Medieval animals Bashny.Net

Medieval Bestiary: What can I say))) Time of Troubles

BoA
a huge snake that lives in Italy. To power it needs animals.
She did not swallow the cows, and wraps them rings and milks, sometimes it takes so much milk that the victims die.

Fitch
filthy animal, like a viper conceive (through the head in his mouth)
and born of a mother's ears: Right out the male left - female.

Bonnakon.
beast, like a bull, but the horn did not are suitable for protection. Bonnakona hunt should not be.
He is able to shoot out of the tail stream of excrement, flying a long distance away and burn all alive.



Brant.
wild goose growing on trees.
When the bird reaches a sufficient size, it falls off from the branch and falls.
If the tree grows above the water, goose floats in its entirety, and if the ground - to his death.



Classical bestiary called Bestiarum vocabulum, which literally means "the Word of the animals." However, their actual content was very different, often not even related to animals. At the same description as the book met the fictional and real creatures. There you come across texts about birds, rocks, and even recipes healing potions. The treatises on natural history is usually accompanied by a cautionary Christian parable. All names are required to have a sacred meaning. Thus, the bestiary are also dictionaries symbolic "language of animals».

Another interesting feature was bestiaries that the illustrations were drawn by artists, most of whom have never in my life seen such animals. Someone, of course, would say that once met the night at the house of a basilisk, but a deadly monster opinion had no effect because of the darkness. But this is a great exaggeration - in most cases, the appearance of representatives of fauna recreate the magic in their vague text description.

Consequently, the artists had a great opportunity to dream. If all painted kings, bishops and peasants looked about the same, the Manticore from one book was often covershenno unlike any of the other Manticore. Over time, the illustrators to develop certain canon. Images of animals slightly "standardized", however, the diversity of their appearance to get rid already failed.

Uttering the word "bestiary", we imagine a solid medieval tome in cracked leather binding. Bestiary of this kind appeared in the 12th century (France, England) and quickly gained popularity thanks to its rich illustrations and interesting articles. However, at its core it is a compilation of ancient texts.

What bestiary compiled? The original material was taken from the Greek book "Physiologist" (author unknown, 2-3 century AD). This work, in turn, was based on the earlier books. First of all - on the Historia Animalium («History of Animals") Aristotle, which he wrote during his visit to the island of Lesbos in 343 BC. Local fishermen are regularly brought to the great scientist all marine life, which inspired him to create a zoological spravochnika.Nemaly contribution to the maintenance of bestiaries was made larger church leaders - Archbishop Isidore of Seville and Bishop Ambrose. Around the 13th century the main function of "The Lay of the animals" was moral. On the veracity of the information has already expounded, nobody paid attention, because the value of the Christian parables is not in confidence. The vast majority of readers sincerely believed in the fact that somewhere in the south of the unicorn lives, losing the will at the sight of a naked female breast.

But a grain of truth in the bestiaries is still there. Purely scientific observations that fall into these texts (for example, a study of seasonal migration of birds), lost among the inventions were again "discovered" only a hundred years later.
The most advanced age boasts a bestiary of the Scottish city of Aberdeen (presumably 12th century, possibly even older), first mentioned in the book inventory in 1542.
The front painted bestiaries and exquisite dedication, preserved on the first page suggests that it was intended for reading the upper strata of the nobility and clergy. Only they have been educated enough to appreciate his proposed "animal" allegory.

Below is a brief description of the properties of some inhabitants bestiaries 12-15 century (most of the books available for the study of a limited number of persons, so that the general reader, this information is not available). On the morality of the fables you can judge for yourself.

Avalerion
bird like an eagle, only large, bright flame-colored wings and sharp as a razor.
In the world there are only two avalerion - male and female.
At the age of 66 years, they produce two eggs, and when the chicks hatch, the parents drown themselves in the sea.
Their offspring are raising other birds.

Amphisbaena
two-headed snake, one head is normal and the other rising from the tail.
Maybe crawl in two directions. His eyes shine like lamps. Amphisbaena not afraid of the cold, and has healing properties.





Badger
filthy animal that lives in the mountain holes.
A badger digs, swallowing the ground, while the other two hold the teeth stick.
When digger fills "top to bottom", he clings to the stick, and the remaining badgers pull it out of the hole for emptying.



Beaver
It is sexual organs which are used in medicine.
If the beaver can not escape from the hunter, he bites himself testicles and throws their persecutors.
If he had lost his farm, it only shows the hunters empty ass, and they from him immediately behind.



Brilliant
if you keep it in the house, you will not be disturbed demons.
Destroy the diamond can only be dissolved in the blood of a goat.

Camel
Only drink dirty water, able to endure thirst for 3 days and can live up to 100 years,
if it is not taken away to another country, where he would die of a change of air.





Basilisk
a cross between a rooster and a snake, which grows out of a cock's egg.
She loves warm and dry. His smell is killing snakes, breathing - birds,
and look - of people. It can only die from the bite of an ermine.





Wolf
If the wolf first saw the man, the man lost his voice.
If a person sees the wolf before the wolf will never attack.
To scare off the wolf, it is necessary to remove her clothes and beat stone on stone.





Viper
a snake that can not enchant music, as it pressed an ear to the ground,
and the other plug with the tip of the tail. The head has a carbuncle gem.
The female becomes pregnant, the male when she puts her head in her mouth.
She bites her and swallows. Matured, young viper gnaws womb and gets out,
thus killing her. Viper Sting is very poisonous - from a person sweats blood and soon dies.





Hyena
bisexual thing that breaks the graves and devouring corpses.
Her eyes hidden stone - if you put it under your tongue, then you can predict the future.
The dog stepped on the shadow of a hyena, loses her voice.





Geese
You can smell the smell of a man better than any other animals.
That geese saved Rome from the invasion of the Gauls.





Pearl
It is growing in the rocks, called oysters.
Sometimes they open up and absorb light from the sun, the stars and the moon.
From all this, pearl formed which, when dissolved in the dew, treat any disease.





Cranes
Fight with the Pygmies and stomachs stuffed myself with sand to be more stable in flight.
When the whole flock sleeping, watchdog crane holding a stone in his paw.
If it slumber, then dropped it and then wake up.



Hare
very fast animal that can change their sex.
In winter, snow and eating become white.



Kaladrius
white bird, a harbinger of death.
If she looks you in the face, you will recover, and if turned backwards - will die.





Catoblepas
four-legged bull, whose head is so heavy, that it can only look at the ground.
From this, his eyes bloodshot. Anyone who looks at them, will die.





Crocodile
monster that is always crying bitterly after a person eats.





Swallows
leave the building just before they collapse.





Leo
the king of beasts. Sleeps with open eyes, cover their tracks tail, scared white cock, eats in one day,
and in other drinks. Ill, devoured as medicine monkey.
Male and female copulate not like animals, and people - face to face.





Levkrota
a cross between lions and hyenas, having a horse's head
and a mouth from ear to ear. Instead of individual teeth on each jaw levkroty growing solid bone.





Bat
unclean bird with teeth, not producing chicks from eggs, and right from its womb.





Frogs
small aquatic creatures.
Individuals living in the land killed, nearly hitting the rain.





Mandrake
healing root, similar in shape to a person and growing in the east,
close to paradise. Vereschit when he pulled out of the ground.
Everyone who hears the cry of dying or going crazy.
Therefore mandrake dug follows - tied to her
hungry dog ​​and beckon from afar her a piece of meat.
Elephant to get pregnant, you need to try this root.



Bear
ferocious beast winter sleep so soundly that it can be wound up blood,
and he would not wake up. The cubs are born shapeless pieces of meat,
but the mother licks them, giving the desired appearance.
Male and female sleeping in dens separated by digging a furrow between themselves.





Ants
insects, acting in orderly rows and carrying in their mouths grain
(if there is one ant grain, he'll try to take it away from another),
which is then folded in reserve for the winter.
Ethiopian ants look like dogs and digging sand, extracting gold from there.





Mouse
samozarozhdaetsya in the land of humus, hence its name (mus).





Monkey
creature, which has yet to name simia, because it is very similar (Eng. - similar) per person.
Lovely young is in your hands, unloved - on the back.
However, if it pursues a hunter, she throws a favorite child,
to free his hands, and unloved thus saved.





Onager
donkey, shouting 12 times during the equinox.
Bellwether bites genitals young onager,
so that they, as adults, do not compete with him.





Pelican
The symbol of virtue. It was believed that if the pelican could not find food for chicks,
He tore his beak and breast feeding offspring blood.
It is logical that this bird bestiaries served as an allegory of Christ's sacrifice.
Similarly, the meaning of the image of a pelican vested in heraldry.



Parrot
a bird that can be taught to speak in a human at a young age.
Old, too, is - to teach her to be hit on the head with an iron bar.



Bees
the smallest of the birds. Develop of worms living in the fall especially -
in the bodies of cattle).




Lynx
Spotted wolf urine, which solidifies into a gem
like a carbuncle. Lynx fell asleep its sand that people could not find the treasure.





Salamander
lizard, which is so cold that can safely be in the fire, and even extinguish it.
From her skin make fireproof clothing.





Scorpio
Worm with a poisonous sting in the tail.
Wounds person anywhere, but not in his hand.





Elephants
their feet are deprived of the tribes, therefore, I fell to the ground, the elephants can no longer climb.
For the same reason they sleep, leaning against a tree.
To catch an elephant hunter needs only to file the trunk.



Owl
dirty bird that fouls its own nest in and flies backwards.





BoA
a huge snake that lives in Italy. To power it needs animals.
She did not swallow the cows, and wraps them rings and milks,
sometimes takes so much milk that the victims die.





Fitch
dirty animal conceives like a viper through the head in his mouth
and born of a mother's ears: Right out the male left - female.





Lizard
If fades with age, it crawls out of the hole and looks at the sun,
which quickly burns the veil on her eyes.



Thanks to LJ user strange-way