Bucephalus

This creature is: mythological 

Bucephalus was a fierce horse no one could tame... save for the young Alexander the Great. He realised the reason the stallion was so troublesome – the horse was distressed by its own shadow. He turned the horse so its head was towards the sun, and no longer being able to see its shadow, it calmed down enough for him to mount and ride. 

‘Bucephalus’ means ‘ox-head’ in Greek, he got his name from the brand on his haunch which was shaped like an ox’s head.

Bucephalus proved himself to be an excellent horse and was ridden in many battles. When he died, Alexander founded and named a city, Bucephala, in honour of him. 

Bucephalus was sometimes depicted with horns, presumably these were part of his armour or other such adornment, or possibly a confusion arising from his name. 

As time passed and stories of Alexander the Great became increasingly mythologised (there’s griffons, mermaids and all sorts in some versions!), so too did Bucephalus. In Medieval manuscripts, the horse had become an altogether more fantastic – and carnivorous – beast… 

Instead of having an ox head brand, he now was depicted with a three-horned ox-like head. 

He was kept by Alexander’s father, King Philip of Macedonia, in his dungeons, and traitors would be sent into his cage to be devoured – Bucephalus liked eating people.

It was prophesied that whoever could tame and mount the ‘horse’ would become the future king. Alexander did just that, and rode Bucephalus in many battles, the ferocious horse-creature being able to eat some of their enemies.  

Bucephalus wasn’t the only mythical creature sidekick Alexander the Great had – there was also a golden unicorn rabbit! You can read my post about that Here.

External links:

Bucephalus on Wikipedia

An article about Bucephalus on British Library’s Medieval Manuscripts blog, which has some pictures of the three-horned horse. 

The only picture I came across of Bucephalus where he actually has an ox-head mark was this one on Wikimedia Commons 

Chalkydri

This creature is: mythological

Note: I am not religious. Please forgive me if I have made errors regarding this creature.

Chalkydri are a kind of angel that appear in the Second Book of Enoch. In the book, Enoch (an ancestor of Noah and father of Methuselah) ascends up through various heavens. Ten heavens are described, and the Chalkydri live in fourth heaven. 

There, they accompany the sun, and at sunrise all the Chalkydri start singing to tell the world’s birds a new day has arrived.

The Chalkydri have feet and tails like a lion’s, the heads of crocodiles, and “their appearance is empurpled, like the rainbow”. They have twelve angel wings each. Their size is “nine hundred measures” (whatever that means. I do not know how much a ‘measure’ is, but I presume a Chalkydri would be rather huge). 

The Second Book of Enoch, also called Secrets of Enoch or 2 Enoch, is a book that nobody really knows much about. A wide range of dates have been suggested but it’s thought that it is from the first century CE. It was written by Jews or Christians. It is not included in either the Jewish or the Christian canon, but it was used by a Christian sect called the Bogomils.

The fourth heaven’s Chalkydri are mentioned alongside “phoenixes”, any reference to these I can find is of a very vague nature (basically just: they are not the same as Greek mythology phoenixes, they dwell in fourth and also sixth heaven, but beyond that no clue). “Phoenix” could even be an alternate name for Chalkydri, as the book says their “names are Phoenixes and Chalkydri” and then what follows is only a single description… so they could be the same kind of creature or at least are highly similar. But I do not know. 

External links:

Chalkydri on Wikipedia 

2 Enoch on Wikipedia – this article discusses the book and includes a brief description of all ten heavens.

Here are some passages on the Chalkydri in a 1926 version of the Second Book of Enoch on sacred-texts.com: 

 - the main bit about phoenixes and Chalkydri

- a part that mentions them singing 

-  a part about sixth heaven that mentions the phoenixes again

And here’s an 1896 version of the book on Internet Archive. 

Megabunus diadema

This animal is: real

Megabunus diadema is a small species of harvestman (Opiliones) found widely in Europe. 

It has prominent spines atop its ocularium (the turret its eyes are on), the ‘diadema’ part of its name refers to this spikey crown (diadem). Its colours and spines act as camouflage, helping it blend in with lichens (and presumably make it hard for predators to swallow).

I see them quite regularly in woodland, resting with their legs stretched out flat on a gate post, or walking among mosses and lichens preying on small invertebrates.

External links:

Megabunus diadema on Wikipedia

Excellent photos of Megabunus diadema, by macro photographer Tim Jonas

You can look loads of cool pictures of Megabunus diadema on iNaturalist. Check out this one shedding its skin, and also this tiny young one.

This British Arachnological Society PDF pamphlet gives a nice introduction to UK harvestmen in general.

This Field Studies Council webpage has lots of harvestman information. To find Megabunus diadema, click ‘species’, then either enter the name in the search box or scroll down and click on it. 

Black Shuck and Other Black Dogs

This creature is: mythical, from folklore

Note: Here I have focused on England’s black dogs, but they are by no means peculiar to England – numerous black dog-like creatures haunt Europe and the Americas – and large, sometimes scary canids are prevalent in folklore the world over. 

As large as a cow or pony, with fiery eyes and shaggy fur, these beasts appear usually at night. Sometimes harmful, sometimes benevolent, always terrifying to those who encounter them. Occasionally they are cyclopean, headless, or drag along clanking chains. 

Black Shuck is a classic black dog. ‘Shuck’ derives from the Old English word ‘scucca’ meaning ‘devil’ or ‘fiend’, the dog is sometimes said to be the devil in disguise. He is occasionally described as having just one great eye, like a cyclops. His hobbies include prowling and howling. To see him is supposedly an omen of soon-coming death.  

Some very notable sightings of Black Shuck occurred on 4 August 1577: 

In a Holy Trinity Church in Blythburgh, Suffolk, there was a clap of thunder, and Black Shuck burst in through the doors. He ran past a large congregation, killed a man and a boy, and caused the church steeple to collapse through the roof (yikes). As the dog left, he made scorch marks on the north door which can be seen to this day.

Another sighting on same day at St Mary's Church, Bungay, described Shuck as running along through the church, swiftly killing two people who were keeling and praying, and biting a third person so they became “as shrunken as a piece of leather scorched in a hot fire” (more yikes). 

The scorch marks on the door are referred to by the locals as “the devil’s fingerprints”, and the event is remembered in this verse:

“All down the church in midst of fire, the hellish monster flew, and, passing onward to the quire, he many people slew.”

With the mention of thunder at the beginning there, and the burns, the “Black Shuck” was almost certainly some kind of electrical phenomena… ball lighting perhaps.

Not all back dogs are nasty though, with some helping lost travellers find their way. 

The Gurt Dog (“Great Dog”) of Somerset was so friendly that mothers would allow their children to play unsupervised on the hills it occupied, because the Dog would protect them. 

The Black Dog of Preston is said to be a guardian, appearing when the town is in danger. It also howls, and its howl means death… It’s headless, too.

Black dogs are actually pretty varied. Saying ‘Black dogs’ is a little like saying ‘ghosts’, there are plenty of different ones with different intentions. Some may even be ghosts, appearing after the death of people. 

Despite often being aligned with the devil, some black dogs called Church Grims actually guard churches and graveyards from thieves, witches, and other such unwanted folk. These dogs are ghosts… a church grim is the ghost of a dog that was buried, either alive under the cornerstone of the church as it was being built, or as the first burial in the north part of the new churchyard. This was because, otherwise, the first human buried there had to guard it against the Devil. To save a human soul from that duty a black dog was used as a substitute. 

… So, if ever on a dark and moonless night you encounter a great black hound, just remember – it may have come to guide you safely home… or maybe it’s just hungry. 

External links:

Black Dog on Wikipedia – lists a whole load of regional variants

Black Shuck on Wikipedia – just about that particular kind of black dog

Church grim on Wikipedia

An account of the 1577 shuck sightings on Anomalies

An article on Folklore Thursday about how some archaeologists found bones of a large dog at Leiston Abbey in Suffolk, which less sensible newspapers quickly called Black Shuck’s bones. 

Ratatoskr, Níðhöggr, Veðrfölnir and Eagle

These creatures are: mythological

Some aspects of Norse mythology are pretty well-known, appearing often in pop culture… but have you heard of Ratatoskr the unicorn squirrel?

Ratatoskr is a “squirrel” who runs up and down the Yggdrasil (the Yggdrasil is a giant ash tree that links the nine realms). He carries messages between an eagle at the top of the Yggdrasil and Níðhöggr the dragon who dwells at its roots. The messages aren’t exactly kindly, they are mostly gossip and insults, it’s a way of the eagle and Níðhöggr being able to insult each other without having to move from their stations. 

The name Ratatoskr is generally considered to mean “drill-tooth” or “bore-tooth”, with a few other translations relating to gnawing, tusks, and travelling. 

But why does Ratatoskr sport a unicorn horn? His horn is not mentioned in any of the texts (the Poetic and Prose Eddas) that he features in, he is simply described as a “Squirrel”. But on one 17th century Icelandic manuscript (manuscript AM 738 4to, now in the care of the Árni Magnússon Institute in Iceland), there is a picture of Ratatoskr where he is green, decidedly un-squirrel-looking and has a thick horn on his forehead… Why? I think (and please note I am not an expert in squirrel distribution) squirrels were not found in Iceland, so the artist has tried their best to depict one without knowing how they look… and for some reason decided to plonk a big drill-like tusk/horn on its head (Drills and augers have existed since ancient times but of course were not aways electric!). So now Ratatoskr is a unicorn.

Now what about the creatures the squirrel is carrying messages between?

At the top of the Yggdrasil lives an eagle. The eagle is unnamed in the eddas and is said to have “knowledge of many things”. Presumably it has a good view from its perch, too. Between the eagle’s eyes sits Veðrfölnir the hawk (Veðrfölnir is only mentioned in the Prose Edda). No one is quite sure why the hawk is sitting there on the head of the eagle with no name. John Lindow (Professor Emeritus of Old Norse and Folklore at University of California, Berkeley) theorises that “perhaps, like Odin's ravens, it flies off acquiring and bringing back knowledge” for the eagle. So maybe Veðrfölnir helps the eagle gather knowledge… or maybe the eagle’s head is just a really comfy perch. We’ll never know for sure. Veðrfölnir means “storm pale”, “wind bleached” or “wind-witherer”. It seems a bit odd to me that the mysterious hawk gets a name and the eagle doesn’t. 

And then, down at the roots of the Yggdrasil, there is Níðhöggr, a ‘worm’ (a serpentine, winged dragon). Appearing in both the Poetic and Prose Eddas, Níðhöggr gnaws at the roots of the tree over Náströnd, an area of the underworld where people who were not good in life end up (he also has a chew on these people). It is sometimes believed that the roots are keeping Níðhöggr trapped down there and, come Ragnarök (Norse Mythology’s apocalypse), he will finally chew through them and escape. It isn’t very clear what the dragon will do with his freedom, it could be that he carries out the bodies of righteous rulers from the underworld so that they can dwell in Gimlé, a lovely place in Asgard where the good survivors of Ragnarök are foretold to live. But, for the time being the great serpent is trapped tree-root gnawing, but he still wants to exchange insults with the eagle. So, Ratatoskr tells him what the eagle has said, he responds, and the unicorn squirrel runs back up to the bird’s perch to tell them of the worm’s reply. 

External links:

On Wikipedia:

Veðrfölnir and Eagle

Ratatoskr

Níðhöggr

Yggdrasil on Mythopedia and Wikipedia

This is the 17th century manuscript I mentioned, on Wikipedia. Here is the picture of Ratatoskr and friends, on Wikimedia commons. Ratatoskr is green and near the bottom of the image, below him is Níðhöggr, at the top is Veðrfölnir and the eagle. The four brown creatures in the middle are stags eating the Yggdrasil’s leaves. 

And in case you were wondering “Do these critters exist in Marvel comics?” the answer is yes, yes they do. Here are the Marvel Database pages for Ratatoskr and Nidhogg from Earth-616. Ratatoskr carries messages between Nidhogg and an eagle just like in the mythology, although I cannot find a mention of Veðrfölnir the hawk.

Miri Dog and Other Water Dogs

This creature is: fictional, probably from folklore. All the water dogs discussed in this article are mythical.

A Miri Dog is a creature that haunts the folklore of Ireland. Said to dwell in lakes and rivers, these hounds swim as expertly as dolphins. They are rarely glimpsed by people. When they are seen, they appear horse-sized at a distance, but as approached they appear to shrink, until they are around the size of a Labrador. They have hands on their tails. 

If a swimmer is struggling, Miri Dogs will come to them. If they are a good person, the water hounds will grab them with their hand-tails and pull them safely ashore. If they are bad, however, the dogs will push them under until they drown. 

“Muir” means “sea” in Irish, so perhaps “Miri” stems from that, despite the Miri Dogs being associated with fresh water. Hand-tailed water-dwelling dogs could well be a garbled description of seals, which appear dog-like, and their hind flippers look rather like hands. 

All this was related to me by my farther, who knows his folklore. I thought these dogs sounded very cool, so I drew one. I decided to research more about them and came across… nothing. Well, nothing called a Miri Dog at least.

I did find Ahuizotl though. Ahuizotl (who some may know as Daring Do’s nemesis in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) is a mythical creature from Aztec mythology. Its name means “spiny aquatic thing” or “water dog”, it dwells in and guards lakes, and has a dexterous hand on the end of its long tail. It was known for sometimes eating people, crying out like a human baby to lure its meal close.

Then there is the Nguruvilu (“fox snake”) from Mapuche religion in Chile, said to live in rivers, it looks like a fox but with a snake-like body, and a long tail armed with fingernails that is uses as a claw. They can cause the rivers they live in to become dangerous, but will leave if threatened by a machi (shaman) or good kalku (“sorcerer”).

I found out about the Enfield (also known as the Onchú) as well, which is a “water-dog” from Ireland. It is a heraldic beast with the head of a fox, eagle's talons, the chest of a greyhound, the body of a lion, and the hindquarters of a wolf. It is occasionally depicted as winged. Being a hybrid creature, the Enfield possesses the cunning of the fox, honour of the eagle and the fierceness of the wolf. They live in the sea and also in loughs (lakes). Some eat people. Apparently in 1014, one came out of sea and protected the body of Tadhg Mór Ua Ceallaigh, who had fallen in battle against the Danes at Clontarf, until it was recovered for proper burial. The descendants of Tadhg Mór Ua Ceallaigh are the O’Kellys of Uí Mháine (Hy-Many), and they use the Enfield on their coat of arms because of this. 

Also said to be lurking in Irish lakes and rivers is the fierce, human-eating Dobhar-chú, a water dog also called ‘King Otter’. It is hound-like and otter-like, covered in white fur with black-tipped ears and a black cross on its back.

So we have water dogs with hands on their tails, water dogs in Ireland, but not hand-tailed Irish water dogs. And nothing called a “Miri Dog”.

So the Miri Dog itself… isn’t a thing? 

Maybe. But it lurks in my imagination. Now it lurks in yours too.

External links:

Although the Miri Dog may not exist in real folklore, these are actual mythical creatures you can read about!

Wikipedia has pages on:

Ahuizotl

Nguruvilu 

Enfield 

Onchú

Dobhar-chú

And Enfield/Onchú on A Book of Creatures

Al-Mi'raj

This creature is: mythological 

The Al-Mi'raj is found in medieval Arabic literature describing the adventures of Alexander the Great (Iskandar). Although Alexander the Great was a real historic figure, he had a lot of myths associated with him, many featuring interesting creatures. 

One version calls this creature Al-Mi'raj, it is said to be found on Jazīrat al-Tinnīn (‘Sea-Serpent Island’ or ‘Dragon Island’) in the Indian Ocean. Another account calls the creature arāj, the dragon island is called Mustashiayn and is in Western Africa.

Anyway, the dragon was doing what mythical dragons usually do (eating livestock and causing terror), and Alexander the Great did what mythical heroes usually do (he killed it). He poisoned some chunks of meat that the dragon then ate. After the defeat of the dragon, the people were thankful and give Alexander the Al-Mi'raj as a gift. 

The Al-Mi'raj is golden, shaped like a hare or rabbit, with a black horn. It is said all wild beasts that set eyes on it would flee from it. It is not clear if the beasts fled because it was fierce or because it possessed some sort of magical effect. 

I apologise for the shortness of this post, but there is not much detail provided about the mythical lagomorph, so there is not a lot I can say about it… it’s still a cool creature though!

The Al-Mi'raj wasn’t the only mythical creature sidekick Alexander the Great had – he also had a three-horned carnivorous horse! You can read my post about that Here.

External links:

Al-Mi'raj on Wikipedia. 

Rather than being digitally coloured like most of my work, this was coloured with Crayola coloured pencils. 

Bare-faced Go-away-bird

 This animal is: real

Go-away-birds are found in Africa. There are three kinds: Gray, White-bellied, and Bare-faced. They are very vocal, and their call sounds like “Go away!” hence their anti-social name. 

Bare-faced Go-away-birds like to live in moist savanna and woodland, and can also be found in shrubby cultivated areas and gardens. They live in small groups, and feed on plant matter, like fruit, seeds and buds. They are 48 cm long beak to tail. They often build their nests in tall acacia trees, where they lay two to three greenish-white eggs.

The species has recently been subject to a lot of taxonomic shuffling, which I shall attempt to summarise simply (if taxonomy-themed bafflement is not your thing, skip the next couple of paragraphs!). 

Formerly, the Bare-faced Go-away-bird had the Latin name of Corythaixoides personatus, which contained two subspecies: C. p. leopoldi with a bare face, found in a large swathe of Africa; and C. p. personatus, which has tiny brown feathers on its face and more green on its chest, found only in the Ethiopian Rift Valley. 

Now those subspecies are recognised as species in their own right: the Black-faced Go-away-bird Corythaixoides leopoldi, and the Brown-faced Go-away-bird Corythaixoides personatus.

According to Wikipedia, all the Go-away-birds have now been moved to the genus Crinifer in 2021, where they now sit with the plantain-eaters, so the first parts of their names should be Crinifer rather than Corythaixoides.

However, many sites (iNaturalist, eBird and UCN Red List) call them Corythaixoides, so that might be correct.

Who knows! I quit, working it out is hard! 

I have drawn a Black-faced Go-away-bird (the leopoldi kind). 

I am no expert, and I got very, very confused with this, so please, if you know the correct Latin name for the bird I drew, leave it in the comments!

Both the Brown-faced and Black-faced Go-away-birds appear to be classed as ‘least concern’, which means they are not endangered currently. 

External links:

Bare-faced Go-away-bird on:

iNaturalist

eBird

Wikipedia 

Black-faced Go-away bird and Brown-faced Go-away bird on UCN red list’s site. 

Velvet Mites

This animal is: real

Note: There are several families of velvet mites, here I talk about the True Velvet Mites belonging to the family Trombidiidae. The above picture depicts a generic true velvet mite rather than any particular species. This is because information on specific species is hard to come by. So, here I talk about true velvet mites in general. There will be both vague remarks and sweeping generalisations! 

These mites can be found walking about in plant litter (and on walls) pretty much the world over. Typically bright red (although some are orange or come with pretty white splotches) they are some of the most conspicuous mites around. They are also HUGE (by mite standards), most are around 4 mm in length, but the mighty Giant Velvet Mites of the genus Dinothrombium reach up to 12 mm long. 12mm!! That’s like the size of a fingernail! 

When I think of velvet mites, I think of the adults. The eight-legged fluff nuggets wandering around looking for little bugs to eat or sometimes stuff to scavenge. 

But they don’t look like this all their life – they actually have quite a complex life cycle involving lots of stages: egg, pre-larva, larva, protonymph, deutonymph, tritonymph and adult. Basically, as babies they only have six legs. These youngsters are parasitic and feed on the haemolymph (bug blood) of insects and arachnids. They are the shiny red dots you may have seen clustered on the legs of harvestmen or the bodies of butterflies. Most do not harm their host (although I can’t imagine the host enjoys carrying the little vampires around). Once they’re done sucking, they detach and moult, becoming eight-legged adults. The adults of most species are covered in lovely velvety fuzziness and have small eyes on little stalks. 

Royal Natural History volume 6 (1896) edited by Richard Lydekker has a section on the species Trombidium holosericeum which includes a little picture, and has some delightful description of the animals, which are referred to as “Velvety Mites”: “They are beautiful and striking objects, resembling tufts of bright blood-red plush.” 

Its bright colour results from carotenoids and warns predators that the mite is toxic if eaten. 

I’m usually not keen on parasites, but I will make an exception for these fluffy fellas. 

External links:

The bit of Royal Natural History volume 6 (1896) I quoted from on Wikimedia Commons

Some photos of a giant velvet mite from Malawi on iNaturalist. You can see how huge it is! 

A photo of a baby velvet mite on Wikimedia commons. It actually looks kinda cute as it drinks the innards of a harvestman. 

Information on velvet mites from the genus Allothrombium on Les carnets nature de Jessica (Jessica's nature notebooks)

Information on mites, including velvet mites, on A Chaos of Delight