![]() And even when scientists began to embrace the scientific method, they still struggled to reconcile previous beliefs in the supernatural with science. There was no division between magic and reality-the two simply coexisted, so there was no reason to doubt mythical beasts. The Scientific Revolution would not start to make headway until later in the 17th century. The 1500s were rampant with superstition. The atmosphere of the day also fed people’s willingness to believe such tales. The more the stories were circulated and published, the more likely people were to mistake what they did see for a monster. Magnus and others like him gobbled up the stories and published them alongside authentic species. A giant squid became a blood-thirsty kraken. And so an oarfish became a 200-foot-long sea serpent. If they enlivened their accounts, that simply made for a better story. So they explained them with what they knew well: myths and legends. Sailors, or beachgoers who had the misfortune to stumble upon a rotting basking shark, had no experience with such creatures. Sea serpent gif created by Richard Naples (Smithsonian Libraries) based on a depiction by Conrad Gessner in Historia Animalium, 2nd ed., 1604. ![]() ![]() Less often, the decomposing remains of a washed-up carcass fueled confidence in the existence of these terrible beasts. More often than not, their information came not from first-hand observations but from sailors’ accounts of mysterious encounters while at sea. Publications by Magnus and those who copied him represented some of the first attempts to systematically aggregate and describe these animals. These “distorted portraits” came about in part because by the 1500s extensive oceanic exploration was still limited, and the fauna that called these places home remained virtually unknown. In his publication Sea Fables Explained (1883), he wrote, “… the descriptions by ancient writers of so-called ‘fabulous creatures’ are rather distorted portraits than invented falsehoods, and there is hardly any of the monsters of old which has not its prototype in Nature at the present day.” Where did the accounts of monsters come from in the first place? Were they simply fairy tales invented to scare curious minds and small children? Henry Lee, who wrote extensively on sea creatures and monsters, emphasized that many classical monsters are not simply pure myth. And over the centuries, many new monsters were added to the mix. ![]() Such repurposing ensured that these creatures were ingrained in the public mind as truth. Magnus’ descriptions and drawings were copied repeatedly, with little to no modification, for centuries by such historical titans as Edward Topsell, Ulisse Aldrovandi, John Jonstonus and Conrad Gessner, whose Historia Animalium, replete with Magnus’ drawings, is the first modern zoological work attempting to describe all known animals. Smithsonian Biodiversity Heritage Library Kraken gif created by Richard Naples, based on a drawing by Denys Montfort in Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière des mollusques: animaux sans vertèbres et a sang blanc, v.2, 1801. His standing and reputation secured the widespread acceptance of his stories. Carta Marina is a detailed map of Scandinavia-one of the oldest ever created-and it depicts the Norwegian Sea so teaming with monsters that it would seem impossible to escape these waters uneaten. In 1555, Magnus published Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (“A Description of the Northern Peoples”), which not only related the history, customs, and beliefs of the Scandinavian people, but also reprinted and described the creatures found on Carta Marina. His travels brought him farther north than any of his contemporary European intellectuals, lending a great deal of perceived credibility to his accounts and publications. Magnus (1490-1557) was the Catholic archbishop of Sweden and a prominent historian. One of the most famous of these maps is Olaus Magnus’ Carta Marina, drawn between 1527and 1539. They mostly crop up in unexplored reaches of the oceans, warning would-be explorers of the perils of these unknown territories. Though the phrase itself is found on only one other historical artifact-a 1504 globe crafted on an ostrich egg-depictions of monsters and mythological beasts are common on early maps. This phrase translates from the Latin as “here are dragons.” It is etched on the eastern coast of Asia on one of the oldest terrestrial globe maps, the Lenox Globe, dating to 1510.
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