Here's Something Cool: Make Your Own

         Sometimes I find fun stuff that is not exactly the subject of this blog, yet seems tangentially related - and certainly worth sharing.  Such posts are what the “cool thing” label in the sidebar represents.

        Today’s cool thing is two fun little ways to waste time on-line.  The first involves seventeenth-century copper engravings by Matthäus Merian (father of the famous Maria Sibylla Merian, about whom you can read a previous post).  Engravings that Merian made for works of natural history by Jan Jonston are cut up and recombined chimera-style by the Hybridizer, allowing you to create all manner of intriguing new beasties.  There is a delightfully wide variety of creatures including mammals, reptiles, birds, insects, and sea creatures.  There is also the added benefit that some of the animals are depicted a little oddly in the first place, making your made-up creatures even sillier.  Which one is your favorite?

        The second toy is the Historic Tale Construction Kit featuring elements from the Bayeux tapestry.  Combine and recombine all sorts of people and things in the iconic medieval embroidery style, and use them to tell your own stories or illustrate your own memes.  Its subjects are limited by the fact that the Bayeux tapestry itself is of limited subject matter, but with all the options for editing, the determined creator could no doubt depict just about anything.  What message do you think needs to be shared medieval-needlework-style?

        Allow me to encourage you to take a little break, let your imagination wander, and have some fun being as silly as you need to be to reclaim some sanity.

[Pictures: Assorted creations made on the Hybridizer and the Historic Tale Construction Kit.]

Give Thanks

         Tomorrow I will be celebrating Thanksgiving, and it is a good time to share a brand-new project that I think has a lot to do with gratitude.  Despite the complicated history of the origins of Thanksgiving, despite the fact that the national myth of The First Thanksgiving has been badly skewed, despite the fact that some people may feel they have little to be thankful for in the arrival of new people on these shores 400 years ago, I persist in my belief that it is a good thing to celebrate gratitude.  I am grateful for my home, which is on such beautiful land of the Pawtucket people — and of me and my family.  I am grateful for that family, and I am grateful for the people I don’t know or love so well, who still are part of the fabric of my community, and who love their own homes and their own families.  I’m grateful for the people who produce and sell me food and art supplies and books and all the other things - both necessary and merely delightful - that make my life so good.  I’m grateful for the people who buy my art and books (or even just say nice things about them!) so that I feel supported and encouraged in doing this thing I love.

        One of those people is a friend who last week saw the sketch of a block I’ve just started working on.  She said that I should make the design into a coloring page, and we could share it with anyone who needs a little reminder, in these times of fear and hatred and anxiety, that each day we can make the choice to try to live in a whole different mode altogether.  So that’s what I’ve done!

        Feel free to download this coloring page HERE and color it as beautiful or eye-catching or cheerful or soothing as you desire!  Print lots of copies and bring them with you to your Thanksgiving get-together, and let everyone in the family color as you wait for the turkey to come out of the oven!  Send the colored pages to family and friends who couldn’t be with you, or drop them in your neighbors’ mailboxes; share this link with everyone you know… and then do it: try to fill your day with love in every way you can, whether that’s forgiving someone who hurts your feelings, or realizing that you might be hurting someone else, or being kind to the people in the shops (especially if you actually go out shopping during the crazy post-Thanksgiving shopping rush when people tend to get a little harried and cranky!)  Reach out to someone you’ve lost touch with, send a note of gratitude to someone who is important in your life, smile at everyone you pass when you’re out for a walk - and don’t be swayed by anyone who’s trying to fill your day with hatred.  Just try your very best to love them anyway, even while firmly not allowing them to do their hateful things.  Even you being just one person doing this will absolutely make a difference, and if we all do it, it will a change the world.

        Okay, that turned into a bit more of a sermon than I was intending.  In fact, all I really wanted to say was that I am full of gratitude.  My art and my writing tend to be the parts of my gratitude that overflow and spill out so much that I want to share them with everyone, which is what I wanted to do with this coloring page today.  If you want to share it, too, that would make me very happy.  And if you want to share your colored masterpieces back with me and with the wider world, I would love to post a gallery of them all!  So snap a picture of coloring in progress and/or the finished piece, and email it to me.  (Rather than post my email here, I’ll direct you to go to my web site nydamprints.com, go to the bottom right-hand corner, and smash that “Contact Me” link.)

          As for the block for which this was just the design, I started carving a bit at a demo last weekend, but I am exercising incredible restraint in saving it to carve during upcoming shows.  In due course, when the block is actually finished and printed, I will be sure to let you know.  Also, if you want some additional coloring pages of my designs, you can find a collection here: Stay-at-Home Activities 1.

        Happy Thanksgiving and love to all!

[Pictures: Fill This Day coloring page, by AEGN, 2021;

All in this Together, rubber block print by AEGN.]

Guess That Medieval Beast 9

         It’s been quite a while since our last round of Guess That Medieval Beast, so I’ll just remind you that if you’d like to start at the beginning and test yourself with the earlier rounds, go to the Labels list in the sidebar and click on “game,” which is down near the bottom of the list.

        And now, without further ado, our Round 9 Mystery Creature!  This creature appears in a copy of Der naturen bloeme from about 1350, one of those works that is just beginning the transition from medieval bestiary to renaissance encyclopedia.  To describe this thing is perfectly straightforward: it’s a fish with hands.  It seems to be using its hands to reach its big, toothy mouth, but that’s about all the picture tells us, although it does have very nicely detailed gills, scales, and fins, and an attractive coloration.  Go ahead and make your guess: what sort of creature is this?

        Squid!

        Despite the oddity of the depictions, this is another one that makes perfect sense when you think about it.  In a world in which any creature living in the ocean was considered a fish, a squid is a fish with long arms, right?  Sometimes the arms are reaching toward the mouth, while in other depictions they look more like they’d be used for walking; sometimes the arms have monstrous claws while in other depictions they look almost like human hands.

        The only thing that puzzles me is that squid have been eaten in Europe for centuries (if not millennia) and I’d have thought that these artists would have been sufficiently familiar with calamari to know that it doesn’t look like this!  But perhaps these manuscripts were not made in coastal communities, or perhaps the people copying 

and illustrating the books simply didn’t make the connection between the Latin lolligo and whatever it is they called squid in their local vernacular.  I do notice that even the versions written in Dutch refer to the creature as “lolligo.”

        I’ve also included two illustrations of a related creature: the polipo, aka octopus.  Not surprisingly, these two creatures are often depicted in very similar ways, but the octopus does have another iconographic variant in which it is shown grabbing a human.  I’ve included one in which the octopus appears to be caressing the man, although I’m afraid its intentions are not so benign.  It also has ears and little tiny wings (which I assume are actually supposed to be fins.)  However, I particularly enjoy the final illumination in which the huge creature has reached right up into the boat to seize the sailor, and is staring him down with great intensity.  (The second sailor is clinging to the handle of his oar, but it sort of looks as if he’s taking pictures on his cell phone.  Finally we’ll have solid photographic evidence of the long-fabled giant man-eating octopus!)

        These creatures have gotten a bad rap in mythology (blame it on Pliny), but truly they are strange and alien beasts, and I don’t think our medieval illuminators can be judged too harshly for not knowing what to make of them.

[Pictures: Lolligo, illumination from Der naturen bloeme (The Flower of Nature) by Jacob van Maerlant, c 1350 (Image from Koninklijke Bibliotheek);

Lolligo, illumination from Liber de natura rerum, 1280 (Image from BMV);

Lolligo, illumination from Der naturen bloeme, c 1300-1325 (Image from British Library);

Lolligo, illumination from Der naturen bloeme, c 1450-1500;

Polipo, illumination from Der naturen bloeme, c 1300-1325 (Images from Koninklijke Bibliotheek);

Polipo, illumination from Liber de natura rerum, 1280 (Image from BMV).]

She Moves! She Speaks!

         Today’s post is to share a number of recent videos featuring yours truly, star of words and pictures, and now moving pictures, too.  In truth, it’s always a little horrifying to see myself on video - the voice that sounds so strange, the hair that’s poking up all wrong - but I stand by my message, so I’m going to share.

        First up, the recording of my recent on-line author reading is now available on Strong Women-Strange Worlds’s YouTube channel.  The past three events are now available there, both in their entirety and each individual author’s reading as a separate snippet.  Here’s my snippet, in which I read three (very slightly abridged) creatures from On the Virtues of Beasts of the Realms of Imagination.  I hope you enjoy them!  And then by all means go enjoy some of the other readings.  (New videos will be added, both going forward and getting through our earlier events, so subscribe to the SWSW YouTube channel to be notified when new content is available.)

        Secondly, here’s a short video made last month by a group of local high school seniors for a school project highlighting a community organization.  They interviewed me about Needham Open Studios, as well as filming some scenes at our recent NOS Inside-Out art sale.

        While I’m at it, I’ll share some slightly less brand-new videos that are also available.  Here is the entirety of my talk about “The Fantastic Bestiary” as presented at Balticon 55 in May.  Unlike the other videos I’m sharing, it’s not a mere snippet, but it’s chock-full of fabulous medieval art - plus it also includes a reading of another creature from my bestiary at the 43:25 mark.  (Be sure to turn off the closed-captioning unless you actually need it, because it’s auto-generated and has some pretty bad inaccuracies!  Plus, it covers up some of the pictures.)

        Finally, I’ll include a video I may have linked before, made for the Medfield Holiday Art Show last December.  In it I talk mostly about making art, with just a little about writing.  (I’m hoping to take part in the Medfield Holiday Stroll in person this year, but we shall see what December brings…)

        And as a non-video bonus, an interview from the Boston Book Festival in June, in which I and fellow member of Broad Universe E.C. Ambrose discuss why speculative fiction by underrepresented voices is especially important (and fun).  You can read that here.

        Yeah, in all these interviews I’m hitting the same themes over and over: how art can remind us to appreciate and share the beauty all around us, how imagination can help us make the world a better place, how enjoying art and writing together can connect us…  But I think it’s worth repeating, and I hope you enjoy seeing at least some of these varied versions of the message!  (And please try to be tolerant of any bad hair you may witness.)

[Strong Women-Strange Worlds First Friday QuickReads, October 1, 2021;

Video made by K. Harris, N. Kelleher, and S. Cai for the Greater Boston Project, September 2021;

Balticon 55 presentation “The Fantastic Bestiary,” Baltimore Science Fiction Society, May 2021;

Medfield Holiday Stroll and Tree Lighting broadcast, December 2020.]

Guess that Medieval Beast 8

         This beast is one that, to be fair, is pretty darn bizarre and amazing in real life, so I’m not going to say that the medieval artists have made it stranger than it actually is.  After all, this illustration basically looks like a rainbow-colored horse, which is really not so crazy.  This picture comes from a bestiary from the mid-thirteenth century, and the illuminator has done a beautiful job of it, too.  We’re treated to borders and backgrounds, lots of colors including gold leaf, and even a bonus owl perched on the background tree.  But what is this creature?  I’ll give you a hint: it’s not a My Little Pony.  So, what do you think it is?

        Chameleon!

        Okay, why does the artist depict it in such an equine manner?  I really can’t tell you, but I do think we should give him credit for the rainbow colors.  I think they represent an attempt to depict the fact that the chameleon does change color, which is pretty fantastic.

        What else did medieval artists know about the chameleon?  Well, they knew it had camel in the name (especially in Latin, where it is not spelled with that silent H).  And that must mean that a chameleon would have humps, right?  So these next two illustrations, from the early fourteenth and late thirteenth centuries respectively, depict the chameleon with camel-appropriate humps.  Illustration 2 doesn’t otherwise look too crazy for a lizard of some sort, and illustration 3, while it gives the “serpent” only two legs, does also give it multiple colors, not to mention a rather attractive little pattern down its back.

        Of course the other half of the chameleon’s name is lion, and this fourth illustration, from the late fifteenth century, depicts our lizard as a delightfully shaggy leonine beast, complete with mane.  And today’s final chameleon may well be lion-inspired as well, although it looks more canine to me.  Funnily enough, unlike many of the crazy medieval illustrations we’ve seen, this illustration makes the chameleon look like a far more ordinary and boring beast than it actually is in real life.

        This does lead to the inevitable question of why the chameleon seems to be named after two large mammals with which it really should have nothing in common.  Well, some chameleons do have a sort of broad, rounded crest which, at an imaginative stretch, could be seen as reminiscent of a lion’s mane.  But the camel is just an accident.  The Greek word khamai means “on the ground,” so the chameleon was really named a “ground lion,” or “earth lion.”  Personally, I think if anything "tree lion" would have made more sense.

[Pictures: Chameleon, illumination from English Bestiary, 1226-1250 (Image from Bodleian Libraries);

Chameleon, illustration from Der naturen bloeme, c 1300-1325 (Image from British Library);

Chameleon, illumination from Liber de natura rerum, c 1280 (Image from Bibliotheque municipale de Valenciennes);

Chameleon, illumination from Explication des évangiles du temps et des saints, 1471 (Image from Bibliotheque nationale de France);

Chameleon, illumination from Der naturen bloeme, c 1350 (Image from Koninklijke Bibliotheek).]

Guess that Medieval Beast 7

         This is a beast that is not featured in the true bestiaries, but does regularly show up in the various encyclopedias of natural history that are closely related.  This particular depiction comes from the hand of an artist we’ve seen before in Medieval Beast Number 2.  It’s a copy made around 1450-1500 of Der Naturen Bloeme, which was originally written about two centuries earlier, and it has an attractive blending of color and rich gold background.  This creature clearly lives in the water, where it has the tusks and trunk of an elephant, the tail of, perhaps, a lizard, dorsal and pelvic fins of a fish, and hind feet with cloven hoofs like a goat.  Like many of this artist’s subjects, it looks fairly friendly and I find it charming…  But what do you suppose it could possibly be?

        Hippopotamus!  Our word hippopotamus is simply the Greek word for “river horse,” so it’s obviously the same thing as what the medieval writers call equs fluvius (or various spelling variations), which is “river horse” in Latin.  However, the medieval natural historians also list a separate beast which they call the yphotamus (or various spelling variations), which is obviously derived from the Greek word hippopotamus.  I’m not sure in what way these two beasts are differentiated, and unfortunately I have neither the time nor the Latin to figure it out, but for our purposes of looking at how medieval artists depicted animals, I’m counting them both as hippos.

        The depictions of hippos take three primary directions.  First is the one with which we opened, which combines fish, elephant, and perhaps a cow.  You can sympathize with where each of those elements might have come from as someone tried to describe an animal almost as big as an elephant, with tusks, too, that lives in the water like a fish…  The second standard version is used most often for the “river horse”, and that’s a very literal-minded horse-like beast standing in the water.  The second illustration today comes from the same work as the first, but the first is the yphotamus, while the second is the equus fluvius.  I’ve also included a water horse from an Arabic bestiary that’s almost purely equine.

        The third direction some artists go is more wildly imaginative.  Our fourth illustration has a body that’s really not bad, and the tusks aren’t unreasonable, either.  But then why on earth does it have a beak?  The clue may be in the next illustration, which, although it is an ypotamus, is clearly very horse-inspired.  It, too, has a beak, however, and I wonder whether the artist might have been influenced by the hippogriff.  The name is similar enough to suggest that the beasts might be related, and the hippogriff has a beak from its griffin half.  As for my final illustration today, it’s just plain nuts.  Clearly the thing this artist was most inspired by was the fact that hippos sometimes attack and overturn boats, so this fish-tailed monster is attacking a boat with its long, clawed monster arms and a gleefully vindictive grin.

        It really is fun to imagine how we might visualize creatures we’d never seen if we had only these sorts of descriptions to guide us.

[Pictures: Iphotamus, illumination from Der Naturen Bloeme (The Flower of Nature) by Jacob van Maerlant, c 1450-1500;

Equus fluminis, illumination from Der Naturen Bloeme by Maerlant, c 1450-1500 (Images from Koninklijke Bibliotheek);

Faras al-Ma (Water Horse), illumination from Manafi’ al-hayawan by Ibn Bakhtishu, 1300-1330 (Image from Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art);

Ypothamus, illumination from Liber de natura rerum, 1280 (Image from Bibliotheque municipale de Valenciennes);

Ypotamus, illustration printed by Johan Prüss in Ortis sanitatus, 1499 (Image from Boston Public Library);

Equs fluvius, illustration from Der naturen bloeme, 1300-1325 (Image from British Library).]

Guess that Medieval Beast 6

         For those of you who are just joining us, feel free to get caught up with prior episodes of everyone’s favorite game: Guess that Medieval Beast 1; 2; 3; 4; and 5.

        Now here’s number 6, another adorable medieval illustration for you to identify.  This one comes from a martyrology made in France between 1250-1290.  You can see that the illuminator was a skilled artist who put excellent craftsmanship into the work: detailed border, intricate background, smatterings of gold leaf, and the fine details depicting our mystery beast itself.  It’s furry, from the charming tuft on its head, down its hairy spinal crest, to the feathery tip of its delightfully long, sinuous tail.  It’s got large expressive eyes, cute yoda-like ears, and six legs.  It’s also blue.  It’s hard to tell how big it’s meant to be since it appears to dwarf the trees between which it lies.  So, what furry, blue, six-legged, long-tailed, tree-sized creatures do you know of?  Make your guess as to what this thing could be!

        Scorpion!  Yes, this is a scorpion, even though the artist doesn’t seem to have gotten a single thing right about it.  In fact, scorpions are another of those creatures that is depicted in astonishing variety by medieval artists.  Of course there are no scorpions in northern Europe, including France, so the artists had probably never actually seen a scorpion, but still...  Scorpions appear in bestiaries, but they are also quite common in Books of Hours because of Scorpio’s role in the zodiac.  So quite a few medieval artists found themselves having to make a picture of this creature they’d never seen.

        In these sample scorpions I’ve chosen for you today we have everything from 4 to vaguely unnumbered legs, tails that are long or super short and stubby, ears more often than not…  Unlike many bestiary creatures that have a common iconography even when they aren’t very accurate, with these scorpions there’s quite a lot of variety in which aspects artists have managed to depict.  The second picture gets at the piercing sting on the tail, the third has the tail arched up in a somewhat scorpion-like 

way, and the fourth has properly pincerlike claws.

        However, only the final picture is really on the right track with 8 legs plus claws, a curved tail with a stinger at the tip, a suggestion of segmentation down the tail, and not a trace of ears, fur, or other mammalian traits.  This one comes from a coat of arms recorded in a sixteenth century book of heraldry, and I wonder whether the arms belonged to a knight who had been on crusade or otherwise encountered actual scorpions at some point, who therefore knew what he wanted his charge to look like.  Personally, however, I find the less realistic scorpions positively charming, especially the first and third.  They might even make delightful pets.

[Pictures: Scorpio, illumination from Martyrologe-Obituaire de Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 1250-1290 (Image from Bibliotheque nationale de France);

Scorpion, illumination from bestiary, 1226-1250 (Image from Bodleian Libraries);

Scorpions, illustration from bestiary, 1236-1250 (Image from British Library);

Scorpio, illustration from Mirabilia Mundi, after 1277 (Image from The J. Paul Getty Museum);

Scorpion, coat of arms from Wappenbuch by Conrad Grünenberg, 1483 (Image from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek).]

Guess that Medieval Beast 5

         Today’s beast for you to guess is not from a manuscript, but from a stone carving at the Rock of Cashel in Ireland.  I don’t have information on this carving in particular, but it probably dates from the 12th or 13th century, along with the majority of structures at the site.  It represents a creature that medieval artists loved to portray, some reasonably accurately, and others quite wildly off-base.  To be fair, it is a hard beast to get your head around if you’ve never seen one in real life.  So, make your guess and then…

        Elephant!

        Medieval artists knew that elephants are big - big enough that sometimes they had little buildings on their backs in which people could ride.  But this left a wide range of interpretation, and while the structure on the back was a standard part of the iconography, some skeptical artists had difficulty imaging the elephant as much bigger than an ox, while others depicted elephants large enough to carry entire fortresses made of solid stone.

        They also knew that elephants had tusks and trunks.  The tusks are most often drawn like the tusks of a boar, something European artists were familiar with.  The trunk, not surprisingly, can get a little odd.  Is it like a boar’s snout, as in our carving from Cashel?  Is it like a trumpet?  It is usually depicted with a flared bell like a trumpet, and often colored or textured differently from the rest of the elephant’s face, but its length ranges all over the place.

        Nowadays one of the most iconic facts about elephants is their large ears, but this seems not to have been an important part of medieval lore about elephants.  Some bestiary elephants have large ears, but some are small, and some have no ears at all.  Some ears perk up, while others flop down.  They are often ruffled or frilled, but sometimes they’re quite smooth.

        I hope you enjoy this diverse and delightful herd!

[Pictures: Elephant, stone carving from Cashel, Ireland, probably 12-13 c (photo by AEGN, 2015);

Elephant, illumination from the Peterborough Bestiary, c. 1300-1310 (Image from Cambridge and Stanford Libraries);

The Land of India, illumination from the Mirror of History, c. 1475 (Image from The J. Paul Getty Museum);

Elephant, illustration from Der naturen bloeme by J. van Maerlant, 1350 (Image from Koninklijke Bibliotheek);

Elephant detail in decoration for Deuteronomy, Pentateuch, c 1300-1325 (Image from British Library);

Elephant, illustration from Der naturen bloeme by J. van Maerlant, c. 1300-1325 (Image from the British Library);

Elephant, illumination from bestiary c. 1226-1250 (Image from Bodleian Libraries);

Elephant, illustration from Das Buch der Nature by K. von Megenberg, 1442-1448 (Image from Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg).]

Guess that Medieval Beast 4

         It’s time for Round 4 of everyone’s favorite game, and this time it’s a creature I’ve discussed in this blog before.  This illumination appears in a bestiary from 1270, from the J. Paul Getty Museum.  It certainly is a beautiful illustration, with its patterned borders and background, multicolored feathers, and touches of gold…  But what is it?  It has the basic body of a dog, wings like a bird, and it’s placed in something that looks more like a sculpture by Dale Chihuly than anything else (but I’ll give you a hint, in case you haven’t guessed: it’s a fire).  This is one of the creatures that is depicted in quite a broad variety of ways in different bestiaries, but this is nevertheless one of the standard visions.  So, what creature do you think this thirteenth century artist was trying to depict?

        Salamander!

        You can read my previous posts about the fantastical “facts” attributed to the salamander, and how the innocent amphibian got morphed into a mythological creature, here.  One of the things I find most interesting about the medieval depictions of the creature is that, unlike crocodiles or sea turtles, salamanders are perfectly common throughout Europe.  It seems as if enough people should have seen one to be able to recognize that in fact a salamander 

does not greatly resemble a winged dog.  However, for the bestiary illustrators, realism was not the greatest goal.  They were more 

concerned to follow conventions laid down by past “experts,” to present meaningful iconography, and to inspire a sense of wonder in a world of spiritual meaning.

        Let’s look at a selection of other medieval illustrations of salamanders.  You can see that they can have anywhere from 0 to 6 legs, plus wings; they can be furred or striped or smooth; they usually (but not always) have visible external ears; and they are sometimes depicted in trees (where they are supposed to poison the fruit) or going into wells (where they are supposed to poison the water).  The one really reliable trait in their illustrations is the fire.  Salamanders are almost always depicted with tongues of red flames about them.

[Pictures: Salamander, illumination from bestiary, 1270 (Image from J. Paul Getty Museum);

Salamanders, illumination from “Aberdeen Bestiary,” 1200 (Image from University of Aberdeen);

Salamanders, illumination from bestiary, c 1200-1210 (Image from the British Library);

Salamanders, illumination from bestiary, thirteenth century (Image from Biblitheque nationale de France);

Salamander, illumination from Der naturen bloeme by van Maerlant, 1350 (Image from Koninklijke Bibliotheek);

Salamander, illumination from bestiary, 1277 or after, (Image from Getty Museum).]

Guess that Medieval Beast 3

         It’s time for another round of everyone’s favorite game!  This one is a little different because unlike most of our creatures, the craziness of today’s beast is not the standard medieval portrayal.  It appears to be the rather random personal interpretation of the illustrator of a copy of Der naturen bloeme from the first quarter of the fourteenth century.  I cannot read the medieval Dutch text to see whether there’s any clue as to why this illuminator thought the beast should look like this, and I certainly can’t think of any reason in the usual descriptions of the creature.  So, being forewarned that it’s random, make your guess!

        Lynx!

        Some bestiaries portray the lynx as a fairly generic beast, more canine-looking than feline.  However, when the lynx is portrayed with a distinctive iconography, it looks like it’s peeing on a ball.  This is because the urine of the lynx hardens into a precious stone, and that’s what we’re actually seeing in the illustrations.  The lynx covers its urine in sand (which certainly sounds like a cat) to keep people from finding the flame-colored stone.  The other possible reason for covering the urine is to make it harden into stone more quickly.  Neither explanation really gives a reason for why the the lynx should care, since no one mentions that 

it actually has any use for the stone itself.  The stone seems to have the general properties of amber.  The other important fact about lynxes is that their eyesight is so sharp they can see through walls.

        I’ve included a couple of peeing lynxes.  The first is not at all subtle.  The second is a little more discreetly difficult to see, but at least the small stone is accurately flame-colored.

[Pictures: Lynx, illumination from Der naturen bloeme, c 1300-1325 (Image from the British Library);

Lynx, illumination from the Bestiary of Joachim of Fiore, end of 13th century (Image from Digital Bodleian);

Lynxes, illumination from the “Rochester” bestiary, c 1230-1240 (Image from the British Library).]

Guess that Medieval Beast 2

         Now you know how to play the game, so here’s another illustration for you to identify.  This one comes from a manuscript of Der Naturen Bloeme dating to about 1450-1500, a relatively late copy of a work, an encyclopedia of natural history, that was written about 200 years earlier, based on another work even older than that.  Such is the way of medieval books.  What I like best about this creature is how very happy it is.  It looks just a little mischievous, but in the most good-natured possible way.  What creature is this cheerful fish-thing meant to be?  Make your guess, and then…

        Sea turtle!  When you think about it, it really makes perfect sense: something that swims in the ocean like a fish, but has four legs, and is covered with hard shields around its body.  Voila!

        I have included two more sea turtles for you.   The second turtle clearly follows the same model, although where the first was smiling, this is grimacing ferociously with all its un-turtle-like teeth.  The third is quite a different look, evoking the aspidochelone with what appears to be shrubbery growing on its shell, although perhaps it’s just roughly textured.  The feet are distinctly not flippers, and the face suggests that the artist was imagining this armored beast as being something like a hedgehog.  

All three of these turtles are from different copies of the same book, which is because the true bestiaries tend to be not much interested in sea creatures, with few descriptions and even fewer illustrations.  We have to look to the encyclopedias of natural history to find sea turtles, whether grouchy or happy.

[Pictures: Sea turtle, illumination from Der Naturen Bloeme (The Flower of Nature) by Jacob van Maerlant, c 1450-1500 (Image from Koninklijke Bibliotheek);

Sea turtle, illumination from Der naturen bloeme, c 1350 (Image from Koninklijke Bibliotheek);

Sea turtle, illumination from Der naturen bloeme, c 1300-1325 (Image from the British Library).]

Guess that Medieval Beast 1

         I have a new game for you to play, which will be fun for all.  It’s true that it doesn’t feature block prints, and its connection to fantasy is only the sort of inadvertent fantasy spawned by the wild imaginations of ignorant medieval illuminators.  Nevertheless, it amuses me, and I thought it might amuse you.  So without further ado, let’s get started.  Round 1!

        Here is an illustration from a manuscript that was completed in 1471 and resides in the collection of the Bibliotheque nationale de France.  The book relates characters from the gospels to the saints and the Old Testament, but along with this content there are bonus illustrations providing a bestiary cycle along the bottoms of the pages.  I have censored the places in the image where the illustration is labelled, just in case you are someone who would look for a clue in the medieval Latin.  So, what are these charming, furry, blue critters?

        Crocodiles!

        It should not really be surprising that your average European illustrator had never seen a crocodile, so they did the best they could based on the descriptions they’d heard.  Some of the more fantastical attributes of crocodiles in bestiaries can be seen in these additional crocodile illustrations: sporting wings and anywhere from 2 to 6 legs, having a serpent (the hydrus) slide into their mouths and then eat its way out through their bellies, and having their heads on upside-down.  That last is because of the description that a crocodile’s lower jaw stays still while its upper jaw opens - not true, but also not an unreasonable interpretation given the way it looks when a crocodile opens its mouth wide.  Bestiaries are also the source of the myth that crocodiles weep hypocritical tears after eating a person.

        All these  variations make crocodiles one of the more diversely portrayed beasts in bestiaries.  Some of them are certainly pretty unrecognizeable, which is their charm, but I’ve also included a couple of crocodiles that are really not bad.  Perhaps these illuminators had actually been to Egypt and seen crocodiles, or perhaps they’d just seen other illustrations from those who had.  In any case, while we’re playing the game of Guess that Medieval Beast because it’s funny to see how far off the mark these pictures could get, it’s also good to remember that there was more knowledge around in the middle ages than we sometimes give them credit for.

        Be sure to come visit again for future rounds of Guess that Medieval Beast!

[Pictures: Crocodiles, illumination from Explication des évangiles du temps et des saints, 1471 (Image from Bibliotheque nationale de France);

Crocodile, illumination from English bestiary, c 1201-1225 (Image from Bodleian Libraries);

Crocodile, illumination from Peterborough Bestiary, c 1300-1310 (Image from Cambridge and Stanford Libraries);

Crocodile, illumination from French bestiary, c 1250-1260 (Image from Bibliotheque Nationale de France);

Crocodile, illumination from French bestiary, 13th century (Image from Bibliotheque Nationale de France);

Crocodile, illumination from Bestiarius Philippi Taeoniensis, 14th century, (Image from Kongelige Bibliotek);

Crocodile, illumination from English Bestiary, c 1225-1275 (Image from British Library);

Crocodile, illumination from Italian Bestiaire d’Amour, c 1290 (Image from Morgan Library);

Crocodile from Rochester Bestiary, c 1230-1240 (Image from British Library).]

Stay-at-Home Activities 5: Etcetera

        I’ll conclude my series on stay-at-home activities with a digest of some of the activities I’ve featured in the past.  You can click on the label “step-by-step” in the sidebar for all kinds of posts on different printmaking projects, but here are some that should be doable without having to go out and procure specialized supplies.

        Exquisite Corpse - weird name for a fun activity.  The directions in my post are for a printmaking version, but the same principle can be used when drawing with pencil or markers, or whatever you have on hand.

1. Fold a paper into thirds for each person participating.  (It works best with 3 or more.)

2. Each person draws a head in the first folded section.  Make the neck extend just slightly into the second section, and fold the paper so that the head is now hidden, but the edge of the neck is visible.

3.  Everyone passes their paper to the next person.  Draw a body and arms or front limbs in the middle section of the paper, making sure that you connect properly to the neck.  The very edge of the waist or hips should extend into the third section.  Fold the paper so that both the head and middle are hidden.

4.  Everyone passes their paper to the next person, who draws the bottom or hind part of the body, making sure to connect with the edge that the previous person left visible.

5.  When everyone is finished, unfold the papers and revel in the silly masterpieces!

        Telephone Variation (also better with more people):

A. Cut pieces of paper vertically so that you have relatively long, skinny sheets.  Each person draws a scene of any sort on the first inch or two of the paper.  Be sure to include a couple of interesting details.

B. Each person passes on their sheet with the picture still showing.  The second person to receive each sheet writes a sentence or two beneath the picture telling the story of what might be happening in the picture.  They then fold over the top of the sheet so that the picture is hidden.

C.  Passing on the paper, the third person can now see the story but not the original scene.  They then draw an illustration of what they think the story describes (taking up another inch or two of paper).  Fold over the story above so that now only their picture is visible.

D.  Pass it on.  The fourth person writes the story suggested by that second illustration… and so on.  You can keep going, words to pictures to words to pictures, until you run out of paper.  When you compare the final installment with the first, much hilarity ensues, and it’s always fun to see how changes were introduced.

        Variations are also possible in which stories are written one paragraph or one sentence at a time, or pictures are drawn that don’t have to be people or animals, but I find that it works best when there is just enough structure to keep it from going completely random.

        Styrofoam Prints - a basic printmaking technique that can be done with readily-available materials

        Potato Prints - ditto

        Playing Cards - another project that is about printmaking in my post, but doesn’t have to be.  You probably aren’t going to go into full production mode and make complete, playable decks, but coming up with interesting designs for playing cards (using any medium of your choice) is a fun project in itself.  If you google “playing card art” or something along those lines, or look here, you’ll see some really interesting stuff.  You can get especially creative when you don’t have to be able to actually play with them.

        Read a Book - Okay, I know; this is hardly an original idea.  However, if you want some ideas of what to read next, click on the label “list of books” in the sidebar.  That category includes a lot of fantasy, and some printmaking books, and a lot of books that are “field guides’ to fantasy creatures.  However, here are some posts that particularly feature long-form fantasy fiction that you and/or any children in your life may wish to consider reading.

First Read-Aloud Fantasy Chapter Books

Technofantasy

A Few Lesser-Known Treasures

Reading the Old to the Young

Alice, Irene, and Dorothy

Dinosaur Fantasy

Three Read-Alouds (can also be read independently, of course)

Sorcery and Cecilia

The Extraordinary Book of Doors

The Golden Key

Scheherazade Retold

Pride and Prejudice and Fantasy

        And here are some lists of picture books, mostly fantasy:

Fantasy Picture Books of Note

Feminist Fantasy Picture Books

Books of Kindness

Not a Word!

Fantasy Picture Books that are Poetry

5 Counting Books

        And let me put in a plug that you should consider reading any of my books!  You can see all of my books here.

        I hope these ideas help keep your brain, heart, and sense of wonder engaged during these difficult times!

[Pictures: Six of Spades, linocut by Christine Koch, 1995 (Image from ChristineKoch.com);

Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, James VI, Mary Queen of Scots, linocuts by Willie Rodgers, 1975 (Image from WorthPoint);

Face cards by an anonymous student at the Werkkunstschule in Hannover, c 1930 (image from Peter Endebrock’s Playing-card Pages).]