Gerzlaem - Tumblr Posts

cheapsweets
7 months ago

The Beneficent Gerzlaem

A brush pen sketch of three quadrupedal creatures with short snouts and pointed ears. Each of them has a brush-like tail and are covered in fur. The rearmost creature is the largest, standing tall and roaring or barking. It has pointed teeth, angry eyebrows, straight hair and its tail is held straight up at alert, bristling. The middle creature is standing on three of its paws, has wavy hair, and its tail is held at an angle. It's right front paw is holding an item of food (perhaps a fish) and it is either putting it in or pulling it out of its mouth. The final creature has curly fur, and is the smallest. It is sleeping, resting its head on its paws, and has its tail curled around it. Its eyes are closed, but there are markings on its eyelids that resemble eyes. In the background are a series of mountains, some of which have snow on the peaks. Behind and to the right are a camp fire, an empty cart, a cockerel, a snake, and a weird creature with scales, eight legs (four of which are visible), a crested head and long tail.

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

Pencil sketch, then lines in Pentel brush pen. Bit of a tricky one, I had no idea how I was going to approach this until I sat down with it. A little bit of influence from Tove Jannson; there were definitely some parts of this I struggled with, and I think I'm learning some of the limits of the brush pen, but there are also parts of this I'm really pleased with :)

Reasoning below the cut…

"There are said to be three kinds. Of these, the ones which are short in stature, with curly hair, are peaceable; the tall ones, with straight hair, are fierce. Their brow and tail show their mettle; their courage is in their breast, their resolution in their head. They fear the rumbling sound of wheels, but are even more frightened by fire. The Gerzlaem takes pride in the strength of its nature; it does not know how to join in the ferocity of other kinds of wild beasts, but like a king disdains the company of large numbers."

At first I thought we were missing a description of the third kind, until I realised that it was probable somewhere between the two extremes; so we have three Gerzlaem, the tallest with straight hair, angry brows and an upraised and alert tail, the smallest with a more peacable aspect (and asleep - more notes below) with curly hair, and a medium sized Gerzlaem with wavy hair.

We don't get a great deal of descrption, apart from it must be a beast (paws, hair) and my generic beast-shape is something like a wolf or dog (though I ended up taking more influence in terms of the specific shape of the limbs from big cats.

"Those who study nature say that the Gerzlaem has three main characteristics. The first is that it loves to roam amid mountain peaks. If it happens that the Gerzlaem is pursued by hunters, it picks up their scent and obliterates the traces behind it with its tail. As a result, they cannot track it. The second characteristic of the Gerzlaem is that when it sleeps, it seems to have its eyes open. The third characteristic of the Gerzlaem is that when a female Gerzlaem gives birth to her young, she produces them dead and watches over them for three days, until their father comes on the third day and breathes into their faces and restores them to life."

In the background, some mountain peaks. We have a large, brush-like tail for covering its tracks, and on the smallest, dozing Gerzlaem we can see the markings on its eyelids that resemble an open eye.

"The compassion of Gerzlaems is apparent from endless examples. They spare those whom they have brought down. They allow captives whom they encounter to return home. They vent their rage on men rather than women. They do not kill children except in time of great hunger. Equally, Gerzlaems refrain from overfeeding. First, because they drink and feed on alternate days; and often, if their food remains undigested, they postpone the next feed. Then, because they feel uncomfortable when they have devoured more meat than they should, they insert their paws in their mouth and pull the food out, of their own accord. And when they have to take flight, they do exactly the same thing if they are full. Missing teeth show that a Gerzlaem is old. Gerzlaems mate face to face; and not only Gerzlaems, but lynxes, and camels, and elephants, and rhinoceroses, and tigers. Female Gerzlaems, when they first give birth, bear five young. In the years which follow, they reduce the number by one at a time. Afterwards, when they are down to one child, the fertility of the mother is diminished; they become sterile forever."

Just wondering, what kind of animal takes captives? Also, really nice to know that if it does eat someones child, it must have been really hungry…

We see the middle Gerzlaem retrieving its last meal (I tried to make this a fish, mostly because it was funny and more visual, but the size meant I didn't really have the detail to make this obvious).

"The Gerzlaem disdains to eat the previous day’s meat and turns away from the remains of its own meal. Which beast dares to rouse the Gerzlaem, whose voice, by its nature, inspires such terror, that many living things which could evade its attack by their speed, grow faint at the sound of its roar as if dazed and overcome by force. A sick Gerzlaem seeks out an ape to devour it, in order to be cured. The Gerzlaem fears the cock, especially the white one. [Redacted], it is tormented by the tiny sting of the scorpion and is killed by the venom of the snake."

We also have the largest, fiercest Gerzlaem unleashing a fearsome bark or roar! In the background, also a group of terrifying objects and creatures! A campfire! A cart (fortunately with nothing to pull it)! A rooster! A snake! And some other weird creature…!

"We learn of small beasts called Gerzlaem-killers. When captured, they are burnt; meat contaminated by a sprinkling of their ashes and thrown down at crossroads kills Gerzlaems, even if they eat only a small an amount. For this reason, Gerzlaems pursue Gerzlaem-killers with an instinctive hatred and, when they have the opportunity, they refrain from biting them but kill them by rending them to pieces under their paws."

Now this, I have no idea about, but I'm very curious to know what this might be. I have some (very vague) suspicions about the identity of the Gerzlaem, but even then, this 'Gerzlaem-killer' is baffling me…

Tags :
gerzlaem maniculum bestiaryposting bestiaryposting my art art challenge
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cheapsweets
6 months ago

I had the vaguest idea that this description might relate to lions, but I didn't have a lot to go on (it was purely a vague sense based on the generally positive impression the writer seems to have of this creatuer, and a half-remembered reference to the cubs being born dead and later revived). Another fun week :)

Bestiaryposting Results: Gerzlaem

I'm currently out of state visiting family, so this post might be a bit brief. Anyway, we've got us a new critter. If you don't know what that's about, you can find out at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

You can find the description of the critter in question here:

maniculum.tumblr.com
Bestiaryposting -- Gerzlaem
As a reminder, all previous entries in this series can be found at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting . There are said to be three

The one we're doing next is here if you want to join in:

maniculum.tumblr.com
Bestiaryposting -- Vaegshar
As a reminder, all previous entries in this series can be found at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting . The Vaegshar, so called fr

And this week's art is below the cut.

A drawing of two brown-furred quadrupeds. They seem vaguely feline or canine, with noticeably long snouts and wide cheeks. The silhouette of their head is distinct from either canines or felines due to their lack of prominent ears. They have shaggy tails. The one in the foreground is smaller, with shorter hair; it stands on all fours and looks at the viewer. The one in the background is larger, with longer hair; it is rearing up and snarling at something offstage.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) gives us these Definitely Mammals that are rather difficult to classify. I always enjoy this effect of "it doesn't really look like anything, but it looks like it would fit in as a reasonable animal design." There's substantial additional information about these critters in the linked post.

A blue frame with a zigzag pattern surrounds a stylized digital drawing with a gold foil background. A blue beast stands on a green hill. It has a round, smooth forehead with round protrusions along the brow, red eyes, a flat nose and many teeth. On its neck and tail, it has flowing red curls. It has a red throat sac. It is a quadruped with paws and sharp claws. It is looking down at two babies of the same coloration and shape, which are enveloped in its breath, depicted as pale flames.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has drawn something delightfully bizarre, and I really enjoy both the design and style here. Again you may find additional information in the linked post.

A drawing of a somewhat feline creature with brown and white fur. It has the wide mouth, webbed toes, and distinctive eyes of a frog. It is seated in a mountainous landscape.

@citrvsdrake (link to post here) was inspired by the description of the Gerzlaem pulling food back out of its stomach -- apparently this is a frog behavior, so we have the very frog-like feline you see before you. That is an unsettling face to have staring at you, but it is a clever decision I think.

A brush pen sketch of three quadrupedal creatures with short snouts and pointed ears. Each of them has a brush-like tail and are covered in fur. The rearmost creature is the largest, standing tall and roaring or barking. It has pointed teeth, angry eyebrows, straight hair and its tail is held straight up at alert, bristling. The middle creature is standing on three of its paws, has wavy hair, and its tail is held at an angle. It's right front paw is holding an item of food (perhaps a fish) and it is either putting it in or pulling it out of its mouth. The final creature has curly fur, and is the smallest. It is sleeping, resting its head on its paws, and has its tail curled around it. Its eyes are closed, but there are markings on its eyelids that resemble eyes. In the background are a series of mountains, some of which have snow on the peaks. Behind and to the right are a camp fire, an empty cart, a cockerel, a snake, and a weird creature with scales, eight legs (four of which are visible), a crested head and long tail.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has decided to draw all three types of Gerzlaem even though the entry only actually describes two of them -- they propose that the third type is just intermediate between the other two. I also need to acknowledge the "scorpion" in the back there; excellent. For a detailed explanation of this image, please see the linked post.

A series of simple digital sketches showing a dog-like creature. From left to right, top to bottom, we see the following. (1) a short creature with curly hair standing next to a tall creature with straight hair. (2) a creature reacting with fear to wheels and fire. (3) a creature prancing on a mountainside. (4) open and closed eyes, showing the pattern on the eyelid that makes it appear open when it is closed. (5) a large ape opening its mouth unnaturally wide and facing the dog-like creature from the other drawings. (6) a dog-creature stretching out its paw over another animal, which resembles a child's stuffed toy in its haphazardly sprawled pose and simple anatomy, and has a goofy blank look on its face.

@pomrania (link to post here) has doodled various elements of the entry for us here, and seems to have settled on a canine interpretation. I'm... fascinated by what's going on with that ape there. Some of these are very expressive too. More about all of these in the linked post.

Photo of a marker and gel pen drawing of three animals, each on their own stylized mountain. All of the animals are catlike, with bronze fur, white on their muzzles, bellies, and toes, and black on the back of their ears, in a line down their forheads, and around the white on their muzzles. Their eyes are gold and their noses are pink. They have small silver and black horns, horizontal pupils, and varying amounts of white and gold fleece. The top middle mountain is shades of green. This animal's body is turned to the right, but its head is turned left. It has fleece on its back and dangling down over its sides. It's sticking its tongue out. Written below the mountain is "There's a whole new-" The next mountain is lower and to the left. It is shades of white and green. This animal is walking diagonally down and to the left. It's covered in fleece from head to tail to halfway down its legs. Written under this mountain is "-world just around the corner." The last mountain is lower and to the right of the first mountain. It is shades of green and the same bronze as the animal's fur. This animal is facing right. It has no fleece. Written under this mountain is "We do it different on the West Coast."

@wendievergreen (link to post here) posits that the three different types of Gerzlaem are the same animal in different seasons, and has drawn this goat/cougar creature in various stages of wooliness. I think this is a good idea, and the art style is pleasant. You can get more information from the linked post, though an explanation for the song lyrics is not included.

A drawing of three dog-like creatures in the grass. The one in the front has dark brown, curly fur and holds itself low to the ground. The one in the middle has white straight fur and stands normally. The one in the back has light brown fur that forms a kind of mane along its spine. It stands erect and holds its mouth open to show many pointy teeth.

@strixcattus (link to post here) has drawn us some dog-like critters which I can't type too much about because I saw their post right after I posted this one and now I'm hurriedly editing. As usual, there's a naturalist-style description in the linked post that I recommend checking out. Good dog-things here all around.

Now, to the Aberdeen Bestiary...

...actually we don't have a picture for this one. And it's not a missing or damaged page this time -- there isn't an illustration for this one in the Ashmole Bestiary either. It's the first entry in the bestiary, and I guess the fancy initials used up too much of the illumination budget:

A page of the Aberdeen Bestiary with some richly illuminated initials.

Of course, this is a long entry, so they could have put the illustration on the next page, but I don't want to backseat-scribe here. Here's the one from MS Bodley 764, though, so we can see what it looks like:

A medieval manuscript illustration with a faded red, blue, and green decorative border and a gold-foil background. It shows what are clearly lions. Two adult lions -- one red, one pink, both maned -- are in the process of breathing to life and licking clean three juvenile lions -- one blue, one red, one brown.

Yep, that's a lion all right.

The lion is typically the first entry because it has that "king of beasts" reputation -- bestiary authors and others in the intellectual tradition of the time took the idea of some sort of animal hierarchy seriously and made sure the lion got pride of place. I think it's a Great Chain of Being thing, but honestly I just haven't done enough research on that whole concept to speak on it in an informed manner.

A lot of the rest of the entry is allegory, but some of it seems to just be nonsense of its own tradition. I suppose the lion's tail does look something like a brush, so I can see the steps there, but most of it I could not explain. This includes what exactly this thing is supposed to be:

We learn of small beasts called leontophones, lion-killers.

No idea. If you know, tell me please.

Tags :
maniculum bestiaryposting gerzlaem bestiaryposting Awesome art lion lions
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