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The Questing Beast, or the Beast Glatisant (Barking Beast), is a monster from Arthurian legend, the subject of quests by famous knights like King Pellinore, Sir Palamedes, and Sir Percival. The strange creature has the head and neck of a serpent, the body of a leopard, the haunches of a lion and the feet of a hart. Its name comes from the great noise it emits from its belly, a barking like "thirty couple hounds questing". As King Pellinore describes it, the hunt of the beast has always been the burden of the Pellinores, and all Pellinores are in fact trained for the hunt from birth (a training which does not seem to extend much beyond finding the beast's droppings). Having searched fruitlessly all his life for the beast, Pellinore is convinced by his friend Sir Grummore Grummursum to drop his quest. However, when it turns out later that the beast had been pining away for lack of attention, King Pellinore nurses it back to health and resumes his Sisyphean hunt.
It is the belief in Molossia that the endless hunt of King Pellinore for the beast passed through our nation at some point, lost in the mists of time. As King Pellinore was able to draw near the beast in Molossia, it leaped away mightily, leaving its print in the surface of Helicopter Rock, where the mark can be seen to this day. The quest then doubtless continued and today only the mysterious mark in the rock is evidence of Molossia's brush with Arthurian legend.
The Questing Beast's Hoofprint On
Helicopter Rock |
Another View Of The Questing
Beast's Hoofprint On Helicopter Rock |
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