Hunting legends

- or the Wolpertinger, Jackalope and why they paint an interesting picture of culture at large.

As all hallows eve has passed us by, I figured I'd say a few words about man-made legends. Horror stories are a thing for darker nights, so we'll discuss imaginary creatures today. My three examples for the presentation will be the Kirin, the Jackalope and the Wolpertinger.

The Wolpertinger. Picture from Wikimedia Commons.

The Wolpertinger is said to inhabit the forests of Bavaria, in Germany. It is a chimeric creature, a meat-eating rabbit that has fangs, horns and wings. Oh, and according to some legends it can turn invisible as well.

It is not the only creature of it's kind: in Germany alone, there are also the Rasselbock and the Elwetritsch, both chimaeric woodlands creatures in their own right. The American Jackalope and Swedish Skvader are also somewhat less extravagant versions of the Wolpertinger: the Jackalope lacks wings whereas Skvader is usually described as a winged rabbit.

Now, folklore likes fables and impossible creatures, so the tales of such beings are not surprising as such. What might be a bit surprising, however, is that when taxidermy became a bit more refined, the more skilled taxidermists started fabricating these creatures. As such.

Rudolf Granberg's prepared Skvader. Picture from Wikimedia Commons.

Now, it's pretty odd that people should make up a creature, and then really make a creature that looks like the fabricated thing. And these taxidermic fabrications were really, really good. Some taxidermists even changed the bone structure of the creature to make it seem more real. I find it intriguing that people would knowingly create a fake copy of an imaginary thing simply to pass it as real. And not by photoshopping for 10 minutes, or even an hour, to create it: they spent weeks, maybe even months, sewing together a seamless replicated creature. To make a legend seem real.

Now, the final creature I will present today comes far from the East: the Kirin. The Kirin appears in almost all Chinese mythologies, as well as Japan. The Kirin has been described in many ways, but it's common traits are hooves and horns, tigerlike appearance, often a long neck and perhaps even a somewhat draconian appearance. A fearsome looking creature, it is still benevolent and only punishes the wicked.

A statue of the Kirin, in Beijing's Summer Palace. Picture from Wikimedia Commons.

The creature in itself is not that odd as a fable: the tale around it largely resembles that of the Western unicorn. The queer part comes here. During the Ming dynasty, China had more contact with Africa again, and there met the giraffes. The Emperor had some brought back to the palace and noticed a resemblance to the fairy tale creature known as the Kirin. Thus, he proclaimed giraffes were Kirin, here to show all that he was a wise and benevolent ruler.

I'm not sure of the situation in other East Asian languages, but atleast in Japanese this proclamation still holds: Kirin means both the legend and giraffe. Perhaps not that many know why the two have the same name, but it all began with a single ruler.

Does humanity have some in-built need to find out if all the unbelievable stories are true, or is this realization of legends simply a means to make stories better? Or are all people essentially trolls?