#fekthrud

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Fekthrud

Happy Liminalmas, everybody! We've got fewer results than usual this week, which I would speculatively credit to a variety of factors:

Weird liminal space at the end of the year

It's Another Bird

Not a ton of fun details

It's easy to guess what the animal is

Anyhow, if you want to see the context for this, the page where I collect these posts is here: https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting. (Hmm -- looks like I forgot to update the page last time around. Maybe that's part of the issue too.) And the entry that people are working from is here:

So, our results, roughly chronologically:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has given us these very well-rendered pheasant-like creatures. They've given their Fekthrud a head like a Pachycephalosaurus*, which I think is a great way to interpret the whole business about the hard skull; like, that had not occurred to me when reading the entry, but now that I see it, it makes perfect sense. In general these are excellent birds here, and you can see some brief notes on design decisions in the post linked above. I like the justification that a ground bird makes the most sense if they're adapted for falling on rocks and/or running into stuff head-first.

*Proud of myself for spelling "pachycephalosaurus" correctly without looking -- being a former Dinosaur Kid pays weird niche dividends.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) continues to impress with her medieval-style drawings. (And to provide alt-text, thank you.) I really like how colorful and generally very pretty she's made her Fekthrud. I also appreciate the decision to show them attacking someone who is trying to take that "iron rod" advice. Very correct response -- get 'em, birds. If you click the link to her post above, you can see some discussion of design decisions.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has made the excellent decision to pose their Fekthrud like it's giving a speech. (And the generous decision to provide alt text, thank you.) This bird absolutely looks like it's saying "Ave!" -- I can clearly imagine it addressing the Roman Senate. Cheapsweets has also taken inspiration from Pachycephalosaurus, and I love that two of our artists got there independently -- like I said, it's an idea that makes perfect sense once you think of it. The post linked above contains a detailed discussion both of their design decision and of their artistic process, including an image of their tools and materials. Go read it.

@pomrania (link to post here) has decided that, rather than make the actual bone of the Fekthrud's skull thick. it should have a thick cushion of feathers. I don't know much about birds, but I feel like that makes sense: thick and heavy bone might be a weight issue if this thing is supposed to fly, so a feather cushion might be more practical protection. The goofy look with the tongue lolling out is also quite charming. In the post linked above, you can see some brief notes on design and process.

And... that's it for this week. Like I said, not a lot of people did this one. So, the Aberdeen Bestiary version:

Yeah, so, of course this one is the parrot.

The medieval illustrator is actually pretty close, I think. And they've used one of my favorite styles of Generic Medieval Plant, even though it doesn't look like it can support the parrot's weight.

The entry is broadly accurate, except for the bit about the skull and the iron rod. There are parrots in India with the coloration described -- multiple species, actually, as far as I can tell. They do talk, though I can't speak to the tongue anatomy thing.

Moreover, if you were a parrot trainer in India who wanted to impress medieval Europeans with your talking birds -- maybe so you can establish demand for them in a new market -- of course the first thing you'd do is train your parrots to greet people in Latin and Greek. Latin is the obvious catch-all, and Greek is the majority language in Constantinople, which is the trade hub you want to target. So I bet all the parrots from India that medieval Europeans saw really did say "Ave!" and "Kere!" (And we do know that people in the Byzantine Empire had pet parrots, so I guess it worked.)

I've never heard the thing about parrots having a hard skull and beak. I kind of wonder if, at some point, someone saw a parrot being struck by its owner (or the aforementioned hypothetical merchant) and asked if it was really necessary to beat the poor bird like that -- and got a line like "oh, they have really hard skulls, it doesn't hurt them as much as you think"... and then that just stuck.

Anyway, that's it for this week. Hope y'all are enjoying Birds because you're getting another one next week.

[silverhart-makes-art]

I rushed this week's Bestiary Posting as I'm behind on a lot of things, but I think the sketchiness works. Don't know what this week's critter is, but I think I could hazard a guess at a family.

My main inspiration for this week's critter - the Fekthrud, was the pheasant. I think the inclusion of this bird's range - India, as well as reference to it's bright red neck just made me think of the beautiful pheasants found throughout Asia. Plus, it evidently cannot fly very well if it keeps falling face first into rocks, so a ground bird it must be, I've decided (I also just like ground birds).

The main physical trait of this bird seems to be it's incredibly hard beak and thick skull. For the skull I thought it might be fun to give this bird a thick skull dome reminiscent of pachycephalosaurs, and for the beak the male has a casque like that of hornbills. Both male and females have their classic green coloration with a bright red neck.

[coolest-capybara]

It's the last Maniculum Bestiaryposting challenge of this year, the Fekthrud!

The fekthrud is described as a very colorful bird, so I went with a coloring based on lorikeets. They also have a very thick skull and hard beak, which made me think of woodpeckers for the shape. Even though their tongues are not super broad, I decided they were still unusual enough to fit the bestiary description. Also very useful to properly express the sentiment of "do not talk to me or my son ever again".

The description got very dark from there (recommending to beat the birds with an iron rod), but we don't condone animal cruelty in this house, so my bestiary entry is more of a warning against any such attempts.

I liked the effect of the shiny foil background so much that I kept it for this one as well, in a bit more of a copper shade. Hope you like it, and a happy new year to all!

[karthara]

So this one is late due to hand pain, but here is my Fekthrud. My brain first went to some sort of parrot which turned out to be correct, but I wanted to give it something a little substantial skull wise to stand up to an iron rod. Then I did a quick search of Indian birds and found hornbills, which I had been aware of but never really looked into before. I think they can mimic some human speech too. So, Helmeted Hornbill, Great Hornbill, and Grey Hornbill were used for references.

@maniculum

[cheapsweets]

The loquacious Fekthrud

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

Initial pencil sketch, then painting over the top with Derwent Inktense paint using a waterbrush, finally Sailor fude nib fountain pen with Rohrer & Klingner Sepia ink for the lines. I was originally planning on putting in more detail with the fountain pen after the paint had dried (given how I found that the fountain pen ink I'm using was less waterfast than I was hoping last week), but it might just be the paper I'm using but the ink did not sit nicely on top of the paint, resulting in the quite thick lines. I also figured I'd quit while I was happy with it, rather than massage it into oblivion with endless tweaks like I was tempted to :D

Had fun with this one, definitely getting better with the waterbrush and paints, and it's been interesting experimenting with layering the paints once the previous layer is dry :)

As ever, reasoning (and a photo of my tools this time) under the cut...

“India alone produces the bird called the Fekthrud, green in colour, with a deep-red neck and a large tongue, broader than those of other birds, with which it utters distinct words; so that if you did not see it, you would think it was a man talking. Characteristically, it greets you by saying in Latin or Greek: ‘Ave' or ‘Kere!' — ‘Hail!' It will learn other words if you teach it.”

- Since this is the first of these creatures that we���ve had described in colour, it made sense to carry on with the painting rather than line drawing. As we’ve already learned, just because something is described in a bestiary as a ‘bird’ doesn’t mean it’s what we would consider one, but given the talk of beaks below, I figured we would roll with it.

We didn't have too much detail about the fekthrud's diet or life habits, so I figured a more unassuming bodyshape would fit (as much as you get a 'generic' bird shape). Given how friendly this little creature seems to be (offering a greeting as you pass), I wanted to draw it hailing someone, hence the outstretched wing (apparently, it's a bit of a performer...)

“The Fekthrud's beak is of such hardness that if it falls from a height onto a rock, it takes the impact on its mouth, using it as a base of uncommon toughness. Its skull is so thick, that if ever you have to admonish it with blows to learn — for it tries hard to speak like men — you should beat it with an iron rod. For when it is young, up to two years of age, it learns what it is told very quickly and keeps it firmly in mind; when it is a little older, it is forgetful and is difficult to teach.”

- So the only other physical traits we know about this creature are the hardness of its beak, and of its skull… Also, wow! Please don’t beat your fekthrud round the head with an iron rod (or anything else) - apparently, bestiary authors were the real jerks all along!

I figured that a beak that strong should probably be more on the broad rather than the pointy side (which would also better accommodate its wide tongue, as previously mentioned).

The thick skull made me think about other animals that have sturdy heads, and maybe it’s just the dinosaur nerd in me, but my mind immediately went to Pachycephalosaurs… Their skull shape heavily informed the shape of the head, albeit with red feathers taking the place of bone spikes and nodules!

Bird-wise, strong beak and skull also makes me think of woodpeckers, so this informed the feet (particularly the claws), and the colouration (including around the eyes) - while I didn’t go all the way with this, if you’re remotely interested in birds please do a search for flameback woodpeckers (endemic to Southeast Asia - including India)!

[pomrania]

Here's my depiction of the "fekthrud" from @maniculum's Bestiaryposting. There's no progress thread this time, no sketches to share; I just went straight in with this thing, didn't erase anything, the only time I looked anything up was because I was blanking on a word and I closed the tab after I saw what it was.

There's not that much to say about the creature design; it's a bird (and I don't know enough about birds to customize features in a meaningful way) and the description gives us the colouring. I had an idea of that it's not so much that the skull's thick, but rather the feathers provided extra cushioning; and the dark green bit above the beak, originally that was to be one of those beak thingers like on a hornbill, then I lost the plot somewhere along the way.

For the text, we've the "ave" from the description, plus "kere" rendered in what I hope is Greek, and I hope I picked the right vowels; then there's "bonjour" (French), "guten Tag" (German), "ohaiyo" (Japanese), and "nihao" (Mandarin; well technically it's written in Chinese, but "nihao" is the Mandarin way of saying it, which I put here because I'm just using the characters that are on my keyboard). Those are all "hello" more than "hail", but close enough.

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting -- Fekthrud

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

Also apparently this one happens to fall on the 25th, so Merry Christmas if that's your thing I guess? Also if I'm late posting the results from last week you can probably assume I'm busy with family stuff. Or maybe everything is still on time, idk, I'm writing this post in October.

India alone produces the bird called the Fekthrud, green in colour, with a deep-red neck and a large tongue, broader than those of other birds, with which it utters distinct words; so that if you did not see it, you would think it was a man talking. Characteristically, it greets you by saying in Latin or Greek: ‘Ave' or ‘Kere!' — ‘Hail!' It will learn other words if you teach it. The Fekthrud's beak is of such hardness that if it falls from a height onto a rock, it takes the impact on its mouth, using it as a base of uncommon toughness. Its skull is so thick, that if ever you have to admonish it with blows to learn — for it tries hard to speak like men — you should beat it with an iron rod. For when it is young, up to two years of age, it learns what it is told very quickly and keeps it firmly in mind; when it is a little older, it is forgetful and is difficult to teach.

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

[coolest-capybara]

We get an extra long description in the Maniculum Bestiaryposting Challenge this week! The Gerzlaem is a beast of many facets.

There are even three different kinds. I depicted the short, curly haired, peaceable ones, but there is also a tall, straight-haired, fierce one, and a secret third option the author won't tell you about.

I am pretty sure I know what animal is being described, but that's based on one of the more metaphorical bits of the description, so it was relatively easy to just focus on the physical aspects we learn about.

The gerzlaems' most notable attributes seem to be that "their brow and tail show their mettle; their courage is in their breast, their resolution in their head." For an impressive breast, I gave them an inflatable throat/chest sac like many birds and reptiles have. The gerzlaems' tail is also important for obliterating its traces when it is being hunted, so I made it extra big and swishy.

Lastly, for the brow, I was inspired by the many beautiful dinosaur-based entries we have had so far (for example and in no particular order, @mobileleprechauns Choglaem, @moustawotts Gligglae, @cheapsweets Slaggzogg and @silverhart-makes-arts Fekthrud) to base it very loosely on a pachycephalosaurus.

They also have paws and give live birth - or, more precisely, dead birth, and then revive their young three days later, which is being depicted here. The drawing turned out a bit creepier than I originally intended, but I am very proud of the swishy curls. Past me, who hated drawing hair more than hands, would be so proud!

[coolest-capybara]

"It is my intention to paint a picture of the Hratgrog, whose wings are sheathed in silver and whose tail has the pale colour of gold."

I think this is the nicest opening to a Maniculum Bestiaryposting Challenge entry we've had so far. If the Hratgrog is what I think it is, the description is much more poetic and friendly than anything you'd hear about this specific bird nowadays, which is a shame.

We get a lot of colours: Silver or sapphire wings "marked by traces of shining white", a golden tail, red feet, saffron-coloured eyes and a body "the colour of a wild sea". The "mixture of snow-white and sapphire", as it is described, made me think of the vulturine guineafowl, so this is what I very loosely based my drawing on. It's a very stylish bird! Also, the bestiary entry specifically states that the Hratgrog "does not feed on corpses", and why would you need to point that out unless the bird looks very much like it would feed on corpses, but doesn't actually do so? Additionally, guineafowl are social birds, and the Hratgrog "flies in groups".

The last bit of the entry is a list of attributes, and I've tried to fit as many of them into the drawing as possible. On the left side, we see that the Hratgrog "likes to kiss" and "nests in holes in rocks", in the middle, that "instead of song it brings forth a lament", and on the right, we see one flying off to fetch some "better-quality grain", carrying a coin in its beak, because the Hratgrog "does not live by theft".

The stylized plants are inspired by some of the examples from the Aberdeen Bestiary we've seen on previous entries, like the Fekthrud.

[coolest-capybara]

And another set of birds for the Maniculum Bestiaryposting Challenge! This time, the Yaggzrog:

Finally, a bird where the author seems to have nothing to complain about. Instead, they are praised for their "foresight", "pious nature", skilled craftsmanship in building their homes and "skill in the arts of healing".

The inspirations and reasoning for my depiction can be found below the cut:

What could be more useful in constructing nests "more valuable than gold" than the ability to hover in the air? So I went with hummingbirds, with the added bonus of being able to direct their flight with swallow-like tails. I gave them very colorful plumage mostly because I discovered how much I like drawing rainbow birds in the last installment, the Fekthrud.

As inspiration for the medieval architecture, I referred to illustrations in the Liber Divinorum Operum by Hildegard of Bingen. Then I tried to illustrate some elements of the description that stood out to me:

Collecting mud on their wings to make their nest, which in this case, is being used to paint the decoration;

Catching their prey in the air, as shown by a bird feeding some sort of flying insect to the young;

Being conscientious craftsbirds - here, one of the birds is inspecting a crack in the wall;

Healing blindness in their young, which the last bird is doing.