Sea monk

Sea monk

The sea monk, or sometimes monk-fish, was the name given to a sea animal found off the coast of Denmark almost certainly in 1546.Paxton, C.G.M. & R. Holland (2005). Was Steenstrup Right? A new interpretation of the 16th century sea monk of the Øresund. "Steenstrupia" 29: 39–47.] At this time it was regarded to be a sea monster and described as a "fish" that looked superficially like a monk. It was mentioned and pictured in the fourth volume of Conrad Gesner's famous "Historia Animalium". Gesner also referenced a similar monster found in the Firth of Forth, according to Boethius, and a sighting off the coast of Poland in 1531.

The sea monk was subsequently popularised in Guillaume du Bartas epic poem "La Sepmaine; ou, Creation du monde" where the poet speaks of correspondences between land and sea.

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In the early 1850s, Danish zoologist Japetus Steenstrup suggested that the sea-monk was a giant squid, [Steenstrup, J.J.S. (1855). Om den i Kong Christian IIIs tid i Øresundet fanget Havmund (Sømunken kaldet) "Dansk Maanedsskrift" 1: 63–96.] a theory more recently popularised by writer Richard Ellis. [Ellis, R. (1998). "The Search for the Giant Squid". Lyons Press. London.] Cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans, believed the report was based on the discovery of an errant walrus. [Heuvelmans, B. (1974). "Dans le Sillage des Monstres Marins". Famot. Geneva.] More recently, it has been suggested that it was an angel shark "Squatina squatina", which is commonly called monkfish in English or "munk" in Norwegian. Other suggested suspects for the sea monk include a grey seal, a hooded seal, a monk seal, or a Jenny Hanniver.

References

ee also

*bishop-fish


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