[The Real Booster Gold]

The Enfield Beast



The Enfield is a fictitious creature sometimes used in heraldry, having the head of a fox, the chest of a greyhound, the body of a lion, the hindquarters and tail of a wolf, and forelegs like an eagle's talons.

It is used as an emblem by some organisations in Enfield, London (for example, on the arms of the London Borough of Enfield and on the badges of Chace Community School and of the football clubs Enfield (1893) F.C. and Enfield Town F.C.), but it is not sure whether it has any historic connection with the town. Its roots may be Irish.

The beast was on the coat of arms of the Municipal Borough of Enfield, which was amalgamated with the Municipal Borough of Edmonton and the Municipal Borough of Southgate to form the London Borough of Enfield.

The Enfield is a rare heraldic mythical beast confined in its earliest apparitions in heraldic symbolism as the crest of the armorial bearing of the O'Ceallaigh (O'Kelly) Septs of Ireland. Shown is the Sept of the O'Ceallaighs of Uí Maine, the most documented O'Kelly sept in early Irish written history and annals. The enfield appears in The Book of O'Kellys — written in 1394AD, named the Book of O'Kellys (or the Book of Ui Maine), it is amongst Ireland's finest ancient manuscripts and is held as an Irish national treasure.

There are other O'Kelly branch Armorial Bearings that have slight differences. However, one thing that they all have in common is the green Enfield as their crest sitting aloof a golden crown with three crests and a base of studded jewels.

The ancient tradition among the O'Kellys is that they have borne this fabulous animal since the days of the chieftain Tadhg Mor O'Kelly who fell "fighting like a wolf dog" on the side of the High King of Ireland, Brian Boru, at the victorious Viking Battle of Clontarf in 1014AD, against the Danes. When Tadhg Mor fell this mythical beast issued from the nearby sea to protect the dead body of the chief until it was retrieved for proper burial by his O'Kelly kinsmen.

One commonly held heraldic definition of an Enfield is: A most extraordinary creature, it is composed as follows; the head of a fox, the chest of an elephant, the mane of a horse, the forelegs of an eagle , the body and hind legs of a hound , and the tail of a lion.

However, in an 1859 journal discussing the discovery of a bronze ancient (c.1400's AD) O'Kelly hand wax seal uncovered 20ft beneath a bog on an excavation project, considerable research was done on the origins of the O'Kelly Enfield on the seal, Viz.:---

"I have searched in several works on heraldry for a description of the Enfield, but without success. It does not appear to be a cognizance of much in use, and it does not appear to be found in Gwillam's "Display of Heraldry" folio: not even in Cap 26 of that book, which chapter treats solely of fictious creatures, supposed to be compounded of different kinds and natures, such as Griffons, Wiverns, dragons, roosteratrices, harpies, mermaids. Neither is the term enfield given or explained in Crossley's "Signification of things borne in Heraldry". To my gifted friend, Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms, I, however am indebted for the following definition of this composite fabulous creature, viz. :-- "The Enfield is a heraldic animal, having the head of a fox, the breast feathered as an eagle's, the foreclaws also of an eagle; the remainder of the body that of a wolf." It follows from such description that the Enfield, being compounded of the fox, eagle, and wolf, indicated that he, by whom it was borne, was reputed to possess the subtlety and cunning of the first named beast; the magnanimity and fortitude, with the honour, labor, industry, and diligence, in great manners, of the eagle; and the fierceness of the wolf."

The animal is sculptured on many old (c.1375–1650) tombstones of the O'Kelly family in the Abbey of Kilconnell (founded c.1353AD), and in the old church of Cloonkeen.

[Ryu]

AWESOME the other one kinda died down a bit...


That thing appeared very freaky lookin' when i pictured it XD

The head of a fox, the chest of an elephant, the mane of a horse, the forelegs of an eagle , the body and hind legs of a hound , and the tail of a lion makes it look a wee bit freakish, lol

[AarghZombies]

Ooo, I loved this thread! Keep up the good work!

[Umbreon]

I'd love to see a griffin post, I love griffins.

[The Real Booster Gold]

The Griffin

An unusually naturalistic depiction of a griffin by Sir John Tenniel for Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

The griffin, griffon or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. More similar to the creature would be the gyrfalcon, a large falcon of the north, which may account for the name 'gryphon' as a cross between 'gyrfalcon' and 'lion'. As the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts and the eagle the king of the birds, the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature. In antiquity it was a symbol of divine power and a guardian of the divine.

Most contemporary illustrations give the griffin the forelegs of an eagle, with an eagle's legs and talons, although in some older illustrations it has a lion's forelimbs; it generally has a lion's hindquarters, however. Its eagle's head is conventionally given prominent ears; these are sometimes described as the lion's ears, but are often elongated (more like a horse's), and are sometimes feathered. Some writers describe the tail as a serpent, in the manner of a chimera.

Infrequently, a griffin is portrayed without wings (or a wingless eagle-headed lion is identified as a griffin); in 15th-century and later heraldry such a beast may be called a male griffin, an alce or a keythong. In heraldry, a griffin always has aquiline forelimbs; the beast with leonine forelimbs is distinguished as the opinicus.

Several griffin-like creatures - beasts with the head of an eagle or some other bird of prey - occur in art, architecture and mythology of many early civilizations.

In Minoan Crete, such creatures were royal animals and guardians of throne rooms.

In Ancient Egypt, a similar creature was depicted with a slender, feline body and the head of a falcon; this is tentatively identified as an axex. Early statuary depicts them with wings that are horizontal and parallel along the back of the body. During the New Kingdom, depictions of griffins included hunting scenes.

Of the two sacred "birds" of Persian mythology, the homa and the simurgh, the homa is often described as griffin-like. Ancient Elamites used such a creature extensively in their architecture. During the Achaemenid Empire, homa were used widely as statues and symbols in palaces. Homa also had a special place in Persian literature as guardians of light.

Scythia

Protoceratops skeleton at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center... or a Scythian griffin skeleton?

The griffin was a common feature of "animal style" Scythian gold. It was said to inhabit the Scythian steppes that reached from the modern Ukraine to central Asia; there gold and precious stones were abundant and when strangers approached to gather the stones, the creatures would leap on them and tear them to pieces. The Scythians used giant petrified bones found in this area as proof of the existence of these griffins and thus keep outsiders away from the gold and precious stones.

Adrienne Mayor, a classical folklorist, has recently suggested that these "griffin bones" were actually dinosaur fossils, which are common in this part of the world. In The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times, she makes tentative connections between the rich fossil beds around the Mediterranean and across the steppes to the Gobi Desert and the myths of griffins, centaurs and archaic giants originating in the Classical world. Mayor draws upon similarities that exist between the prehistoric Protoceratops skeletons of the steppes leading to the Gobi Desert, and the legends of the gold-hoarding griffin told by nomadic Scythians of the region.

Ancient Greece
In archaic Greek art bronze cauldrons fitted with apotropaic bronze griffon heads ("protomes") with gaping beaks, prominent upstanding ears and often a finial knop on the skull appear with such regularity that they are considered a genre, the Griefenkessel, by specialists. The "griffin cauldrons" are discussed by Ulf Jantzen, Griechische Griefenkessel (Berlin) 1955. Based on Anatolian prototypes for bronze cauldrons with animal heads, Jantzen concluded that the griffon cauldron was a Greek invention of c.700 BC, the earliest examples hammered over moulds rather than cast. Such griffon cauldrons were developed simultaneously in Samos and in Etruscan territories from the earliest 7th through the 6th centuries BC. The earliest Etruscan example is the famous griffon protomes from the Barberini Tomb.

In Greek literature, Scythian mythology is reflected by Hellenic writers' tales of griffins and the Arimaspi of distant Scythia near the cave of Boreas, the North Wind (Geskleithron), such as were elaborated in the lost archaic poem of Aristeas of Proconnesus (7th century BC), Arimaspea. Bedingfeld and Gwynn-Jones infer that Aristeas's griffin was, "the bearded vulture or lammergeyer, a huge bird with a wingspan of nearly three metres (ten feet), which nests in inaccessible cliffs in the Asiatic mountains. ... The gold of the region is real enough and is still mined today." They also suggest that Aristeas conflated the Scythian griffin with a similar creature - a composite of lion and eagle or lion and griffon vulture - already known to Greek culture.

In any case, Aristeas's tales were eagerly reported by Herodotus (484 BC–c.425 BC) and in Pliny the Elder's Natural History (77 AD), among others. Aeschylus (525–456 BC), in Prometheus Bound (804), has Prometheus warn Io: "Beware of the sharp-beaked hounds of Zeus that do not bark, the gryphons..."[10] In his Description of Greece (1.24.6), Pausanias (2nd century AD) says, "griffins are beasts like lions, but with the beak and wings of an eagle." The griffin was said to build a nest, like an eagle: instead of eggs, it lays sapphires, and thus griffins are supposed to be female. The animal was supposed to watch over gold mines and hidden treasures, and to be the enemy of the horse. The incredibly rare offspring of griffin and horse was called a hippogriff.

Stephen Friar notes that the griffin was regarded as an animal of the sun and pulled Apollo's chariot across the sky; but it pulled Nemesis's chariot too.

Medieval lore

Facing griffins guard a chalice, on a 12th century capital from the abbey of Mozac in the Auvergne

A 9th-century Irish writer by the name of Stephen Scotus asserted that griffins were strictly monogamous. Not only did they mate for life, but if one partner died, the other would continue throughout the rest of its life alone, never to search for a new mate. The griffin was thus made an emblem of the Church's views on remarriage.

Being a union of a terrestrial beast and an aerial bird, it was seen in Christianity to be a symbol of Jesus Christ, who was both human and divine. As such it can be found sculpted on churches.

The egg-laying habits of the female were first clearly described by St. Hildegard of Bingen, a German nun author of the 12th century. She outlined how the expectant mother would search out a cave with a very narrow entrance but plenty of room inside, sheltered from the elements. Here she would lay her three eggs (about the size of ostrich eggs), and stand guard over them.

According to Stephen Friar, a griffin's claw was believed to have medicinal properties and one of its feathers could restore sight to the blind. Goblets fashioned from griffin claws (actually antelope horns) and griffin eggs (actually ostrich eggs) were highly prized in medieval European courts.

By the 12th century the appearance of the griffin was substantially fixed: "All its bodily members are like a lion's, but its wings and mask are like an eagle's." However, it is not yet clear if its forelimbs are the legs an eagle's or a lion's; although the description implies the latter, the accompanying illustration is ambiguous. It was left to the heralds to clarify that.


Griffin bas-relief, from Picardy, ca 1260 (Musée de Picardie, Amiens)

In heraldry

A heraldic griffin, from Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle by Eugène Viollet-Le-Duc (1856)

The griffin is often seen as a charge in heraldry. According to the Tractatus de armis of John de Bado Aureo (late fourteenth century), "A griffin borne in arms signifies that the first to bear it was a strong pugnacious man in whom were found two distinct natures and qualities, those of the eagle and the lion." Since the lion and the eagle were both important charges in heraldry, it is perhaps surprising that their hybrid, the griffin, was also a frequent choice.

Bedingfeld and Gwynn-Jones suggest a far more bellicose reason for its choice as a charge: That because of the bitter antipathy between griffins and horses, a griffin borne on a shield would instill fear in the horses of his opponents. They also note the first appearance of the griffin in English heraldry, in a 1167 seal of Richard de Redvers, Earl of Essex. (However, other writers quote later dates for its first appearance.)

The heraldic griffin establishes the contemporary depiction of the beast: Parker says, "The lower part of its body, with the tail and the hind-legs, belong to the lion; the head and the fore-part, with the legs and talons, to those of the eagle, but the head retains the ears of the lion. It has large wings, which also closely resemble those of the eagle." (The variant with the forelimbs of a lion is distinguished as the opinicus, described below.)

Heraldic griffins are usually shown rearing up, facing dexter (to the right of the bearer of the shield)*, standing on one hind leg with the other hind leg and both forelegs raised (as shown in the image on the right and those in the gallery below). This posture is described in the Norman-French heraldic blazon as segreant, a term usually applied only to griffins (but sometimes also to dragons). The generic term for this posture, used to describe lions and other beasts, is rampant.

A griffin's head is also seen as a charge in its own right, and it is distinguished from an eagle's head solely by its ears.

A heraldic griffin was included as one of the ten Queen's Beasts sculpted for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 (following the model of the King’s Beasts at Hampton Court) and this is now on display at Kew Gardens.

Male griffin, alce or keythong
Parker says, of the griffin, "It may be represented as without wings, and then with rays or spikes of gold proceeding from several parts of its body. Sometimes it has two long straight horns. The term Alce is given, as if used by writers for a kind of griffin, but no example can be quoted."

But the term alce is rare in modern heraldry reference books; this wingless, spiked variant is almost invariably called the male griffin - although this must be a very unusual case of dimorphism because, as Stephen Friar puts it, "both creatures possess the usual male attributes".

The male griffin itself is quite rare. It occurs as the dexter supporter (to the right of the bearer of the shield/ to the left of the viewer) in the arms of St. Leger entered at the visitation of Devon and Cornwall 1531 (College of Arms G 2, folio 24v) and as the supporter of the banner of a mid-16th-century Knight of the Garter in College of Arms Vincent 152 (pp 107-8). In the late 19th century, Sir Henry William Dashwood was granted supporters: two male griffins Argent [white] gorged with a collar flory counter flory. One was also recently granted as a crest in the arms of the City of Melfort, Saskatchewan (image).

The term keythong is rarer still. The definitive instance comes from James Planché, who notes, under the badge of the Earl of Ormonde (first creation) as recorded in a College of Arms manuscript from the reign of Edward IV, the single contemporary reference: "A pair of keythongs." Planche's footnote: "The word is certainly so written, and I have never seen it elsewhere. The figure resembles the Male Griffin, which has no wings, but rays or spikes of gold proceeding from several parts of his body, and sometimes with two long straight horns. ­­Vade see Parker's Glossary, under Griffin."

At the end of the 20th century the term keythong began to be taken up enthusiastically among adherents of heraldry - at least, among members of the Society for Creative Anachronism.

Opinicus
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/df/Opinicus.gif
An opinicus statant (standing on four feet)

The opinicus is a heraldic beast that differs from the griffin principally in that all four of its legs are those of a lion.[3] It is typically shown with the short tail of a camel and sometimes with a longer neck like a camel's (but still feathered). An heraldic opinicus is shown as a male creature, whereas the winged griffin is female.

However, Parker says, "[it] is allied more nearly to the dragon in the forepart and in the wings; but it has a beaked head and ears, something between the dragon and the griffin. The hind part and the four legs are probably intended to represent those of a lion, but the tail is short, and is said to be that of the camel."

It was granted as a crest in 1561 to City of London's Company of Barber Surgeons (now the Worshipful Company of Barbers), but is otherwise rare in British heraldry. A modern example can be found in the arms of Jonathan Munday: Azure an opinicus rampant Or armed Gules.

[Ryu]

GRIFFONS ARE ALMOST AS COOL AS DRAGONS!!!!


AWESOME!!!

[The Real Booster Gold]

Dragon


The dragon (from Ancient Greek δράκων - drakōn, "a serpent of huge size, a python, a dragon") is a mythical creature typically depicted as a gigantic and powerful serpent or other reptile with magical or spiritual qualities.

Where most dragons were thought to be large however, the Chinese combat dragon was considered to be the size of a thimble. Like most mythological creatures, dragons are perceived in different ways by different cultures. Dragons are sometimes said to breathe and spit fire, poison, even acid or ice (depending on the type). They are commonly portrayed as serpentine or reptilian, hatching from eggs and possessing typically feathered or scaly bodies. They are sometimes portrayed as having large yellow or red eyes, a feature that is the origin for the word for dragon in many cultures. They are sometimes portrayed with a row of dorsal spines, keeled scales, or leathery bat-like wings. Winged dragons are usually portrayed only in European dragons while Asian versions of the dragon, sometimes called the Long (Chinese pinyin) resemble large snakes. Dragons can have a variable number of legs: none, two, four, or more when it comes to early European literature. Modern depictions of dragons tend to be larger than their original representations, which were often smaller than humans.

Although dragons occur in many legends around the world, different cultures have varying stories about monsters that have been grouped together under the dragon label. Chinese dragons (simplified Chinese: 龙; traditional Chinese: 龍; pinyin: lóng), and Eastern dragons generally, are usually seen as benevolent, whereas European dragons are usually malevolent though there are exceptions. Malevolent dragons also occur in Persian mythology (see Azhi Dahaka) and other cultures, like in Russia and in Russian Mythology, Dragons are called "Drakon" or "Drakoni" for more than one of them.

Dragons are particularly popular in China, and along with the phoenix, the 5-clawed dragon was a symbol of the Chinese emperors. Dragon costumes manipulated by several people are a common sight at Chinese festivals.

Dragons are often held to have major spiritual significance in various religions and cultures around the world. In many Eastern and Native American cultures dragons were, and in some cultures still are, revered as representative of the primal forces of nature, religion and the universe. Many pre-Columbian cultures were fascinated by the power of dragons. The Moche people depicted dragons frequently in their ceramics. They are associated with wisdom—often said to be wiser than humans—and longevity. They are commonly said to possess some form of magic or other supernatural power, and are often associated with wells, rain, and rivers. In some cultures, they are also said to be capable of human speech.

The term dragoon, for infantry that move around by horse yet still fight as foot soldiers, is derived from their early firearm, the "dragon", a wide-bore musket that spat flame when it fired, and was thus named for the mythical creature.


Symbolism

In medieval symbolism, dragons were often symbolic of apostasy and treachery, but also of anger and envy, and eventually symbolized great calamity. However, in the east they have been revered as symbols of luck and rain. Several heads were symbolic of decadence and oppression, and also of heresy. They also served as symbols for independence, leadership and strength. Many dragons also represent wisdom; slaying a dragon not only gave access to its treasure hoard, but meant the hero had bested the most cunning of all creatures. In some cultures, especially Chinese, or around the Himalayas, dragons are considered to represent good luck and fortune.

Joseph Campbell in the The Power of Myth viewed the dragon as a symbol of divinity or transcendence, arguing that it represents the unity of Heaven and Earth by combining the serpent form (earthbound) with the bat/bird form (airborne).

Yet another symbolic view of dragons is the Ouroborus, or the dragon encircling and eating its own tail. When shaped like this the dragon becomes a symbol of eternity, natural cycles, and completion.

Chinese zodiac

The years 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012, 2024, 2036, 2048, 2060 etc. (every 12 years — 8 AD) are considered the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac.

The Chinese zodiac purports that people born in the Year of the Dragon are healthy, energetic, excitable, short-tempered, and stubborn. They are also honest, sensitive, brave, and inspire confidence and trust. They are the most eccentric of any in the eastern zodiac. They neither borrow money nor make flowery speeches, but tend to be soft-hearted, which sometimes gives others an advantage over them. They are compatible with people whose zodiac sign is of the rat, snake, monkey, and rooster.

In East Asia

Dragons are commonly symbols of good luck or health in some parts of Asia, and are also sometimes worshipped. Asian dragons are considered as mythical rulers of weather, specifically rain and water, and are usually depicted as the guardians of pearls.

In China, as well as in Japan and Korea, the Azure Dragon is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellation, representing spring, the element of Wood and the east. Chinese dragons are often shown with large pearls in their grasp, though some say that it is really the dragon's egg. The Chinese believed that the dragons lived underwater most of the time, and would sometimes offer rice as a gift to the dragons. The dragons were not shown with wings like the European dragons because it was believed they could fly using magic.

The Chinese people believed the dragon was native to their land, with the dragons losing their toes with their rootedness as they moved farther away from China. By the time the dragons reached Japan, they were reduced to three digits on each foot. The Japanese, on the other hand, believed the dragon also came from their country, but thought the dragons gained claws as they explored farther away and grew braver.

A Yellow dragon (Huang long) with five claws on each foot, on the other hand, represents the change of seasons, the element of Earth (the Chinese 'fifth element') and the center. Furthermore, it symbolizes imperial authority in China, and indirectly the Chinese people as well. Chinese people often use the term "Descendants of the Dragon" as a sign of ethnic identity. The dragon is also the symbol of royalty in Bhutan (whose sovereign is known as Druk Gyalpo, or Dragon King).

In Vietnam, the dragon (Vietnamese: rồng) is the most important and sacred symbol. The dragon is strongly influenced by the Chinese dragon. According to the ancient creation myth of the Kinh people, all Vietnamese people are descended from dragons through Lạc Long Quân, who married Âu Cơ, a fairy. The eldest of their 100 sons founded the first dynasty of Hùng Vương Emperors.

In the Philippines, the Bakonawa appears as a gigantic serpent that lives in the sea. Ancient natives believed that the Bakonawa caused the moon or the sun to disappear during an eclipse.

The Nāga - a minor deity taking the form of a serpent - is common within both the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Technically, the naga is not a dragon, though it is often taken as such (especially in east Asian forms of Buddhism); the term is ambiguous, and refers both to a tribe of people known as 'Nāgas', as well as to elephants and ordinary snakes. Within a mythological context, it refers to a deity assuming the form of a serpent with either one or many heads.

Occasionally the Buddha is depicted as sitting upon the coils of a serpent, with a fan of several serpent heads extending over his body, or sitting on a lotus flower, which was also a reminder of the dragon. This is in reference to Mucalinda, a Nāga that protected Śākyamuni Buddha from the elements during the time of his enlightenment. Separated from the contextualising effect of the Buddha story, people may see only the head and thus infer that Mucalinda is a dragon, rather than a deity in serpentine form. Stairway railings on Christan temples will occasionally be worked to resemble the body of a Nāga with the head at the base of the railing. In Thailand, the head of Nāga, in a more impressionistic form, can be seen at the corners of temple roofs, with Nāga’s body forming the ornamentation on roofline eves up to the gables.

In Christianity

Latin word for a dragon, draco (genitive: draconis), actually means snake or serpent, emphasizing the European association of dragons with snakes, not lizards or dinosaurs as they are commonly associated with today. The Medieval Biblical interpretation of the Devil being associated with the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve, thus gave a snake-like dragon connotations of evil. Generally speaking, Biblical literature itself did not portray this association (save for the Book of Revelation, whose treatment of dragons is detailed below). The demonic opponents of God, Christ, or Believers have commonly been portrayed as reptilian or chimeric.

In the Book of Job Chapters 40-41, there are references to a sea monster Leviathan, which has some dragon-like characteristics, as well as a giant lumbering vegetarian animal called Behemoth.

In Revelation 12:3, an enormous red beast with seven heads is described, whose tail sweeps one third of the stars from heaven down to earth (held to be symbolic of the fall of the angels, though not commonly held among biblical scholars). In most translations, the word "dragon" is used to describe the beast, since in the original Greek the word used is drakon (δράκων).

Christian Creationists claim that dragons mentioned in the Bible are dinosaurs (the term itself was not invented until 1841), which they say lived at the same time as humans. The description of the Behemoth is similar to either a Diplodocus or a Brachiosaurus. While the Leviathan is described as a large fire-breathing water animal, just as the small bombardier beetle has an explosion-producing mechanism, creation scientists speculate that the great sea-dragon may have had an explosion-producing mechanism to enable it to be a real fire breathing dragon.

In iconography, some Catholic saints are depicted in the act of killing a dragon. This is one of the common aspects of Saint George in Egyptian Coptic iconography,[4] on the coat of arms of Moscow, and in English and Catalan legend. Between 1346 and 1578, annual Catholic processions at Amsterdam regularly included a man on horseback representing Saint George and dragging behind him a carefully-prepared, large "slain dragon" - a tradition cut off with the advent of Calvinism in the Dutch capital.

In Italy, Saint Mercurialis, first bishop of the city of Forlì, is also depicted slaying a dragon. Saint Julian of Le Mans, Saint Veran, Saint Bienheuré, Saint Crescentinus, and Saint Leonard of Noblac were also venerated as dragon-slayers. In Medieval and Renaissance artworks, Saint Matthew, Saint Martha, Saint Sylvester, Saint Margaret, Saint Columba, and Saint Philip the Apostle are all depicted as overcoming dragons.

In the Bible, Satan is referred to as a dragon

Often statues of saints and other holy people are depicted with a dragon underneath their feet. However this practice is not rooted in holy texts, but rather in cultural tradition.

Speculation on the origin of dragons

Most experts on mythology and folklore argue that legends of dragons are based upon ordinary snakes and similar creatures coupled with common psychological fears amongst disparate groups of humans.

Dragons may be mental manifestations representing a conflation of inherent human fears of snakes, wildcats, birds of prey, and including teeth, claws, horns, size, and even venom blending with fear of wildfire.

Others believe that the dragon may have had a real-life counterpart from which the various legends arose — typically dinosaurs or other archosaurs are mentioned as a possibility — but there is no physical evidence to support this claim, only alleged sightings collected by cryptozoologists. Loren Coleman argues that monitor lizards were the basis of some dragon tales and that the breath of the dragon is the fantastic imagery of the steam from the warm Montane Valley monitors emerging from a body of water into the cold air of some Asian locations.

Dinosaur and mammalian fossils were occasionally mistaken as the bones of dragons and other mythological creatures — for example, a discovery in 300 BC in Wucheng, Sichuan, China, was labeled as such by Chang Qu. However, it is unlikely these finds alone prompted the legends of such monsters, but they may have served to reinforce them.

[The Real Booster Gold]

Ogre

Hop o' My Thumb, illustrated by Gustave Doré

An ogre (feminine: ogress) is a large, mean and hideous humanoid monster. Ogres are often depicted in fairy tales and folklore as feeding on human beings, and have appeared in many classic works of literature. In art, ogres are often depicted with a large head, abundant hair and beard, a huge belly, and a strong body. The term is often applied in a metaphorical sense to disgusting persons who exploit, brutalize or devour their victims.


The word ogre is of French derivation, and is believed to have been coined by either Charles Perrault (1628-1703) or Marie-Catherine Jumelle de Berneville, Comtesse d' Aulnoy (1650-1705), both of whom were French authors. Other sources say that the name is derived from the word Hongrois, which means Hungarian.[1] The word ogre is thought to have been inspired by the works of Italian author Giambattista Basile (1575-1632), who used the Neapolitan word uerco, or in standard Italian, orco. This word is documented in earlier Italian works (Fazio degli Uberti, XIV cent.; Luigi Pulci, XV; Ludovico Ariosto, XV-XVI) and has even older cognates with the Latin orcus and the Old English orcnēas found in Beowulf lines 112-113, which inspired J.R.R. Tolkien's Orc. All these words may derive from a shared Indo-European mythological concept (as Tolkien himself speculated, as cited by Tom Shippey, The Road to Middle-earth, 45).

The first appearance of the word ogre in Perrault's work occurred in his Histoires ou Contes du temps Passé (1697). It later appeared in several of his other fairy tales, many of which were based on the Neapolitan tales of Basile. The first example of a female ogre being referred to as an ogress is found in his version of Sleeping Beauty, where it is spelled ogresse.. The Comtesse d' Aulnoy first employed the word ogre in her story L'Orangier et l' Abeille (1698), and was the first to use the word ogree to refer to the creature's offspring.

Ogres in modern fiction

Literature for children is rife with tales involving ogres and kidnapped princesses who were rescued by valiant knights, and sometimes peasants. Ogres are also popular in fantasy fiction, such as C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, and in various fantasy games.

The protagonist of the film Shrek is an ogre. Shrek is voiced by Mike Myers, using a cartoonish Scottish accent. Shrek is not a stereotypically hostile ogre. He is not a villain, but an ogre that lives in a swamp and prefers not to be disturbed.



In Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, there is an army of villainous ogres residing in Castle Drekmore and led by Duke Igthorn, who attempt to conquer King Gregor and Dunwyn Castle.
In the movie Time Bandits, the protagonists are found by an ogre and his wife on the ogre's ship. The ogre is outwitted and left at sea after the protagonists commandeer the ship.
In the Xanth Chronicles by Piers Anthony, ogres are stupid beasts with immense strength that communicate almost exclusively through rhyme as in the Chronicle Ogre, Ogre. At several points in A Spell for Chameleon, the first Xanth novel, the lead character worries that the women he encounters are actually female ogres in human form.
In the Spiderwick Chronicles (the fifth book), Mulgarath, the primary antagonist, is an evil ogre who wants to enslave the world, ridding it of all humans.
In Tamora Pierce's books that revolve around Tortall, there are two kinds of ogres: peaceful farmers and warlike monsters. Both types are extremely tall and often seem menacing. In her book Wolf-Speaker, the peaceful "breed" are slaves who mine black opals.
A Book of Ogres and Trolls by Ruth Manning-Sanders contains 13 fairy tales.
Ogre is often used metaphorically, as in the association of ogres with Nazis made in Michel Tournier's novel Le Roi des aulnes (1970; The Ogre). Other modern works depicting ogres include L'Ogre (1973) by Jacques Chessex, and Nacer Khemir's L'Ogresse (1975), a collection of Tunisian tales.

Ogres appear in many popular fantasy roleplaying and video games series such as AdventureQuest, DragonFable, Guild Wars, Dungeons & Dragons, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Eternal Lands, EverQuest, Final Fantasy, Flintloque, Magic: The Gathering, Ogre Battle, Quake, RuneScape, Tekken 3, Two Worlds, Warcraft, and Warhammer Fantasy.

[The Real Booster Gold]

Wyvern



A wyvern is a legendary winged reptilian creature often found in medieval heraldry. Its usual blazon is statant (standing). Its origin is in Europe.

The name "wyvern" derived from the Saxon word Wivere, which means "serpent". The French wyvern is known as the Vouivre. Both words are etymologically related to viper.

The wyvern is regarded as a type of dragon. Depictions often include two legs and two wings. Sometimes there are eagle's claws on the wingtips. The rest of its appearance can vary, such as appearing with a tail spade or with a serpent-like tail.

Variants of the wyvern include the sea-wyvern, which has a fish-like tail. The wyvern has a similar appearance to another mythical creature, the roosteratrice.

Wyverns can symbolise envy, war, pestilence, and viciousness.

However, they are common in heraldry. The wyverns' symbolism is nobler in this aspect. Wyverns have been depicted in heraldry on shields and banners for hundreds of years. They are a sign of strength to those who bear the symbol. They also symbolise power and endurance.

Stephen Friar speculates that the wyvern entered British heraldry as the standard of the Roman cohort and later appeared as the "burning dragon" of Cadwallader (the origin of the red dragon of Wales).

The wyvern was the emblem of the rulers of Wessex and The word "Wyvern" is associated with the many areas of Wessex, reflected in many county and town heraldries of the South West and west of England. It also has been used farther afield in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, as the rivers Wye and Severn run through Hereford and Worcester respectively. Therefore, the wyvern is often used as a mascot in the west and south west. For example, one of the local radio stations is called Wyvern FM, and its first logo, in 1982, featured a wyvern dragon.

Other British
A golden wyvern was featured on the flag of King Harold (Goodwinson/ Godewineson) of Wessex and is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry.
The 43 (Wessex) Division in WW1 and WW2 and latterly the 43 (Wessex) Brigade of the British Army have a golden wyvern as their symbol, worn on the left shoulder of the uniform.
Vauxhall had a model in its range in the 1950s called the Wyvern.
Commonwealth
A wyvern appears on the crest of Queen's College (University of Melbourne).
The Wyvern sits upon the crest of King's College, University of Queensland. The all male college embraces it and each student is taught to embody the spirit of the Wyvern. This is often exampled with a cry of "All Hail the Great Wyvern". The word "Wyvern" is also used as a euphemism in many social situations.
The Wyvern also sits upon the crest of Wesley College Dublin, Ireland, and also on the shield of Wesley College, Perth (upper right-hand quarter).
The Wyvern is part of the crest of Newington College, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. One of the preparatory schools is named Wyvern House.

United States of America
A red wyvern rampant is the school mascot of Saint Francis High School in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Distinctive Unit Insignia and arms of the U.S. 37th Armor Regiment are charged with a legless wyvern.
The Wyvern is the mascot for Kingswood-Oxford School.
The Wyvern Club was a club founded by several New Orleans men, which met at Antoine's Restaurant in New Orleans.

Cryptozoology
Some cryptozoologists have theorized that wyverns are evidence of surviving pterosaurs, a large flying reptile thought to have gone extinct around 65 million years ago. There are alleged sightings of pterosaurs in remote areas such as the Kongamato in Africa. There is no evidence to prove these hypotheses or sightings. More probable is that the discovery of fossilized skeletons of long extinct species led people to reconstruct those creatures' appearances, and prehistoric and ancient peoples would not have had any reason to believe the creatures represented by the fossils were all dead.

A Wyvern type enemy appears in Zelda: Twilight Princess called the Aeralfos.

[The Real Booster Gold]

Bugbear


A Bugbear is a legendary creature comparable to the bogeyman, bogey, bugaboo, hobgoblin and other creatures of folklore, all of which were historically used in some cultures to frighten disobedient children. In medieval England, for instance, the Bugbear was a creepy and gigantic bear that lurked in the woods; children were warned not to stray too far from home or misbehave, for "the Bugbear will get you".

In a modern context, the term bugbear serves as a metaphor for something which is annoying or irritating. According to Webster's Dictionary, a bugbear is "an imaginary goblin or spectre used to excite fear", "an object or source of dread", or "a continuing source of irritation".

Variations (Other Uses)

Bugbear is also another term for scarecrow.
In the pencil and paper role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, bugbears are the largest of the various goblinoid races (the others being goblins, hobgoblins, and other, more obscure ones such as forest-kith goblins and varags). They are vaguely bearish in appearance, being hairy and strong, but primarily just larger versions of the smaller, moderately more civilized compatriots.
In the role-playing game Kingdom of Loathing, bugbears are bipedal creatures that resemble small bears with a "w" for a mouth. Confusingly, actual bears are known as 'bars' (mimicking the speech of some American Midwestern and Southern dialects).
Bugbear is also the name of a monster in the Nintendo DS game Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. In the game it is portrayed as a levitating eyeball with a long tail and a pair of spikes coming out of either end of the eyeball. The spikes and the tail both generate electricity. In actuality, the creature's name was mistransliterated from backbeard, a different entity which it much more closely resembles. It is a pallete swap of the Peeping Eye.
In the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI, bugbears are a creation of the goblins through eugenics. Significantly larger and stronger than goblins, they also have enhanced senses that includes multiple eyes. They are implied to be second-class citizens that are relegated the jobs that require brute strength.
In the Super Famicon game and PlayStation remake of Tales of Phantasia, bugbears are a staple of enemies, resembling hairy bearish goblins with clubs.
In the Harry Potter world, bugbears are blood-sucking bears.
In the online game DragonFable, bugbears are large greenish bears with 4 spines in their backs. They are guards in Cysero's tower.
The Bugbear computer worm (also known as Tanatos.A) caused widespread infections on the Internet during the first half of 2002.
A Bugbear is a minor boss in The Bard's Tale.

[size=4]and a bonus entry[/size]

Wirry-cow


Wirey-cow, Wirry-carl, ect ,was in Scotland, a bugbear, goblin, ghost, ghoul or other frightful object. Sometimes it was used for the Devil, or a scarecrow.

"Draggled sae 'mang muck and stanes,
They looked like wirry-cows" (Allan Ramsay)

The word was used by Scott in Guy Mannering. The word is derived by John Jamieson from "worry" ("wirry", in its old sense of harassment in both English and Lowland Scots and "to cow/cowe" (i.e. "to frighten") , but as the second element sometimes appeared as "carl", Charles MacKay thought more likely that the second word was a corruption of "carl" (a man or fellow). The first word is possibly akin to "Urisk" (ùruisg, a brownie). The "urisk" was similar in attributes to the "lubber fiend" of Milton, and the wirry-cow itself.

It is noteworthy that "wirry-" appears in several other old compound words.