Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the
Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters
Speaker 2: in time. My wife recently gave me a copy of
Speaker 2: the nineteen eighty five book Magical Beasts from the Time
Speaker 2: Life Enchanted World series. This is a volume I didn't
Speaker 2: have in my childhood set of the books, and as
Speaker 2: with other volumes, this one contains a rich collection of
Speaker 2: new and classic illustrations. Flipping through it for the first time,
Speaker 2: I encountered the expected array of satyrs, harpees, and unicorns.
Speaker 2: But then on page one hundred and twenty two, I
Speaker 2: encountered a glorious illustration by none other than contemporary artist
Speaker 2: Wayne Anderson, whose book Flight of Dragon was the inspiration
Speaker 2: for the nineteen eighty two Rankin and Bass animated film
Speaker 2: of the same name, recently featured on Weird House Cinema.
Speaker 2: Anderson's interpretation of the creature is a splendid antelope like
Speaker 2: creature with a single curved horn. This horn does not spiral,
Speaker 2: but it does branch off into stunted hollow tubes. It
Speaker 2: gives the horn an appearance of both coral and a
Speaker 2: fluted musical instrument. It also reminded my wife of the
Speaker 2: Grinch's dog Max, once he was augmented with a crude
Speaker 2: antler in the cartoon. The text of Magical Beasts tells
Speaker 2: us that this is the Persian creature known as Shahdhavar,
Speaker 2: and when the wind passes over this horn and its apertures,
Speaker 2: sweet music is produced, music so sweet, in fact, that
Speaker 2: animals of the forest will draw near. It is then
Speaker 2: that Shadhavar's predatory nature is revealed, as the creature pounces
Speaker 2: on its enthralled prey, kills it, and devours its flesh.
Speaker 2: Shadhavar is discussed in the nineteen fifty text The Unicorn
Speaker 2: Studies in Muslim Iconography by the late Islamic art historian
Speaker 2: Richard Ettinghausen. He writes that, according to Zakaria al Kuzwani
Speaker 2: in his thirteenth century book The Wonders of Creatures and
Speaker 2: the Marvels of Creation, the Shadhavar lives in remote regions
Speaker 2: of room, and its horn contains no less than forty
Speaker 2: two hollow branches. The fourteenth century writer al Damiri would
Speaker 2: increase that count to seventy two, and it appears that
Speaker 2: historian Hamdala Mustawafi contributed the predatory account, possibly grafting it
Speaker 2: on from another imaginary creature, the Sirranas, which was originally
Speaker 2: described as a marine animal with musical apertures on its
Speaker 2: snout and later as a land animal with musical apertures
Speaker 2: on its snout. In either case, the Sirranus was said
Speaker 2: to lure in prey with its song as well. The
Speaker 2: excellent blog A Book of Creatures features a nice illustration
Speaker 2: of what this Syranus might have been expected to look like,
Speaker 2: and mentions that the name of the creature may be
Speaker 2: a reference to a Byzantine musical instrument that was used,
Speaker 2: or said to be used to lure and capture animals.
Speaker 2: There may also be some connection here to the sirens
Speaker 2: of Greek tradition. At any rate, it's a wonderful, fantastic creature,
Speaker 2: and also a reminder that monsters of myth and legend
Speaker 2: are fluid. They may borrow their attributes from others of
Speaker 2: their kind, and of course they may lend attributes to
Speaker 2: other creatures as well. Tune in for additional episodes of
Speaker 2: the monster fact or the artifact each week. As always,
Speaker 2: you can email us at contact at stuff to blow
Speaker 2: your Mind dot com.
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