At the beginning of the 21st Century monsters still roam the remote, and sometimes not so remote, corners of our planet. It is our job to search for them. The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] is - we believe - the largest professional, scientific and full-time organisation in the world dedicated to cryptozoology - the study of unknown animals. Since 1992 the CFZ has carried out an unparalleled programme of research and investigation all over the world. Since 2009 we have been running the increasingly popular CFZ Blog Network, and although there has been an American branch of the CFZ for over ten years now, it is only now that it has a dedicated blog.

Saturday 24 January 2015

LION IN MEDIEVAL BRITAIN?

Charlotte Sophia Burne, in a work published in 1883, mentions a wooden carving of a knight with a dead lion at his feet in Berrington Church (Shrewsbury).  A legend concerning this armoured worthy was his name was Owd Scriven o' Brampton had he had been attacked by the lion, which he killed, as he meandered through the English countryside.  Whether the legend has any foundation I cannot tell.  One wonders how a lion might have arrived in Britain in the Middle Ages, though it is not impossible it escaped from the collection of some nobleman.  On the other hand, the knight's attacker may have been a somewhat more modest beast, like a wildcat or a lynx, which became exaggerated in the telling.

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