Wonders of the East
It describes a variety of odd, magical and barbaric creatures that inhabit Eastern regions, such as Babylonia, Persia, Egypt, and India.
[1] The wonders described are huge dragons who prevent travel, phoenixes born from ashes, and hens in Lentibelsinea who burn peoples' bodies when they are touched.
The Wonders of the East is an Anglo-Saxon contribution to the mirabilia genre, "literature in which a traveler in foreign lands describes exotic sights in a letter home.
"[2] In addition, The Wonders of the East demonstrates the "mutual mistrust" between men and monsters because the creatures either flee from humans, harm those that come near them, or eat people.
The earliest known owner of the codex was antiquarian Laurence Nowell, who left his signature in the top margin of several pages from the manuscript.
These monsters sit and "weep over the head", which scholars such as Orchard have used to show how the creature resembles Grendel's Mother from Beowulf.
[11] Christopher Monk discusses theories focused on the sexuality and femininity of the monsters found in The Wonders of the East.
Orchard argues that the text is a liber monstrorum and illustrations aid the reader in studying the creatures described in the prose.
The Anglo-Saxon Wonders of the East exists in many manuscripts with a similar epistolary structure, "in which either a character variously named Feramen, Feramus, or Fermes writes to the Emperor Hadrian (AD 117–138), or a figure called Premo, Premonis, Perimenis, or Parmoenis writes to Hadrian's predecessor, the Emperor Trajan (AD 98–116), to report on the many marvels he has witnessed on his travels.
Therefore, the images are "possibly intended to lend a note of authority by making specific plants, animals, or monsters easier to recognize.
Christopher Monk argues the illustrations in The Wonders of the East of the Beowulf manuscript play an important role in studies of the creatures as representative of human sexuality and the act of "othering" femininity.
