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Fastitocalon (poem) AI simulator
(@Fastitocalon (poem)_simulator)
Hub AI
Fastitocalon (poem) AI simulator
(@Fastitocalon (poem)_simulator)
Fastitocalon (poem)
"Fastitocalon" is a medieval-style poem by J. R. R. Tolkien about a gigantic sea turtle. The setting is explicitly Middle-earth. The poem is included in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
The work takes its name from a medieval poem of a similar name, itself based on the second-century Latin Physiologus.
The second-century Latin Physiologus tells of a sea-monster, the Aspidochelone. This is retold in the Old English poem "The Whale", where the monster appears under the name Fastitocalon, in the Exeter Book, folio 96b-97b.
By etymology, the name "Fastitocalon" is a corruption of the Greek Aspido-chelōne, "round-shielded turtle", with the addition of the letter F, according to Tolkien, "simply to make the name alliterate, as was compulsory for poets in his day, with the other words in his line. Shocking, or charming freedom, according to taste". Tolkien commented that the tale of the monster that treacherously simulates an island is from "the East", and that the turtle is mixed up with a whale when the story arrives in Europe, so that the Old English version has him feeding like a whale "trawling with an open mouth".
Look, there is Fastitocalon!
An island good to land upon,
Although 'tis rather bare.
Come, leave the sea! And let us run,
Or dance, or lie down in the sun!
See, gulls are sitting there!
Beware!
Gulls do not sink.
There they may sit, or strut and prink:
Their part is to tip the wink,
If anyone should dare
Upon that isle to settle,
Or only for a while to get
Relief from sickness or the wet,
Or maybe boil a kettle.
Tolkien's first Fastitocalon poem was published in the Stapledon Magazine in 1927. A second, heavily revised version appeared in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil in 1962.
Fastitocalon, the central character in the poem, is the last of the mighty turtle-fish. This poem is well known to the Hobbits. It tells of how Fastitocalon's huge size, a "whale-island", enticed sailors to land on its back. After the sailors lit a fire upon Fastitocalon, it dived underwater, causing the sailors to drown.
Fastitocalon was at the surface for long enough for vegetation to grow on its back, adding to the illusion that it was an actual island. Fastitocalon was far larger than the largest non-fictional turtle (Archelon).
Fastitocalon (poem)
"Fastitocalon" is a medieval-style poem by J. R. R. Tolkien about a gigantic sea turtle. The setting is explicitly Middle-earth. The poem is included in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
The work takes its name from a medieval poem of a similar name, itself based on the second-century Latin Physiologus.
The second-century Latin Physiologus tells of a sea-monster, the Aspidochelone. This is retold in the Old English poem "The Whale", where the monster appears under the name Fastitocalon, in the Exeter Book, folio 96b-97b.
By etymology, the name "Fastitocalon" is a corruption of the Greek Aspido-chelōne, "round-shielded turtle", with the addition of the letter F, according to Tolkien, "simply to make the name alliterate, as was compulsory for poets in his day, with the other words in his line. Shocking, or charming freedom, according to taste". Tolkien commented that the tale of the monster that treacherously simulates an island is from "the East", and that the turtle is mixed up with a whale when the story arrives in Europe, so that the Old English version has him feeding like a whale "trawling with an open mouth".
Look, there is Fastitocalon!
An island good to land upon,
Although 'tis rather bare.
Come, leave the sea! And let us run,
Or dance, or lie down in the sun!
See, gulls are sitting there!
Beware!
Gulls do not sink.
There they may sit, or strut and prink:
Their part is to tip the wink,
If anyone should dare
Upon that isle to settle,
Or only for a while to get
Relief from sickness or the wet,
Or maybe boil a kettle.
Tolkien's first Fastitocalon poem was published in the Stapledon Magazine in 1927. A second, heavily revised version appeared in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil in 1962.
Fastitocalon, the central character in the poem, is the last of the mighty turtle-fish. This poem is well known to the Hobbits. It tells of how Fastitocalon's huge size, a "whale-island", enticed sailors to land on its back. After the sailors lit a fire upon Fastitocalon, it dived underwater, causing the sailors to drown.
Fastitocalon was at the surface for long enough for vegetation to grow on its back, adding to the illusion that it was an actual island. Fastitocalon was far larger than the largest non-fictional turtle (Archelon).