Which “Fantastic Beasts” Come from Legend?
MANY OF THE CREATURES IN THE TEXTBOOK Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them are known in
our world as well as Harry’s, even if they are legendary. Here are
some of the stories from which J. K. Rowling drew:
RED CAP
According to Fantastic Beasts
and Where to Find Them, Red Caps “live in holes on old
battlegrounds or wherever human blood has been spilled . . . [and]
will attempt to bludgeon [muggles] to death on dark nights.” This
creature has long existed in the legends of England and Scotland,
neighbors who fought many gruesome wars. He is also known as Bloody
Cap or Red Comb. His cap is red because he uses it to catch the
blood of his victims.
RAMORA
True to a legend that goes back thousands of
years, Rowling says this fish—which does exist and which we know as
the remora—has the power to stop ships. In fact, the name remora
comes from the Latin word for “delay.” Using a suction cup on its
head, it attaches itself to ships and sharks in order to feed on
scraps. Also known as the Mora and Echeneis, its strength had
already been exaggerated by the first century A.D., when Pliny the
Elder wrote, “Winds howl, storms rage: this fish commands their
frenzied force to be still, stopping ships with a great power,
greater than any anchor. Humankind is a vain weak creature when its
giant warships are stopped by a tiny fish!” Pliny claimed the ship
of Marc Antony was anchored by remoras during the Battle of Actium,
causing him to lose the battle and changing the course of Roman
history.
British legends also tell of a Blue Cap, a spirit who helped miners.
The author of Beasts,
Newton (“Newt”) Artemis Fido Scamander, has a name filled with
puns. Newts are small salamanders (see page
37). Artemis was the Greek goddess of
hunting—good for an animal scholar. Fido,
from the Latin fidus (“faithful”), is a
common name for pets. “Scamander” means to
wander in a winding way, as Newt did while exploring.
HIPPOCAMPUS
This sea horse gets its name from the Greek words
for horse (hippos) and sea monster
(kampos). It is also called the Hydrippus
(the Greek word for “water” is hydro.) The
chariot of the Greek sea-god Poseidon is pulled by
hippocamps.
A book called the Physiologus, written about the second century A.D.,
says some legends deemed the Hippocampus “the leader of all
fishes.” Judaism and Christianity were on the rise at the time, and
the Hippocampus was imagined to be a prophet or guide similar to
Moses. It was said to lead other fish to a Holy Land (or Holy Sea,
that is) where a special golden fish lives: “When the fish of the
sea have met together and gathered themselves into flocks, they go
in search of the Hydrippus; and when they have found him, he turns
himself toward the East, and they all follow him, all the fish from
the North and from the South; and they draw near to the golden
fish, the Hydrippus leading them. And, when the Hydrippus and all
the fish are arrived, they greet the golden fish as their
King.”
SALAMANDER
In Fantastic Beasts and Where
to Find Them Rowling says these are “fire-dwelling” lizards
that live “only as long as the fire from which they sprang burns.”
This legend goes back thousands of years. The Greek philosopher
Aristotle wrote in the fourth century B.C. that “the fact that
certain animals cannot be burnt is evidenced by the salamander,
which puts out a fire by crawling through it.” It could do this
because it was said to be extremely cold. Almost a thousand years
later St. Isidore, Bishop of
Hippocampus, from a Dutch
woodcut.
Salamander in flames, from
a family crest.
Seville, agreed that the salamander “lives in the
midst of flames without pain and without being consumed,” adding,
“amid all poisons its power
is the greatest. Other poisonous animals strike individuals, but
this slays many at the same time by crawling up a tree and
infecting the fruit, killing all those who eat it.”
Some legends said the salamander lived in cocoons that were used to spin a
fireproof fabric. Instead of being washed in water, clothes made
from it were supposedly cleaned with fire.
ERKLING
Rowling has transposed a few letters in the name
of the Erl King or Erl König (“elf king”) of German legend.
Otherwise, her description holds true. It is an evil creature in
the Black Forest of Germany that tries to snatch children. In
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem “Erl King” it calls out to a
young boy who is traveling through the woods with his father:
“Oh, come, thou dear infant! Oh, come thou with me!
Full many a game I will play
there with thee.”
Although the boy tries to warn his father (who can’t hear the Erl King), the poem ends badly. Like legends of grindylows in England and kappas in Japan, the story of the Erl King was concocted by parents to prevent children from wandering.
CHIMAERA
The description of the Chimaera in Beasts, odd as it sounds, is true to the early Greek
legend of a monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat,
and the tail of a dragon or serpent. (In another version the heads
of all three animals were on a lion’s body. Yet other versions
added wings.) It is a sibling of both the Sphinx and Cerberus, the
three-headed dog that guarded the Underworld.
In Fantastic Beasts and
Where to Find Them Rowling casually mentions “there is only one
known instance of the successful slaying of a Chimaera and the
unlucky wizard concerned fell to his death from his winged horse.”
She is playing with the original legend, in which the monster was
slain by the hero Bellerophon, who rode the winged horse Pegasus.
Bellerophon survived that battle; but in a later adventure, when he
arrogantly attempted to ride the horse to Mount Olympus, home of
the gods, Zeus punished him by throwing him off Pegasus and
crippling him.
The term “chimaera” has come to mean something
(usually a living
creature) created by humans by artificially combining things that
occur in nature.
See also: Boggarts Cornish
Pixies Grindylows Kappas Merpeople Unicorns Veela
KELPIE
As described in Beasts,
this Celtic water demon is usually seen as a horse with a mane of
green rushes. It lures people onto its back, then drags them into
deep water. As Rowling says, bridling a kelpie will subdue it.
Because it is supernaturally strong, it can do the work of many
horses.
SELKIES AND MERROWS
In the entry for merpeople in Beasts, Rowling mentions selkies and merrows. These
are specific sorts of merpeople known in Britain. The selkies are
seal people of the country’s northern islands. They can assume very
beautiful human forms, but must resume their seal form in the
water. To kill a selkie is to invite a disastrous storm. Merrows
are from Ireland. The women are beautiful but the men are quite
ugly. They are said to have magic hats, and if a human can steal
the hat the merrow will not be able to return to the sea.