Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas,
Speaker 1: and monsters in time. In this episode, we returned to
Speaker 1: the rich world of Pokemon, full of elaborate and creative
Speaker 1: creatures with the knack for evolution and combat. Today's Pokemon
Speaker 1: begins as an adorable baby tortoise with a plant on
Speaker 1: its head named turt Wig, and ultimately evolves into a
Speaker 1: titanic tortoise with a forest on its back named Tortara.
Speaker 1: In the movie Pokemon Detective Pikachu, we encounter multiple tortas
Speaker 1: the size of islands. So once more I turned to
Speaker 1: my son's Sebastian for help navigating the Pokemon world. He'd
Speaker 1: like to share the following using the Pokemon Super Extra
Speaker 1: Deluxe Essential Handbook as a primary source to Terra, the
Speaker 1: continent Pokemon found in the Center region, a grass and
Speaker 1: ground type. Its first forms part Quick is the grass
Speaker 1: thirder Pokemon in the Sinner region. Some people believe that
Speaker 1: as a cant secure Terra dwelled under the surface, it
Speaker 1: is big enough to have a small pokemon on its back. Naturally,
Speaker 1: tortoises and turtles factor into various myth cycles, and to
Speaker 1: consider giant specimens with forests on their back, we have
Speaker 1: to discuss the European tradition of the aspido clone or
Speaker 1: asp turtle, as it was listed in the second century
Speaker 1: b c. E book Physiologus. As Carol Rose explains in Giants,
Speaker 1: Monsters and Dragons, this tone was widely distributed across medieval Europe,
Speaker 1: and still other texts spoke of similar creatures. Beasts so
Speaker 1: vast their stony backs resemble islands in the sea, and
Speaker 1: they are often covered with vegetation as well. The resulting
Speaker 1: nautical horror stories were irresistible sailor's land on these islands,
Speaker 1: thinking they have found refuge, until the island itself roars
Speaker 1: to life and sends them fleeing back to their boats.
Speaker 1: In the Middle East, the great creature is known as
Speaker 1: Zaratan and is sometimes described as a whale, other times
Speaker 1: as a turtle or general sea monster. It too is
Speaker 1: mistaken for land. The legendary Sinbad the sailor, encounters the
Speaker 1: Tzaratan during his first voyage in the Tales of the
Speaker 1: Thousand and One Nights. We see the same motif in
Speaker 1: the immap UMAs Sorsa of Greenland, a turtle and the
Speaker 1: giant fish jess Conius of Irish legend. But such turtles
Speaker 1: and tortoises are not always depicted as false islands. In
Speaker 1: Hindu mythology, is explained in Sacred Animals of India by
Speaker 1: Nanditha Krishna, Vishnu incarnates as the great turtle Kurma and
Speaker 1: carries Mount Mandara on his back to churn the primordial ocean.
Speaker 1: We also have the tradition of a world turtle that,
Speaker 1: in one way or another supports or contains the world itself.
Speaker 1: In Hinduism we have Akupara, the cosmic turtle who supports
Speaker 1: the earth. We also find this motif in the beliefs
Speaker 1: of certain indigenous North American tribes. My son Sebastian recommends
Speaker 1: the Circle Round and Earth Rangers podcast episode Turtle Island,
Speaker 1: which details related folklore of the Ojibwe First Nations people
Speaker 1: of Canada, in which the world is rebuilt upon a
Speaker 1: great turtle's back. In Chinese mythology, we also have Ow
Speaker 1: the mythical sea turtle. When the four pillars holding up
Speaker 1: the sky are destroyed. The goddess Nuah cuts the legs
Speaker 1: from the great turtle and uses them to hold the
Speaker 1: sky up. We also have one related story concerning legendary
Speaker 1: ruler You, the Great tam or of floods, measurer of
Speaker 1: the Earth, and master of the nine cauldrons. There are
Speaker 1: many different accounts of how he combats the Great flood,
Speaker 1: but in some he has assisted by a yellow dragon
Speaker 1: and a black tortoise. He is also said to make
Speaker 1: use of the sea or self renewing soil. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: is said that yous father stole the soil from the
Speaker 1: gods and was punished for it, but in some accounts
Speaker 1: the magical earth is brought to him on the back
Speaker 1: of the black tortoise. If you turn to page forty
Speaker 1: three of the Enchanted World Book on Dragons, you'll see
Speaker 1: a wonderful illustration of this tail by Jill Carla Shorts.
Speaker 1: We see the self renewing soil heaped upon the tortoise's back,
Speaker 1: like picturesque mountains. In the natural world we do not
Speaker 1: find such wonders, but hibernating turtles have been observed to
Speaker 1: come up from the ground with dirt on their backs,
Speaker 1: sometimes with vegetation clinging there or growing there. But this
Speaker 1: is of course temporary and a bit of rare luck.
Speaker 1: But the resemblance of such shells to land has clearly
Speaker 1: long tickle of the human imagination, and we see the
Speaker 1: tradition carry on in our fiction. Just to consider a
Speaker 1: few examples, there are the island like dragon turtles of Avatar,
Speaker 1: The Last Airbender, and of course there is the Great
Speaker 1: World Turtle, a tune from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Tune
Speaker 1: in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week.
Speaker 1: As always, you can email us at contact That's Stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your
Speaker 1: Mind is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
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