#Almlaeni

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Almlaeni

Here are the results for this week's bestiaryposting; as always, anyone who doesn't know what that's about can see all previous posts here: https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

This one, I think, really illustrated to me how differently one perceives these entries when one knows what animal is being described. There was a particular detail in this week's entry that I thought was an absolute dead giveaway as to the identity of the animal, but most of the commentary I've seen from the artists indicates that they didn't see it as obvious, which was a relief -- I think the harder it is to guess, the more fun this whole thing is. (Yes, you're not supposed to try and guess it at all, but on the more obvious ones like the Gligglae I see a lot of comments along the lines of "I'm pretty sure I know what this is", so there are indicators whether people know.) It probably helps that it was a longer entry, so there's a lot going on. I just think it's worth noting because of the conversation recently going around regarding what's obvious to the author vs. what's obvious to the reader.

The entry we're working from can be found here:

Art is below the cut in roughly chronological order.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) started with the thought that an example of an animal with strong jaws is an ant. But given the description of manes and fur, this is probably a mammal, so we get an "ant-lion" that they describe as looking "like he should be an alien pet in a sci-fi movie or game", which I think is spot-on. Good design for a weird alien pet. I really like the execution of the "ant's head but mammalian" concept, and the coloring of the mane looks really cool. Some more detail on design decisions can be found in the linked post.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) does note that she thinks she knows what this animal is -- but, in the spirit of the thing, intentionally avoided drawing that -- so we'll have to see how identifiable it is at the end of this post. She's also provided her own alt text, thanks for that. I find this design really charming -- the blend of porcine and feline makes for a good silhouette in my opinion, the pose looks cool, and the rainbow mane is quite pretty. I particularly like that the tuft of hair the entry says is a love charm is drawn to resemble a heart.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has drawn a rather frightening-looking beast, here shown nipping its own paw after accidentally stepping on a twig. (They also provided alt text, thank you.) There's a lot of interesting design choices here -- explained in some detail in the linked post, check that out. We can see a stocky, muscular head and chest, showing that this animal has the strength in its jaws and chest mentioned by the entry, paired with kangaroo-like legs and tail to give it the leaping capabilities mentioned. Also, this picture shows an Ethiopian Almlaeni in summer, which is why it is bald except for a bit of fur on its mane and tail. The shining eyes, I think, are what really gives this animal an unsettling appearance.

Cheapsweets also would like to note that they're "on the lookout for some good resources for animal anatomy and musculature", so if anyone has any suggestions, please send those their way!

@pomrania (link to post here) has given us this creature that is very much A Mammal but it's hard to pin down anything more specific than that -- it makes me think of the sort of old engravings that archaeologists just kind of give up on categorizing as specific animals and end up just calling them something like "the [culture/location] Beast". It's kind of feline, kind of equine, and it has what Pomrania (accurately) characterizes as a greyhound-like build. This impression is aided by the pose and the line work -- I don't know, there's just something about it that makes me think "this should be on the wall of an old tomb somewhere." I like the vibe, is what I'm saying. Very good beast.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has selected a couple of the elements in the description that stand out and taken them to their most dramatic interpretation. The Almlaeni can jump in such a way that it seems to fly, and it can live on the wind -- what if it has bat-like wings it can glide on? (Someone else noted "live on the wind" as possibly suggesting flight depending on how you interpret the ambiguity of the phrase, but discarded the idea; here we're running with it.) The result is quite a fearsome beast; that face is downright scary. We can also see here sensory organs adapted to hunting at night, and strength concentrated in the front of its body (which probably helps with those wings). And of course the stylization is excellent as always -- the linework is very convincingly medieval and I swear I've seen illuminations with that exact style of starry background. The linked post describes the design decisions in a bit more detail. (Also thank you for providing your own alt text.)

@strixcattus (link to post here) put this up after I drafted the rest of this post, and from the text of their post I think they guessed the nature of the animal, so take all references to it being more difficult to identify than I thought with a grain of salt. They also describe it as "a little freak (affectionate)" which is definitely an accurate description of the creature they've drawn. I really like the combination of different types of animal you can see here. The pose comes from a pretty reasonable interpretation of a couple points in the original entry: they can leap really well, but most of their strength is in the front half of their body. Therefore, obviously, they must use their front legs to jump and to propel themselves for rapid motion. Excellent direction to take that, I think. As usual, I strongly recommend clicking that above link and seeing the details Strixcattus writes up for their beasts.

And now, the Aberdeen Bestiary version.

As you can probably gather from this image, this week's animal is the wolf. And I think it's an interesting peek into the medieval imagination to see how fierce that wolf looks. The shaggy fur, the fangs, the eyes -- it's striking. That looks like a fairy-tale illustrator decided to draw the Big Bad Wolf in such a way as to frighten children. All the best wishes to our heroic little dog up there.

I also like the interestingly-symbolic depiction of the sheepfold: it kind of looks like our sleeping shepherd keeps his flock in a TARDIS. And, of course, look at that lovely Stylized Tree in the background.

So yeah, it was the bit about them sneaking up on sheepfolds that I thought made it Too Obvious that the Almlaeni was a wolf. Glad that didn't turn out to be as much of a tip-off as I thought.

As for the Ethiopian wolves mentioned: damned if I know what they were thinking of. Jackals and African wild dogs can be pretty colorful, so there might be something there, but I wouldn't describe them as having manes. My best guess is that the original animal being described was a black-backed jackal, but it's hard to be sure what, if anything, the grain of truth is here. (There is an animal we call the "Ethiopian wolf", but it looks more like a coyote than anything, so I'm not seeing the "colorful mane" thing.)

The thing about this is that medieval authors were very much ignorant of that part of the world. "Ethiopia" to them was much like "India" -- to the modern ear, those are countries we're aware of with a defined location, and we can go read about them if we want. To medieval Europeans, both were just kind of vague geographical blobs: they knew these places existed because they heard about them from classical sources and/or from trading partners, but there was virtually no direct contact or reliable information. These were distant and mysterious lands to them, and as a result they were willing to believe just about anything regarding what those places were like. (Also, if you see "Ethiopia" in a medieval text, don't necessarily think the region we now call by that name -- it tends to just be an umbrella term for "sub-Saharan Africa".) So, leaping maned wolves? May or may not be based on anything real, and if it was, it's been Telephoned to death by this point.

[silverhart-makes-art]

This week's bestiary posting got a little weird. My first thought for the Almlaeni as 'animal with strong jaws' was an ant. And the description of the mane and everything put me in mind of a lion, and I know of a mythological creature called an 'ant-lion' and decided to lean into that idea for this beast.

I decided to pull back on the 'ant-ness' of the head to look more mammalian, because it just looked a little odd, so I gave it tusks instead of pincers, and nice adorable mammalian eyes, and they gotta be large and yellow to 'shine like lamps'. The description talks about it having paws, so gotta give it little paws, and the tuft of hairs on it's tail. Lastly the mane. The description says the Ethiopian almlaeni produces diverse colored manes, which I originally took to mean the animal comes in a variety of colors, but on a second read through - why couldn't the mane itself be multi-colored? Thus - iridescent mane.

I like how this guy came out. He looks like he should be an alien pet in a sci-fi movie or game.

[sweetlyfez]

The "almlaeni" is our bestiary beast this week! Fineliner and coloured pencils today.

Stylised the form of this one more than usual so I could do an action pose. Seemed fairly obvious to me what the beast is actually supposed to be so as usual I steered away from that as much as poss while still meeting the description.

So, my almlaeni is a rainbow-maned, boar-headed creature, with paws and a love heart tuft on its tail.

[coolest-capybara]

POV: The last thing you see before the dreaded Almlaeni steals your voice

Another very late entry for the Maniculum Bestiaryposting Challenge!

This "rapacious beast" hunts its prey at night, even though it technically can "live on the wind", or at least that's what our bestiary author claims to have heard somewhere. Its most distinctive characteristics are a strong jaw and chest, weak loins, eyes that shine like lamps at night, and a little patch of fur on its tail that is a love charm. I tried to capture all of these things and gave it big ears and a sensitive nose for better hunting at night.

While technically, they are described as being able to "leap so high that they seem to have wings", not as actually having any wings, I decided that having flying-squirrel-like skin flaps would also explain why its loins look so weak compared to its chest.

[strixcattus]

The Almlaeni

The original description of this one had me bouncing around on what sort of animal I thought it might be. It's an alligator. It's a wolf. It's a medium-sized cat. It's a... lion?

It's a little freak (affectionate), is what it is. I've got half a guess as to what it might actually be, but I don't even know where the real creature in question lives enough to know if it's a realistic guess, and that's not the point in the first place.

The Almlaeni

The Almlaeni (Almlaeni crurilongus) is a large mammal found across northern and eastern Africa, southern Europe, and parts of Asia. It has golden or tan fur, which is short in summer and in warmer climates and longer in winter, and a pattern of brown or red-brown stripes and spots which varies some between Almlaeni. All Almlaeni have tufts of hair on the tips of their ears and tail, and some have manes covering their neck and shoulders—northern populations have only the males possessing manes, while those in Africa see manes across both genders, though the males' are even more impressive than the females'. These manes can take on a variety of colors, from red to brown to black to blond.

An Almlaeni's forelimbs are longer than its hindlimbs, and its front paws have long digits. Its gait at a sedate pace is loping, with its forelimbs moving in tandem with one another, followed by its hindlimbs. When it wishes to move at a greater speed, however, it will rear up on its forelimbs and hurl itself forward, hindlimbs rarely touching the ground.

Almlaeni have acute senses of smell and hearing, and their eyes are highly reflective, providing them with strong night vision as well. Their jaws are powerful enough to easily break through bone and wood, both of which they are capable of digesting.

Typically, an Almlaeni will go a few weeks between meals, at which point it will gorge itself on whatever is within its grasp. Despite appearances, Almlaeni are omnivorous, and will prey on animals and plants with no preference between the two.

Almlaeni mate in the winter and bear pups in late spring. Female Almlaeni will have dedicated nests when raising their pups, though Almlaeni do not mark individual territory and the females will usually settle far from their hunting grounds to keep their pups safe from other predators and from humans.

[cheapsweets]

The voracious Almlaeni

My response to this week's BestiaryPosting challenge from @maniculum

Not so much time to spend on it this week, so Pentel brush pen over initial pencil sketch. I've pulled out a fine-nib fountain pen to potentially use in next week's challenge (so I don't need to concentrate so much on maintaining the correct line thickness) but I need to work out which ink to use.

Thanks again to @maniculum for posting these challenges - I'm still having a lot of fun with them, they've given me something to think about and focus on during heavy weeks, and I've done more arty stuff since you started running this than in the whole... probably at least the last decade :D

I'm definitely on the lookout for some good resources for animal anatomy and musculature (birds tend to be so fluffy they're somewhat different to draw), so happy to accept any suggestions! :)

As ever, reasoning under the cut...

[Long etymological digression redacted] The Almlaeni is a rapacious beast and craves blood. Its strength lies in its chest or its jaws, least of all in its loins. It cannot turn its neck around. It is said to live sometimes on its prey, sometimes on earth and sometimes, even, on the wind. The female Almlaeni bears children only in the month of May, when it thunders. Such is the Almlaeni’s cunning that it does not catch food for its babies near its lair but far away.

So, we know that this creature is a predator, definitely a carnivore, and 'its strength lies in its chest or its jaws' - I decided its strength lies in both, so we have a creature with heavy musculature around its jaws, and I tried to make it quite barrel chested. Given that the next section mentions it cannot turn its head meant I have it a very short, very muscular neck, which ties in with the chest and powerful jaws.

Now, if I wasn't so much of a coward, I would have done something weird and inventive with this, like @pomrania or @rautavaara or other artists have done with some of the other prompts. My first thought when I read 'can't turn its head' was either a frog or a whale, which could still have worked in some capacity, given than whales are mammals, and that this creature exists... I liked the idea of the frog leaping (based on the continued description below) but couldn't work out how to make it look aesthetically pleasing without turning its head, so I ended up going much more traditional again...

Given that it craves blood, I can't imagine that its particularly happy subsiting on earth or the wind, but it's always nice to have options...

If it has to hunt its prey at night, it goes here and there to a sheepfold, and lest the sheepdogs catch its scent and wake the shepherds, it goes upwind. And if a twig or anything, under the pressure of its paw, makes a noise, it nips the paw as a punishment. The Almlaeni’s eyes shine in the night like lamps. It has this characteristic, that if it sees a man first, it takes away his power of speech and looks at him with scorn, as victor over the voiceless. If it senses that the man has seen it first, it loses its fierceness and its power to run. Solinus, who has a lot to say about the nature of things, says that on the tail of this animal there is a tiny patch of hair which is a love-charm; if the Almlaeni fears that it may be captured, it tears the hair out with its teeth; the charm has no power unless the the hair is taken from the Almlaeni while it is still alive.

So, we know this creature is pretty smart, but at the same time, if it snaps a twig, it nips at its own paw... we'll put that down to negative reinforcement. Obviously this is the position I chose to illustrate it in!

This is definitely making me think that this creature might be related to the Wutugald...

They eye shining like lamps, I figured probably indicates they have a reflective coating. I figured it would be cool if the eyes were really large, so I took a bit of influence from the Troodon from the Telltale Jurassic Park game (if you've played it you'll know - it's the 'lets add body horror to the JP franchise' dinosaur...)

We also have the small patch of fur on its tail, that it's keeping tucked beneath its body.

Almlaenis mate on no more than twelve days in the year. They can go hungry for a long time, and after long fasts, eat a large amount. Ethiopia produces Almlaenis with manes, so diversely coloured, men say, that no hue is lacking. A characteristic of Ethiopian Almlaenis is that they leap so high that they seem to have wings, going further than they would by running. They never attack men, however. In winter, they grow long hair; in summer, they are hairless. The Ethiopians call them [redacted].

So, I went with an Ethiopian Almlaenis, with its summer coat (i.e. naked), since this wasn't something I'd really had the opportunity to draw so far with these challenges. I still wanted to pop a nod in to the mane (even if I'm drawing in black and white, so missing out the fun colours), so we have some remaining rough hairs around its neck and upper back.

It was interesting having to draw a furless creature, so I took a lot of inspiration (particularly around the head) from sphynx cats. The dentition is also from cats.

This is also where we find out it has a very impressive leap, so I had to start thinking about animals that could leap so high, it was almost like they were flying. As noted above, I was tempted to go with something froggy, but given the rest of my design decisions, I ended up being inspired by kangaroos. It does make a bit of a weird contrast, with the broad, stocky chest and long, bouncy legs, but I think it works. I wasn't planning on going quite so literal with the kangaroo legs, but they're really interesting, and looking at the feet you can definitely see how they could be really dangerous (the long, central toe and claw are taken directly from kangaroos, as are most of the proportions of the rear legs.

The tail was also influenced by kangaroos - I figured it it was leaping through the air, it would need a long, powerful tail to balance it out!

[pomrania]

Here's my rendition of the almlaeni from @maniculum's Bestiaryposting. My progress thread is here, if you want to see how the image developed, and also read my train of thought, but I'll try to put all the important stuff here.

The description very much reads as a large wildcat of some kind, so that's what I used as a base. The bit about its strength being in its jaws, and not being able to turn its head, I interpreted that as a lot of muscle in the head and neck region, for power not mobility. The greyhound-esque build comes from me reading "least of all in its loins" and then imagining this. The bat-like ears... okay that was from me prolly misinterpreting something then thinking "no it can't be a bat, we've already gotten that"; then once I'd realized what was prolly the correct interpretation, I decided I might as well include some bat-like elements (and also bat-ears are cool). And the thing about "mane" is that there's at least two different valid types of interpretation for it, when dealing with animals; I decided against anything like a lion's because that would be too "normal", and after trying both a horse and a donkey style, decided that this kind of mane looked better here.

I tried a different method of doing the lines here, one I'd gotten good results with elsewhere, but never before attempted on something like this. I like how it turned out, it makes stuff more visually interesting, plus the built-in irregularity means that there's less time I need to spend getting the lines neat.

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting -- Almlaeni

As a reminder, all previous entries in this series can be found at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting .

[Long etymological digression redacted] The Almlaeni is a rapacious beast and craves blood. Its strength lies in its chest or its jaws, least of all in its loins. It cannot turn its neck around. It is said to live sometimes on its prey, sometimes on earth and sometimes, even, on the wind. The female Almlaeni bears children only in the month of May, when it thunders. Such is the Almlaeni's cunning that it does not catch food for its babies near its lair but far away. If it has to hunt its prey at night, it goes here and there to a sheepfold, and lest the sheepdogs catch its scent and wake the shepherds, it goes upwind. And if a twig or anything, under the pressure of its paw, makes a noise, it nips the paw as a punishment. The Almlaeni's eyes shine in the night like lamps. It has this characteristic, that if it sees a man first, it takes away his power of speech and looks at him with scorn, as victor over the voiceless. If it senses that the man has seen it first, it loses its fierceness and its power to run. Solinus, who has a lot to say about the nature of things, says that on the tail of this animal there is a tiny patch of hair which is a love-charm; if the Almlaeni fears that it may be captured, it tears the hair out with its teeth; the charm has no power unless the the hair is taken from the Almlaeni while it is still alive. Almlaenis mate on no more than twelve days in the year. They can go hungry for a long time, and after long fasts, eat a large amount. Ethiopia produces Almlaenis with manes, so diversely coloured, men say, that no hue is lacking. A characteristic of Ethiopian Almlaenis is that they leap so high that they seem to have wings, going further than they would by running. They never attack men, however. In winter, they grow long hair; in summer, they are hairless. The Ethiopians call them [redacted].

Remember to tag posts with #Almlaeni so folks can find them.

[maniculum]

The Ethopian Maned Wolves might be the Aardwolf, which it technically a type of Hyena but might fit the description of "colorful mammal from Africa with a mane that sort of looks like a wolf."

This is in reference to the following post:

You know, I think that fits. They have a striking coat pattern and that definitely looks like a mane. Their range even includes modern-day Ethiopia.

(Not that being in modern-day Ethiopia has much relation to whether medieval Europeans would describe an animal as "Ethiopian" -- as mentioned in the linked post, their knowledge of sub-Saharan Africa was basically a big question mark and a couple of anecdotes from Pliny the Elder. At most they might have talked to someone who talked to someone who went there on a trading vessel.)

[coolest-capybara]

Our new monster of the week in the Maniculum Bestiaryposting Challenge, the Tatchgob!

This one might be another bird, but since it wasn't explicitly stated, I went in a different direction. If we hadn't already had an entry for the dragon (or rather, the Choglaem), I might have drawn one.

But then there was a whole bit in the entry about how Tatchgobs don't "indulge in copulation and and are not united with the other sex in the conjugal act of marriage; that the females conceive without the male seed and give birth without union with the male". I wondered if the bestiary author ever questioned what the males are actually needed for, in that case.

Of course, the whole concept would make sense if it applied to a species which can reproduce asexually. And the description mentioned the "large size of its body." So why not go with a big sky lizard? There was no mention of wings, so I gave it some skin flaps like the Almlaeni before it, and put the sea and mountains that the Tatchgob is described as flying over in the background.

[sweetlyfez]

I love the iridescence! It's such an alien looking beastie but somehow still friendly

This week's bestiary posting got a little weird. My first thought for the Almlaeni as 'animal with strong jaws' was an ant. And the description of the mane and everything put me in mind of a lion, and I know of a mythological creature called an 'ant-lion' and decided to lean into that idea for this beast.

I decided to pull back on the 'ant-ness' of the head to look more mammalian, because it just looked a little odd, so I gave it tusks instead of pincers, and nice adorable mammalian eyes, and they gotta be large and yellow to 'shine like lamps'. The description talks about it having paws, so gotta give it little paws, and the tuft of hairs on it's tail. Lastly the mane. The description says the Ethiopian almlaeni produces diverse colored manes, which I originally took to mean the animal comes in a variety of colors, but on a second read through - why couldn't the mane itself be multi-colored? Thus - iridescent mane.

I like how this guy came out. He looks like he should be an alien pet in a sci-fi movie or game.

[cheapsweets]

Once again, I love the variety of interpretations from the prompt. In hindsight, there's a lot pointing towards the true identity of this creature - I had a suspicion that it was somehow tangentally related to the Wutugald, given the weirdness with their backs/necks, but that was as far as my supicions went.

I love that the dog in the Aberdeen Bestiary is standing on top of the Sheepfold... very easy to be bold from up there, friend!

Bestiaryposting Results: Almlaeni

Here are the results for this week's bestiaryposting; as always, anyone who doesn't know what that's about can see all previous posts here: https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

This one, I think, really illustrated to me how differently one perceives these entries when one knows what animal is being described. There was a particular detail in this week's entry that I thought was an absolute dead giveaway as to the identity of the animal, but most of the commentary I've seen from the artists indicates that they didn't see it as obvious, which was a relief -- I think the harder it is to guess, the more fun this whole thing is. (Yes, you're not supposed to try and guess it at all, but on the more obvious ones like the Gligglae I see a lot of comments along the lines of "I'm pretty sure I know what this is", so there are indicators whether people know.) It probably helps that it was a longer entry, so there's a lot going on. I just think it's worth noting because of the conversation recently going around regarding what's obvious to the author vs. what's obvious to the reader.

The entry we're working from can be found here:

Art is below the cut in roughly chronological order.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) started with the thought that an example of an animal with strong jaws is an ant. But given the description of manes and fur, this is probably a mammal, so we get an "ant-lion" that they describe as looking "like he should be an alien pet in a sci-fi movie or game", which I think is spot-on. Good design for a weird alien pet. I really like the execution of the "ant's head but mammalian" concept, and the coloring of the mane looks really cool. Some more detail on design decisions can be found in the linked post.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) does note that she thinks she knows what this animal is -- but, in the spirit of the thing, intentionally avoided drawing that -- so we'll have to see how identifiable it is at the end of this post. She's also provided her own alt text, thanks for that. I find this design really charming -- the blend of porcine and feline makes for a good silhouette in my opinion, the pose looks cool, and the rainbow mane is quite pretty. I particularly like that the tuft of hair the entry says is a love charm is drawn to resemble a heart.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has drawn a rather frightening-looking beast, here shown nipping its own paw after accidentally stepping on a twig. (They also provided alt text, thank you.) There's a lot of interesting design choices here -- explained in some detail in the linked post, check that out. We can see a stocky, muscular head and chest, showing that this animal has the strength in its jaws and chest mentioned by the entry, paired with kangaroo-like legs and tail to give it the leaping capabilities mentioned. Also, this picture shows an Ethiopian Almlaeni in summer, which is why it is bald except for a bit of fur on its mane and tail. The shining eyes, I think, are what really gives this animal an unsettling appearance.

Cheapsweets also would like to note that they're "on the lookout for some good resources for animal anatomy and musculature", so if anyone has any suggestions, please send those their way!

@pomrania (link to post here) has given us this creature that is very much A Mammal but it's hard to pin down anything more specific than that -- it makes me think of the sort of old engravings that archaeologists just kind of give up on categorizing as specific animals and end up just calling them something like "the [culture/location] Beast". It's kind of feline, kind of equine, and it has what Pomrania (accurately) characterizes as a greyhound-like build. This impression is aided by the pose and the line work -- I don't know, there's just something about it that makes me think "this should be on the wall of an old tomb somewhere." I like the vibe, is what I'm saying. Very good beast.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has selected a couple of the elements in the description that stand out and taken them to their most dramatic interpretation. The Almlaeni can jump in such a way that it seems to fly, and it can live on the wind -- what if it has bat-like wings it can glide on? (Someone else noted "live on the wind" as possibly suggesting flight depending on how you interpret the ambiguity of the phrase, but discarded the idea; here we're running with it.) The result is quite a fearsome beast; that face is downright scary. We can also see here sensory organs adapted to hunting at night, and strength concentrated in the front of its body (which probably helps with those wings). And of course the stylization is excellent as always -- the linework is very convincingly medieval and I swear I've seen illuminations with that exact style of starry background. The linked post describes the design decisions in a bit more detail. (Also thank you for providing your own alt text.)

@strixcattus (link to post here) put this up after I drafted the rest of this post, and from the text of their post I think they guessed the nature of the animal, so take all references to it being more difficult to identify than I thought with a grain of salt. They also describe it as "a little freak (affectionate)" which is definitely an accurate description of the creature they've drawn. I really like the combination of different types of animal you can see here. The pose comes from a pretty reasonable interpretation of a couple points in the original entry: they can leap really well, but most of their strength is in the front half of their body. Therefore, obviously, they must use their front legs to jump and to propel themselves for rapid motion. Excellent direction to take that, I think. As usual, I strongly recommend clicking that above link and seeing the details Strixcattus writes up for their beasts.

And now, the Aberdeen Bestiary version.

As you can probably gather from this image, this week's animal is the wolf. And I think it's an interesting peek into the medieval imagination to see how fierce that wolf looks. The shaggy fur, the fangs, the eyes -- it's striking. That looks like a fairy-tale illustrator decided to draw the Big Bad Wolf in such a way as to frighten children. All the best wishes to our heroic little dog up there.

I also like the interestingly-symbolic depiction of the sheepfold: it kind of looks like our sleeping shepherd keeps his flock in a TARDIS. And, of course, look at that lovely Stylized Tree in the background.

So yeah, it was the bit about them sneaking up on sheepfolds that I thought made it Too Obvious that the Almlaeni was a wolf. Glad that didn't turn out to be as much of a tip-off as I thought.

As for the Ethiopian wolves mentioned: damned if I know what they were thinking of. Jackals and African wild dogs can be pretty colorful, so there might be something there, but I wouldn't describe them as having manes. My best guess is that the original animal being described was a black-backed jackal, but it's hard to be sure what, if anything, the grain of truth is here. (There is an animal we call the "Ethiopian wolf", but it looks more like a coyote than anything, so I'm not seeing the "colorful mane" thing.)

The thing about this is that medieval authors were very much ignorant of that part of the world. "Ethiopia" to them was much like "India" -- to the modern ear, those are countries we're aware of with a defined location, and we can go read about them if we want. To medieval Europeans, both were just kind of vague geographical blobs: they knew these places existed because they heard about them from classical sources and/or from trading partners, but there was virtually no direct contact or reliable information. These were distant and mysterious lands to them, and as a result they were willing to believe just about anything regarding what those places were like. (Also, if you see "Ethiopia" in a medieval text, don't necessarily think the region we now call by that name -- it tends to just be an umbrella term for "sub-Saharan Africa".) So, leaping maned wolves? May or may not be based on anything real, and if it was, it's been Telephoned to death by this point.