A Huge Mythical Animal Like a Whale

Fabled sea animal

The Aspidochelone lures hapless mariners to country on its back.

According to the tradition of the Physiologus and medieval bestiaries, the aspidochelone is a fabled sea fauna, variously described as a large whale or vast bounding main turtle, and a giant sea monster with huge spines on the ridge of its back. No matter what grade it is, it is always described as existence huge where it is often mistaken for an island and appears to exist rocky with crevices and valleys with trees and greenery and having sand dunes all over it. The name aspidochelone appears to exist a chemical compound word combining Greek aspis (which means either "asp" or "shield"), and chelone, the turtle. Information technology rises to the surface from the depths of the sea, and entices unwitting sailors with its island advent to brand landfall on its huge vanquish and so the whale is able to pull them under the ocean, ship and all the people, drowning them. It also emits a sweetness smell that lures fish into its trap where it then devours them. In the moralistic apologue of the Physiologus and bestiary tradition, the aspidochelone represents Satan, who deceives those whom he seeks to devour.^[1] ^[2]

Accounts of seafarers' encounters with gigantic fish appear in diverse other works, including the Volume of Jonah, The Adventures of Pinocchio , and the Baron Munchausen stories.

In the Physiologus [ edit ]

Ane version of the Latin text of the Physiologus reads:

"At that place is a monster in the sea which in Greek is called aspidochelone, in Latin "asp-turtle"; it is a great whale, that has what appear to exist beaches on its hide, like those from the sea-shore. This fauna raises its back above the waves of the sea, so that sailors believe that it is just an island, and so that when they see information technology, information technology appears to them to exist a sandy beach such as is common along the sea-shore. Believing it to be an island, they beach their ship aslope it, and disembarking, they plant stakes and necktie up the ships. So, in guild to cook a meal after this work, they brand fires on the sand every bit if on land. But when the monster feels the rut of these fires, information technology immediately submerges into the water, and pulls the ship into the depths of the sea.
Such is the fate of all who pay no heed to the Devil and his wiles, and place their hopes in him: tied to him past their works, they are submerged into the called-for fire of Gehenna: for such is his guile."^[3]

In "The Whale" [ edit ]

A similar tale is told by the Old English verse form "The Whale", where the monster appears nether the proper name Fastitocalon.^[4] This is apparently a variant of Aspidochelone, and the proper noun given to the Devil.^{[ citation needed ]} The poem has an unknown writer, and is one of three poems in the Sometime English Physiologus, also known as the Bestiary, in the Exeter Book, page 96b-97b, that are allegorical in nature, the other two being "The Panther" and "The Partridge".^[5] The Exeter book is at present in the Exeter Cathedral library. The volume has suffered from multiple mutilations and it is possible that some of the manuscript is missing. It is believed that the book had been used every bit a "beer mat", a cutting board, and suffered other types of mutilation by its previous owners. The Physiologus has gone through many unlike translations into many different languages throughout the globe. It is possible that the content has as well been inverse throughout the centuries.

Nu ic fitte gen ymb fisca cynn
wille woðcræfte wordum cyþan
þurh modgemynd bi þam miclan hwale.
Se bið unwillum oftentimes gemeted,
frecne ond ferðgrim, fareðlacendum,
niþþa gehwylcum; þam is noma cenned,
fyrnstreama geflotan, Fastitocalon.

Is þæs hiw gelic hreofum stane,
swylce worie bi wædes ofre,
sondbeorgum ymbseald, særyrica mæst,
swa þæt wenaþ wægliþende
þæt hy on ealond sum eagum wliten,
ond þonne gehydað heahstefn scipu
to þam unlonde oncyrrapum.

"This time I volition with poetic fine art rehearse, by means of words and wit, a poem nigh a kind of fish, the great body of water-monster which is often unwillingly met, terrible and cruel-hearted to seafarers, yea, to every homo; this swimmer of the ocean-streams is known every bit the asp-turtle.

His advent is like that of a rough boulder, as if there were tossing by the shore a great bounding main-reedbank begirt with sand-dunes, then that seamen imagine they are gazing upon an island, and moor their high-prowed ships with cables to that false country, brand fast the sea-coursers at the ocean's end, and, assuming of heart, climb up."

The moral of the story remains the aforementioned:

Swa bið scinna þeaw,
deofla wise, þæt hello drohtende
þurh dyrne meaht duguðe beswicað,
ond on teosu tyhtaþ tilra dæda.

"Such is the fashion of demons, the wont of devils: they spend their lives in outwitting men by their cloak-and-dagger power, inciting them to the corruption of skillful deeds, misguiding."^[6]

In The Adventures of Tom Bombadil , J. R. R. Tolkien fabricated a petty verse that claimed the name "Fastitocalon" from The Whale, and told a similar story:

Await, there is Fastitocalon!
An island good to land upon,
Although 'tis rather bare.
Come up, get out the sea! And allow us run,
Or dance, or lie down in the sun!
Encounter, gulls are sitting there!
Beware!

Every bit such, Tolkien imported the traditional tale of the aspidochelone into the lore of his Middle-earth.

Sources of the story [ edit ]

Pliny the Elder's Natural History tells the story of a giant fish, which he names pristis, of immense size.^[vii]

The Alexander Romance includes the story of a giant whale-isle in Alexander'due south letter to Aristotle virtually India.^[eight] A similar tale is part of the Beginning Voyage of Sinbad the Crewman.

The allegory of the Aspidochelone borrows from the account of whales in Saint Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae . Isidore cites the prophet Jonah; the Vulgate translation of the Book of Jonah translates Jonah 2:2 as Exaudivit me de ventre inferni: "He (the Lord) heard me from the belly of Hell". He concludes that such whales must have bodies every bit large every bit mountains.^[nine]

It is also called different names in different cultures. It has been mentioned in traveler's myth and lore in Hellenic republic, Egypt, throughout Europe, and in the Latin world. In these cultures, the animate being was known to expect as the deceptive island that lured travelers to be pulled downward into their drowning deaths.

In the Babylonian Talmud (Baba Batra 73a), Rabbah bar bar Hana states: Once we were traveling on a transport and we saw a certain fish upon which sand had settled, and grass grew on it. Nosotros assumed that it was dry land and went up and baked and cooked on the back of the fish, just when its back grew hot information technology turned over. And were it not for the fact that the ship was close by, nosotros would have drowned.

In the folklore of the Inuit of Greenland, there was a similar monster called an Imap Umassoursa. Information technology was a giant sea monster that often was mistaken for a vast and flat island. When the monster emerged from the water, it would tip sailors into freezing waters, causing their deaths. Whenever the waters seemed shallow, the sailors would tread carefully for fearfulness of being over that dreadful creature.

In Irish gaelic folklore, there was a behemothic fish of a monster that breached the boat of Saint Brendan. It was called the Jasconius. It was as well mistaken for a vast isle.

Zaratan is another name given to the Aspidochelone. This is the name for the monster that is used more often than not in the Middle Due east. It is used in the Middle Eastern Physiologus and is in Arab and Islamic legends. It is mentioned in "The Wonders of Creation", by the Al Qaswini in Persia and in the "Book of Animals" past a Spanish naturalist named Miguel Palacios. It is also mentioned in the first voyage of Sinbad the Sailor in the "Tales of the K and One Nights".

In Republic of chile, there is a giant sea monster named Cuero, or Hibernate. It is a vast and flat thing that looks like stretched out creature hide that devours every living affair that it comes in contact with. Information technology is also known to lure sailors to their death.^[x]

Jasconius [ edit ]

Brendan and his monks' ship is carried by a giant fish in a High german manuscript.

A similar monster appears in the Fable of Saint Brendan , where information technology was called Jasconius.^[11] Because of its size, Brendan and his fellow voyagers mistake it for an isle and land to make camp. They gloat Easter on the sleeping giant's back, but awaken information technology when they low-cal their campfire. They race to their send, and Brendan explains that the moving island is actually Jasconius, who labors unsuccessfully to put his tail in its oral fissure.^[12]

The same tale of a sea monster that is mistaken for an isle is told in the starting time voyage of Sinbad the Crewman in The Volume of One M and One Nights .^[xiii]

Appearances in modern fiction [ edit ]

In Tolkien'south poem Fastitocalon, the title is the name of an immense turtle (in the initial version a whale) which awaits victims to settle upon its shell, before plunging to the depths.
The proper noun Jasconius is used for the whale in the children'south book The Adventures of Louey and Frank by Carolyn White. She attributes the proper noun to having grown upward with the legend of Brendan.^[fourteen]
The popular Magic: The Gathering card game also features a card named Island Fish Jasconius, the art of which is a massive fish begetting tropical foliage on its back.
Both The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Sinbad: Legend of the 7 Seas take the heroes coming beyond an island that reveals to be a huge sea monster resembling an anglerfish.
The Pokémon , Torterra, is based on the island turtle.
In The NeverEnding Story , the giant turtle Morla is an Island Turtle that lives in the Swamp of Sadness.
The film Aladdin and the King of Thieves featured the Vanishing Island that is a giant marble fortress on the back of a giant body of water turtle that periodically rises from the ocean and goes back underwater. This is where the Paw of Midas was located.
In the video game The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask , the player Link rides to the Great Bay Temple on the back of a behemothic sea turtle that resembles a small island.
In the (MMORPG) Final Fantasy XI , Aspidochelone is a rare spawn of the monster Adamantoise both of which are giant turtles.
The Digimon franchise had their ain versions of the Aspidochelone in the grade of Ebonwumon (a two-headed turtle Digimon Sovereign with a tree on its dorsum), ElDradimon (who has a city on its back), and KingWhamon (who bares the Island Zone on the meridian of its head).
In Yu-Gi-Oh! , the Island Turtle is a h2o creature.
The asp-turtle make an appearance in Naruto , where Naruto Uzumaki goes to train before a large battle. This version of the asp-turtle is a little different. Information technology does not lure the travelers to their death. It works with them so they are not discovered. It as well floats in the sea and is constantly moving. All the same, information technology is a behemothic turtle with the appearance of an island. Killer B has a house on the Island Turtle and there are apes living there.
The serial Avatar: The Terminal Airbender and its sequel series The Fable of Korra featured similar creatures called King of beasts-Turtles, which were lion-turtle chimeras so big they carried entire ecosystems and fifty-fifty cities on their shells.
In the Ane Piece movie The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle , Mecha Island is a blazon of Island Turtle that awakens every thousand years to lay its eggs.
The multiplayer online function-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft'due south quaternary expansion pack Mists of Pandaria introduced a new zone The Wandering Island, set on the back of a roaming giant turtle named Shen-zin Su, where pandaren player characters begin their risk. The turtle'south origins prevarication with the pandaren explorer Lui Lang, who was overcome with wanderlust, a rare trait in the pandaren of that time. Considering of this he departed the pandaren continent of Pandaria around 10,000 years agone, riding on the back of the then man-sized turtle, Shen-zin Su. Lui Lang later returned to his homeland a few times, and each fourth dimension the turtle had become progressively bigger. By the time players encounter Shen-zin Su, the turtle has grown to the size of a pocket-sized continent, complete with fertile farmlands, mountains, lakes and a thriving population of pandaren, animals and institute life. In add-on to serving as a dwelling house and method of transportation for his inhabitants, Shen-zin Su is a fully sapient being and quite aware of the Wandering Isle pandaren that accept been living on his back for generations.
The official lyric video for From Finner by Of Monsters and Men depicts a large whale-similar fauna pond with a metropolis on its back, with the lyrics hinting that the titular "Finner" could exist the creature itself.
In Stephen King's The Night Belfry , Jasconius is the name of the Fish guardian, i of the twelve who guard the beams that support the Tower.
In Dragalia Lost , it is the raid boss of the "Scars of the Syndicate" event.

Meet likewise [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

^ Rose, Ballad (2001). Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth. Norton. ISBN 0-393-32211-4 .
^ J. R. R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, no. 255; Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien, eds. (Allen & Unwin, 1981; ISBN 0-261-10265-6)
^ Est belua in mare quae dicitur graece aspidochelone, latine autem aspido testudo; cetus ergo est magnus, habens super corium suum tamquam sabulones, sicut iuxta littora maris. Haec in medio pelago eleuat dorsum suum super undas maris sursum; ita ut nauigantibus nautis not aliud credatur esse quam insula, praecipue cum uiderint totum locum illum sicut in omnibus littoribus maris sabulonibus esse repletum. Putantes autem insulam esse, applicant nauem suam iuxta eam, et descendentes figunt palos et alligant naues; deinde ut coquant sibi cibos post laborem, faciunt ibi focos super arenam quasi super terram; illa uero belua, cum senserit ardorem ignis, subito mergit se in aquam, et nauem secum trahit in profundum maris.
Sic patiuntur omnes qui increduli sunt et quicumque ignorant diaboli astutias, spem suam ponentes in eum; et operibus eius se obligantes, simul merguntur cum illo in gehennam ignis ardentis: ita astutia eius.
Anonymous, Physiologus Latinus versio B . Accessed Nov. 19, 2007. Translation for Wikipedia.
^ Krapp, George Philip; Dobbie, Elliott Van Kirk, eds. (1936), The Exeter Book , The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records: A Collective Edition, New York: Columbia University Printing, pp. 171–74, ISBN 9780231087667 , OCLC 352008 .
^ Albert Stanburrough Cook, ed. (1821). The Old English Physiologus . Volume 63 of Yale studies in English language. Verse translated by James Hall Pitman. Yale university printing. p.23. Fastitocalon.
^ Albert Due south. Cook, The Old English Physiologus (Project Gutenberg online version, 2004)
^ Pliny the Elderberry, Historia Naturalis , volume 9, ch. 4 (Latin)
^ Alexander Romance by "Pseudo-Callisthenes," Book 3, Chapter 17 (Greek version translated into English).
^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae XII:vi (Latin), accessed November. 18, 2007
^ Rose, Ballad: Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth (Norton, 2001; ISBN 0-393-32211-4)
^ Iannello, Fausto: Jasconius rivelato. Studio comparativo del simbolismo religioso dell'"isola-balena" nella Navigatio sancti Brendani (Edizioni dell'Orso, Biblioteca di studi storico-religiosi nine, Alessandria 2013 - ISBN 978-88-6274-447-eight).
^ Anonymous, Navigatio sancti Brendani abbatis , ch. 11, 23. (Latin), accessed Nov. 18, 2007
^ Anonymous, The Book of Thousand and I Nights , ss. 538-539 (Burton translation)
^ "Interview with Carolyn White". harperchildrens.com. Archived from the original on 30 December 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2007.

External links [ edit ]

The Erstwhile English verse form "The Whale" is edited, annotated and linked to digital images of its manuscript pages, and translated, in the Old English Poetry in Facsimile Projection: https://oepoetryfacsimile.org/
"The Devil in the Deep Blue Body of water", by Hannah Stewart, Getty Museum. In the medieval bestiary, whales are a surprising symbol for the temptations of the devil.
The Whale modern English translation