Re: Fireball shooting yak

[mn13189@WCUVAX1.WCU.EDU]

Poster: mn13189@WCUVAX1.WCU.EDU

> >a good friend of mine's claims that there is a mythological beast in celtic
> >mythology which had  breath that could slay and shot fireballs out its
> >posterior, and in general caused lots of destruction(to the ozone layer).
> >Can anyone verify or name this beast.
> >thanks
> >-Xavier
> 
> I don't know about Celtic Mythology, but there is a heraldic beast known as
> the bonacon.  From J. P. Brooke-Little's _An Heraldic Alphabet_:
-snip-
>  (Note - the illustration shows only the head of the beast, as even for
> Tudor heraldry a flame-throwing bull is a bit much!)
> 
> There are no instances of this beast registered as SCA arms.

All my Celtic mythology books are at home, but if no one else posts
anything on the matter, I'll see what I can dig up.  A complete depiction
of the bonacon does exist.  One heraldic sourse I found in a library
(forget the title) mentions it, and gives a depiction from a 16th (maybe
15th?) century bestiary.  Nasty thing.  The horns were shown curving
inward, and a large spear is protruding from the beasts side.  Since it is
under attack, sure enough, a blast of something unpleasant is coming from
it's amply illustrated rump.  If anyone wants to see this, it has been
lovingly engraved on the Clan Og "It's Only a Game" Table.  This table
will be at Pennsic at the Windmasters Hill encampment.  Along with the
numerous game boards on the table, I wanted to illustrate it with figures.
In keeping with the mind set of Clan Og (our purpose is to not take
ourselves too seriously, and above all, realize the SCA is a game and
should be fun), I wanted the figures to all be from actual period sources,
yet as sily as can be.  This farting bull fit right in.  Opposite him on
teh table is another picture from a bestiary.  This one is of a beaver.
According to certain alchemists of the day, a beaver's testicles were
extremely valuable, alchemy-wise.  Supposedly the beaver knew this, and
when it was being chased, would bite off it's own gonads so that it might
escape.  The depiction in the bestiary shows the beaver doing this.  In
other words, our table now boasts a ball-biting-beaver and a
bowell-blasting-bull.  These are all period illustrations mind you.
Nothing but seriousness here. . . .  ;)

Yeah right,
Aye,
Eogan

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