This fanciful creature comes from Arthurian legend. Called Glatisaunt, he had the head of a serpent, the body of a leopard, the rump of a lion, and the feet of a deer. The name "Questing Beast" refers to the deep, loud sound emanating from the beast's belly, said to be the noise of thirty hounds questing (baying as in pursuit). Various knights hunted Glatisaunt, with no great success.
As should any self-respecting mythological animal, the Questing Beast continues to appear in popular culture, including T.S. White's The Once and Future King, Lost in Space (1967), the BBC series Merlin, and probably many fantasy novels. It is also the name of a blog and YouTube channel devoted to gaming. Specifically, I think, Dungeons and Dragons, but I don't know enough about that stuff to say for sure.
The obvious takeaway to all this is that the next time you hear a hungry person's stomach growling, you can tell them it reminds you of a Questing Beast. And won't you sound smart? :-)
Not someone else's, when I hear my stomach starts growling, I am going to be reminded of Questing Beast. Interesting post.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent point. Why wait for someone else's stomach? :-)
DeleteNow that sounds like something to remember for pre-dinner chatter at a party :)
ReplyDeleteTasha
Tasha's Thinkings - Movie Monsters
Nothing like a little stomach trivia... :-)
DeleteI agree with Natasha. Gotta love the dinner party trivia that makes us look so intelligent and well-read. Thanks, Jenny. :)
ReplyDeleteA great conversation starter! Thanks, Karen
DeleteI've seen images and read descriptions before, but never knew what it was called. Questing Beast isn't a name I would have ever guessed, and I wouldn't have thought it related to baying dogs.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, this one wasn't on my radar...
DeleteI do remember this one from Once And Future King, Lost In Space AND Malory’s Morte D’Arthure, in which it wasn’t treated with quite as much humour as in White and LIS. I love medieval romance!
ReplyDeleteHow fun that you remember them all!
ReplyDeleteActually, I’m impressed that someone other than me remembers the Lost In Space episode! As I recall, the Beast turned out to be female and the poor knight, for whom this was the only joy of his life, felt he couldn’t go on chasing a GIRL, so she made sure he did.
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