Monday, March 21, 2016

Monsters, Monsters everywhere; in legend at least.


I wanted to review some of the monsters, mythical creatures an even cryptids ( a cryptid is a creature, which had been seen but not recognized by science; think Bigfoot) that I am featuring in my novel, “Legend of the MysticKnights.”
The premise of my novel is that an evil has taken over the world and has released monsters who attack and terrify humankind, resulting in the stagnation of technology. Legend of the Mystic Knights is set today, but the technology is still stuck in the middle ages.
Although the novel includes monsters, I wanted to make sure I stayed within the concept and perception of these monsters by medieval people. We must remember, to them nature was an enemy; even though they farmed and harvested wood, the forest was a terrifying place. To them nature represented evil; nature sent storms and beasts of the field that attacked them. Most of all, it was the part of themselves that was nature, the beast inside of man, that kept them sinning and away from God. What people do not understand, they fear, and this was the case for medieval society.
If you remember some previous posts about how terrified medieval civilization was about witches.  During this time, witchcraft was often confused with worshiping nature. In many of these religions, it is mother-earth that was the highest deity; this was blasphemy to the Catholic Church at that time.

Our first monster is the lindworm.  In medieval writing, especially when referencing to Norse mythology, if you see the word WURM, or WORM, it means dragon. To people in the medieval period, the dragon, more than any other creature, represented the devil. In the bible, the devil is often described as a dragon.  An example is in Revelation 13:2; "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world:
The lindworm is described as a wingless dragon, with large rear legs and no front legs. When I first researched this, I imagine a T-Rex with no front legs. I could imagine a medieval person, stumbling upon a t-rex or velociraptor fossil, seeing the little legs up from, or maybe finding a broken fossil; they assumed it had no front legs and thought it was a dragon.
As for my dragon featured in the world of my novel, the above account is exactly how I described the lindworm.  He is 8 feet tall; the male has waddles on his face.  A wattle is a flap of skin on some animals, especially in birds. The lindworm is a fast walker, capable of walking a great distance in a short period.
The lindworm is also called a pestilence dragon, its appearance brings disease; I had to make this connection in my novel.  I decided to have the lindworm as a scavenger that digs up graves in cemeteries. In this way, it is the corpses which when uncovered, promote sickness in a community.

 The next creature is the amphithere. This is a small-winged creature with no legs.  It flies on large colorful wings; on the ground it slithers like a snake.  The main weapon for the amphithere is its tongue, which darts out of its mouth delivering venom.
Again, the above is how I described the amphithere in my novel.  Instead of having a random attack by one of these creatures, I created a large flock of them, hundreds attacking the castle at one time.

 
Although, I tried to include creatures of medieval legend, I also wanted to create a few. One of the nastiest creatures I created was the Demon Fly.  This insect is 3 inches long, with 3 compound eyes, and 2 sets of translucent wings.  It has a large pair of front claws to grasp its victims, and then injects corrosive venom into the skin with a huge curved stinger. Like most flies, they travels in huge swarms and a person may receive hundreds of these bites at one time; receiving this many bites will result in the dissolving of the skin and muscle in minutes, leaving nothing but the bone visible underneath.
So I hope this was not so horrible. Never week; we will return with some more medieval monsters form my novel.
All the monsters featured above are featured in my novel, “Legend of the Mystic Knights”, if you have not already, get your copy today!


14 comments:

  1. In a way it makes sense to have a fear of nature and to assign monstrous qualities to it. If you don't know anything about earthquakes or hurricanes or tornadoes, if you cannot predict them, how else to explain what may for many be a severe source of damage?

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  2. Reading this blog about your Mystic Knights story reminds me of other stories I've encountered set in medieval times. Those so-called darker times have captivated my mind too. Living then, uneducated and vulnerable to the worldly powers that be, I'd have lots of fear too. Add to that the mysterious powers in nature and I'd be ready to believe just about anything if it might help keep me safe.

    It's seldom that I've ever experienced a truly dark night (not metaphorically speaking). When I think of not one street light, nor one house or car light, how frightened would I be of the night? Monsters would lurk everywhere; if not careful, I'd die simply from being afraid.

    I recall reading your blogs on the crusades. I want to thank you for blasting the illusion most of us have about heroic knights adhering to codes of honour, love and Christ-like behaviour.

    In closing this rambling response, I want to say that your knowledge of history and the freedom you give your imagination to play with that knowledge bring a smile to my face. :-)

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    1. Thank you for your kind words. I too know how some of the knights were at those times, I dedicated an earlier post about it: http://warusho-author.blogspot.com/2014/07/common-misconceptions-about-knights.html

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  3. Scary William, I'm glad I don't live in those times. I used to babysit at a house across the road (in the country where there were no streetlights) and the shadow-play could be really spooky. I can certainly understand how people back then, with no education except hearsay about monsters handed down to them would be scared to go out at night.

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  4. Living in the Islands I've learned a lot about the local culture and legends so I can understand why all people of earlier times had a fear as well as reference for nature. Fascinating as always William.

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  5. Growing up in the country without street lights and only a half dozen houses directly near us (all cousins!), I've never been afraid of the dark or nature.
    However, throw a vampire into the mix and hey--I'm ready to believe and be frightened! HA
    Good, gruesome monsters, William.

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  6. It's great that you are incorporating creatures in your story. I wouldn't have thought of that. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. The creatures were vital. The main premise of the novel is that the medieval period never ended, I needed something to prevent that. The creatures, monsters ect, are constantly attacking the human race, so there is no time to create technology, science and art, so the world is now stuck in medieval times.

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  7. I never thought about the fear of nature. I think each century has fears of some kind. It all comes down to perception. Can only image in medieval times what they thought about thunder and lightning.

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  8. Very interesting, William. I neve thought about it before, but it's fascinating how our evolution as human beings has replaced fear with knowledge and understanding (for the most part), and that in turn, has changed our perception of many things. Including what a monster might be!

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  9. I've always wondered how writers create these make believe worlds full of such colorful and unique characters. Thanks for sharing a bit of your process in creating your story's world.

    I can imagine why people feared nature. In a less civilized society, they were more vulnerable. It is kind of how I feel if I hear a weird noise when I go camping. Plus, society wasn't so science based at the time. It is fun to be able to revisit that time from the safety of my own home.

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  10. Hi william; if you haven't already considered it, I think you could write a book for writers when you are through with your fictional creations. as a texan who lives with regular mosquitoes your swarm of flies that can reduce a body to nothing but bone is all to possible in my nightmares. keep up the writing, max

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  11. (1) The constellation Draco the Dragon is only clearly visible during the clearest and darkest of nights. Coincidence?
    (2) Your description of the Demon Fly reminds me of an infamous scene in the classic horror film "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" in which Vincent Price uses a column of locusts to deflesh the head of a sedated nurse. An abridged clip of this scene can be seen at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiholfdbB60

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    1. Maybe it was in my subconscious because that is one of my favorite movies, of course you do not have to pour concentrated vegetable juice on them to get demon flies to attack them.

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