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Dave's Mythical Creatures and Places |
Devil Whale
| Description |
Extremely large whale, the size of an island.
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| Features | When it is
sleeping, or as part of a deliberate trick, the Devil-whale can be mistaken for an island by sailors, but if they land
and start a fire, the whale will wake up, and attack the ship or
drag it under the water. Sometimes these legends claim that the monster is
a huge turtle. Saint Brendan, in his travels, landed on the back of a devil-whale on Easter Sunday. As he and the monks set a fire to cook their meal, the island began to swim away, and they hurredly returned to their boats. More on Saint Brendan.
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| Also Called |
Zaratan, Jasconius
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| Described By | The
Voyage of Saint Brendan- "When they approached the other island,
the boat began to ground before they could reach its
landing-place...The island was stony and without grass. There
were a few pieces of driftwood on it, but no sand on its shore...
{they spend the night there and the next morning} the brothers began
to carry the raw meat out of the boat to preserve it with salt, and
also the flesh which they had bought from the other island. When
they had done this they put a pot over a fire.. When, however,
they were plying the fire with wood and the pot began to boil, the
island began to be in motion like a wave. The brothers rushed to
the boat...the island moved out to sea. The lighted fire could
be seen over two miles away." (O'Meara, 1991.)
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