December 15 – Blemmye

Though perhaps not strictly a fantastic beast, we had to include the unusual blemmye in this calendar. The blemmye or mythical headless man has been known by various names and is said to inhabit the remotest parts of the earth. With no head, its features appear upon its chest.

The woodcuts are taken from Hartmann Schedel’s Liber Chronicarum known as the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493) and Münster’s Cosmographia (1550). The colour illustration is taken from the “Book of Wonders” ms32(o)).