The Griffin Around The World
         The griffin is one of the many fabulous creatures scholars call Wundervogel, “wonder birds.” These gigantic fowl are so large they blot out the sun in their flight, casting shadows as large as clouds, and they are so strong they can carry off elephants and oxen. Many of them are enemies of snakes.
         Some writers point out that these wonder birds may have derived from great birds like the condor, bones of the pterodactyls, or natural phenomena such as mirages, waterspouts, typhoons, and tornadoes.

The Rukh
         During his travels, Marco Polo heard about “the gryphon birds” of Madagascar. But these birds, he wrote, were not the same as the bird and lion beasts his kinsmen knew as gryphons. The creatures of Madagascar, which the natives called rukhs, were birds with a wingspan of anywhere from sixteen to thirty paces (forty to seventy five feet) and feathers eight to twelve paces long (about twenty to thirty feet). Kublai Khan, the Emperor of China, supposedly heard about the giant birds and sent an envoy to Madagascar to verify the story. The envoy, it was said, returned to the Khan with a gigantic rukh feather, delighting the emperor. These rukhs, the natives said, were so large they would prey on elephants. The birds would snatch the gentle beasts in their talons, lift them into the sky, drop them, and feed on them.
         Another actual traveler who encountered stories of the rukh was the Arabian, Ibn Battuta, who was born circa 1300, right about the time Marco Polo’s travels were written down. Battuta wrote in his Travels that while sailing in the China Seas, the crew spotted what they first thought was a mountain. The mountain, though, was not on any chart, and the next morning the crew thought it had risen above the sea. They began to weep, certain that what they saw was the dreaded rukh, approaching to gobble them up. A fresh wind arose, carrying the ship safely off in another direction, leaving whatever it was behind them.
         Other travelers told of a bird in the Indian Seas that could carry off a ship in its beak. Natives, some said, cut off the beaks of gigantic dead birds and used them as boats.
         The most famous rukh (roc) story of them all is Sinbad’s tale in The Arabian Nights. Abandoned on an island by his shipmates, Sinbad discovers a white dome that turns out to be an egg of the monstrous roc. To escape the island, Sinbad uses his turban to tie himself to a talon of the nesting bird. When the roc flies off in search of food the next morning, it carries Sinbad over the sea to his next adventure. On a later voyage, the other merchants kill and roast a roc chick and the avenging parents drop boulders onto the departing ship. Sinbad saves himself by clinging to a plank of the sinking vessel.
         Bones and fossilized eggs of an actual gigantic bird have been discovered on the island of Madagascar, leading some scholars to believe that the extinct Aepyornis Maximus was a model for the fabulous rukh. The ostrich-like bird was believed to be about 16 feet tall. One of its eggs, now displayed in the British Museum measures 9.5x13 inches.

The Hippogryph
         The closest relative of the griffin is a hybrid called the hyppogryph (“hippo” meaning “horse,” plus griffin). Traditionally, the griffin was the mortal enemy of the horse, but ancient artists combined the 2 in the figure of the hippogryph. Later, the hero of Aristo’s Renaissance epic, Orlando Furioso, rides the wonderful creature with a magic bridle, much like the Greek hero Bellerophon rode the winged horse Pegasus.

The Simurgh
         The wise old Persian Bird of Ages, sometimes called the Senmurv, or Dog-bird, had the powers of reason and human speech. It was said to nest in the Tree of Knowledge and that the wind caused by its flight to and from the nest spread the seeds of wisdom all over the earth.
         In the Persian epic, The Shah Nameh by Firdausi, the Simurgh finds Zal, a boy abandoned on a mountain by his warrior father. The Simurgh raises Zal and gives him a magic feather when the boy is old enough to return to the world. Years later, when his wife Rudabah is dying in childbirth, Zal calls upon the power of the feather and Rudabah gives birth to the great Persian hero, Rustam.

The Anka
         The Arabian bird, with a lifespan of 1,700 years, lived on the mountain of Damaj until it carried off a human child and Allah banished it to remote peaks behind the veils of Light and Darkness. A prophet found the child and returned it to its mother.

The Hatthilinga
         A fabled gigantic bird of Burma, the Hatthilinga, too, carried off a human being. Its prey, though, was a pregnant Queen, who fell from the bird’s grasp onto a mountainside. She gave birth to a son who later gave her brooch to a mountain man in exchange for the freedom of a beautiful snake. The brooch came to the attention of the King, who led his armies to the mountain and returned to the city in triumph with his wife and son.

Garuda
         A gigantic man-bird with a white face, scarlet wings, and golden body, Garuda appears in the epics of India, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Brighter than the sun, he carries the god Vishnu through the heavens. He stole the elixir of the gods and once brought 2 heroes back to life with the touch of his wings.

Thunderbird
         In mythologies around the world, the forces of the sky – clouds, wind, rain, thunder, and lightning – are commonly personified by birds. Thunderbird is one of the most widespread of these figures, appearing in myths of Native American tribes across North and South America. Thunderbird shakes the air with his wings and shoots arrows of lightning out of the clouds.
         In some tales, Thunderbird wears a garment of eagleskin and a snake belt, which he snaps like a whip, splitting the sky with white fire. To some plains tribes, he was the enemy of the whale, carrying the beast high into stormy air and dropping it, shaking the sea. The emblematic American eagle, depicted on a one-dollar bill with arrows in its claws, is a modern descendant of Thunderbird.

Oshadega
         The Great Dew Eagle of the Iroquois, Oshadega is a close relative of Thunderbird. It lives in the sky with Hino the Thunderer; his wife, Rainbow; and the Lesser Thunderers. Oshadega carries a lake on its back, and when it flaps its wings, the water splashes into the sky, raining down upon the earth.

Raven
         This creator and trickster is a major figure in the tales of the Native Americans of the Northwest. Alive before he was born, Raven created the world, drew human beings out of clamshells, and stole water from the spring of Kannuk and spread it over the earth. By trickery, he made off with the bright ball of the sun hidden in the house of a chief, providing sunlight to human beings. He stole salmon from Beaver and dropped pairs of fish into rivers and lakes. He even moved Beaver’s lake by rolling it up and carrying it to another place. Raven never ages. It is said there are so many stories of Raven that it would take a lifetime to tell them all.



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