#miscellaneous creatures

[arethinn]

Wild Waves by Himmis on DeviantArt

[arethinn]

In a broad sense they could be considered "of Faërie", that is, considering that to mean the whole conceptual area of of myth-magic writ large; the meaning of "faerie" that refers to just about anything enchanted, rather than to a specific realm or "dimension" and its denizens. Usually though they would be considered "mythical creatures" and not fae per se.

Are heraldic beasts considered fae?... Totally asking for a friend haha.

[bestiarium]

The Getulian Dog [miscellaneous]

In the mid-17th century, Edward Topsell published a treatise on the animal kingdom in which he described many creatures: both real animals and some fictional beings that got mixed up in his research. And some whose existence is not entirely clear: one of these is the Getulian dog, also called the ‘mimick dog’, a curious canine breed with a remarkable talent for imitating everything it sees.

He classified this dog as Canis lucernarius (which, in modern biological terminology, would make it a species closely related to wolves and not a breed of dog). They have a black head resembling that of a hedgehog and the intelligence of an ape. Their legs are particularly long and support a somewhat short, curved body with a short tail and shaggy fur. Curiously, at least some of these dogs were supposedly raised by apes.  

The name ‘Getulian dog’ would imply that these animals hailed from Getulia in northern Africa, but it's unclear whether these stories are fiction or just exaggerated tales of a real dog breed. In the 3rd century B.C., these animals were popular in Egypt, where people trained them to perform tricks. They were so smart that people who could not afford human servants would often train Getulian dogs to perform household tasks.

As they are highly intelligent, these dogs have supposedly been used in theatre and plays since ancient times. According to the ancient historian Plutarchus, one of these trained dogs performed in a public spectacle attended by the emperor Vespasianus (so in the first century A.D.). In the play, a character murdered the dog by feeding him a piece of poisoned bread, and the dog perfectly played the part by pretending to stumble down and die. After this scene the dog stood back up, alive and unharmed, to the joy and amazement of the audience.

As a closing statement, I like this story because most of the myths and tales I read are about man-eating monsters and vengeful deities. But this story is just ‘this one dog was trained for a theatre play and he was really good at it!’

Source: Topsell, E., 1658, the History of Four-footed Beasts, Serpents, and Insects. Describing at large their true and lively figure, their several names, conditions, kinds, virtues (both Natural and Medicinal), countries of their breed, their love and hatred to mankind, and the wonderful work of God in their creation, preservation and destruction., printed by E. Cotes, London, p.127-128, 1098 pp. (image source: Edward Topsell, History of Four-footed beasts, 1658)

[confusedalpacart]

beasts (miscellaneous)

[autumnillustration]

“It’s happening again. In our lifetime, it’s happening again.”

Just some more appropriate angst for ‘The Sharpshooter and the Vet’—WWI AU of acgas 2020

[bee-sidebranch]

devious wyrms

[intersexnateriver]

i don't think that femnear and regular near would look different at all. but i wanted to give her some changes anyways so she has pigtails. and a skirt in the full image under the cut

like and subscribe for more atrocious death note genderbends or whatever

[beagleamarelo-moved]

Welcome to Miscellandia, the land of all miscellaneous things! 🌳🌼🐛

Henri and Caroline are exploring the forest and gathering data about every kind of species they find. They're building a digital encyclopedia that will be available to other villagers through their own kind of wireless data sharing!

---

I'm reposting this on here after I deleted the post some weeks ago :'0 I noticed that you guys on here like my creatures and animals art, so here's more of it! :D

[celestite-caroline]

went a little different this time and I drew some mutuals' OCs (namely @cyzebra26 's kelpies and my boyfriend's Virion) interacting with some of mine :D

[sheila--e]

Day 56. now draw her as a white eared possum

bonus:

me when an androgynous blonde guy tells me to do anything.

[bestiarium]

Who was Davy Jones? [Nautical folktales]

This is something completely different from my usual posts. The nautical folk character of Davy Jones isn’t really a mythological creature in the same way as Mesopotamian demons, Inuit spirits or medieval European monsters.

In fact, it turns out the exact origin of the name is hard to pin down. ‘Davy Jones’ Locker’ was nautical slang for the bottom of the ocean, a euphemism used in the context of sinking ships and drowned sailors (as in, he went to Davy Jones’ Locker). As far as I can tell, this term for a seaman’s grave predates any reference to Davy Jones as a separate, actual character. Sailors who died at sea were said to ‘be keeping watch with Davy Jones now’.

As for the name, it’s not entirely clear where it came from but there are some theories. ‘Davy’ might be directly derived from ‘devil’, and according to other authors it might have come from ‘Duppy’, a Caribbean term also meaning devil, though this seems to be less supported. ‘Jones’ most likely comes from Jonah, the Biblical character and later nautical slang for a sailor who brings bad luck to the ship he is on.

It's not impossible that Davy Jones was (based on) a real person but it's not likely.

So, who is Davy Jones and what does he look like?

The oldest physical description of Jones as a being comes from ‘The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle’, a mid-18th century fiction novel by Tobias Smollett. I normally don’t use fiction novels as sources, but we don’t have anything else here and Smollett’s description of the creature seems to have become the basis for iterations of Davy Jones in media, so we might as well. In the book, Davy Jones is said to be a horrible fiend presiding over the wicked spirits of the oceanic depths. He is a monster with blue smoke billowing from his nostrils, a tail and a horned head with large saucer-like eyes and three rows of teeth.

And this is the description Davy Jones was stuck with until 2006, when Disney released Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, which featured the antagonist that you thought of when you saw the title of this post. This version of Davy Jones became so cemented in our collective consciousness that it’s hard to imagine him in any other shape or form. And, to be fair, it makes sense, because it was a good movie.

(Although it’s hard to beat the first one.)

Sources:

Norton, L A., 2016, Folklore, Superstitions and the Sea, The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du Nord, 26(1), p. 21-30.

Foster, J., 1969, Varieties of Sea Lore, Western Folklore, 28(4), pp. 260-266.

Archibald, M., 1998, Sixpence for the Wind: a Knot of Nautical Folklore, Dundurn, p. 45, 143 pp.

Smollett, T., 1751, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, London, p.71, 372 pp., text cited via Greensdictofslang.

(image 1: Davy Jones on his locker. Illustrated by John Tenniel for issue 103 of ‘Punch, or the London Charivari’, 1892)

(image 2: a character from ‘The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle’ disguises himself as Davy Jones to scare others, illustration by George Cruikshank in ‘Illustrations of Fieldeing, Smollett and Goldsmith, in a series of forty-one plates’)

[darkfictionjude]

*nia and imre: 👁👄👁

can't believe i fucked an ask the fuck??

Oh I fuck up everything so it’s fine 😌

[hiddencarpet]

Having fun with a bit of some thin lines :)

[pleiadescrown]

currently one of my favourite ocs....nero huntington, born connor karkinnen, who is like 7 feet tall and is afraid that he'll accidentally step on people or small animals

[bee-sidebranch]

alone at night