I am currently working on my (hopefully) debut novel. It’s an epic fantasy with beautiful world building. I’m doing so by pulling from a range of mythologies to create what I hope will be a diverse and unique landscape. With this however, I thought it would be cool to share some of the creatures that are found in the different mythologies I’ve been researching. These posts can be read on top of the mythology column I have over at FairyFolk Literary Magazine where I primarily talk about the Gods (currently on Greek).

This however, will be a little less structured and will mainly be concentrating on the mythologies I’ve been researching specifically for my novel.

The first creature I’d like to share is the basilisk. Although I currently have no plans to include this creature in my work, it derives from a mythology that is integral to my novel, Roman mythology (although depending on where you read up on it, it can go back and forth between Greek or Roman mythology of where it originated).

Now, you might be looking at the photo above and thinking, “well, I’ve watched Chamber of Secrets, and that’s no basilisk.” This is because it entirely depends on who is describing the creature on what it exactly looks like.

The first text to ever discuss the Basilisk was “Pliny the Elder’s Natural History”. Here it is stated that the creature is born from a serpents egg but a rooster or toad is the one to actually keep the egg warm until it hatches. Hence why there are images of a rooster, serpent hybrid.

The creature is said to be able to kill and turn a living thing to stone with just one glance. Here we see a cross over with the Gorgons of Greek mythology.

Writing prompt #1

Write a short story about this creature. Make it any way you want. It can be a serpent like we see in Harry Potter, a rooster/serpent mix, or you can do further research and come up with your own variation. Extra prompt! Don’t make it a traditional fantasy story, think outside of the box and maybe genre bend for some extra fun.