The Dictionnaire Infernal‘s Cerberus is a dandy fellow.

Actual pictures of the yeti. From “Secrets of the Gnomes” by Rien Poortvliet and Wil Huygen.

Instead of putting the four beasts of Daniel’s vision front and center, Gustave Doré gives us four dark masses on the horizon. They’re even scarier because we see so little of them.

What did Scylla look like? Homer gives her six heads armed with triple rows of teeth on her shoulders. Ovid gives her six dog’s heads at her waist and twelve dog’s legs. Neither of them mention the long mermaidy fish-tail that she’s usually depicted with in art (where she’s a sort of mermaid with a dog or two grafted to her waist).

So which is right? One or all of them? Rodney Matthews’ excellent illustration from The Usborne Book of Greek and Norse Legends (1987) bravely tries to include as much as possible.

All in a very alien sort of look. No twelve legs though.

The dreaded unicorcupinefish Caspilly. Fond memories of this one, it was one of the main reasons I started ABC, it was the first entry I made, and it ended up on the coat of arms!

IT STABS WHALES TO DEATH

Tolkien’s color pencil sketch of Smaug means a lot to me, not least that it was the cover of my first Hobbit book and I was convinced, pre-reading, that that twisty flying thing was The Hobbit. With feathery red plumes on its head and a little smiley face where Smaug’s chin is.

But I digress. Check out Tolkien’s notes on the margins. “Bard the Bowman should be standing after release of arrow at extreme left point of the piles”, “Dragon should have a white naked spot where the arrow enters”, and best of all, “The moon should be a crescent: it was only a few nights after the New Moon on Durin’s Day”. Oh Tolkien you wonderful nerd.

Time for a Throwback Tuesday! Here’s the first trolual I drew, in what was to be the embryonic ABC.

Squonk doodle. How can I improve it?

Been wondering – what if our image of dragons and demons was primarily influenced by jenny hanivers?