ABSTRACT
The word monster derives from the Latin terms monstrare to show or monere to warn. In the medieval context, their appearance was to inspire fear. They were described having physical abnormalities from the human norm – showing a moral void through physical difference. In the medieval context, monsters were derived from the Classical traditions of Rome and Greece, religious stories, and indigenous mythologies and folk tales, depending on the region. A monster, therefore, could be a humanoid being that in some way deviated from cultural expectations, a human/animal hybrid, or a mythological creature. The combination of mythological creatures and human hybridity shaped the imagination of the medieval mind. In general, the physical presence of monsters always occurred in liminal spaces. On maps, they were relegated to the margins, in illuminations they inhabited the decorations and marginalia, and in literature, they were present in isolated, wild places devoid of human influence. However, they also took centre stage to illuminate moral, ethical, social, and religious aspects of their respective cultures.
