If you don't know anything about medieval art, you might reasonably assume old
illustrated texts featured basic depictions of historical and religious figures. But medieval
art is overflowing with absurdity: particularly when it comes to depictions of medieval beasts.
Beyond the dragons and unicorns you might be familiar with is a truly insane world of
lesser-known monsters which stretched the imagination with their utter bizarreness.
So today we're going to take a look at the top 10 strangest of these creatures:
bearing in mind it was exceedingly difficult to cut this down to just 10.
Number 10: monopod. Mythological creatures with a single leg ending in a massive foot, monopod's
name comes from a Greek term aptly meaning "one-foot." Medieval artists often drew them
lying down, with their foot stretched over their head. This comes from a legend that the monopods
have a habit of protecting themselves from the sun using the shade cast by their foot, sort of like
a natural umbrella. Number nine: bonnacon Though at first glance these mythic creatures resemble
ordinary bulls, the bonnacon was said to eject large amounts of caustic excrement at hunters.
While medieval texts often communicated moral lessons through fictitious beasts,
the banaycon seems to have no symbolic meaning whatsoever. If anything, it only shows lowbrow
humor hasn't changed much over the centuries. Number eight: sea monk Ducking just slightly out
of the medieval period for a creature I had to include, the sea monk is an organism allegedly
captured off the Danish coast which outwardly resembled a monk in a habit. Supposedly, the
account claimed the animal's resemblance to a monk was just a coincidence. The creature had the inner
workings of an ordinary fish, and just happened to superficially resemble a monk on the outside.
Number 7: salamander This next one might seem like an odd inclusion, since the amphibious salamander
isn't mythical at all. But medieval legends of salamanders were, let's say, a little off from
the real-life organism. Alchemists believes salamanders were fireproof, which is strange
enough, but many depictions of salamanders deviate wildly from their actual appearance. Why so many
medieval artists assigned hair and human faces to salamanders is, unfortunately, largely unclear.
Number 6: amphisbien Getting its name from the greek term amphis, meaning "both ways,"
and bien, meaning "to go" this rather amusing monster was a serpent with two opposing heads.
According to legend the unfortunate reptile had difficulty moving around
due to the dual minds tugging it in different directions.
Number 5 Shurale The only creature on this list originating in Russia, Shurale is a long-fingered
humanoid from folk tales who dwells in the woods. Though not too far off from trolls or goblins,
what makes Shurale so unusual is its behavior according to legends, shirali lures the unlucky
into thickets where he... tickles them to death. Something about that is genuinely unsettling.
Number four: snails One of my personal favorites: like the salamander, medieval snails are based on
their real-life counterparts, but deviate wildly from what you'd find in nature.
Manuscripts portray snails as enormous weapon-wielding juggernauts, menacing knights
and helpless villagers. Hilariously, historians aren't entirely sure why so many margins of
medieval texts feature these super-sized mollusks: with theories ranging from political propaganda,
to the snails representing the slow but inevitable approach of death which awaits us all.
Number three: Blemmyes. Headless creatures with faces on their chests, the intelligent
and communal Blemmyes are another one of my favorites. More so than the other entries
on this list, medieval European scholars believe the Blemmyes to be more than the stuff of fables.
Many believed the Blemmyes were a real species of humanoid living in other parts of the world,
to the point where they're featured on several maps... just sort of hanging out.
Number two: the vegetable lamb of Tartary We're really in the strange stuff now. The vegetable
lamb is a legendary plant which sprouted fruit identical in appearance to sheep.
The sheep even contained blood and bones, despite being plants. Holy Roman Empire historian Sigmund
Von Herbertstien even went as far as to say he'd heard from too many credible sources to doubt
the plant's existence. Although Herbertstein was obviously mistaken, modern scholars actually have
a theory that the legends origin stems from widely circulated misinterpretations of cotton plants.
Pretty interesting stuff. Number one: Gryllus I simply couldn't resist putting this little
guy at the very top. What you see is what you get with this one: a pair of legs topped with a head,
parading in packs around the margins of medieval manuscripts. They're simple,
but there's something so fundamentally absurd about the Gryllus: especially considering their
origin is almost completely unknown. What an incredible, albeit inexplicable creation.
And that's where our list comes to an end. I hope you had fun going on this journey through the
bizarre world of medieval monsters with me. Please consider subscribing, and leaving this video a
like if you enjoyed the content. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.