Ever wondered what would happen if a bird egg was incubated by a toad? Or what a griffin used as nesting material? Let's take a look at some strange hybrid beasts from folklore, such as the...
- Cockatrice
- Nuckelavee
- Unicorn
- Wolpertinger
- Each-Uisge or Each-Usice
- Griffin
- Peryton
- Glatisant, or the Questing Beast
- Chimera and Pegasus
If you are looking for mermaids and similar aquatic hybrids, try here instead...
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| The cockatrice had the head and body of rooster... but the tail of a serpent! (Chromatograph) |
1. Cockatrice
Combining the body of a rooster with the tail of a serpent, the cockatrice was an incredibly strange creature with a convoluted history. It shares several characteristics with the basilisk of Greco-Roman mythology (and was probably inspired by it) and was equally deadly.
It was said that a cockatrice could come about when an egg was laid by a rooster (there's actually real world examples of hens developing male characteristics but retaining the ability to produce eggs) and incubated by (or in the presence of) serpents and amphibians. The egg would eventually hatch into the hybrid cockatrice, a toxic creature that could kill with a glance!
The village of Wherwell in Hampshire, England, was said to have been the home of a cockatrice - albeit one hatched from the toad-incubated egg of a duck, rather than a chicken. The beast made its home beneath Wherwell Abbey, feasting on corpses, animals and eventually villagers. Eventually four acres of land were offered as a reward for anyone that could slay the beast - and a man named Green polished a piece of metal into a mirror and dangled it into the beast's den. The cockatrice exhausted itself attacking its own reflection, and Green impaled it with a javelin!
Another English legend from Renwick had a cockatrice emerge from the ruins of a church - a man known as John Tallentire smashed it with a rowan bough (a tree associated with magic and suggesting the creature was the product of witchcraft) and killed it. For those who didn't fancy going toe-to-toe with the beast, cockatrices (like their basilisk cousins) were supposed to be vulnerable to weasels... who were though to be immune to their powers and poisons!
2. Nuckelavee
Orkney's Nuckelavee or "Devil of the Sea" is possibly one of the strangest hybrids on this list. Resembling a massive, skinless horse with a single eye and a humanoid torso fused to its back, the creature also had flippers and a protruding mouth or snout like that of a pig. Thanks to the lack of skin, horrified observers could watch black, tarry ichor pumping through its exposed blood vessels. Though a sea creature, the Nuckelavee was quite happy to venture on land to cause mischief - whether to blight crops, spread sickness or drag away the unwary.
An Orkney Islander named Tammas is said to have had a close encounter with the beast. Walking on a moonlit path bordered by the sea on one side and a loch on the other, Tammas noticed a bulky, horse-like figure up ahead. Unwilling to turn his back, he instead shuffled to the edge of the loch as the Nuckelavee approached - and when it swung for him his dodge splashed the creature with fresh water, which seemed to cause the demon great pain. Thinking fast, Tammas sprinted along the edge of the loch until he reached a small freshwater river and dived across - leaving the frustrated Nuckelavee on the other side!
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| Unicorns were said to be picky about their companions... (Paul Bill) |
3. Unicorn
Did you know that unicorns show up in mythology all over the world?
One of the earliest examples is a beast depicted on seals from the Indus Valley - such as this example dating back to 2600BC-1900BC and showing a bovine or equine creature with a singular horn. Greek scholars would treat them as real creatures from far off lands, while Celtic culture viewed them as symbols of purity, innocence and power - Scotland even adopted the unicorn as its national animal!
According to folklore, only the pure could tame a unicorn - this usually meant a virgin woman, but could also extend to royalty in some circumstances. Of course, this didn't always end well for the beasts - their horns were said to have healing powers and be a potent remedy for poison.
You might be wondering why the idea of the unicorn is so common - perhaps it's because of natural inspirations like...
- Narwhal tusks: Male narwhals have a large, spiraling tooth that protrudes as much as nine feet from their mouths. This tusk resembles many depictions of a unicorn horn and could be sold by maritime traders.
- Rhinos: Not only do you have modern rhinos, prehistoric examples could leave behind single horned skeletons... while others probably lived alongside humans in Siberia and may have been portrayed as horned horses once they became extinct!
4. Wolpertinger
One of the less deadly entries on this list is the Bavarian wolpertinger, an antlered rabbit with wings and webbed feet.
Legend has it that the creature was both shy and lecherous... and that the best way to capture one was by sending a comely lass out into the woodlands, where the creature could be mesmerized by her "features." Of course, it was much easier for a tourist to obtain a dead "wolpertinger" to bring home as a trophy - a service provided by inventive taxidermists with a mix-and-match approach to their craft.
It's possible that the wolpertinger was inspired by the same disease that gave us the American jackalope (a semi-fictional horned rabbit.) Shope’s papilloma virus can cause strange keratinous growths on a rabbit that resemble horns or other strange features!
5. Each-Uisge or Each-Usice
Hailing from Celtic folklore, the Scottish (each uisge) and Irish (each uisce) is a deceptive and deadly creature that inhabits large bodies of salt or still water (the kelpie is its river and stream dwelling equivalent.) Despite its aquatic habits, this predator takes the form of a horse and can be quite comfortable on land... where it can indulge its sinister, carnivorous appetites.
This creature would join the herds of farmers or present itself as a straying steed... but given the chance, it would feast on livestock or bear an unwary rider into the waters to drown. Such tales usually end with varying entrails (often the liver) from the victim washing up on the shore the next day.
Many stories give them other supernatural traits, such as a sticky hide that prevents a rider from dismounting or the ability to shapeshift. They typically also often bore a "tell" in the form of waterweed or sand-filled hair - something that could alert an observant human to their peril!
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| The griffin combined eagle and lion into a majestic predator... (Jevgeni Fil) |
6. Griffin
The griffin (also griffon or gryphon) of ancient Greek mythology was a majestic creature pairing the body of a lion with the head and wings of an eagle.
Griffins were said to guard the gold of the mythical Rhipaean mountains, digging it from the ground and using it to build nests - something that brought them into conflict with the gold-seeking, horse-riding one-eyed Arimaspians.
They were also had a divine connection, being described as the sharp-beaked hounds of Zeus. The goddess Nemesis was often accompanied by a griffons, either acting as a herald of her presence, guarding her throne or drawing her chariot!
A variant of the griffin known as an opinicus was sometimes used in heraldry, while the hippogriff (fusing the head and wings of an eagle with the body of a horse) is first thought to have appeared in Ludovico Ariosto's 1516 epic "Orlando Furioso."
7. Peryton
The peryton (el peritio) is a strange and sinister creature described in Manual de Zoología Fantástica by Jorge Luis Borges. Hailing from Atlantis, they have the head and legs of a deer, but the body and wings of a bird with dark green or sky blue plumage. Curiously, their shadow was that of a human rather than themselves - possibly due to the peryton itself being the spirit of one who died outside the protection of the gods.
Perytons were no friends of humanity, and it's implied that they could steal the shadow of a human that they killed. The story goes that Scipio's forces were attacked by a flock of them as they crossed to Carthage, sustaining many casualties - human weaponry was incapable of stopping a peryton, but the creatures could only kill a single man (and wallow in their blood) before fleeing back to the sky.
Manual de Zoología Fantástica was published in 1957, making the peryton a fairly recent addition to folklore. Winged stags do appear much earlier in heraldry though - King Charles VI is said to have used winged stags as one of his devices.
You might also be thinking that the idea of an murderous deer is pretty unique, but the sianach is a predatory cervine from Scottish folklore - possibly inspired by the enormous prehistoric Irish elk. There's also the fact that real deer have been known to scavenge from corpses - even human ones!
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| The questing beast appeared in Arthurian legend... (Matt Benson) |
8. Glatisant, or the Questing Beast
From the depths of Arthurian legend comes the questing beast, a strange (and to this day unidentified) creature that constantly issued "barks" from its belly like a pack of hounds (glatisant means barking or yelping in Old French.)
In Le Morte D'Arthur, the questing beast appears to Arthur after he has mistakenly sired a child on his sister - something Merlin describes as an omen of his destruction by the child he's just sired. Later in the tale, the beast is described as having the head of a serpent, the body of a leopard, the buttocks of a lion and the hooves of a deer - and making "the noise of thirty couple hounds questing."
9. Chimera and Pegasus
No list of hybrid creatures would be complete without the Greek chimera. This three-headed creature had the head and shoulders of a lion, but with a goat's head sprouting from its back and udders hanging beneath. The bizarre fusion was capped off by its tail - the body of a snake tipped with a serpent's head. It could also breath fire (because at this point, why not?)
The hero Bellerophon was said to have slain the chimera, either raining arrows on it from above or driving a lead-tipped lance into its flaming throat... where the molten metal choked it to death. He was able to do this thanks to the aid of another hybrid creature, the winged horse Pegasus.
Pegasus was a strange creature in its own right. Legend has it that Medusa was pregnant (thanks to the affair with Poseidon that resulted in her cursed state) when she was beheaded by Perseus - Pegasus (along with the winged boar Chrysaor) sprang from her blood.
Bellerophon managed to tame the winged horse to aid him in battle, but the divine equine had more powers than flight - as the offspring of Poseidon, he could create springs such as the Hippocrene on Mount Helicon!
Thanks for reading - for more strange beasts, try...