词条 | Questing Beast |
释义 |
The Questing Beast, or the Beast Glatisant (Barking Beast), is a monster from Arthurian legend. It is the subject of quests undertaken by famous knights such as King Pellinore, Sir Palamedes, and Sir Percival. Description and nameThe strange creature has the head and neck of a snake, the body of a leopard, the haunches of a lion, and the feet of a hart.[1] Its name comes from the great noise that it emits from its belly, a barking like "thirty couple hounds questing". Glatisant is related to the French word glapissant, 'yelping' or 'barking', especially of small dogs or foxes. The questing beast is a variant of the mythological medieval view on giraffes, whose generic name of Camelopardalis originated from their description of being half-camel and half-leopard.[2][3] Early accountsThe first accounts of the beast are in the Perlesvaus and the Post-Vulgate Suite du Merlin. The Post-Vulgate's account, which is taken up in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, has the Questing Beast appear to King Arthur after he has had an affair with his half-sister Morgause and begotten Mordred (they did not know that they were related when the incestuous act occurred). Arthur sees the beast drinking from a pool just after he wakes from a disturbing dream that foretells Mordred's destruction of the realm (no noise of hounds from the belly is emitted while it is drinking). He is then approached by King Pellinore who confides that it is his family quest to hunt the beast. Merlin reveals that the Questing Beast had been born of a human woman, a princess who lusted after her own brother. She slept with a devil who had promised to make the boy love her, but the devil manipulated her into accusing her brother of rape. Their father had him torn apart by dogs as punishment. Before he died, however, he prophesied that his sister would give birth to an abomination that would make the same sounds as the pack of dogs that were about to kill him. Other appearancesThe Perlesvaus offers an entirely different depiction of the Questing Beast than the best known one, given above. There, it is described as pure white, smaller than a fox, and beautiful to look at. The noise from its belly is the sound of its offspring who tear the creature apart from the inside; the author takes the beast as a symbol of Christ, destroyed by the followers of the Old Law, the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Gerbert de Montreuil provides a similar vision of the Questing Beast in his Continuation of Perceval, the Story of the Grail, though he says that it is "wondrously large" and interprets the noise and subsequent gruesome death by its own offspring as a symbol of impious churchgoers who disturb the sanctity of Mass by talking. Later in the Post-Vulgate, the Prose Tristan, and the sections of Malory based on those works, Saracen knight Palamedes hunts the Questing Beast. It is a futile venture, much like his love for Sir Tristan's paramour Iseult, offering him nothing but hardship. In the Post-Vulgate, his conversion to Christianity allows him relief from his endless worldly pursuits, and he finally slays the creature during the Grail Quest after he, Percival, and Galahad have chased it into a lake. The Questing Beast appears in many later works as well, including stories written in French, Galician, Spanish, and Italian. Modern versions
See also
References1. ^{{cite web |url=http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/student_orgs/arthurian_legend/quests/monsters/abeasts.html |title=Arthurian Legend - Monsters |publisher=Uiweb.uidaho.edu |date= |accessdate=2014-06-14 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109203139/http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/student_orgs/arthurian_legend/quests/monsters/abeasts.html |archivedate=2013-11-09 |df= }} 2. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.eaudrey.com/myth/camelopard.htm |title=Dave's Mythical Creatures and Places |publisher=Eaudrey.com |date= |accessdate=2014-06-14}} 3. ^{{cite web|author=Chris Goodwin |url=http://goodwinillustration.blogspot.com/2010/10/questing-beast.html |title=Chris Goodwin Illustration - "The Questing Beast" |publisher=Goodwinillustration.blogspot.com |date=2010-10-07 |accessdate=2014-06-14}} 4. ^{{cite web|title=Le Morte d'Arthur, Series 1, Merlin - BBC One|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00g43r6|website=BBC|accessdate=4 March 2018}} External links
6 : Arthurian legend|Medieval legends|Fantasy creatures|Mythological hybrids|European legendary creatures|Supernatural legends |
随便看 |
|
开放百科全书收录14589846条英语、德语、日语等多语种百科知识,基本涵盖了大多数领域的百科知识,是一部内容自由、开放的电子版国际百科全书。