WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: The Salamander

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the

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<v Speaker 2>Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow

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<v Speaker 2>Your Mind focusing on nonmithical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time.

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<v Speaker 2>As mentioned in yesterday's core episode The Nature of Diamonds,

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<v Speaker 2>Part one, I'd like to discuss the fantastic salamander in

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<v Speaker 2>today's Monster Fact. Now. Dungeons and Dragons players have long

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<v Speaker 2>noticed the startling difference between salamanders of the natural world

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<v Speaker 2>and salamanders as they appear in the D and D

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<v Speaker 2>Monster Manual, where they are described as flaming snakes and

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<v Speaker 2>snakelike beings that quote slither across the Sea of ash

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<v Speaker 2>on the elemental plane of fire. Meanwhile, real life salamanders

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<v Speaker 2>are quite remarkable but are decidedly not on fire. Ancient

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<v Speaker 2>and medieval bestiaries are full of strange and often fiery

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<v Speaker 2>tales of the salamander. I turned to the writings of

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<v Speaker 2>folk historian Carol Rose and her book Monsters, Giants and Dragons,

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<v Speaker 2>as well as Jorge Luis Borges The Book of Imaginary

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<v Speaker 2>Beings to piece together the different attributed features of the

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<v Speaker 2>mythic salamander. The creature pops up in various works from

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<v Speaker 2>the ancient Greco Roman world, most notably the writings of

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<v Speaker 2>Roman historian Pliny the Elder in seventy seven CE. He

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<v Speaker 2>describes the salamander as a monstrous lizard that poisons anything

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<v Speaker 2>it touches, known to live on the slopes of volcanoes

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<v Speaker 2>as well as within the heart of a fire. As

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<v Speaker 2>Borges points out, Plenty highlights the creature's natural coldness as

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<v Speaker 2>a reason for this. It's so cold it simply resists

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<v Speaker 2>the fire and even extinguishes it. But Pliny also writes

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<v Speaker 2>of another creature, the pyrosta, that lives within the copper

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<v Speaker 2>smelting furnaces of Cyprus, and the creature, he says, dies

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<v Speaker 2>if they leave the flames. Borges points out that later

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<v Speaker 2>traditions would take these attributes and apply them to the salamander.

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<v Speaker 2>It's also worth noting, though, that, as a creature of fire,

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<v Speaker 2>the mythic salamander was, by some standards, a necessary part

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<v Speaker 2>of classical elemental theory. If earth, water, air, and fire

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<v Speaker 2>are the prime building blocks of nature, then there have

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<v Speaker 2>to be animals of each element, and that includes creatures

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<v Speaker 2>of fire, as we discussed in yesterday's episode. Sixteenth century

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<v Speaker 2>Italian sculptor Benvenuto Cellini claimed in his autobiography to have

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<v Speaker 2>seen a salamander in the fire as a child. As

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<v Speaker 2>Matt Simon discussed in a twenty fourteen article for Wired Magazine,

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<v Speaker 2>fantastically wrong the legend of the homicidal fireproof salamander. This

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<v Speaker 2>common bit of lare likely came about as ancient people

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<v Speaker 2>occasionally threw damp logs on their fires, logs that may

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<v Speaker 2>have had tiny, unfortunate salamanders clinging to their underside. But

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<v Speaker 2>as Borges stressed, the notion of a creature that lives

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<v Speaker 2>in fire was a theologically useful bit of lore as well.

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<v Speaker 2>Saint Augustine, in his fifth century CEE work The City

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<v Speaker 2>of God, used the salamander as proof that fiery living

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<v Speaker 2>torment in the afterlife was not that far fetched a notion.

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<v Speaker 2>Borhes notes that the mythical phoenix, another mythical creature of fire,

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<v Speaker 2>was often cited by theologians to support the idea of

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<v Speaker 2>a bodily resurrection during the Middle Ages. Salamanders continued to

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<v Speaker 2>tear it up in the bestiaries. Writers of the day

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<v Speaker 2>described their abilities to poison the fruit of trees. They

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<v Speaker 2>entwined to stop up the mouths of lions, and of course,

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<v Speaker 2>extinguish fires. The creature also became associated with fibrous minerals

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<v Speaker 2>classified today as asbestos, which are highly fire resistant. Of course,

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<v Speaker 2>natural salamanders do not live in or tolerate fire any

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<v Speaker 2>more than the rest of the Anna kingdom. In fact,

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<v Speaker 2>they are decidedly moist creatures. The truth of experience and

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<v Speaker 2>experimentation easily extinguish the fantastic idea of a literal salamander

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<v Speaker 2>of the flames, but the creature lived on in heraldry,

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<v Speaker 2>alchemical symbolism, and of course fantasy. Tune in for additional

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<v Speaker 2>episodes of The Monster Fact each week. As always, you

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<v Speaker 2>can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your

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<v Speaker 2>Mind dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

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