"So you say it lives in water?" "Yes" "Alright, fish it is then"

when the only animals you've ever seen are cats, dogs, horses, and cows- everything is gonna look like a cat, a dog, a horse, or a cow

5:43 Me: “Oh that one’s easy. That’s a horse!” *”The Chameleon!”* Me: “What the actual heck..”

A possible reason the turtles would have been depicted as having shells like that is because many Germanic language variations of their names derive from the word for "shield". For instance, in German, Swedish, Dutch and Danish it is known as a "shield-toad". Some artists of the time may have interpreted this name a little bit too literally.

Medieval art in general is like leaving the "artist" enclosed in a room all his life and asking him to paint from descriptions of drunk sailors

Whale: big fish Dolphin: smaller fish Turtle: shield fish Crocodile: fish with legs

5:22 "Finally, at least this one looks more like what a crocodile would" Narrator: "It's a scorpion".

Any Exotic Animal on Earth : _(Exists)_ Medieval Artists : _"Ayo, what the dog doin ???"_

Writer: "I need illustration for this book about tiger." Painter: "Best I can do is dog."

Traveler: "I saw this animal able to change colors, it was called a chameleon" Monk: "Hm, colorful camel or lion. Got it."

I find the scorpion particularly hilarious. Surely all they had to do was say "you know crabs? Draw one of them but skinny and long, with a tail"

Despite all the inaccuracies, you gotta admit that those people can make some good drawings. And also I'd love to see a fantasy book or game with those designs

2000 years later: Hilariously Inaccurate 21st Century Art of Aliens.

I mean to be fair they were all results of people playing the longest game of Telephone on earth, as each animal was just described by one person to the other and so on. Eventually you get to really weird alien creatures thanks to people adding or removing details

The cameleon at 6:02 is beautifully drawn. Of all the animals in the video it's the only one that actually looks as if it's alive. The others mainly look like examples of bad taxidermy.

I am surprised you didn’t show rhinos, whose descriptions sprouted the idea of the legendary unicorn, who were described as “a mount with a single horn set in the midst of its face”. As mount was the term commonly used for horses, this led to many believing it was a horse with a horn aloft its head.

This makes mythical animals make a bit more sense

I’m convinced the mythical dragon was just a wrong, very wrong depiction of a hummingbird.

something to keep in mind about these illustrations is that in the medieval era (at least in Europe), the religious institutions and scholarly institutions were generally one and the same. any study of animals was done through a Christian-centric lens and assumed that every animal put on Earth was done so to represent a moral lesson, which is probably why stories like the pelicans eating each other became prevalent. another one is about the antelope, which medieval writers described as having two horns not because of any evolutionary advantages like mating displays or defense from predators, but because the horns represented cutting one's self away from sin and vice. as hilarious as these old illustrations are, i think they can make for fascinating studies of the cultural mindset they were drawn under.

I love these medieval animal illustrations, they're literally so creative and funny. I went to an art museum the other day that had a few medieval paintings and a lot of the animal depictions literally had me laugh out loud. When you think about it tho it is immensely interesting to think about how you would imagine some exotic animals based purely on explanations that might even just reach you second, or third hand with months, or even years between the sighting and the description. Rly something that we don't get to experience anymore, now that any information and imagery is just a few finger swipes away.

Monk 1 : "I need to draw a whale for this book, what do they look like?" Monk 2: "I know a guy who knows a guy who talked to an old drunken one-eyed sailor who saw one from a mile away when he was young"

Medieval man: "Look at this cool pokemon I drew." Modern man, hundreds of years later: "lmao that's not a turtle, idiot"

I laughed so hard at the sea turtle at 4:40. A smug fish with shields on his back!

description: the turtle is a shielded animal painter: so it's carrying shields like a knight would, got it.

These all look fun, but i dare you to make an accurate drawing of an animal you have never seen just going by the half remembered, exaggerated descriptions of uninterested sailors and merchants.

Animals that existed in medieval Europe: - Dog - Fish - Horse - Cat - Bird

Imagine being shown only images like these, and hearing the stories that come with them for your whole life only to see and learn about the actual animals. That would either be the scariest experience, or the most relieving experience.

0:35 OMG, it's Sanic The Elephant!

Actually, elephants were used in wars, and they DID at times have harnesses with literal wooden fortifications on their backs that would have several archers be behind parapets, like in castles. Saying "they had castles on their backs" is therefore not completely inaccurate either, it were just wooden ones.

The elephant carrying a castle is actually technically true; they're called howdahs and they're essentially elaborate saddles of the elephants

"It has a tail that can hold on to branches, it can change it's colour, move it's eyes independently and eject it's tongue." "Got cha, cyclops horse."

3:54 Animal crossing seabass but as a boss

The turtle one is actually so genius! A turtle looks like two shields with a head and legs sticking out, so obviously a medieval monk will use literal medieval kite shields with a head sticking out. It's funny, but it makes sense.

Don't forget one of the earliest shitpost in history. killer rabbit wielding lance and shield riding snail with human head.

The peculiar thing is that even older Neolithic cave paintings are actually quite good and accurate. We can clearly see deer-like creatures and mammoths in those paintings (at least accurate comparing to real Mammoth Arctic findings).

ohh look a Horse!! Medieval artist: "Me apologies sir that's a chameleon"

Us trying to get the dinosaurs right. Humans in the future: Well, they tried.

Funny: Turtle is "Schildkröte" in German, the words mean "shield" and "toad". The first picture of a turtle looks exactly like a toad with an shield on it.

I've read that ostriches and emus do indeed eat small metal objects, seemingly without any harm to themselves, as witnessed by many owners. An autopsy of a captive ostrich in the 1930s shows that its stomach contained "copper coins, metal tacks, staples, hooks, and a four-inch nail". The "scorpion" at 5:32 looks exactly like the various "free-tailed" bats of Europe, at least its lower half, right down to the down the colour and finely clawed toes. I would say it is drawn from life. The artist probably knew bats because they likely lived in the towers of the monastery The artist has shown the bat as it looks clinging to a hard surface. He has removed the bats folded-up wings, changed the face and decorated the spine.

*Elephant?* Yeas, long-nosed horse *Chameleon?* Yess, color-changing horse *Turtle?* Oh yes, double-shield horse *Giraffe?* Hum yes, long-neck horse *Hippopotamus?* Right, water horse *Scorpion?* Nice, lots-of-feet-a-horse *Whale?* Got it, water horse 2

Imagine if these medieval artists had made their way to Australia. Animals like the platypus were still baffling Europeans as late as the Victorian era.

To be fair, that last "armoured turtle" looks fairly accurate if you think about terrapins, semi-aquatic, snouts, some do have spikes on their shells, so

I laughed so hard looking at the paintings 🤣 great video!

"Ok man I want you to paint an animal for me" "Sure" "It's a lizard about the length of my hand, has two big eyes that point in two directions, a long tongue, hands and feet that look like oven mitts and long tail that curls like a spiral." *draws horse* done!

The artist just straight up drew shields on the sea turtles back. Someone also told the monk about a chameleon and the monk was like “cool camel lion”

What if in 5000 years an archeologist discover old Pokémon drawings and make fun of how they think we drew our animals?

A lot of them would be nice inspirations for designing new pokemons xD

“The dolphin resembles a slightly goofy looking fish”- well how would YOU describe a dolphin sir???? How would YOU????

How did they mess up a tiger? All you had to describe was "big orange cat with black stripes."

They look like Pokémon.

4:49 Actually, the hedgehog-turtle does kinda resemble a real species called the Alligator Snapping Turtle pretty nicely.

The description: "it's like a crab but with a long pointy tail" The artist: "fur it is then!"

Plot twist: All those medieval drawings were accurate drawings of animals now extinct

I love how a common misconception was that Ostritches could eat and digest anything, including metal. Some dude probably saw some ostritch gremlin eating coins or rocks for no reason and was like "Ayo how it do that" and in reality ostritches are just really stupid.

It's because many medieval artists were listening to eye witnesses that saw certain animals on their travels in far away places and either tried to describe what they saw to monks and scribes to try and draw in the same way today a victim of crime would sit with an artist and try to describe a person so the artist can do a charcature sketch (artists interpretation) based on the the information given by the eye whiteness that doesn't actually look like the person when they end up catching but it may just have some certain characteristics in common with the art. Also travelers and explorers in the past would have collected dead decomposed specimens to take back to the monastery artist to try and reconstruct what it may have looked like. This was before the preservation method such as formaldehyde was known in the west. The reason many people didn't try and draw these animals directly on their travels is the equipment used was rare and very expensive such as parchment and inks which only the monasteries used as they were the institutions of education and knowledge in medieval Europe and Britain in the same was schools and college are today. So rather than laughing at what they archived it's always beneficial to try and get yourself into the mindset and circumstances of these ancient artists from a bygone culture that was very different from ours, with none of our modern technology we take for granted daily such as cheap disposable art materials, cameras photography, David Attenborough, a western education in natural history etc.... these ancient Christian monks were the early pioneers of documenting natural history as best they could in difficult environments by candle light. We owe a great deal to their efforts that inspired generations of later explorers snd artists to go out and learn more about the natural world and develop what we now know as natural history, anthropology, Botanical science etc...

okay, but be fair: your cousin goes “yeah, saw an animal in the woods. had these weird ears, rat like tail, kinda armored lookin, long pig snout, stubby legs,” and then try to draw an armadillo without ever seeing one and using only this description

Imagine a monk deciding to travel the world and see it for himself and then running back years later shouting "OH GOD WE WERE SO WRONG"

That was a great little video I really enjoyed it

The bipedal turtle and fuzzy crocodile made me giggle, LOL. I really enjoyed the artwork though. Thank you for this amusing and interesting post.

I guess medieval artists forgot to look at ancient Roman mosaics: Their animal depictions are very accurate. After all, they imported all sorts of beasts for their arenas.

Jokes aside, it would be really cool to see a videogame where these inaccurate depictions are actual, living monsters. Imagine fighting off a pack of those "hyenas" or a bunch of sword wielding rabbits. I'd buy that in a heartbeat 😂.

I’m so glad I stumbled upon your channel.

Very interesting content, keep it up :D

It's like telling someone to draw a Pokemon they've never heard before.

I feel like the people drew chameleons as all of these different creatures because they thought they were like shapeshifters, misunderstanding accounts of them changing their appearance to blend into their environment.

Actually, isn't the thing with pelican cannibalism story the same as with flamingos? There used to be a legend that flamingos' feathers are pink because they feed their chicks with their own blood. Pink pelicans aren't that rare.

I don't blame the artists, I blame the terribl descriptions.

"Bees are the smallest of birds. They are born from the bodies of oxen, or from (...corruption...) the decaying flesh of slaughtered calves; worms form in the flesh and then turn into bees. Bees live in community, choose the most noble among them as king, have wars, and make honey. Their laws are based on custom, but the king does not enforce the law; rather the lawbreakers punish themselves by stinging themselves to death." Yep those guys had it all figured out :) Medieval Bestiaries are fun to read

A small correction- hippopotamus is a Greek word, not a Latin one.

Why is this my favourite video I've seen so far this year? 😂

This highlights something I think a lot of people don't think about, the mindset of people from any point in time far from our own. They didn't have internet, tv, and hardly any books even. Most people couldnt read anyway. Imagine if your entire world was your little village, and traveling 1 or 2 towns over to visit a relative was a month long adventure. Imagine the amount of speculation and misinformation. Even the well educated people like the ones who drew these pictures and wrote the books they were in were working with a first, second, maybe even third or more person's description of animals so different from what they know that this is the best their imagination can come up with, the best they can comprehend. I think it's just super interesting to try to imagine the mindset of people from centuries ago. It's really hard to put yourself in their shoes, but I think its vital to understand their lives through their stories and art. A lot of times I think our modern way of thinking takes us a completely different direction than was intended. I think that even applies to understanding things like how the pyramids were built and all those things we today think would have been so impossible it must be aliens, lol. We obviously do not understand people from the past in many ways.

- So it's a tiny scaled reptile, green and with big eyes. - A little cat, understood.

Sailor: I saw a big fish. Painter: He said fish, then it must have scales.

The illustration equivalent of the telephone game.

"According to historical records, all non-human animals were either big fish, crows, or (most frequently) dogs. It is, as of now, unknown how these animals were able to so rapidly evolve into their current forms" - historians

You didn't even mention how rhinos were probably responsible for unicorns.

Sometimes it is possible to trace these misunderstandings by looking at the text or thinking how someone might try to describe the thing. For instance, there is the "vegetable lamb" which seems to be a misunderstanding of cotton: European guy: "Hey, neat fabric! It's so cool and breathable! What's it made of?" Syrian merchant: "Well...You know how you make clothes out of sheep wool? Well, there's this plant that has like clumps of wool growing off it." European guy goes home, relates this story to local monk. Resulting picture: Tree with sheep growing on it.

1:13 "HiPpOpOtAmUs" Is GrEeK fOr "RiVeR hOrSe" NoT LaTiN

I've had a long hard day and this just made me feel like myself again. Thank you for making me laugh! Medieval art always gets me 😆

Oh man, now I wish we had medieval drawings of Australian animals. Just imagine how much weirder they would be.

The first crocodile image actually makes a little sense. I could see a medieval person describing a crocodile as a river dragon, which would explain the wings. The beak could be because a crocodile has a pointed snout.

3:32 Perhaps this is because people in medieval history observed the Pelicans feeding their chicks by transferring fish from their beaks to their chick’s and because of their massive bills it looked as if the parents were “eating” their chicks or vice versa. Just a guess of course, no way to know if this is actually true.

My favorite thing about Medieval mythical creatures and monstrous people is that you can tell that the one describing the creature was either exaggerating or saying something derogatory but the artist took all of it literally.

The German word for turtle literally means "shield toad". Given that name and describing it having aquatic features, the depiction at 4:39 is actually not that far off.

In the olden days, people believed Unicorns were more likely to exist than Black Swans.

Great music. Abbey is amazing at the spoons. Keep warming our hearts.

1:54 Rest easy, hyenas only drag away LIVING humans in the dead of night.

1. elephants are often used in certain cultures to hold "buildings" with people in them, like little carriages 2. hyenas are scavengers and therefore it makes sense for them to be "eating the dead"

“Let’s paint some animals” “But we know nothing about them... we don’t even know what they look like” “Well we can guess”

Medieval art is a certain and specific aesthetic that I very much dig

Some monk sitting in a library just drawing weird dogs because he’s never seen a giraffe or a crocodile in his life: 🥲

y'all do not know how hard I cackled at the sight of that first ostrich. I almost died you guys.

Plot twist: the artists were actually dead-on with their depictipns, but God just decided to turn RTX on one day

I'm pretty sure the "castles" depicted on the elephant's backs are meant to represent Howdahs and the image of an Elephant and Castle is a stylized symbol of strength in medieval English art. I don't think medieval people thought elephants could carry a literal castle on their back.

The chameleon was likely hard to illustrate back then because of its bizarre shape, alien like eyes, and of course it’s ability to change colors which likely confused the people trying to describe the animal to the artist.

😂😂😂 this is one of the rarest moments where learning something gets funny.

Plot twist: this is how they actually looked, they’ve just evolved since then

As inaccurate as these depictions are, they're a goldmine of inspiration for creature designs!

"I don't know how to draw its face? What do I do?" "Just draw a face that you could draw!"

2:34 6 months (12/30/2021) after you make this a guy tries that shit in Naples Florida and almost lost an arm. Doughnut operator did a good video on it.