Taerfleg - Tumblr Posts

The unassailable Taerfleg

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

For a change I focused initially on the anatomy and worked out the rest of the composition later, which is why the adult Taerfleg looks a little stiff. I also continued my trend of drawing baby animals so tiny you can barely make them out (when I was thinking about developing my own drawing style, this wasn't what I planned... 😅)

Jinhao shark fountain pen with a fine, hooded nib, with Monteverde Raven Noir ink, over initial pencil sketch.

As ever, reasoning under the cut…

The Taerfleg is covered in prickles. It bristles, when it is enclosed in its prickles and is protected by them on all sides against attack.

Okay, so first question, what are prickles? The most defined explanation refers to plants, where technically speaking, a 'prickle' is a spiny process, but whereas thorns are modified branches/stems, and spines are leaves or parts of leaves, a 'prickle' is an outgrowth of the epidermis or skin or the plant (so, technicaly, roses have prickles, not thorns... learned a thing today!).

While I don't imagine that the authors of the bestiary (or if we're being honest, the translators) are going to be particularly fussy in terms of these exacting biological definitions, it gives me a place to start - the spiky bits of this animal are related to its skin rather than say, spiky bones or osteoderms.

For as soon as it senses anything, it first bristles then, rolling itself into a ball, regains its courage behind its armour.

Okay, armour, and curling up into balls... What kind of (land) animals have armour? Tortoises and crocodiles do, but aren't so roly poly unfortunately. Armadillos, pangolins, and all sorts of lovely bugs like isopods and pill millipedes definitely fit the bill. We just need to work out what kind of creature this is though, since its never specified whether the Taerfleg is a beast, a serpent, or something else...

Given the above note that 'prickles' are processes of the skin, rather than bone, we can eliminate crocodilians and turtles, as well as things like armadillos, which leaves us with squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes), potentially with prickly scales. I mean, I suppose these prickles could be modified hairs on a mammal, but surely the author of the entry would be more specific if that was the case, right? 😏

Plus given I interpreted the previous entry very conventionally (well, as conventional as tiny subterranian birbs can be) it's nice to stretch and draw something a little different...

The Taerfleg has a certain kind of foresight: as it tears off a grape, it rolls backwards on it and so delivers it to its young. It is also called [redacted]. This animal, thinking ahead, protects itself with twin ventilation ducts, so that when it thinks that the north wind is about to blow, it blocks the northern one, and when it knows that the south wind is giving warning of mist in the air, it goes to the northern passage to avoid the vapours blown from the opposite direction, which will do it harm.

One of the things that prompted a lot of the other design decisions was trying to work out exactly how it removes the grapes from its spines when it delivers them! I wondered about long necks (for instance, some tortoises) or tails, but ended up giving it reasonably long limbs and a bit of flex. I wasn't sure how well the grapes would survive being transported this way, so they're looking a little shrivelled...

Also, have some baby Taerflegs, one of which is munching down on a grape, the other is practicing curling into a ball, since I had to put that in the picture somewhere!).

I also read this as it digging burrows, based on the ventilation ducts. I didn't want to just duplicate what I'd drawn last week (with the cross section of the burrow), so we have the northern ventilation shaft blocked with grass and straw (I'd considered if it might block the shaft with its body, but that didn't seem likely given that the vapours would 'do it harm', and I didn't think that a weird lizardy thing would appreciate the cold draft on its posterior...

Note from this challenge - I really need to work out how to draw the interior of caves or tunnels...

So, I've taken inspiration from a lot of different creatures here. Ironically, despite picking up a copy of Charles Knight's animal drawing at the suggestion of @silverhart-makes-art (thank you, it's rad and really interesting, though I'm still on the lookout for some of the other suggestions I received too!), not a lot of use for this particular drawing, but it will definitely be useful in future projects.

One of the main inspirations here are girdled lizards, particularly the Armadillo girdled lizard (which has the greatest scientific name ever, Ouroborus cataphractus) - a spiky lizard that curls itself into a ball. Incidentally, another member of this family is the genus Smaug.... 🐉

Initial armadillo-inspired plating was superceded by pill millipedes (as most armadillos can't make a full ball); I also used the three-banded armadillo as the basis for the anatomy, but made a lot of changes along the way, particularly after I decided to make it a reptile - tortoises were considered briefly, but mostly monitor lizards (in part at least because they get big enough that I could find some good reference photos online!).

Digging claws on the forelimbs are largely from echidnas, I wanted the spiky bits to at least partially reflect the prickles on roses, back facing so they don't get in the way when its crawling through tunnels or vinyards, and there was also a lot of inspiration from Scolosaurus in the general vibe and the head (what? Dinosaurs are cool!).

Overall, interesting challenge, learned some things, have a few new things to learn, mostly had fun :)

This was another really fun one, and loving seeing more cool bugs too!

As an aside, anyone for some taerfleg flavour crisps? 🦔😅

Museum of Crisps

Hedgehog-flavour Crisps: the first novelty flavour?

Hedgehog flavoured crisps were created in 1981 by Phillip Lewis, landlord of the Vaults public house in Welshpool. He created them as a joke

Bestiaryposting Results: Taerfleg

Another obvious one this week, but it seems people are having fun with it. Nothing else for me to add right here, I think, so I'll get right into it. If you're confused by what this is, go check out https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

And if you want to see the entry people are working from this week, it's here:

Art below in rough chronological order:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) started with the concept of a sea urchin, but decided a face might make it more charismatic. It is a very cute face; I like its vibes a lot. Turning a sea urchin into what appears to be at least a semi-terrestrial creature brings up some interesting etymological stuff also, but we'll get into that at the end of the post. Those tube-like appendages there are an interpretation of the business about "ventilation ducts" in the post -- Silverhart acknowledges that it probably refers to the Taerfleg's nest/burrow/whatever, but that they decided to go this direction instead. The linked post explains that these are breathing tubes the Taerfleg can use when it's submerged in mud, which makes me think of this beast as a frog that's also kind of a stealth caltrop of sorts. Watch your step on those muddy banks.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) expresses that she doesn't have enough time this week to do something elaborate, but has sketched out this very good spiky bug. I like it a lot, actually -- it kind of looks like what you'd get if the Koopas from the Mario games were based on pill bugs instead of turtles. This one's got spines, so you can't jump on it. Probably rolls up into a very dangerous ball. Also, you know, everyone appreciates a good isopod. The design of the head is nice also -- there's something to the widely-spaced eyes and those two long appendages. (Feelers? Mandibles? Either way it's got a good outline I think.)

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has given us an interior view of the Taerfleg's burrow -- over on the right we can see a ventilation duct that's been blocked with some kind of plant matter. Their Taerfleg is a spiny lizard, with long limbs to help them remove the grapes from their spines after collecting them. Notable is the attention to detail -- the grape currently on the Taerfleg's back is a bit squashed from being rolled on. I think the lizard looks really cool -- that tail in particular is very well shaped -- and as often happens, I'm blown away by the amount of detailing CheapSweets is doing with a fountain pen. Also please note the babies over there on the left. For a detailed description of the design process, I highly recommend clicking the linked post.

(Also thank you for providing alt text.)

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has again come through with a beautiful medievally-styled piece. These Taerfleg are spiders -- Coolest-capybara notes that "spiders with plant-based diets" and "spiders with spiny carapaces" are both real things, so a type of spider that fits both of those categories isn't out of the realm of possibility. When they're collecting grapes, they wrap them in little spider-silk harnesses, which is neat. I really like the web shown here: we've got a funnel structure, which is what the "ventilation" bit is talking about, and I think the decision to draw it with that kind of knotwork motif is really cool.

(Also thank you for providing alt text.)

@pomrania (link to post here) has taken this in what I can only describe as a delightfully whimsical direction: the spiky armor is artificial. Does the little rodent build these things itself? One must assume. This also explains the ventilation ducts -- they're openings in the little armored vehicle it rolls around in. We can see one covered by a curtain on the left there. It... doesn't look pleased that its armor has been opened. Poor little critter.

@strixcattus (link to post here) has decided to maintain the balance of their bestiaryposting here: last week it was obviously an ant, so they drew a mammal; this week it's obviously a [redacted], so they drew an insect. I think what I like most about this design (besides the fact that it's cute) is that the Taerfleg appears to be doing the dung-beetle rolling thing with that grape. From past experience reading Strixcattus's worldbuilding, I'm guessing that the "attach grapes to its spines" thing is a myth in-universe, and this is its more normal way of gathering grapes. Speaking of which, as usual, it's worth clicking that linked post and seeing the full, more naturalistic interpretation of the Taerfleg that Strixcattus has written.

All right, to the Aberdeen Bestiary:

Yes, so we all know these are hedgehogs, but were you expecting to get this whole scene? I bet not. Check out that very good Stylized Plant. If I were to get a Stylized Plant tattooed on myself (which I'm starting to consider, as this whole thing we're doing has shown me how much I'm delighted by them), this one would be high on my list.

The tiny hedgehogs are very cute, though I think the illustrator didn't keep track of how much space they had in the image, because the scale seems off -- the... grapes? on the hedgehogs' backs are maybe half the size of the ones on the plant. It's like the bottom of the image was compressed.

The thing with the hedgehog using its spines to carry food is all over medieval texts and marginalia, by the way. This was apparently widely believed; I'm pretty sure it is not in fact the case, but Pliny the Elder was certain it was, so you know. Who's to say.

Now, let's talk ✨etymology✨.

So the entry lists the beast as having two names: ericius and echinus. (From my cursory look into it, this is a case of Latin borrowing from Greek: ericius is the Latin for "hedgehog", whereas echinus is the Latinization of the Greek word.) The translation dutifully translates them both, into two different English terms.

The first is of course "hedgehog" -- but that's a fairly recent word, actually. The earliest attestation is at the tail end of the medieval period.

The second is the actual etymological descendant of ericius. Latin ericius became Old French herichon, and after the Normans conquered England that made its way into the English language as hurcheon, which then over the centuries became... urchin.

This is what I meant about Silverhart taking a sea urchin and making it terrestrial being an interesting etymological move. The reason they're called "sea urchins" is because there was already a "land urchin": the hedgehog. They're one of those critters that was named after looking kind of like something on land, and it stuck. Most aquatic organisms whose names start with "sea" are a case of this. (Why do people sometimes say "sea anemone" instead of just "anemone"? Because "anemone" is also a type of flower; the creatures are named after the resemblance.)

It's one of those weird flukes that happens sometimes -- English decided to call the land animal something completely different (I think some dialects still use "urchin", but it isn't common) and the connection became less obvious. In a number of other languages, it's preserved; e.g. in Spanish, "hedgehog" is erizo -- also from ericius -- and "sea urchin" is erizo de mar. Boom, done, the etymology couldn't be more clear.

Incidentally, a weird side note: the Aberdeen Bestiary predates the first attestation of either hedgehog (1450) or urchin (1290). So the creators of this manuscript wouldn't have called them by either of the names we've just discussed, but a secret third option. Before the French loanword became standard, hedgehogs were called ile or igil in English -- cognate with German Igel. (Incidentally, in German a sea urchin is apparently Seeigel, so they also know what it's named after.)

Anyway, it's getting late. Enjoy the lovely art and the unnecessary infodump.