Conversations from the Bestiary
Tread carefully. Here there be monsters.
Harpy
Harpy: Noun. “[A] fabulous creature, probably a wind spirit. The presence of harpies as tomb figures, however, makes it possible that they were also conceived of as ghosts. In Homer’s Odyssey they were winds that carried people away. Elsewhere, they were sometimes connected with the powers of the underworld. Homer mentions one Harpy called Podarge (Swif…
Manticore
Manticore: Noun. “[A] legendary animal having the head of a man (often with horns), the body of a lion, and the tail of a dragon or scorpion. The earliest Greek report of the creature is probably a greatly distorted description of the Caspian tiger, a hypothesis that accords well with the presumed source of the Greek word, an Old Iranian compound meanin…
Ogre
Ogre: Noun. [A] hideous giant represented in fairy tales and folklore as feeding on human beings.…The idea of the ogre can also be seen, more broadly, in a metaphoric sense in literature. The seducer who devours his or her victims in a sexual sense is a kind of ogre, as is a political tyrant or dictator who controls and exploits others and in a sense sw…
Merrow
Merrow: Noun. A mermaid found in Irish folklore which journeys from the depths of the ocean onto dry land by the power of a magical red cap called a cohuleen druith (anglicized from cochaillín draíochta). A merrow called Coomara is featured in The Soul Cages
Kelpie
Kelpie: Noun. A shapeshifting water spirit in Irish and Scottish folklore. In the form of a horse it tempts mortals to climb on its back, whereupon it gallops back into the water to drown and devour its victim, who is unable to escape due to being magically stuck to the creature’s skin. In the form of a young man the kelpie is a seducer, and no less hun…