About A Bestiary Alphabet:
From Al-Mi’raj to Zlatarog, The Bestiary Alphabet features a different mythical creature for every letter of the alphabet, lovingly drawn and illustrated by the talented Felix Eddy.
Like the medieval bestiaries of old, the Bestiary Alphabet collects mythological creatures from all over the globe. Some are household names, others are delightful obscurities, but all will move and inspire you to dream of a world that you have never seen. Felix Eddy’s trip through the alphabet will show you the magic, mystery, power and beauty in all the things that might have been.
A Bestiary Alphabet is an illustrated guide to mythological creatures for a general audience.
Book Details:
Hardcover: 92 pages
Publisher: Mirror World Publishing
Publish Date: October 17, 2019
ISBN-10: 1987976614
ISBN-13: 978-1987976618
Read an Excerpt:
The al-mi’raj is a Middle Eastern beast that looks like a very large yellow rabbit with a long black horn growing from its head. Sometimes called simply a-mi’raj, they are said to kill and eat horses, and are very deadly to humans. They are featured in Islamic poetry and said to live on a mysterious island somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
Highly skilled traveling witches were the only ones able to destroy these creatures and prevent them from returning to an area. In fact, it’s likely that these “highly skilled traveling witches” actually spread rumors of these creatures so they could use their “skills” to exterminate them— for a price. They didn’t have to stretch the truth too far, though, because the al-mi’raj was possibly based on real life “attack bunnies”.
There are a few diseases that afflict rabbits, causing lumpy growths or making their fur matt up painfully, appearing like horns, or like bumps where a horn fell off. These rabbits are often driven mad with pain from their twisted and matted fur, which can make them unusually aggressive. While it’s doubtful that a rabbit could kill a horse, even if it was mad with pain, certainly a rabbit that was acting insane and rushing at people would cause some real alarm— perhaps enough to start the myth of a monstrous horned rabbit.
Horned rabbits have been translated into modern use by a number of fantasy writers and game companies. They are featured in video games and role-playing game books, both as monsters and as humorous creatures, called “horned rabbits” or “bunnycorns” or “unibunnies”.
My Review:
A Bestiary Alphabet contains 26 mythological creatures from A to Z. The book features a nicely detailed "About This Book" section, giving readers insights on the author behind the artwork. There is also a section about bestiaries and the history of real and imagined beasts.
Each mythological creature featured in the book contains illustrations and origin facts. The author did a splendid job on each picture. The origin facts are interesting and contain in-depth knowledge, indicating the author took her time to research each creature, not hastily providing slim amounts of information. I enjoyed reading about each and ever creature in the book.
Many of the mythological creatures were new to me. Several familiar creatures were creatures I've read about, seen in movies, or are part of the online MMORPG videogame, World of Warcraft (WoW). I'm a gamer girl and have seen griffins, harpies, jaculus, naga, and other mythological creatures throughout the many worlds within the game.
I highly recommend A Bestiary Alphabet to everyone, especially if you enjoy mythology.
I was given a copy of this book to read.
My Rating:
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