My blog focused on the history of the Romanian people (based on works by Neagu Djuvara and Radu Oltean), as well as Romanian tradition and folklore
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Zgripțor - the Romanian Griffin
by Alexandru (Sasha) Bogdan - the Great Wanderer of Valinor
Concept art for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe film: Griffin
Romanian folk tales are filled with fearsome creatures, ranging from the vampiric moroi and wraiths such as the strigoi, to the serpentine dragons called balauri. Some of these mythical beings are autochtonous conceptions, while others were borrowed from other cultures and given a Romanian spin.
In the previous post I tackled the basilisk/vasilisc. So let us now turn to another Roman-Greek addition to the rooster of beasts from Romanian folk tales, in this case, the griffin – a beast that has been featured in a number of fantasy books, films, TV series and games: The Chronicles of Narnia, The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad etc -or the zgripțor as we call it
What is a griffin/zgripțor?
Both griffin and zgripțor (alternatively written as zgripsor; original form: gripsor), in spite of their apparent differences, trace their roots to grýps from Ancient Greek. In the case of the Romanian language, the term is derived from the Byzantine Greek variation grúps. In modern times, however, the neologism grifon, borrowed from French griffon, is more commonly used by Romanian speakers and in film and book translations. As a matter of fact, today it is highly likely that, with the exception of folklorists and some illustrators, most people are unaware that the words zgripțor and grifon are actually interchangeable.
“Arismapian fighting Griffin” kylix at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, USA
It would seem that the first literary mention of the griffin (though still styled as grýps) in Greek culture was made by the poet Aristeas, who gathered local lore about the mythical beast during his wanderings. Although the original poem by Aristeas was lost, the details related to the griffin have been preserved by the playwright Aeschylus and the historian Herodotus. Romanian writer Doina Ruști further compiled the accounts’ information as follows:
ENG: “This bird guarded the gold of northern Europe and was often raided by the Arimaspi, a people of giant cyclopes, believed to dwell somewhere beyond Scythia, in a mountain range that many historians (including Plinius the Elder) associate with the Carpathians. There is a poem, attributed to Aristeas, that mentions the confrontations between the grýps (more commonly known as griffins) and the Arimaspi giants, that rode winged horses all the way to Hyperborea.”
“Red-figure hydria with Apollo riding a griffin”, Princeton University Art Museum, USA
Aeschylus also started the trend of associating the griffin with Greek deities:
Herodotus claims in one of his accounts that a griffin-themed wine-cup had been installed at the Temple of Hera at Samos
a vase painting depicts the chariot of Dyonisus being drawn by a griffin, a bull and a panther
the Temple of Apollo at Delphi once featured a statue of the god flanked by two griffins; Apollo is also depicted as being mounted on a griffin on several pieces of pottery
As time went on, new details were added to the griffin’s myth and some older traits were changed. For example, the accounts of Roman writer Plinius the Elder and Greek philosopher Apollonius of Tyana retain most of the legendary animals’ characteristics established by their predecessors, but relocate the griffins to other geographical spheres: Plinius claims the griffins hail from ancient Aethiopia, while Apollonius insists that “these animals do exist in India” and that they “are held in veneration as being sacred to the Sun”.
Illustration of a griffin for Johann Vogel’s Meditationes emblematicae de restaurata pace Germaniae
Even the description of the griffin, quite vague in the original sources, was the subject of artistic license. The very presence of wings or lack thereof is similarly up to interpretation. There are some illustrations and pieces of pottery in which the griffin has bird-like forelegs with talons and only its hindquarters are those of a lion, and there are also others depicting it as a large bipedal bird almost akin to the roc from Middle-eastern folklore. In Naturalis historia, Plinius the Elder describes griffins as bird-like winged beasts with “long ears and a hooked beak”, whereas Apollonius of Tyana instead asserts that “they resemble lions” and says the following with regards to their capability of flight:
But the depiction most commonly displayed on heraldic emblems, pieces of pottery and tapestries or in illustrations and fantasy literature is a blend between bird and feline, with the head and wings of an eagle and the body and the limbs of a lion. And in many stories, the griffin is said to have a hunger for horse and human-flesh. Both these last two gruesome details and the popular depiction of these beasts are connected to the griffins’ (here called gryphes) entry in the encyclopedia Etymologiae by scholar and archbishop Isidore of Seville:
The griffins’ hostility towards horses in particular can be traced back to the adversity between the ‘grýps’ and the horse-riding Arimaspi tribe. Impossible as it may seem, however, the two animals can mate, producing the creature known as hippogriff, which has the foreparts of a winged griffin and the hindquarters of a horse.
Isidore’s portrayal of the griffin, including the belief that it preyed upon humans and horses, was carried over into works such as the German folk tale Der Vogel Greif (English: The Griffin) – collected by the Brothers Grimm – and Mandeville’s Travels – a purpoted travelogue attributed to an Englishman named Sir John Mandeville. Mandeville’s Travels alludes to Isidore’s description of the infamous beast, but also conveys its huge size and immense strength:
Illustration of the griffin for the novelization of Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: “The Luck Child”
Meanwhile, in The Griffin, the hero named Hans is tasked by a king with fetching him a feather from the tail of the eponymous man-eating griffin, who dwells in a castle. Elements of the German fairy tale, particularly the monstrous beast, were incorporated into the episode “The Luck Child” from Jim Henson’s The Storyteller TV series.
It should be noted that the mythical creature is not always viewed as a dreaded monster. Inspired by the Greek trend of giving griffins a divine connotation, some Christians came to regard them as “a symbol of Christ, in his divine and human nature”, because the griffin itself is the union of a bird that soars the heavens and the mighty earthbound lion. Not to mention that the lion and the eagle which compose the griffin are often individually featured in Christian iconography, to represent the Evangelists Mark and John. Also notable is that in Divina Commedia by Italian writer Dante Alighieri, the griffin drags the chariot to Paradise.
Concept art for The Spiderwick Chronicles film: Griffin
In Romanian folklore, the zgripțori are said to make their nest near a fountain or water spring somewhere in the ‘Other World’ (original: ‘Tărâmul celălalt’/”Lumea de dincolo”), a subterranean realm inhabited by monsters such as the draconic balauri and the ogre-like zmei and separated from our mortal world by a large chasm. Just like the griffins from Mandeville’s Travels, the zgripțori are huge: writer Doina Ruști recalled that in some Romanian folk tales the chicks are described as being as big “as three great bustard birds” (original: “cât trei dropii”), implying that the parents are even greater in size. While the zgripțori retain their Greek forebearers’ carnivorous appetite for human flesh, they are also portrayed as bitter enemies of serpents and balauri, who threaten their young. As I mentioned in a previous post about the balaur, the confrontation between the zgripțor and the balaur is probably rooted in the conflict between the Greek god Zeus and the Titan Typhon; remember that Aeschylus identified the griffin as Zeus’ 'hound', and that the balaur – or at the very least the seven-headed subspecies – was inspired by the Hydra of Lerna, the spawn of Typhon.
Since the griffin was frequently displayed in European heraldry – from England, the German lands and the Italian states all the way to Crimea – as a symbol of divine power, strength and nobility, it should not be much of a surprise that a zgripțor clutching the Cross is depicted in 1390 on the sigil of Mircea the Elder, the Voivode of Wallachia and one of the greatest rulers in Romanian history.
“Eastern Imperial Eagle” by Daria Maier
As a fun fact, the term zgripțor has since become the Romanian namesake of a particularly large bird of prey, widespread from south-eastern Europe to West and Central Asia, and known to the rest of the world by the more popular appelation eastern imperial eagle (Latin: aquila heliaca).
The zgripțor in Romanian fairy tales and other works of literature
Well the most notable appearance of the zgripțor in Romanian folklore is in the tale of Prâslea cel Voinic și merele de aur (tr. Prâslea the Brave and the Golden Apples) collected by Romanian folklorist Petre Ispirescu. Stuck in the Other World during his quest to find the thief of the Golden Apples, Prâslea stumbles upon a nest of zgripțor-chicks in a terrible plight:
Panels by Sorin Anghel and Valentin Tănase for Prâslea cel Voinic și merele de aur comic strip
ENG: “[…] he saw a balaur [i.e. dragon] that had coiled itself around a tree and was slithering upwards to devour some zgripsor chicks. Drawing his sword, Prâslea charged at the balaur and cut him to shreds in a matter of seconds.”
Grateful to their savior, the chicks thank and praise Prâslea and, fearing that their mother might gobble the hero up if she comes across him, shelter him under their feathers. When the zgripțuroaică/zgripsoroaică returns and finds the bits and pieces of balaur scattered about the nest, she demands to know who delivered her children from certain death. Only when she promises that she would do no harm to their savior, do the chicks reveal Prâslea . As a gesture of gratitude, the female griffin embraces the hero and offers him whatever reward he chooses, and Prâslea asks her aid in getting back to his own world. The zgripțuroaică agrees to carry him on her back and ferry him between the two realms, under one condition: that each time she turns her head towards him he should chop her a slice of meat and of bread and feed them to her.
So mounted on the zgripțuroaică, Prâslea soars the skies towards his home. But as they draw near, the supply of meat runs thin. Desperate the hero cuts the last pound of flesh from his own leg. When they reach the surface and the young prince dismounts, the zgripțuroaică notices that Prâslea can barely walk and stops him in his tracks. Not wishing to leave until her debt to him was fully repaid, the griffin tells him that she guessed the slice of “sweeter” meat she had tasted was the lad’s own flesh and reveals that she did not swallow it:
Illustration of Prâslea and the zgripțuroaică by Ioana Alexandra Abagiu
Doina Ruști felt that the zgripțuroaică’s status as a helper of the hero is antithetic to the story's main villains, “the winged giants called zmei, vague archetypes of the Arimaspi”, even if the latter do not appear as direct enemies of the mighty bird of prey.
As a fun fact: in some Romanian translations of The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski the term zgripțor takes the place of griffin. So I guess that the translators did their homework!
Before I finish the article I would like to say a couple of things.
Firstly, I got the idea of writing this article after rewatching Jim Henson’s The Storyteller. I still recall that “The Luck Child” was my favorite episode when I was a kid because I just loved the design of the griffin puppet; I honestly think it is one of the things that still hold up to this day. If you are not familiar with the episode, or the series as a whole, I suggest you do yourself a favor: give it a watch.
“Griffin concept” by Sasha Dimitrov
Secondly, if you haven’t already guessed, the griffin’s depiction from The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt is my favorite rendition of the legendary animal. In fact, it is my favorite creature from the entire game! I just love how the artists from CD Red Projekt played with its appearance, how they made the feline features more dominant, particularly in the face, while keeping some of the bird-like traits through the short hooked beak and the wings.
Thirdly, since I pointed out earlier that most people are unaware that zgripțor is the Romanian version of the griffin, I would like to explain how I myself found out: I was in 2nd or 3rd grade and I was looking for a read in the school library and while I was searching I happened upon an illustrated version of Prâslea cel Voinic și merele de aur. I knew the story by heart (my mother used to read fairy tales to me when I was little), but, attracted by the art style, I decided to give it a reread. And I was puzzled when the artist’s take on the zgripțuroaică was the spitting image of Isidore’s depiction of the griffin. And I began to question whether the two terms were synonyms denoting the same mythical beast. Years later, sometime in high school, I began to do some research and confirmed my suspicions by tracing the etymological thread and reading articles or books by Romanian folklorists.
Sources
Wiktionary
Dicționar de teme şi simboluri din literatura română (tr. Dictionary of themes and symbols from Romanian literature), by Doina Ruști
Adevărul: Zgripțuroaica
Naturalis historia (tr. Natural History), by Plinius the Elder
Etymologiae (tr. Etymologies), by Isidore of Seville
Mandeville’s Travels, attributed to Sir John Mandeville
The Writings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with Bibliographical and Critical Notes, by Henry Wadsworth Longefellow
Prâslea cel Voinic și merele de aur (tr. Prâslea the Brave and the Golden Apples), collected by Petre Ispirescu
Wikipedia
Artistic credits
WETA Workshop
Experiment18
Sasha Dimitrov
Sorin Anghel
Valentin Tănase
Ioana Alexandra Abagiu
Melquiades Dominguez
CD Red Projekt
“Griffin Witcher 3 concept art” by Melquiades Dominguez
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