The Monstrefact: Shad-Havar

In this episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses Shad-havar, the Persian unicorn with the fluted horn… 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. Hi,
my name is Robert Lamb and this is the Monster Fact,
a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,
focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time.

(00:24):
My wife recently gave me a copy of the nineteen
eighty five book Magical Beasts from the Time Life Enchanted
World series. This is a volume I didn't have in
my childhood set of the books, and as with other volumes,
this one contains a rich collection of new and classic illustrations.
Flipping through it for the first time, I encountered the

(00:46):
expected array of satyrs, harpies, and unicorns. But then on
page one hundred and twenty two, I encountered a glorious
illustration by none other than contemporary artist Wayne Anderson, whose
book Flight of Dragon was the inspiration for the nineteen
eighty two Rankin and Bass animated film of the same name,
recently featured on Weird House Cinema. Anderson's interpretation of the

(01:11):
creature is a splendid, antelope like creature with a single
curved horn. This horn does not spiral, but it does
branch off into stunted hollow tubes. It gives the horn
an appearance of both coral and a fluted musical instrument.
It also reminded my wife of the Grinch's dog Max,

(01:33):
once he was augmented with a crude antler. In the cartoon.
The text of Magical Beasts tells us that this is
the Persian creature known as Shadhar, and when the wind
passes over this horn and its apertures, sweet music is produced,
music so sweet, in fact, that animals of the forest

(01:54):
will draw near. It is then that Shadhavar's predatory nature
is revealed, as the creature pounces on its enthralled prey,
kills it, and devours its flesh. Shadhavar is discussed in
the nineteen fifty text The Unicorn Studies in Muslim Iconography
by the late Islamic art historian Richard Ettinghausen. He writes that,

(02:16):
according to Zakaria al Kuzwani in his thirteenth century book
The Wonders of Creatures and the Marvels of Creation, the
Shadhavar lives in remote regions of room, and its horn
contains no less than forty two hollow branches. The fourteenth
century writer al Damiri would increase that count to seventy two,

(02:37):
and it appears that historian Hamdalla Mustawafi contributed the predatory account,
possibly grafting it on from another imaginary creature, the Serranus,
which was originally described as a marine animal with musical
apertures on its snout and later as a land animal
with musical apertures on its snout. In either case, the

(02:59):
Serranus was said to lure in prey with its song
as well. The excellent blog A Book of Creatures features
a nice illustration of what this Syrianus might have been
expected to look like, and mentions that the name of
the creature may be a reference to a Byzantine musical
instrument that was used, or said to be used to

(03:20):
lure and capture animals. There may also be some connection
here to the sirens of Greek tradition. At any rate,
it's a wonderful, fantastic creature, and also a reminder that
monsters of myth and legend are fluid. They may borrow
their attributes from others of their kind, and of course
they may lend attributes to other creatures as well. Tune

(03:44):
in for additional episodes of the Monster fact or the
Artifact each week. As always, you can email us at
contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff
to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

(04:06):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.