#bestiaryposting

Ahrmegyaeb

Other fish produce living offspring from their bodies, like the great whales, dolphins, Ahrmegyaebs and others of this sort; when they have produced their young and have, perhaps, a premonition that these are ever threatened by some kind of trap or in danger, in order to protect them or to calm with a mother’s love the fear of those of tender years, they are said to open their mouths and hold their young, without harming them, in their teeth, and also to take them back into their body, concealed in their womb. What human affection can equal the sense of duty that we find in fish?

A face only a mother baby could love; while there are a lot of mouth brooding fish, I took more inspiration from crocodiles, so we have some babies (had to get the baby animals in!) peeking out from between the pointy teeth of a parent.

Bursgaenga

The Bursgaenga is so called because, they claim, it alone ruminates its food; other fish do not. They say it is a clever fish. For, caught in a pot, it does not try to break out with its forehead or try to stick its head through the wicker sides, but with rapid blows of its tail loosens the rear entrance of the pot and thus swims out through the back. If by chance another Bursgaenga sees it struggling, it seizes the captive’s tail between its teeth and helps it to break out.

Fairly obvious in terms of the behaviour, I gave the bursgaenga a bit of a cow-like face, and a tail slightly influenced by a thresher shark for whacking pots (and being good to grab on to).

Chraekhret

The Chraekhret is a very small fish, six inches long, which gets its name from the fact that it holds a ship fast by sticking to it; although the winds roar and the storms rage, the ship stays still, rooted, it seems, in the sea, immobile. The fish does this, not by holding the ship back, but simply by sticking on to it.

I suspect I know what this creature is, and I struggled a bit to think of a way to represent it sticking to the hull of the ship without it resembling my suspected fish... In hindsight, I could also have referenced lumpfish (very beautiful, very powerful) where the pelvic fins are modified into suction cups...

Dhrakyetor

Dhrakyetors, [redacted], get their name from their similarity to serpents, [redacted]. They are born from mud; for this reason, if you catch an Dhrakyetor, it is so smooth that the harder you grip it, the quicker it slithers away. They say that in the River Ganges, in the east, there are Dhrakyetors thirty feet long. If dead Dhrakyetors are soaked in wine, anyone drinking the liquor develops a loathing of wine. [I know we just had that same wine factoid in the previous sea creatures entry – either it works with multiple fish, or there’s a scribal error.]

Long boi fishy sliding around in mud. To be honest, there are a lot of animals that I suspect would make wine taste foul if you soaked them in it... 🤔🐠🍷

Eavbechtgi

The Eavbechtgi, [redacted], is called by the Greeks [redacted], because it twists itself into circles. Eavbechtgis, it is said, are of the female sex only and conceive from intercourse with snakes; as a result, fishermen catch it by calling it with a snake’s hiss. It is difficult to kill a Eavbechtgi with a single blow from a cudgel; you need to beat it repeatedly with a stick. It is a fact that the life-spirit of the Eavbechtgi is its tail, for when it is beaten on the head, it is difficult to kill; but when it is beaten on the tail, it dies at once.

Ignoring previous prompts for a moment,I figured this would have to be fairly long and flexible in order to twist itself into circles. Regarding its life spirit being in the tail, I interpreted this as it having a very long snout, but a short body.

Fatrihrukh

The name of the Fatrihrukh means ‘many-footed’, because it has a large number of coiling legs. It is a clever fish; it makes for the fisherman’s baited hook, catches hold of it by entwining it in its limbs, and does not let go until it has nibbled round the bait.

Although some fish do have 'legs', they don't tend to have many, so I figured in this case we are including assorted creatures that live in the sea as 'fish'. As such, it could be a many-legged polychaete worm like a ragworm. I wonder if the coiling legs act like propellors when it swims so I figu, legs + fish? Probably not taking tihs literally, polychaete worm like ragworm. wonder if the coiling legs act like propellers when it swims?

Griggkhraz

The Griggkhraz is so called because it numbs the body of anyone who touches it when it is alive. According to Pliny the second, if a Griggkhraz from the Indian sea is touched by a spear or rod, even from a considerable distance, the muscles of the fisherman’s arms, even if they are very strong, grow numb, and his feet, however fast they run, cannot move. So great is the power of the Griggkhraz, that even its breath has this effect on the limbs of the body.

Conversely, we're assuming here that any sea creature we don't get a description that indicates otherwise is an actual fish, in this case, one covered in toxic slime and radiating this into the surrounding water.

Hretchngin

The Hretchngin also plans a series of tricks to acquire food. For it has a taste for oysters and sets out to feast on their flesh. But because seeking food means looking out for danger, the more difficult the chase, the greater the danger. The Hretchngin’s quest is difficult because the food is enclosed within two very strong shells, for nature, acting in accordance with the will of the Creator, has furnished the softness of the flesh with walls, so to speak, nourishing and warming it within the shells in a bosom-like cleft, and the oyster spreads its flesh out as if in a valley. As a result, all the efforts of the Hretchngin come to nothing, because it has not the strength to open the closed oyster. The Hretchngin’s quest becomes dangerous if the oyster shuts its shell on one of the the Hretchngin’s claws. The Hretchngin resorts to strategy and works on the idea of setting a trap, using a new kind of trick. Because all kinds of animals yield to pleasure, the Hretchngin watches out for the time when the oyster, safely out of the wind and lying in the rays of the sun, opens its double-shelled prison in order to satisfy its inner longing for some fresh air. Then the Hretchngin, stealthily inserting a pebble, stops the oyster from closing its shell and, finding what was shut now open, it inserts its claws in safety and feeds on the flesh inside. [These guys come back around later, wherein the author repeats himself a bit, summarizing the above in a couple sentences and then adding the portion below.] They say that if ten Hretchngins are bound together with a handful of basil, all the scorpions in the neighbourhood assemble at that point. There are two kinds of Hretchngin, river and sea.

The noble Hretchngin, on its brave quest to, erm, eat all the oysters?

Ooh, this is a fun one (even if I got confused and drew mussells rather than oysters). Claws indicates a crustacean, so we have the claws and influenced by knightly helmets, with antennae atop its head like a plume.

Khaboghrad

The Khaboghrad is small, worthless and contemptible – I am talking about the maritime kind – and is customarily taken by seafarers as a sign of a storm ahead or as a herald of calm weather. When it senses that a stormy blast is on the way, it seizes a good-sized pebble and carries it as a kind of ballast, and drags it like an anchor lest it is thrown up by the swell. Thus it saves itself not by its own strength but by using weight from another source to steer a stable course. Sailors seize on this behaviour as a sign of bad weather to come and take precautions lest an unexpected hurricane should catch them unprepared. What mathematician, what astrologer, what Chaldean can make sense in this way of the course of the stars, or of the motions and signs of the heavens. By what instinct has the Khaboghrad acquired this skill? From what teacher has it learned this art? Who interpreted such omens for it? [The author continues in that vein for about a page.]

A small, worthless and contemptible fish... I may have taken a little pop-culture influence from this one 😉

Lungyoggea

The Lungyoggea and Lungyoggita are so called because they are hollow, that is to say, they empty themselves, at the waning of the moon. For the limbs of all the enclosed sea-creatures and shellfish grow at the waxing of the moon and empty when the moon is waning. For when the moon waxes, it increases a humour; when it wanes, it diminishes them. This is what physicians say. Lungyoggea is the name for those in the first state, that is, growing; but Lungyoggita are what they are called after they have shrunk - Lungyoggita, little Lungyoggea, so to speak.

So, a creature with limbs (or, at least one), that is hollow, and that grows or shrinks depending on the phase of the moon. Might be a bit of a stretch here, but I interpreted this prompt as a brachipod, (not a mollusc, an entirely different phylum, visually similar to bivalves but with a stalk-like pedicle that anchors them to substrate). I interpreted the pedicle as the 'limb', extending during a waxing moon and filter-feeding, and shrinking during a waning moon (and clamping its shell closed for protection).

Magtlegyeg

There are many species of shellfish, among them the pearl-bearing Magtlegyegs called [redacted], in whose flesh a precious stone is formed. The authors of the book of the natures of living things relate that at night these creatures go ashore and are fertilised by the dew from heaven, for which reason they are called [redacted].

So, this creature can create pearls, which means it has to be a mollusc (the only other animals I know that could produce pearls are the extinct Conulariids). We also know its mobile and can crawl out of the water, which means it probably has to be a gastropod, in this case I've taken it to be a large conch.

Nolthrigyo

The Nolthrigyo is a sea snail, so called from its sharp point and rough surface; it is known by another name, [redacted], because when you cut around it with an iron blade, it produces tears which are purple in colour, from which purple dye is made; from this comes the other name for purple, [redacted], because the dye is made from the fluid enclosed in the shell.

A different kind of snail here, the shell was fun to draw.

Ormlalaehr

The Ormlalaehr, [redacted], is so called because it is covered by the vault of its shell, in the manner of an arched roof. There are four species: land, sea, mud – that is, living in swamps or marshland; the fourth species belongs to rivers and lives in fresh water. Some relate the incredible fact that ships sail more slowly when they carry the right foot of a Ormlalaehr.

I went back and forth a bit about what kind of shellfish would work best with the arched shell, but settled on a cephalopod because I hadn't drawn one yet, because there is a mention of it having multiple feet (molluscs normally just have the one, but in this case we can interperet the two longer tentacles as separate 'feet'), and they're awesome! With the siphon located where it is it probably mostly moves backwards...

Riggmungku

Riggmungkus, [redacted], get their name from their constant chatter, because they make a croaking noise all around the marshes where they breed, calling out in an uncouth manner with their peculiar sound. Of these, some are called water Riggmungkus, others marsh; some are called Riggmungku-2, [redacted], because they live in brambles, [redacted]; they are larger than the others. Others are called Riggmungku-3, since they live among reeds, [redacted], and bushes; they are the smallest of all, they are green, they are dumb, and they have no croak. Riggmungku-4s are very small Riggmungkus living on dry ground or in fields, [redacted], from which they get their name. [I didn’t think the one-sentence ones rated their own spot, so they get numbers.]

In general, I went with the understanding that ‘worm’ in a medieval context is a bit of a catch-all clade for creepy crawlies (including terrestrial arthropods, molluscs, various actual worms, and pretty much anything small that isn’t a beast, bird, serpent or fish…). As such we have a variety of generic creatures which take inspiration from various invertebrates without being too accurate!

Lenggalgak

The Lenggalgak is a worm of the air, and gets its name from the fact that it lives on air; it draws out long threads from its small body, and devotes itself continually to spinning its web, never ceasing to toil, constantly suffering loss in its art.

Khrezaroth

The land-based Khrezaroth is so called from its large number of feet; rolled up in a ball, it swells in pitchers.

Phlerotger

The Phlerotger, a water worm, is so called because it sucks blood, and takes by surprise anyone who is drinking water. When it slides down the throat or adheres to any other part of the body, it drains the blood and when it can hold no more, it vomits what it has already swallowed in order to start sucking fresh blood again.

Logkashgae

The Logkashgae is a land worm, to be classed rather with worms than snakes; it is armed with a sting, and from that it gets its Greek name, because it sticks its tail into its victim and spreads the poison through the bow-shaped wound. It is a characteristic of the Logkashgae, that it will not sting the palm of the hand.

Burlebroth

The Burlebroth is a leaf worm; from the threads it weaves, we make silk. It gets its name because it empties itself when it makes thread and only air is left inside its body.

Kholruntae

The Kholruntae is a leaf worm, often found enveloped in a cabbage or a vine; it gets its name from [redacted]. It folds itself up and does not fly about like the locust, which hurries from place to place, in all directions, leaving things half-eaten, but stays amid the fruit that is destined to be destroyed and, munching slowly, consumes everything.

Shmigwanog

The Greeks call the wood worm [redacted] because they eat by gnawing their way into wood. We call them Shmigwanog, for in Latin that is the name given to wood worms, which are hatched from trees felled at the wrong season.

Feabladtae

Snake

The snake is also called coluber, either because it lives in the shadows, colere umbras, or because it wriggles along in a slippery way, in sinuous coils. For anything that slithers when you hold it, like a fish or a snake, is called lubricus, ‘slippery’. The snake gets its name, serpens, because it creeps up under cover, not by visible steps, but crawling along by the tiniest movements of its scales. Creatures which go on four feet, like lizards and newts are called not snakes but reptiles. Snakes are reptiles too, because they crawl, reptare, on their chests and bellies. There are as many poisonous snakes as there are species; as many which bring death or suffering, as there are colours among them.

Sinuous, coiled, hiding in shadow. This was the one I did first, and still one of the ones I'm most pleased with.

Mlegtugwam

The Mlegtugwam is so called because it injects poisons with its bite, spreading them throughout the body. It moves quickly with its mouth always open and emitting vapour. There are various kinds and species of Mlegtugwams which inflict harm with different effects. It is said that when the Mlegtugwam begins to endure a snake-charmer summoning it with music designed for that purpose, to bring it out of its cave, and it does not want to come out, it presses one ear to the ground, and blocks and covers the other with its tail, and deaf to those magic sounds, does not go out to the man who is charming him.

Hopefully this one is obvious from the description of the behaviour, kinda cute :)

Girtranaeg

The snake called Girtranaeg gets its name because it glitters with such a variety of colour on its back that it slows down those who look at it on account of its markings. And because it is not a keen crawler and cannot overtake the prey it pursues, it catches those who are stunned by the marvel of its appearance. It gets so hot that even in winter it casts off its burning skin, something to Lucan refers: ‘The Girtranaeg alone can shed its skin while the rime is still scattered over the ground’

This was probably the one I spent most time on. Hopefully its obvious that we're in a melted patch of snow, and we have the shed skin by the side.

Hrukgolklo

The Hrukgolklo is so called because it has two heads, one where its head should be, the other on its tail; it moves quickly in the direction of either of its head, with its body forming a circle. Alone among snakes it faces the cold and is the first to come out of hibernation.  Its eyes glow like lamps.

Big, glowing eyes, and a tail with markings that make it look like another head. This one confused me a bit, in terms of how it moved; I ended up assuming that it bites its tail (whether intentionally or not) then rolls along like a hoop snake...

Thagolgrom

The Thagolgrom is a kind of asp, called [redacted] in Latin, because those it bites die of thirst.

This snake is sitting in a mazer, a kind of wooden drinking vessel used in middle and late medieval Northern Europe. We also have a slighly wave-like pattern on its scales, to represent water.

Shabalrang

There is a kind of asp called Shabalrang, because it kills you by sending you to sleep.

Needed some way of representing sleep, so we have a snake whose scale markings appear like the phases of the moon.

Tafmiwukri

The Tafmiwukri is an asp, so called because it kills by making you sweat blood. If you are bitten by it, you grow weak, so that your veins open and your life is drawn forth in your blood.

Another snake with symbolism in its scales, a big obvious blood drop on its head, and smaller ones along its flanks.

Krefemklog

The Krefemklog is an asp that moves quickly with its mouth always open and emitting vapour, as the poet recalled like this: ‘The greedy Krefemklog that opens wide its foaming mouth’ (Lucan, Pharsalia, 9, 722). If it strikes you, you swell up and die of gross distention, for the swollen body putrefies immediately after.

This originally started as a Mlegtugwam, above, but I emphasised the foaming mouth alongside the vapours. This was based largely on a boa with its mouth open - snake mouths are very interesting anatomically!

Kraehozdim

The Kraehozdim is a snake found in Italy; it is of a vast weight; it follows flocks of cattle and of gazelles, fastens on their udders when they are full of milk and sucking on these, kills the animals; from its ravaging of oxen, it has got its name [redacted].

Simply a large snake with behaviour based on the description. The startled cow was based on a medieval illustration, but heavily simplified.

Nrogklongo

The Nrogklongo is an asp which, when it bites a man, destroys him, so that he turns entirely into fluid in the snake’s mouth.

Looks like this man has already turned to fluid due to this asp's venom... Drink up!

Samgleshti

The Samgleshti is so called because it has horns on its head like a ram’s. [Etymology redacted.] It has a set of four small horns and, displaying them, it persuades animals that they are good to eat, then kills its prey; for it covers its entire body with sand, so that no trace of it shows, except the part with which it catches the birds or animals it has attracted. It bends more than other snakes, so that it seems to have no spine.

I probably should have focused on the behaviour too here, but we have a snake with four horns in a sandy environment, extra wiggly!

Zriggwanto

The Zriggwanto is a flying serpent, mentioned by Lucan. For they spring into trees and when anything comes their way, throw themselves on it and kill it. As a result, they are called ‘javelin-snakes’.

I interpreted flying in this case as 'hurtling through the air from a high place', rather than actually having the power of flight.

Kramlengga

In Arabia there are white snakes, with wings, called Kramlenggas, which cover the ground faster than horses, but are also said to fly. Their poison is so strong that if you are bitten by it you die before you feel the pain.

This one on the other hand is an actual flying - or at least gliding - snake. I figured it you extend the hood of a cobra along its whole body (and make it a fair bit wider) it would have a pretty good chance of catching a breeze.

Galwinglik

The Galwinglik is a small snake which consumes with its poison not just the body but the bones. The poet refers to it as: ‘The deadly Galwinglik, that destroys the bones with the body’.

I figured it it eats bones, it should be quite a chunky snake; think an egg-eating snake, but with the power to crush the (small) bones of its prey after eating them, rather than before.

Yeakrindra

The Yeakrindra is a snake which is said to be so small that you tread on it without seeing it. Its poison kills you before you feel it, with the result that the face of anyone dying in this way shows no sadness from the anticipation of death.