I Was Genuinely Expecting Something Larger, Like A Pheasant, Mostly Given That Wolves Like To Snack On

I was genuinely expecting something larger, like a pheasant, mostly given that wolves like to snack on them :D

Bestiaryposting Results: Vaegshar

Sorry everyone for the delay -- a confluence of various minor events left me busy & distracted all of yesterday, and the Bestiaryposting just slipped my mind.

Anyway, we have it now! It's another bird.

For anyone who doesn't know what this is about, you can find an explanation at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting. The entry the art in this post is based on can be found here:

And the one that we're doing next is here:

Art below the cut:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has done this very evocative image of a flightless bird with pale gray feathers. The moonlight scene is, I think, very pretty in an eerie sort of way. More information can be found at the linked post.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has also got something quite evocative here, I think. Something about the tree on the hillside and the featherless bird looking out of the hollow... I dunno, I vibe with it.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) noted the lack of physical description and went with the clever idea of giving the female Vaegshar feathers that resemble an old-fashioned "widow's cap", thus explaining why people might come up with this specific lore. I like it, and it's worth checking out the additional explanation in the linked post. (Also thank you for providing alt text.)

@pomrania (link to post here) also decided the Vaegshar should have thematically appropriate markings for "mourning", so they made it goth with a pattern that resembles eye makeup. I like this. I like the goth bird.

@wendievergreen (link to post here) also had a similar thought, and patterned the feathers on their bird after Victorian mourning garb. The bird itself is also based on a mourning dove. I like it a lot, and I enjoy the halo effect.

@strixcattus (link to post here) has drawn this cute little bird, gathering what is apparently one of several plants called "squill". (I didn't look it up, but it seems Strixcattus did.) I like it; it looks quite charming. As usual, a naturalist description can be found in the linked post and I recommend reading them.

Okay, on to the Aberdeen Bestiary.

... yep, those are birds all right. I don't really know birds.

However, the text tells us they are turtledoves. Which means that the mourning-dove-inspired design is pretty close to the money -- not only is it also a dove, but American mourning doves and European turtledoves look sufficiently similar that apparently some people refer to mourning doves as "turtledoves".

So there you have it.

I don't know what the plumage bit is about, but Wikipedia tells me that turtledoves do in fact form strong pair bonds, and as a result have long been a symbol of devotion within their range. So the bestiary entry is within the zeitgeist there.

That's really all I've got to add, so I'll see y'all next week. And sorry for the delay in getting this written.

The Devoted Vaegshar

My response to this week’s BestiaryPosting challenge, from @maniculum

Pencil sketch, then lines in Sailor fude nib fountain pen, using Diamine Sepia ink. Not a lot of time or energy this week, but I tried to have some fun with it :)

Thought process under the cut…

"The Vaegshar, so called from the sound it makes, [redacted], is a shy bird, and stays all the time on mountain summits and in deserted, lonely places. It shuns the houses and society of men and keeps to the woods. Even in the winter time, when it has lost its plumage, it is said to live in the hollow trunks of trees. The Vaegshar also overlays its nest with squill leaves, in case a wolf should attack its young. For it knows that wolves usually run from leaves of this kind.

It is said that when the she-bird is widowed by the loss of her mate, she holds the name and rite of marriage in such esteem, that because her first experience of love has deceived her, cheating her with the death of her beloved, since he has become permanently unfaithful and a bitter memory, causing her more grief by his death than he gave her pleasure from his affection, for this reason she refuses to marry again, and will not relax the oaths of propriety or the contract made with the man who pleased her. She reserves her love for her dead mate alone and keeps the name of wife for him."

We have a decently long description this time, and we know it's definitely a Bird, but the rest is more a description of the behaviour than any physical description.

With all this freedoms, I was actually influenced heavily by the approach of @strixcattus and their naturalist-style descriptions; rather than taking everything in the bestiary text literally, I started thinking about what kind of appearence could have caused the writers to come up with these associations (particularly the widowed/mourning aspect).

As such, the female Vaegshar has a crest of feathers that resembles a widow's cap/mourning cap, or alternately a 'Mary Stuart cap', with a peak or heart-shape, and streamers down the sides. Is this a little anachronistic? Given that the widow's cap was Victorian, and Mary Stuary lived (and died) in the 1500s, the answer is probably yes, but I didn't have the time to research medieval mourning customs in detail, and it gave me a nice visual cue to start with.

Of course, the smaller and more flamboyant male Vaegshar has a simlar crest, only the 'streamers' are longer and stand up more. I like to think that for both of them, they can lay their crests flat or raise them for display.

The rest of the birds were largely based on the Eurasian Wren (the bird with the best scientific name, Troglodytes troglodytes), including the colouring and markings (with a little extrapolation/jazzing up, as we know from the description that these birds have breeding or nuptual plumage). They are really cool, funky little birds. Reading the description back, they are probably a little small (I doubt a nestful of wren-sized birds would provide even a fun-sized snack for a wolf)!

On a slight tangent, I am pleased to find out about a plant called 'squill'! It's either Drimia (medicinal, poisonous, so seems likely given the description) or Scilla (which is amusing given that a synonym for Drimia is Charybdis...)

dead metaphors are really interesting honestly and specifically i’m interested in when they become malapropisms

like, the concept being, people are familiar with the phrase and what people use it to mean metaphorically, but it’s not common knowledge anymore what the metaphor was in literal reference to. people still say “toe the line” but don’t necessarily conjure up the image of people standing at the starting line of a race, forbidden from crossing over it. people still say “the cat is out of the bag” without necessarily knowing it’s a sailors’ expression referring to a whip being brought out for punishment. some metaphors are so dead we don’t even know where they come from; like, there are ideas about what “by hook or by crook” references, but no one is entirely sure. nobody knows what the whole nine yards are.

and then you throw in a malaprop or a mondegreen or two, where because people don’t know what the actual words of the expression refer to, they’re liable to replace them with similar sounding words (see “lack toast and tolerant”). so we can literally go from a phrase referencing a common, everyday part of life to a set of unfixed, contextless sounds with a completely different meaning. that’s fascinating. what an interesting piece of the way language and culture are living, changing, coevolving things.

maybe part of the reason we can’t figure out where some phrases come from is that over time the words themselves have changed! one of the theories about “the whole nine yards” is that it’s a variant of “the whole ball of wax,” which some people further theorize was originally “the whole bailiwick,” meaning just “the whole area”! the addition of “nine yards” might be related to “dressed to the nines,” which might reference the fucking Greek muses! language is so weird and cool! (and I only know any idioms in two languages!)

the point is. I just came across the words “nip it in the butt” in a piece of published, professional fiction, and now I can’t stop giggling.

Fuck a personality test. Which label sticker r u?

Terrifying ☠️💀. Sweet dreams 😅😁💫💥 Terrorífico 😱😮. Dulces sueños 😇🥳