Welcome! As a member of the Gryphon's Guild, I felt it my duty to have a page devoted to gryphons. (So I cheated a little and added dragons and unicorns, too, but the gryphons are first!)
Gryphons (also spelled griffin, griffon, etc.) are mythical creatures, usually with the head, wings and foreclaws of an eagle or other bird of prey, and the body and hindpaws of a lion or other large cat. Thier coloring can vary no matter what animal they're built of (in other words, a gryphon could have the body of a cheetah, complete with spots, except it's lavender.), as can the actual build of the gryphon. (Some have feline forepaws, butterfly wings, horse tails...who knows?)
Usually they're considered to have equal to human intelligence, except in REALLY BAD WRITING. (I personally detest people who underestimate non-humans, don't you?) Gryphons have their own unique expression of emotion, both in body language and in the sounds they make. They are able to both cry like an eagle and roar like a lion. (For more detail on expression and sounds, visit the GryphGuild's Vault O'Knowledge.)
Gryphons live in nests, which, as with the eagle, are called eyries. They are known for lining their eyrie with gold. The more gold, the more comfortable the gryphon. Like birds, gryphons hatch from eggs, usually brightly or metallically colored.
They hunt in two ways, either diving from the sky like a raptor or stalking and chasing like a cat. Most gryphons will hunt small deer or horses, but depending on the size of the gryphon, they may go after smaller or larger prey.
And aren't gryphlets just the cutest things you've ever seen?
Unicorns. Well, everyone knows what a unicorn is, don't they? They're horses (usually white horses) with a long gold or silver horn growing out of their forehead. Mane, tail, and eye color vary depending on which artist is doing the drawing, although traditionally, the unicorn has a white mane and tail and silver or blue eyes.
Unicorns are found mostly in children's books (I recommend The Baby Unicorn if you can still find it anywhere, or Sarah's Unicorn by Bruce Coville), or every once in a while in a fantasy novel.
Unicorn horns were said to bring good luck to any who could saw one off. In mythology, the most-used practice was to have a maiden sing to one, and let it fall asleep with it's head on her lap, and then the hunter (or the maiden herself) would come and kill it and take the horn. Fairly violent, hmm?
Some people think the myth of the unicorn came from someone seeing a rhinocerous and some sort of deer standing near each other with the light coming from behind them so that you couldn't tell it was two separate animals, and instead looked like a horse with a horn. A unicorn.
Variations on the unicorn idea are the pegasus, a horse with wings, and the alicorn, a horse with wings *and* a horn. Alicorns, in some stories, are depicted as being carnivorous, and having a VERY bad temper. They're also known for having evil-looking red eyes. Paired with a sharp horn, they're not something you'd really want to get near.
Dragons, also known as Chimaera, are large, usually fire-breathing animals. (Sometimes they staple you to things, too, but I won't get into that.) No one has been able to do a full study on a dragon to determine whether or not they are lizards, as most believe, or closer to dinosaurs. Famous for fighting knights in fairy tales, the typical dragon is actually somewhat calmer than that, and most don't eat the princesses they carry off.
Dragons vary in size, from six inches long to the size of a New York apartment building. Their colors vary just as much, the traditional dragon being dark green, but they are described in books and illustrated as being metallically colored, rainbow colored, camoflauge, and anything else you could think of.
Dragons sometimes have the ability to work magic, the most common form being that they can freeze you where you stand so you're easier to eat. Others deal with more complicated spellcasting.
Thier favorite food, other than princesses, are unicorns and other mythical creatures like the unicorn. As with gryphons, their diet varies according to size and taste.
Dragons are also famous for the caves they live in, which are usually very large and very dark. Most have little need for light since they can see just as well in the dark. They hatch from eggs, usually described as shimmering with rainbow colors or made from precious metals. If you believe some books, dragon tears are diamonds, and their teeth can cure any illness.
In the middle ages and before, dragons were believed to be real, and had various things blamed on them, like the weather, bad luck, or a lost war.
Personally, I think the dragons got sick of being blamed for everything and left.
Sola
Sola is my alter ego in the Gryphon Guild. She's a gryphon-to-human shapeshifter (meaning, she can be a gryphon or a human, but nothing else), also known as a weregryph. When in human form, she's about 5'4" with dark red hair and red eyes. In gryphon form, she's about the size of a small horse, with the head and wings of a cockatiel and the body of a tiger. Her feathers are light purple that fade into dark red (the same color as the human Sola's hair), her fur is silver, and her crest is dark purple. She has four paws instead of the traditional two paws and two bird claws. I have a story in progress describing her past, so maybe someday I'll post it. :-)
If you're interested in fantasy art, particularly gryphons, I suggest you visit Mira's Gallery on Elfwood.
Sarah's Recommended Fantasy Books:
© 1997 serrah@angelfire.com
