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. 

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.

Tsuchinoko

This animal is: from folklore, also a cryptid 

The Tsuchinoko is a reptile, with venomous fangs, a thick body and thin tail (I think it looks rather like a little snake who ate a big watermelon). They are said to grow to about 80cm long when adult. It is snake-like, but has eyelids, so is more like a limbless lizard (snakes do not have eyelids). They are described as being either entirely black or mottled browns and greens with a paler belly. 

The Tsuchinoko is a cryptid - a creature people have reportedly seen but we have no physical evidence of. The Japanese term for such creatures is UMA - Unidentified Mysterious Animal. With sightings reported from all over the country - except for Hokkaido and the Nansei Islands – the Tsuchinoko is one of Japan’s most famous UMAs, featuring in manga and video games. 

It is also a Yokai - a Japanese supernatural creature. It is reported in folklore, and also features in various encyclopaedias like Shinano Kishōroku from the 1800s.

The Tsuchinoko is said to live in fields. When they are young they prey on insects, as they grow bigger they take bigger prey, like frogs, and eventually they may eat things the size of cats. They also like to drink sake. They are sometimes reported to talk (and often lie) or make chirping bird-like sounds.

They are thought to usually wiggle along like inchworms, but when hunting can jump up to five metres. They also like to roll down slopes, either laying sideways, or holding their tail in their mouth to become a wheel shape. There are stories of them rolling down hills after people, sometimes tripping them up or biting their legs. But they aren’t usually considered that dangerous to people. 

The creature is known by many different names in different regions: nozuchi, bachihebi, tatekurikaeshi, tsuchihebi... The name used mostly is Tsuchinoko. 

‘Tsuchinoko’ (which is written 槌の子 in Kanji つちのこ in hiragana and ツチノコ in katakana), can be read to mean ‘child of the earth’, ‘small hammer’, or much more commonly ‘child of hammer’. This name refers to the creature’s shape, it looks like the head of a tsuchi (a tool that can be used as a hammer, mallet or pestle) lacking a handle.

The Tsuchinoko became popular in the 1970s, after the publication of a book by Yamamoto Soseki called Nigero Tsuchinoko that recorded his and other peoples’ sightings of the creature. Soon followed more sightings, blurry photos, supposed live captures, and appearances in anime and manga. This was known as the ‘Tsuchinoko boom’. 

Another such flurry of excitement occurred in the early 21st century when a farmer in a village in Okayama Prefecture found the remains of a Tsuchinoko-like creature. It got coverage in the news, and when a biologist examined the remains they said it was “probably a yamakagashi [Tiger Keelback snake, Rhabdophis tigrinus] but not a normal one.” 

External links:

This article was written with some information from The Book of Yokai by Michael Dylan Foster and Shinonome Kijin.

The Tsuchinoko on Yokai.com

The Tsuchinoko’s page on the Wikipedia (Japanese version) which has some pictures and a list of reported sightings.