MAKING A MONSTER

Natalie Lawrence explores the creation of enchanted creatures through 15,000 years of history Interview

- Emily Staniforth

Throughout history, monsters and mythical creatures have haunted the societies and cultures that created them. From hydras to Gorgons to cyborgs, the monsters humans have imagined reflect our worst fears and our darkest nightmares, and can tell us a lot about the times in which they were constructed. Writer Natalie Lawrence explores this phenomenon of monster-making as she tours European history, searching for the anxieties and beliefs that birthed these mystical beasts in her new book Enchanted Creatures: Our Monsters and their Meanings. We were lucky to sit down with Natalie to discuss her research and all things monstrous.

What first inspired you to go hunting for exotic monsters from Europe’s past?

I think I’d always had a fascination with outlier creatures – things like echidnas and platypuses – and I loved the idea of looking at the world through different eyes, from a time when the world seemed unimaginably large and full of wonders. The things that were being discovered in, let’s say, the 16th century, when global exploration really kicked off, were from distant places and seemed totally new. I really wanted to inhabit that mindset and to explore these creatures as they were seen several hundred years ago as novel and quasi magical. There was a literal quality to the hunting as well, because I had to leaf through these big tomes with no indices or contents. So you’re sifting through to try and find some iteration of a beast that may be there, and then find that it might have been turned into something new that served a different symbolic purpose. It was quite exciting.

What were the first monstrous creatures you found that were shaped by the attitudes and beliefs of a society?