The Liber monstrorum, an early medieval catalogue of monsters and marvels
An anonymous 8th-century Anglo-Saxon gathered monstrous men, beasts and serpents in a unique book, sceptical of myth: the Liber monstrorum.
Alongside the bestiaries, which read animals as signs of God, the Middle Ages also produced books devoted to monsters, to the creatures at the edges of the known world. The oldest and most original of these is the Liber monstrorum de diversis generibus, the Book of Monsters of Various Kinds. Written in Latin by an anonymous author, probably in England between the late seventh and the eighth century, it offers a surprising view of how an early medieval scholar handled the marvels inherited from pagan antiquity.
Structure and content
The work is divided into three books. The first concerns beings of human or half-human form: giants, cyclopes, dog-headed cynocephali, men with a single eye or with their faces on their chests, hermaphrodites, sirens and centaurs. The second is devoted to beasts, on land and at sea, including real exotic animals and creatures of myth. The third gathers the serpents, from the Hydra of Lerna to the dragons that guard treasure.
The sources are mainly literary. The author draws on Virgil, Lucan and Ovid, on Solinus and Isidore of Seville, as well as on texts such as the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle, a fantastic account of the wonders of India. Unlike the Physiologus, the Liber monstrorum contains no Christian allegorical interpretations: it presents itself rather as a learned catalogue.
An author who doubts
The most interesting aspect of the book is the author’s attitude. In the prologue he explains that he is writing to satisfy a friend’s curiosity about the hidden parts of the earth, but warns that many of the things recounted are fables of poets and pagans, not to be believed. In several chapters he distances himself from the stories, observing that some monsters exist only in the imagination of ancient writers.
This scepticism should not surprise us. Early medieval Christian intellectuals read the classics with admiration for their language, but with suspicion of pagan mythology. The Liber monstrorum reflects this tension: it preserves and hands down a store of fantastic material, but does so with the caution of someone who can tell a story from the truth.
The giant king and the world of Beowulf
Among the most quoted passages of the first book is the one devoted to Higlacus, king of the Getae, a man so huge that no horse could carry him from the age of twelve. His bones, the author adds, were kept on an island at the mouth of the Rhine. Scholars have recognised in this figure Hygelac, the king of the Geats who appears in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, and the passage is considered one of the rare outside witnesses to that legendary world.
The link with Anglo-Saxon culture is confirmed by another fact. The manuscript that preserves Beowulf, the so-called Nowell Codex of the Cotton Library, also contains the text of the Wonders of the East and the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle, works close in theme to the Liber monstrorum. It seems, then, that in that milieu there was a lively interest in the monsters and marvels of the edges of the world.
The Liber monstrorum holds a special place in the history of the bestiaries. It does not teach readers to see creatures as symbols of salvation, but gathers their catalogue with curiosity and at the same time with critical caution. It is a reminder that the Middle Ages were not merely credulous: they could also question the truth of what the ancients had handed down.