INTRO:

Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

Gosh we’re nearly through November already - this year has gone so fast, I can barely keep up. It’s super cold in the UK now, so it’s getting cosy - you know, when I can afford to put the heating on. My poor cats are my hot water bottles at the moment and I hope wherever you are, you’re keeping warm and ready for the winter ahead.

DESCRIPTION:

Thankfully though, this week we can pretend to be in warmer climates, although you would consider ancient Persia a pretty warm place, modern day Iran gets very cold in the winters - so maybe not. 

Anyway, this week we’re looking at the majestic middle-eastern unicorn, the Karkadann. 

The Karkadann is probably best described just as that, but it does have some slight differences to the European unicorn. Firstly, that it's sometimes considered more of a rhino than a horse and that is hidden within its etymology and also its appearance. It’s said that the Karkadann has thick scaly skin, very much like a rhino with three yellow hooves on each foot;  one hoof at the front and two at the back. It has a short stubby tail, and a single horn that faces towards the face of the animal, with ears and lips like a donkey. Over time, the horn was changed from curving into the head of the animal to pointing directly up much like a javelin pole - and was pretty long too.

Honestly, the best description I can give you is straight from the scholar who started the whole phenomena off which is; 

‘The build of a buffalo...a black, scaly skin; a dewlap hanging down under the skin. It has three yellow hooves on each foot...The tail is not long. The eyes lie low, farther down the cheek than is the case with all other animals. On the top of the nose there is a single horn which is bent upwards." "the horn is conical, bent back towards the head, and longer than a span...the animal's ears protrude on both sides like those of a donkey, and...its upper lip forms into a finger-shape, like the protrusion on the end of an elephant's trunk’

I mean, are you picturing what I’m picturing - sure you are, but we’re going to pretend that we don’t know what this animal is for the sake of the adventure. 

It’s said to live in ancient Persia, which is now Iran, India and Northern Africa, roaming the desert for foliage and granting good luck to passersby, especially women. And this is where the traditional Unicorn myth differs from this monster, it is said to bless all women, virgin or not. Women who were looking to become pregnant were the biggest beneficiaries of the Karkadann’s powers, as it was said that if a Karkadann touches water that a woman wishing for a child is swimming in, they would become pregnant - not by the beast, I will add, naturally, the next time they tried.

It’s said that this beast, like the European Unicorn, can only be tamed by pure, virgin girls, and will lay their head on their laps once tamed. It could also be tamed by a dove, as they love their songs, they would often wait under a tree and wait for a dove to land on their horn so that it can enjoy the song.

However, outside of this situation, it is a very solitary creature and does not tolerate any other animal other than a dove within 100 yards, if so they become incredibly aggressive - and would charge at anything within its vicinity without hesitation, sometimes leaving the prey impaled on its large horn. They also had a loud and haunting call which can be heard for several miles across the desert - much like the Monoceros, one of the earliest unicorn myths from Roman mythology.

Much like the Unicorn, it's said that the Karkadanns horn is a cure for most ailments, including constipation, epilepsy and lameness, as well as an antidote to any poison. It’s said that only an elephant can kill a Karkadann, but this is only from one story where a Karkadann killed the elephant with its horn and then the dead elephant fell on it - so might just be any big animal really.

There’s actually a pretty cool story that the Karkadann and the Elephant are mortal enemies, and when a Karkadann sees an elephant, it will jump to a nearby tree and sharpen its horn on the trunk. Then it will charge, stabbing the elephant on its underside with the horn, but will then be unable to get the elephant carcass off. Eventually the Karkadann lies down in exhaustion, and both the elephant and Karkadann are taken off by a Roc - the ancient Persian bird of prey. I did an episode on them not too long ago, but I thought this was a great story. 

ORIGIN:

Now the etymology of this monster is where it gets slightly more interesting. The word Karkadann comes from the Sanskrit khadga, which means rhinoceros but also sword - implying the sword horned. Another interpretation is the Persian word kargadan, meaning ‘lord of the desert’. But my favourite is the Kurdish, which is a variation of the word ‘karkitdan’ meaning donkey with one horn - which just makes me laugh a little, I mean if that doesn’t summarise a rhino, I don’t know what does. But I will say, the funniest thing here is that Karkadann means unicorn and rhino in Ancient Persian - so the confusion is pretty rife.

The history behind this monster is a little bland I’m afraid in comparison to the etymology - but it’s still interesting.

The first mention of these monsters were in the 10th or 11th century from the Persian scholar Abu Rayhan al-Biruni who lived between 973 and 1048, and he gave the description I read at the beginning of the episode of these monsters. He then decided to change his mind about the horn size, and what it looked like as he didn’t like artist interpretations of the beast - bearing in mind that he had no first hand experiences with the monster - why he was writing the piece is absolutely lost to me.

Then in the 1200’s, a Persian physician Zakariya al-Qazwini linked the horn to these beneficial effects such as the healings and the poison destroying - and he connected it to the Unicorn officially within his writings. Lastly, in the 14th century, Ibn Battuta who was a very famous scholar and explorer within the Afro-Eurasian space, said that he saw Karkadann in India, fighting off anyone who came near its territory. This was then written down in the epic One Thousand and One Nights, in the Second Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor - immortalising the Karkadann forever in one of the most popular stories of the ages. 

The last mention of the Karkadann in literature was in a poem called A Few Questions I Pose to the Unicorn, by Tawfiq Saigh in 1971 and is considered one of the strangest and most remarkable poem in the Arabic language, and is all about the Karkadann, not the European Unicorn.

There have never been any real bodies of Karkadann pulled up anywhere unfortunately, only those of rhinos and horses. I mean, we’ve not even found evidence of the western unicorn, so what did you expect here? 

What makes me slightly sad with all of this though, is that given the idea that the horn has magic powers - and we know that modern day rhinos are hunted for this exact thing, I really hope that the Karkadann legend didn’t start this off and this is why people think that they have medicinal properties - that makes me so so sad to think about.

In more modern times though, Iraq still has a tradition linked to the Karkadann. These are reddish beads used in the Misbaha, the Muslim prayer beads and are called tears of the karkadann, or dumiu al-karkadan. The legend around these says that the rhinoceros spends days in the desert looking for water; when he does, he first weeps "out of fatigue and thirst-pain." These tears, as they fall into the water of the drinking hole, turn into beads, which people collect and use in their prayers - which I think is a cute little tribute to the monster. 

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, there is not much on this specific monster this week - literally only one thing, so I’ve gone with kind of angry unicorn/rhino tropes this week.

For art, you can see the Karkadann in some ancient drawings - however, none of them have names or artists attached to them. The most famous is that from Walters manuscript W.659, which depicts a Karkadann. Otherwise, look up some of the medieval bestiary drawings, but you can just find most of these if you pop Karkadann into Google. And of course, look at the independent art coming out of this, I love how different they can all be in regards to their rhino and unicorn inspirations.  

In movies, we have; Unicorn Wars, The Cabin in the Woods, The Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood, Ice Age, The LEGO Movie & Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.

For TV, we have; My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Delicious in Dungeon, Doctor Who, Legends of Tomorrow, Adventure Time, Robot Chicken, Regular Show, Jimmy Two-Shoes, Gravity Falls, Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, Uni-Kitty, Freaktown, Power Rangers Jungle Fury, Ace Lightning, Beast Wars, Spliced, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Storm Hawks & Spliced.

In video games, we have Pathfinder, Far Cry 4 for actual Karkadann references. But we also have; Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls Oblivion and Skyrim, Fate, Nethack, Overlord, Pokemon, Robot Unicorn Attack, Dwarf Fortress, Warcraft, World of Warcraft, Viva Pinata, Terraria, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Minecraft, Shin Megami Tensei, Jitsu Squad, Mega Man X3 and ZX, Mother 3, Spyro: Year of the Dragon, Temtem, Viewtiful Joe & Warframe.

My book recommendation this week is Mythology of Mesopotamia: Fascinating Insights, Myths, Stories & History From The World’s Most Ancient Civilization. Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Persian, Assyrian and More by History Brought Alive for a really good summary on Mesopotamian mythology - which is one of the lesser studied, so do have a look at this one if you fancy delving into something a little different.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed? 

I mean, come on - I think it definitely exists, but is definitely a rhino. I don’t think there’s any debate on this one, I just think people saw rhinos - I can’t explain the pregnancies or the virgin tamings, but in cartoons rhinos sometimes have birds on their horns and they’re chill about them. 

Honestly, this one is just a bit of a stretch, but I think I said the same about unicorns to be fair - it seems a lot of the time that this is just misidentification, or a lack of knowledge of the actual animal it is - so giving it a mythical stamp will do. As much as I respect this, and wish I could have come up with this one, I’m gonna say no. 

I also have a thing against rhinos, when I went to Animal Kingdom when I was 17, that’s the Disney zoo park in Florida - we went on a safari and a rhino full on charged into the bit of the bus I was sat on, and it was so close to me that I touched it’s butt when it walked off after - but it was very scary and since then I don’t like rhinos and I will not entertain them.

But what do you think? Did the Karkadann roam the Earth? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

Certainly a cool monster this week, but definitely not my favourite - it was very difficult to research without ending up in the same three paragraphs of information over and over again - but it’s an interesting take on something we have so ingrained into Western culture. 

Next week, we’re heading over to the Philippines because I really love the mythology from this part of the world and it’s been a while. We’re looking at the wonderful yet tricksy Engkanto next Thursday, so make sure you don’t get tempted by their songs on the way!

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.