the “real world.”
Traditionally, the unicorn has
been depicted by authors and artists as an untamable herbivorous creature. It
is like a snow-white horse in appearance, and its distinguishing feature is a
single horn protruding from the top of its head. Many alleged “unicorn
sightings” were reported by ancient Mediterranean historians and naturalists
like Ctesias of Cnidus, Aristotle, Pliny the Elder, and Claudius Aelian, and
their accounts greatly influenced medieval and modern depictions of the
unicorn. It was reported, for example, that the unicorn was a solitary creature
of the wilderness that would fight to defend its “territory” from intruders –
usually by charging its enemy (e.g., a dragon) and goring it to death with its
powerful horn. Whatever unicorns might have been in fact or fiction, they were
much sought after because their horns were highly prized by alchemists and
apothecaries for their alleged curative properties.
So did unicorns really exist as
they were depicted by the ancients? Their existence in Nature (past or present)
cannot yet be proved or disproved in an absolute sense. Until then, here are
some books on “unicornology” for those who would like to learn more about these
marvelous denizens of our imagination.
Painting of an Elasmotherium (ca. 1920) by
Heinrich Harder (1858-1935) – a prehistoric Siberian rhinoceros that might have
given rise to the unicorn legend among early human tribes. (Image Credit:
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
Recommended
Resources
·
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (1968) – This
delightful and profound fantasy novel was adapted into a classic animated film
in 1982 with a memorable soundtrack performed by “America.” Follow the
adventures of the last unicorn Amalthea and her human friends as they go on a
quest to find out why all the other unicorns have vanished from the land – and
watch as they wind up discovering their own true selves in the process.
·
Unicorns by Nancy Hathaway (1980) – Here is a
splendid multicultural collection of unicorn tales from across the centuries
and around the world. Numerous color
illustrations depict the manifold types of unicorns within a global context –
from medieval Europe to the East Asia and beyond. An original story about the constellation Monoceros (the celestial unicorn,
located next to Orion on the sky’s dome) appears at the end of the book.
·
The Lore of the Unicorn by Odell Shepard (1930) – This book
guides the reader on a historical journey through “unicornology” from antiquity
to the twentieth century and is well illustrated with reproductions of classic
artworks. The author celebrates the
unicorn as a timeless symbol with many meanings and chronicles the scientific debate
over its existence with sympathy and good humor.
“The
Werewolf: The Monster with Many Names”
Excerpted
from Here There Be Dragons: Fantastic Beasts in Medieval Animals Sciences
By
Rob Chappell, M.A.
(A
Lecture Presented to VCM 682 in Fall 2020)
The werewolf appears in many stories from the ancient
world. Werewolves are shapeshifters – they can transform from human into wolf
form and back again. Werewolves were blamed for cannibalistic slayings and were
believed to be immune to most weapons, except for weapons made of silver. In
the Abrahamic faith traditions, the most famous werewolf was King
Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon (reigned 605-652 BCE). The tale of the King’s
werewolfism is told in the biblical book of Daniel and in the Prayer
of Nabonidus from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The werewolf appears in Classical literature as a lykanthropos
(“wolf-human” in Greek) and a versipellis (“skin-changer” in Latin). In
ancient and medieval lore, humans did not transform into werewolves during a
full Moon. Rather, such transformation was brought on through enchantments,
curses, etc. Lycanthropy is a psychological condition in which a person
believes oneself to have become a werewolf.
Werewolves appeared in popular tales of the High
Middle Ages, in which they were more often than not portrayed in heroic and
sympathetic ways. Some of the more popular medieval werewolf tales, all
composed around 1200 CE, include:
·
Bisclavret, a French lay by Marie de France
·
William
of Palerne, a French
romance later translated into English
·
Melion, a Breton lay set at the court of King
Arthur
St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, was
often portrayed as a (giant) werewolf in Eastern Orthodox Christian icons. According
to legendary biographies of the saint, he had been a fierce warrior in his
youth, but in later life, he took up the peaceful occupation of carrying
travelers on his shoulders across a great river. Christopher was portrayed as a
giant canine figure because of a spelling mistake! He was, in the earliest
versions of his legend, a “Canaanite,” which a later unknown scribe
misinterpreted as a “canine.”
There is some overlap in alleged behaviors of
vampires and werewolves, especially in Slavic folklore, wherein vampires were
supposed to be able to shapeshift into werewolves (as in Bram Stoker’s classic
1897 horror novel, Dracula). However, in most other traditional
folklore, the distinction between vampires (who drank blood) and werewolves
(who were cannibals) remained intact.
Nonetheless, creatures that shared characteristics of
both vampires and werewolves also appeared in Middle Eastern legends that were
brought into Western Europe during the Middle Ages, such as the Acts of
Andrew and Matthias in the Country of the Cannibals and the Acts
of Andrew and Bartholomew among the Parthians. The Vercelli Book, an
anthology of Anglo-Saxon poetry, contains Andreas, a poetic
version of the Acts of Andrew and Matthias in the Country of the
Cannibals, composed by Cynewulf in the 8th century.
Marie
de France (fl. ca. 1200 CE), pictured here in an illumination from a medieval
manuscript, composed her French lays based on traditional stories from Brittany,
including the tale of the werewolf Bisclavret. (Image Credit:
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
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