Saturday 2 January 2010

Mythical Creatures

Today I thought I'd try and be James Clayton. James has a fabulous 100 days project where he writes a haiku about a mythical creature, draws a picture of it and writes a little bit about the history and legends behind it. I love this project because it's creative, informative and interesting- not only do I get to read a poem and look at a drawing but I also get to learn things- Did you know there was a killer unicorn rabbit in Islamic scripture? Well there is and you can read a haiku about it here

To find inspiration for my mythical creature I turned to the font of all knowledge: Wikipedia. And it didn't let me down. I found a complete list of legendary creatures and began to scan for a good one. I was particularly impressed that their description of an angel already fitted the haiku pattern- Heavenly being/ usually depicted as/ a winged humanoid.

However I figured that would be cheating so instead I decided on the Barbegazi, a Swiss snow dwarf with huge feet who whistles to warn humans of avalanches. So I wrote my haiku and drew my little picture only to realise that James had already beaten me to it back on day 9.

So instead, ladies and gentlemen, let me present the Arkan Sonney.

Come here lucky pig
Stop running away from me
I want my silver


A hairy fairy pig from the Isle of Man. According to legend (according to Wikipedia) they bring luck if you can catch them but they flee from humans. Also if you catch a lucky piggy, you will always find a silver piece in your pocket. That's the kind of mythical creature I like!

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