The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A–Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic. John Matthews

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СКАЧАТЬ tusks to boast their valour. The god Freyr’s mount is Gullinbursti, whose golden bristles make the sun’s rays, and in Zoroastrian tradition, the shining boar is a symbol of the sun. People swore oaths by this mighty boar, who was the discoverer of secrets and the detector of lies.

      The sow was closely associated with the goddess Ceridwen, the initiator of poets and seers. The most famous sow was Henwen (Old White One) who was said to have acquired great knowledge from eating the beech nuts which fell from the Tree of Wisdom. On the occasion when she herself was hunted, she is said to have dropped from her womb such staple items as corn and bees, as well as the giant Cath Palug. In Irish tradition, King Mac Da Tho possessed a huge pig which could feed a hundred warriors. In the story from which this episode comes, the heroes end up squabbling over who will get the best and most succulent joints – a theme which runs through several other tales where the ‘hero’s portion’ was a cut made only for the greatest warrior present.

      In both Norse and Celtic myth, boars who can be repeatedly hunted, killed, cooked and eaten (as long as their bones remain unbroken), to be hunted the next day are a feature of the Otherworld and its sustenance. Saerhimnir was the diet of the heroes of Valhalla, while the renewable boar is part of the otherworldly feasting of the Irish god Goibniu. This sacrificial cycle of birth and death shows how closely the boar is associated to the cycle of the seasons. The boar was sacrificed to Freyr at Yuletide when it is still traditional to feast on boar’s head.

      In Greek myth, Adonis, the beautiful youth who represents the spirit of growth, is gored to death by a boar. This myth is almost exactly the same as that of the Middle Eastern god, Tammuz, who was also slain by the boar while out hunting. The coming of the spring was the time when women mourned for his falling with great lamentation. The boar was sacrificed to Aphrodite, goddess of love; and it was also sacred to Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of love. Together with the stag, the boar was created by the upholder of good, Ormuzd, to help kill all serpents which, with the dragon, were seen to be the animals of the upholder of evil, Ahriman.

      BOAR OF BEN BULBAIN

      This Irish boar began its life as the fosterson of Angus mac Og. The Fenian hero Duibhne quarrelled with Angus mac Og and killed the boy, refusing to pay the eric or compensatory fine for his death because Duibhne had learned the boy was the offspring of his own wife by a mere shepherd. The shepherd picked up the crushed body of his son, reviving him by the touch of a hazel wand and changed him into a boar. At the same time, the shepherd imprinted into the boar the instruction that he must forever pursue Diarmuid, Duibhne’s true-born son. The fortunate Diarmuid lived a life of great heroism and joy until he finally succumbed to the beauty of Grainne. The lovers eloped, bringing on themselves the vengeance of Fionn mac Cumhail who in his old age had become betrothed to Grainne. While they were hiding from Fionn, Diarmuid went out hunting a mysterious boar that had been spotted near the height of Ben Bulbain, despite Grainne’s warnings. He was fatally gored by the boar but Grainne begged Fionn to use his magical powers and heal her lover. Filled with jealousy, Fionn allowed the healing waters to trickle through his fingers three times before they could touch Diarmuid’s venomous wound. As Diarmuid died, so the slain son of the shepherd had his final vengeance.

      BOBBI-BOBBI

      In the Australian Aborigine story of the Dreamtime, Bobbi-Bobbi was a serpent who lived in the heavens. At that time, people had only water to live upon and so the serpent created game animals. The Earth was teeming with creatures that could provide food, but people had no idea how to catch them, so Bobbi-Bobbi took one of his own ribs to make the first boomerang. This throwing stick was an incredibly powerful weapon, and they could not lose it, since it always came back to them. The hunters were so delighted with the boomerang that they used it to make a hole in the clouds. But Bobbi-Bobbi was angered with this violent ingratitude and he withdrew all his help from the people so that they had to manage things for themselves. (See Rainbow Serpent.)

      BOCKMAN

      This curious creature is half man, half goat. In German folk tradition, the Bockman haunts the forest like a satyr. Children are warned not to venture into the deep woods in case the Bockman carries them off.

      BOGGART

      Boggarts, who occur all over Britain, are mischievous brownies who misplace and upset things. They follow their chosen victims around and make life as difficult as possible – which is perhaps why on certain days, nothing seems to go right. They are very difficult to get rid of.

      A Yorkshire farmer called George Gilbertson got on the wrong side of a boggart which attached itself to his household. The boggart spread mischief all over the house, snatching food from the children’s mouths, throwing porridge into cupboards – all invisibly. One day, one of the children discovered an elf-bore or knot-hole in the wood of a cupboard. He started to play with it, thrusting the point of a shoe-horn into the hole. Immediately, the shoe-horn popped out and struck him on the forehead. The boy had discovered the boggart’s hiding place. Daily the children played this game with their new friend, but the adults found the disorder and upset that the boggart caused about the place too much to bear, so they decided to move. As they were loading up a neighbour came along to ask why they were moving. ‘I’m forced to because of that damned boggart. It’s worried my good wife nearly to death and that’s why we’re flitting.’ From the depths of a churn upon the cart came an echoing voice, ‘And that’s why we’re flitting!’ It was the boggart. George started to unload the cart saying to his wife, ‘If I’d have known, we needn’t have gone to all this trouble. Still, better to be tormented in the old house as be tormented in a house we don’t know.’ And so they returned, waiting for the time when the boggart was tired of his tricks.

      BOLLA

      This dragon-like snake sleeps all year, awakening only on St George’s Day in Albania. When it opens its eyes, it will devour any human being it sees. At the end of its long cycle of growth, it develops into the Kulshedra.

      BONITO MAIDENS

      Among the Sa’a people of the Solomon Islands, there is the tradition of the Bonito Maidens. These beings live in pools with the bonito fish and are responsible for the going forth of the shoals. These beautiful maidens have necklaces of porpoise teeth, shell money and other ornaments. They warn the shaman when the shoals are about to appear by leaving some areca nuts nearby while he is sleeping. The first bonito to be caught must be washed ceremonially and placed on an altar to be eaten only by the shaman. Young fishermen who have lost their father’s special ivory bonito fishing hooks through careless fishing make their supplications to the Bonito Maidens to help retrieve them.

      BONNACHON

      Pliny the Elder described the Bonnachon in his 1st-century Natural History as a cow-like creature with a horse’s mane and inturned horns. Its habitat was the deserts and grasslands of Asia. If a passing traveller should encounter one, it was not the Bonnachon’s horns that were the most terrifying, but the animal’s propensity for ejecting such a great load of dung from its rear end that the ground would be littered for more than two acres. The dung was acrid and would burn any trees, plants, people and animals that were in its vicinity.

      BOOBRIE

      The Boobrie, which has its home in the lochs of Argyllshire in Scotland, СКАЧАТЬ