RICHARD FREEMAN: MULTI HEADS DON’T MAKE A MYTH

I have always disliked the writings of Michel Meurger. He dismisses native testimony and has no zoological experience or qualifications to back up his absurd theories. In his book Lake Monster Traditions he tried (and dismally failed) to dismiss Canadian lake monsters. The main thrust of his argument is that many different kinds of creature are reported from the same lake. Some look like floating tree trunks, others have horse-like heads, others have humped backs and others look like huge snakes. So many different creatures could not live in the same lake ergo they are a fiction. Rubbish! Meurger is sorely lacking in any zoological experience. An animal - even a familiar one - can present radically different aspects or outlines according to how and where it is observed. This is even more acute in water where only a portion of the animal may be observable.

In an issue of Fortean Times a few years back he wrote an article called Two-headed Trolls have gone right out of fashion. It was an attack on Dr Bernard Heuvelmans for postulating that some troll legends were based on encounters with relic hominids when they were found in Europe. In fact Heuvelmans may have been right on the money here. Dr Lars Thomas is currently working on a two volume book on Scandinavian cryptozoology. Whilst researching it he came upon the accounts of an old Danish king who was very keen on hunting. His favourite quarry were trolls. The description of the trolls he hunted matches exactly with contemporary descriptions I have heard in Russia of the almasty.

Meurger’s argument against this was that some ancient depictions of troll portrayed them as having two heads - clearly impossible for a hominid. Again Meurger is displaying his lack of knowledge. It is well established that when ‘primitive’artists want to draw a heard of animals they draw each one separately. When they want to depict movement they draw the same animal over lapping with itself, like an early form of animation. The movement of a snake rearing up and swaying side to side in a threat posture is probably where the idea of the multi-headed hydra comes from: the depiction of a snake in movement.

I have long maintained that the dragon has a basis in fact and I have written extensively about modern sightings of dragon-like beasts. A sceptic would try to dismiss this with arguments about multi-headed dragons. I would counter not only with the ‘animal in movement' argument but with the fact that in many cultures, rivers and their tributaries were represented as dragons.

In Japa, the standard one-headed dragon is well known and may be based on some kind of real giant reptile unknown to science. However, there are rarer accounts of multi-headed dragons who invariably seem destructive, whereas the one-headed dragon is usually seen as benevolent. It has been argued that the dragon in Asia is a deification of water. The Enoshima Engi is a book written by the monk Kokei in 1047 AD. It records the history of shrines and temples on Enoshima Island in Sangami Bay over a period of around 1,000 years.

The villagers were plagued by a five-headed dragon that had its lair in a nearby lake. Aware of their suffering, on May 31, 552 A.D, the goddess Benzaiten caused the island of Enoshima to arise from the bottom of the bay to serve as her home. She then descended onto the island amidst a series of spectacular terrestrial and aerial phenomena. The dragon fell in love with the beautiful goddess and asked her to be his consort. Benzaiten, who was widely known for her persuasive eloquence, rejected the dragon's proposal and made it understand that it had been doing wrong by plaguing the villagers. Ashamed, the dragon promised to cease its wrong-doing. It then faced south (devotedly facing the island where Benzaiten lived) and changed into a hill. To this day, the hill is known as Dragon's-Mouth Hill.

Some of the passages from the book are clearly describing floods and storms as dragons. Take for instance the following:

During the seven-hundred-year period from the time of the Emperor Jinmu (traditional dates 660-585 BC) (1) to the time of Emperor Suinin (29 BC-70 AD), the evil dragon, accompanied by the spirit of the wind, demons, mountain spirits, and other spirits, wreaked calamities throughout the land. Mountains and hills crumbled, releasing floods and causing damage resulting in plagues and revolts.

Kokei is using the Shoku Nihongi, a 40 volume history of Japan writtern in the Hiean period (794-1185), for his chronology. The ancient emperors up to Ojin (the 15th) are generally considered legendary, and it is unknown whether they existed or what their true dates were.

More descriptions make the dragons sound like flood water:

During the 60-year reign of Emperor Keikou (71-130 AD), the 12th emperor, the evil dragon constantly made fire [or torrential rains] and rain descend on the eastern lands [roughly today's Kanto region]. Consequently, the people made their homes in stone caves.

At the time of Emperor Keikou (71-130 AD), the evils caused by the dragon increased. Hailstones fell, killing people. At the time, many people had to hide in stone caverns. It is related that in winter they lived in holes and in summer in trees, like the way people lived in the most ancient times.

At this time, the five-headed dragon first appeared at the water gate of Tsumura Village in the valley of South Hill (the hill south of the lake) and began to devour children. From that time named this place Hatsukuhisawa ("Swamp Where the Dragon First Began to Devour People") and called the steep hills to the west Eno. This swamp was the water gate to the waters of the lake and an estuary of the Southern Sea [Sagami Bay].

A village elder lived at the base of the valley. He had 16 children, all of whom were swallowed by the poisonous dragon. Grieving and anguishing, he left his old home to move to a location to the west, which was then called "Elder's Mound."

The evil dragon then spread out through the villages , swallowing and devouring children. Terrified, the villagers forsook their homes to move elsewhere. The people of that time named the new location Koshigoe.

By this time the dragon's swallowing of people had taken place throughout the eight lands [of the Kanto region in Eastern Japan]. Children whose parents had been swallowed grieved, and parents whose children had been swallowed lamented. The sounds of weeping and wailing continued without ceasing throughout the villages. Children were left without mothers and husbands without wives.

Thereupon, the people of the eight lands, high-born and low-born, came together to discuss what to do. It was decided to offer a [female] child in sacrifice to the dragon. The wailing and lamentations of the people, high-born and low-born, continued without ceasing.

The five heads of this dragon may refer to the five tributaries of the Kashio River. To observers in the hills this may have looked like a five-headed dragon.

Another work from 1754, entitled Enoshima Ozoshi, relates the story of the 16 children devoured by the dragon.

At the time, there was a village elder with 16 children, all of whom were swallowed by the dragon. Choked with grief, the elder moved his household to a settlement in the west where he interred their corpses. It then was called "Elder's Mound."

This sounds as if the children were drowned by flood waters rather than taken by some great beast that would have eaten the bodies. When we recall that Asian dragons are intimately linked with water and control over it, the idea of this dragon being a flood caused by unprecedented storms makes sense.

So if a creature is described or drawn as having more than one head, it does not necessarily mean that the creature in question did not exist. It’s all a matter of cultural context and artistic style.