Imaginary Animals : the Monstrous, the Wondrous and the Human

280 Pages·2013·10.84 MB·English

by  Sax

im aginary animals

Im a gi n a r y
A ni m a l s
The Monstrous, the Wondrous
and the Human
Boria Sax
REAKTION BOOKS
To the dragons!
Published by Reaktion Books Ltd
33 Great Sutton Street
London EC1V 0DX, UK
www.reaktionbooks.co.uk
First published 2013
Copyright © Boria Sax 2013
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Printed and bound in China by C&C Offset Printing Co., Ltd
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
isbn 978 1 78023 173 0
contents
1 The True Unicorn 7
2 Animal Encounters 23
3 What is an ‘Imaginary Animal’? 37
4 Every Real Animal is Imaginary 53
5 Every Imaginary Animal is Real 79
6 Monsters 95
7 Wonders 131
8 Creatures of Water 163
9 Creatures of Fire and Air 187
10 Creatures of Earth 209
11 Shape-shifters 221
12 Mechanical Animals 237
Conclusion 249
References 257
Further Reading 267
Acknowledgements 269
Photo Acknowledgements 271
Index 273
Creatures of fable from F. J. Bertuch, Bilderbuch für Kinder(1801). Some popular mythical creatures: 1, roc bird;
2, cockatrice; 3, phoenix; 4, unicorn; 5, tatary lamb; 6, dragon.
one
The True Unicorn
Now I will believe
That there are unicorns; that in Arabia
There is one tree, the phoenix’ throne, one phoenix
At this hour reigning there
Shakespeare, The Tempest(iii, iii)
By the start of the seventeenth century, the against himself. Topsell had been writing in a
existence of the unicorn was widely doubted period of intense religious conflict throughout
among educated people. e Reverend Edward Britain and the rest of Europe. As a clergyman in
Topsell, in his History of Four-footed Beasts and the Church of England, he sought divine instruc -
Serpents and Insects (1658), had this to say about tion in what he believed was a universal language
the sceptics: that transcended creeds: the natural world.
Topsell did not claim to be a naturalist him-
of the true unicorn, whereof there were more self, but he studied the lore of animals in old
proofs in the world, because of the nobleness books, largely from pre-Christian times, in
of his horn, they have ever been in doubt; by search of moral lessons. To give just one exam-
which distraction it appears unto me that ple, he wrote in the dedication of his book, ‘Who
there is some secret enemy in the inward de- is so unnatural and unthankful to his parents,
generate nature of man, which continually but by reading how the young storks and wood-
blindeth the eyes of God to his people, from peckers do in their parents’ old age feed and
beholding and believing the greatness of nourish them, will not repent, mend his folly,
God his works.1 and be more natural?’2He upheld the ant as an
example of industry, the lion of steadfastness,
e syntax here is a bit tangled, but he is accus- and the wren of courage. e overwhelming
ing doubters of atheism, perhaps even of being number of the lessons he found in nature were
under the sway of diabolic powers. moral or practical, not religious. But the capture
Now, Topsell was actually a person of fairly of a unicorn had become an exceptionally intri-
liberal inclinations, and certainly not one who cate allegory of the birth, Passion and execution
habitually engaged in hunting for witches. e of Christ.
purpose of this finger-pointing may have been e unicorn was also mentioned by several
largely defensive – to head off charges of idolatry early theologians, and found its way into the
7
imaginary animals
Unicorn, from Conrad
Gesner’s Historia
Animalium(1551).
Despite appearing in a
book of natural history,
this unicorn strikes a
dignified, heraldic pose.
popular work known as Physiologus, probably In the European Middle Ages, the symbolism of
written by Didymus of Alexandria near the end of the unicorn was far more important than any
the second century ce. According to Physiologus, question of its physical existence. People regarded
the unicorn cannot be captured by force but will nature as composed of allegories, through which
lay his head in the lap of a virgin, and allow him- God revealed a divine plan. e authors of medieval
self to be led away. e author clearly identified bestiaries were not interested in documenting tales
the virgin with Mary and the unicorn with Christ, about animals, only in expounding their symbolic
saying of it: ‘neither principalities, powers, thrones,
nor domin ions can comprehend him, nor can
Hell hold him’.3 Upset by this deification of an
animal, Pope Gelasius icondemned the story of
the virgin and the unicorn as heresy in 496 and
had Physiologus placed on the Church’s list of
forbidden books, but the tale continued to gain in
popularity. Physiologus was not only copied but
expanded and incorporated into other books, and
it eventually provided the basis for the medieval ‘Virgin Capturing a Unicorn’, aer an illustration in a
12th-century European bestiary. It is hard to tell whether
bestiaries, with their moralized natural history,
the maiden is beckoning to the armed man or trying to
that became popular around the eleventh century. shield the animal.
8