The Mythic Bestiary: The Illustrated Guide to the World's Most Fantastical Creatures Book

This book was glorious. Divided up into three sections: Beasts of Air, Beasts of Earth and Beasts of Water, this was partly a book on biology, and partly a book on history, myth and art. Almost every creature discussed was depicted in a full color, amazingly detailed painting. The text accompanying it described the animals construction, what they were known for, and how they fit into the mythologies and histories of their respective origin countries.

Some of my favorite in each category:

Beasts of Air:

Firebird - Mythical Russian bird akin to the Holy Grail. Incredibly, powerfully magical, not easy to find, obtain or keep.

Griffin - Part lion, part eagle, these strong majestic creatures strike a fearsome sight.

Roc - Giant bird of Arab legends. Reading about these birds reminded me of the eagles from Middle Earth, so large they could carry humans and pick up elephants.


Beasts of Earth:

Behemouth - Depicted as a hippo the size of several football fields, this gigantic creature was said to live in marshland.

Amphisbaena - I had never heard of this creature before, a serpent with two fully formed heads, one at either end of its body. It's origins are Greek, though the illustration depicted it more like a snake body with two dragon heads.

Fairies - I added this simply beacuse of the illustration because it struck me so strongly. No flying creatures with beautiful, translucent, shiny wings. This illustration showed a small man on a horse enveloped in tall vines in the style of an illuminated manuscript. If you were to ask, I would have said it was a picture of a knight!

Questing Beast - Another creature that was new for me. This one had its origins in Arthurian legend and represented sinfulness.

Dragons - Who doesn't love dragons?

Beasts of Water:

Merfolk - One of my all time favorite mythical creatures.

Kraken - The illustration alone was wonderful. It was shown attacking a ship, but it's head had a forest growing on it!

Sea Serpents - Probably my favorite class of mythical beasts.

Longwang - Another one I had never read about, Chinese dragon lords of bodies of water.

After Beasts of Water is a section called A Miscellany of Monsters which contains short paragraphs about other mythical creatures that are not as well known.

Some problems I had with this book. Firstly, the entries were in no semblance of alphabetical order which I thought was a failing. Secondly, many of the Beasts of Earth, and entries in the Miscellany, were not beasts, but small humanoid creatures or gods. This, to me, does not qualify them for a bestiary. Third, and this isn't a problem so much as information for other readers, there is nudity in this book.

Wonderful to just skim, read in depth, or just focus on your favorites. Entertaining text and beautiful pictures.