Mythical Creatures Hand Book - Forest Ostrander (ebook and pdf reader txt) 📗

Mythical Creatures Explained

The intrigue and possibility of strange mythical creatures has always fascinated us. Whether it is ghosts and spirits, the little people, shape-shifting humans with magical powers or peculiar beasts of myth and legend they all still continue to entertain and bemuse us.

But what are 'mythical' creatures? Who decides what is 'mythical' anyway?

Evolving knowledge:
The origins of many mythical creatures can be found in old accounts of beasts that supposedly roamed our world. Pliny the Elder aimed to document all the known animals in 'Historia Naturalis' (77AD), which included the Manticore, Murex and Skiapod. In the 16th century Ambrose Pare in 'On Monsters and Marvels' (1582) stated that some mythical creatures such as the Incubus and Succubus were completely untrue but he still held onto beliefs of bizarre races of men that did not exist. Over time as our understating of our world increased it became apparent what creatures were real and which were suspicious. Such suspicious creatures like the Unicorn and Griffin became mythical creatures. Although it is strange to believe that people once believed in such beings, we must remember that even today we make recent discoveries about animals. For example, did you know that octopuses come onto land to traverse small terrain or to lay eggs? We do not know which types of beasts described in history were exaggerations, which were species that are now extinct or which are so rare that have not been seen again.

Faith, Superstition and Science:
Mythical creatures are not confined to flesh and bone as many take on invisible or otherworldly forms such as ghosts, spirits and angels. The rise of science and its impressive understanding of the world has caused many beliefs of supernatural creatures to become fantasy as they cannot be scientifically proved. But science cannot prove their non-existence. Science details physical phenomena but not so much the mental phenomena of our world. When we consider this many beings become possible. Buddhist and other eastern philosophies explain the existence of spirits through an understanding of what the mind is and thus what a living being can be. Furthermore the book of biodiversity is not closed, new species are discovered all the time, the ocean has not been fully explored and we cannot know for sure what creatures are extinct and which still remain. This inability to fully prove or disprove creatures based on sightings is what has caused many creatures like ghosts, spirits and Bigfoots to become classed as mythical creatures.

What Mythical Creatures Are Not:
Since we still adore the tales of Giants, Dragons and monsters, we have incorporated these into the arts and entertainment. Shakespeare used mythical creatures like Caliban and Oberon to populate his play 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1590) which were based upon mythical creatures. In the 20th century JRR Tolkien revolutionised mythology in his books 'The Hobbit' (1936) and 'The Lord of the Rings' (1955) turning Norse mythical creatures into new fictional versions starting a new genre: fantasy. Since then many mythical creatures have evolved and been elaborated to feature in fantasy books, films and games. The typical Orc, a blob with tusks became the green-tusked warrior now embellished by companies like Games Workshop and Blizzard's 'World of Warcraft'.

Many mythical creatures are beings based on sightings and spiritual connections which neither can be proved. We have not fully completed our encyclopedia of Earth's animals and still have to journey into the spiritual philosophies of the elusive Far East. But either way the old stories and descriptions of fabulous beasts is an increasing resource for popular entertainment in books, films and games.

Do Mythical Creatures Exist?

Mermaids, Vampires, Werewolves and Centaurs among many others are very familiar mythical creatures in the imaginary world we create in drawings, games and films. We know that their origins goes much further back into ancient history. But did these ancient people really believe in such mythical creatures? Are mythical creatures real?

Ye Old Tales:
According to Geoffery of Mammoth (11th century) the first people of Britain were said to be tall powerful Giants led by formidable leaders such as Albion. However the Giants became extinct at the arrival of Brutus and his army. Rabelais built whole genealogies of Giants from Biblical to the Renaissance. But, 'Giants' could have been people who were 1ft taller than humans. No big deal. But what about the stranger mythical creatures? The Afnac of Wales created floods by swinging its beaver tail, the Japanese Jinshin Mushi produced earthquakes and primordial beings like Ymir and Pan-Gu created the world. Scientific understanding has replaced these tales but these myths or personifications has helped people understand their world more easily. (More recently when Russian spacecrafts went missing it was believed that they were eaten by the Great Galactic Ghoul). But then again who knew what lived in the English channel or under Japan? Others beings like the Banshee were simply ancient deities who became lowly beings as religious beliefs changed

Bones of the Earth:
Many mythical creatures go against the laws of science. Take the Dragon as an example, a beast so big that its body mass does not enable it to fly. In comparison the Ostrich is much smaller and is still to big to fly. But original evidence of these mythical creatures sprang up when their skeletons were discovered. When skeletal structures of long fish were found in the mountains the most suitable explanation at the time was that the long 'lizard' must have flown there. Archaeologists now speculate that the sea creature's body sunk to the sea bed, and over time the sea bed was pushed up to become a mountain. Other remains found in history has also given rise to the belief of mythical creatures. Skeletons of the Archaeopteryx, a dinosaur with wings was the basis for the Griffin and Basilisk. A rhino's skull was believed to be that of the Cyclops (the hole for the horn looked like an eye socket). Science can not always be sure what is extinct. Mythical creatures such as the Basilosaurus, Australopithecus and Neanderthals are apparently extinct but these may be living as Nessie, Bigfoot and as Tsiatko respectively.

Mutated Species:
If you were to read the likes of mythical creatures found in the ancient Chinese bestiaries like Congcong, Diniao and Xiao, it would be easy to believe that these were simply mutations of ordinary animals. But if you were to see a dog of 6 legs when travelling in the unexplored mountains it would be easy to assume that a whole race of them live there. In the West babies that were born deformed underpinned people's faith in God as it seemed that God had failed in his creation of man, and was not a perfect creator. In 'City of God' (c. 5th century), St. Augustine solved this by stating that for every child born abnormally different, God had created a human race just the same.

What the Heck Was That?:
Many accounts of mythical creatures are said to have been exaggerations of what was really encountered. Stephen Asma in 'On Monsters' (2010) states beasts fought by Alexander the Great and his army were hugely exaggerated psychologically fear arises, perceptions are distorted. Accounts of fabulous beasts left New World explorers like Christopher Columbus disappointed when they found no evidence of mythical creatures. Many sightings of mythical creatures were later found to be ordinary animals such as Rosmarus which is a walrus and Manta which is a stingray. Leonardo Da Vinci said that to describe a new animal you need to base it on a known one. Thus when these descriptions are taken literally they sound very strange. For example could the head of a dog be a way of describing the head of a mandrill?

The Otherworld:
I may be bursting many bubbles here as modern science and documentation of species has pushed mythical creatures to the edge of extinction. But we have not explored the Otherworld that may intertwine with ours. Shamans, and other holy beings conversed with spirits of the spirit realms and people claim to have seen Angels. The flying Gurudas and hissing Nagas were believed to have existed when times were more auspicious and the realms were easily crossed. We should not leave out the Tulpa; a being that comes to life from ones imagination through the power of meditation. There is much to consider.

Jenny Hanivers:
Speculation and doubt of so many mythical creatures arose from Jenny Hanivers, creatures that seemed to be real but were later proved as a hoax. It is an art that has been practised for many years that became popular in Antwerp, Belgium to would sew together animal corpses making them look like real mythical creatures.

So what of the Mermaid, Vampire Werewolf and Centaur? The Mermaid comes from sightings, perhaps a mistaken sight of sea-lions or dugongs, Vampires a possible premature burial and Werewolves people suffering from lycanthropy. The Centaur is the strangest of all but the Black Devil from South America could explain much. Yet these stories fill our hunger for imagination and have found their way into the ancient Greek plays all the way through to the Hollywood movies. Whether they are perhaps real or false they are sources great inspiration and joy.

Mythical Creatures By Culture:Aboriginal

A

Aranda: Mythical Number: #0228
Culture:Aboriginal
Attribute:Celestial
Attribute:Reptilian
Behaviour:Deadly
-A cosmic serpent in Australian myths. It would wait in deep rivers where it would capture anyone who would take water or fish from it. It eats its victim in one gulp leaving no trace.

B

Bobbi-Bobbi: Mythical Number: #0487
Culture:Aboriginal
Attribute:Aquatic
Attribute:Reptilian
Behaviour:Friendly
Common Type:Sea Serpents
-The serpent of Australian myth who founded the boomerang. At a time when the whole earth was covered in water, the giant serpent created game for people to eat. However the people of this world were unable to catch the birds so Bobbi-Bobbi offered one of his ribs to use to throw at the birds. The people then used the boomerang to make holes in the clouds which angered Bobbi-Bobbi who from that moment on, refused to help man. It is also said that the primitive people also used