Magical Creatures from Films and Books

For this care of magical creatures assignment, we are going to step away slightly from Harry Potter, and look at the wider world of fantasy creatures.

Creatures that are not part of the Muggle world feature heavily in not only Harry Potter, but many other films, TV programmes and books. For example, we have the Orcs and Ents from Lord of the Rings, King Kong from the film of the same title, and a myriad of strange and mysterious creatures in Star Wars.

For this assignment, I’d like you to choose a strange and fantastical creature from the film or book of your choice (NOT Harry Potter), and write your answer using the following as guidelines:

• What is the creature? Give its name, and a short but detailed description.
• Which film/book does it feature in? Does the creature play a large role in the film/book?
• Does the creature have any special powers, strengths or weaknesses?
• Why did you choose to write about this particular creature?
• Also, if possible, add a picture of the creature.

Your answer should be no less than 300 words, and no more than 600 words. Please ensure that you are choosing a CREATURE and not a human (or humanoid being). You would not be able to write about the elves or hobbits from Lord of the Rings in this assignment, because they resemble humans too closely. If you are stuck for ideas on what creature to write about, you can use the list below, but make sure no-one has already done an assignment on it before you choose.

Some ideas for your assignment:

• A wookie from Star Wars
• The Skeksis from The Dark Crystal
• Shrek the ogre from Shrek
• The Psammead from Five Children and It
• An orc/ent/uruk-hai from Lord of the Rings
• The Mulefa in His Dark Materials
• A vogon from The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
• The flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz

N.B.: These creatures are not prescriptive, you can choose your own creature to write about!

Total available housepoints: 100

Remember to cite your sources (website used), and no copy and pasting!


Completed thus far by:
Ravenclaw:
mcfly_42
so_yun
fantastic_sarah

Gryffindor:
purelyhermoinegranger
WaterLily
amberg93

Slytherin:
pillowloverchick

Hufflepuff:
cookiemonster

The creature I am writing about is an Urgal. An Urgal resembles men with bowed legs and thick, brutish arms made for crushing. A pair of twisted horns grow above their small ears. They usually carry short swords and iron shields with black symbols.
This monster features in the book Eragon by Christopher Paolini.

These creatures serve the villain in this book and have caused a lot of pain and bloodshed. As you probably have guessed the Urgals are beasts, and kill for pleasure. There are two forms or Urgal, the normal Urgal and a different type of Urgal called Kull, which are twice as large as a normal Urgal, twice as faster and more brutish then any normal Urgal, they are the equivalent of a small giant with arms and legs as thick as tree trunks.

Urgals don't have any special powers but they are very strong, I suppose you could argue that a power is to kill and murder anything without regret.
I chose this creature because they are a main part of Eragon by being the bad guys, they feature prominently in the book. They are all evil not one of them has a good heart not even for their own kind. They often turn on each other like animals. As is shown in the book, Urgals need a leader to keep order, when the leader of the Urgals is killed, then the Urgals all turn on each other.

If I were to encounter an Urgal they would be too strong for one person to over-power so I would probably run, unless I had help when I would fight it as it is such an evil creature.


This is an image of someone’s drawing of what they think an Urgal looks like. But I think and Urgal looks a bit different to what they have drawn.




With help from http://www.shurtugal.com/?id=education/urgalsandshades and the book Eragon.

Hippogriff


Description A winged horse with the head and claws of an eagle. (The head, wings and front legs of a griffin, and the back legs of a horse.)


Features An elusive creature that can fly long distances at high altitudes. From the Riphaean mountains.


Also called Simoorgh or Simurgh or Senmurv - the Persian version, sometimes featured as a cross between a dog or lion and a huge bird.


Described By:

Epic poems of Saadi and Ferdusi. (Link: http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~ico/poetry/shahnameh/ch3-1.html)

Milton- "So saying he caught him up, and without wing Of hippogrif, bore through the air sublime Over the wilderness and o'er the plain." ( Paradise Regained)

Thomas Bulfinch- "Like a griffin, he had the head of an eagle, claws armed with talons, and wings covered with feathers, the rest of his body being that of a horse. This strange animal is called a Hippogriff." (Legends of Charlemagne)


Meaning Griffins and horses were supposed to be mortal enemies. The Hippogriff symbolizes an impossible thing. There is an old expression "Jungentur jam grypes equis" which means "To cross griffons with horses", indicating an impossible scenario.

And heres the pic:




EDITED: due to double post

They are blue, they are small, they wear white clothes and they live in mushrooms. Who are they? The Smurfs! (or in french : Les schtroumpfs) They play a large role in the comics and the television serie because of course they are the principal caracters. But for the rest of the text I'm gonna stay concentrate on the television serie because I was watching it when I was a kid. (Que de souvenirs)

Every smurfs has a characteristic, they are named after that characteristic. They live in a small village of mushroom and they always pursue by Gargamel (and of course Azrael his cat) who wants to eat them or change them in gold. (I think he was a little bit crazy) It was in fact the only thing that was happened during almost every episode. I don't know why he was so obsessed... They have no powers but they are very intelligent. Every smurf have a weakness but not the same for each smurf. They are friends with Mother Nature, Johan, Peewit and many other people. They are nice creatures, don't you think?

When I was a kid, like every girl of my age, my favorite smurf was the Smurfette, because she was a the only girl. But she was more cool when she was bad with the black hair. Because she is not a really a smurf, Gargamel create her. But now she is in the good side.

I choose the smurfs because when I was young I use to eat at my house for lunch and in the same time the smurf was on televion so I was watching them with my twin sister while I was eating my soup or whatever we were eating. It sad because now the smurf aren't on television anymore in Canada. It was a great show for the kids but now it's just a bunch of memories...

My source: My souvenirs lol and my lover: Wikipedia

P.S. I'm really sorry for every syntax and spelling mistakes but I have an excuse, english is my second language.

N.B. I don't know if I did the work correctly it's my first because I'm new.

• What is the creature? Give its name, and a short but detailed description.
• Which film/book does it feature in? Does the creature play a large role in the film/book?
• Does the creature have any special powers, strengths or weaknesses?
• Why did you choose to write about this particular creature?
• Also, if possible, add a picture of the creature.

The Ra’zac are creatures from the Inheritance Trilogy, by Christopher Paloni. The Ra’zac, or pupae as they are also called, have a rough exoskeleton while they are young. They are very physically powerful creatures, but are not able to use magic. The Ra’zac are not human creatures, though. The Ra’zac have slick black humped backs with wings. They have lid-less eyes the size of a fist and no pupils in the eyes. They also have a sharp beak with a barbed purple tongue.

After twenty years of life, on a full moon, the Ra’zac transforms. They become Lethrblaka. The Lathrblaka have look similar to the Ra’zac, but they have their differences. First off, they have tight grey skin. Their muscles are very strong and they can crush boulders with their hind legs. The Lathrblaka are cunning, and have clever minds. Lathrblaka reproduce by laying eggs. Their offspring are described as ‘narrow-minded’ in their early life. Lathrblaka feed off other creatures and humans.

In the Inheritance Trilogy series by Christopher Paolini, the Ra’zac are the enemies. They are the ‘dragon hunters’ and work for the evil King Gallobrix. In the lengend of the Dragons, the Ra’zac hunted down and killed all the dragon except for one, that was given to Gallobrix. The dragons were killed because they were against the king. The Ra’zac are also responsible for killing Eragon’s uncle, and kidnapping his cousin’s fiancé, Katrina. Eragon must go after the Ra’zac to rescue Katrina.

The Ra’zac can see well on cloudy nights, track scents well, and jump extremely well. Their breath can kill, though Dwarves are not badly affected by it, and Elves are immune to it.

I chose to write about the Ra’zac, because the way I imagine them in my mind. They look so strange, and abnormal. They seem like a type of evil royalty, to me at least. I would be afraid to face one, because of their appearance. They seem nasty and very evil-ish. (lol)

In my mind, the Ra’zac seem like they would be as royal and confident, like elves. But they have a strong sense of power, and evil, which is like a monster.

Magical Creatures from Films and Books

I choose the Ogre, Shrek for this assignment. Shrek is a huge, green, thick-skinned ogre with small ears, and little antennae. He has a pug nose, broken teeth and wears a dirty shirt and pants over his big, and very obese (in my opinion) body. He also relishes in the revolting aspects of life as he uses mud for toothpaste, bathes in a bog, uses his earwax for a candle, wears disgusting smelly perfumes and eats ‘yucky’ things. However, in his horrible habits, he is actually a neat and well ‘groomed’ ogre because his habits would feel normal and respectable to him and Fiona, his ogre wife. He has warm brown eyes and a cute, shy smile. He is not used to people being nice to him so he finds it difficult to be nice to others, but slowly, he learns to smile and his round face lights up. He is a conservative kind of ogre and does not like the fact that Donkey and other magical creatures come and invade his privacy on his land. Shrek in German means frightening, which is a fitting adjective for the ogre’s personality!

Shrek features in the movie, Shrek. He is obviously the main character and the movie is centred on his quest. He goes to the king to try and get the annoying magical animals off his land but ends up going to rescue the princess in order for that to happen. On the way back, though, he falls in love with the princess. In Shrek 2, he is still the main character and it is centred on his experiences in meeting the in laws.

Shrek is extremely strong, brave and intelligent. He doesn’t really have any special powers but his weakness, especially in Shrek 2 would be Fiona. I chose to write about Shrek because he is a very lovable character, even though his habits are dubious and he is not the classic storybook hero by any means. The movie teaches good values of friendship, and loyalty.

Here is a picture of Shrek:

The creature I chose is called a Stormwing. Stormwings are immortal creatures that live on not ageing unless killed. Stormwings have the head and chests of a human. The parts of them that are human vary from light skinned to very tan. Some have blue eyes others brown, hair colors range anywhere from blonde to jet black, just like real people. Only they have birds wings and legs except that the wings and legs are made of metal paper thin that’s impossible to bend. On top of all that they also smell horribly. They live on battlefields fouling, scattering, and eating the bodies left behind, also they were called the Eaters. For 400 years they were locked into the Devine Realms with all the Gods and Goddesses. Until they came back to the Mortal realm everyone belived them to just be legends.

The book Stormwings are in is the Immortatls quartet. The creatures play a major role in all 4 of the books as they are Daine’s (the main character) enemies some turned allies. Most of the time they were enemies to the main character, making them very crucial to the story line. When they were allies to Daine they helped her fight and win some battles.

Yes, Stormwings have their own form of magic. They can use their own magic, and live forever unless killed, they do not need food or water of any sort. Stormwings are easily killed by arrows and other birds making them quite weak in that aspect. Stormwings can also pass between the Mortal and Devine Realms without any ill effects.

I chose to write about Stormwings because they kind of fascinate me. Also because not all of them were evil and I was trying to see how bad they sounded in general (pretty bad). Stormwings are also an interesting cross to think about.

Sorce: The Immortals quartet, my head

Of course being a huge Lotr nut I had to choose Ents from J.R.R Tolkien’s Book’s the Lord of the Rings. Treebeard and the Ents take up a lot of the bulk of the story in TTT.
Known as the Shepard’s of the Trees, Ents reside in Fanghorn forest for many ages.
The Ents look like trees to others but have eyes, ears and use their branches to walk, and arms to pick things up.Ents can be any type of tree and there used to be very many but the Entwives had since left and had never returned.Ents are ancient years old and only awoke for the first time in many hundred ages in TTT. They were awoken because their own race and habitat was endangered. Most Ents are able to talk and they hold ent meetings at an entmoot. Most Ents do not like being hasty and take time on doing things except when they are fighting. Ents are very accurate in war because they can, stomp, throw, pick up and swipe at anything because they are of a large size.
The Ents were largely focused on during the Lord of the Rings movies by Peter Jackson and also played a huge role in the Two Towers. In the books they are also focused on and are very detailed, even a main character in the books and movies, Treebeard is a main character.
Ents have enormous strength and can pick up rocks and heavy objects to throw at any Orcs or Urak Hai’s (which they hate by the way)
I chose to write about this mythical creature because I am a huge lord of the rings fan and they are heavily focused on in the movies which makes them very interesting. I also chose them because they are good friends with Elves and elves are my absolute favourite in LOTR.


BTW i wrote this all from memory
~Yun

• What is the creature? Give its name, and a short but detailed description.
• Which film/book does it feature in? Does the creature play a large role in the film/book?
• Does the creature have any special powers, strengths or weaknesses?
• Why did you choose to write about this particular creature?
• Also, if possible, add a picture of the creature.


The creature I chose to write about is the Mulefa from the His Dark Materials trilogy. The Mulefa is about the size of a small horse or zebra and has a sharp horn on its head. It is grayish in colour and has a short, soft trunk, rather like an elephant's. Mulefa use the trunk to communicate- some words sound the same but have different meanings based on how the trunk moves. The unusual thing about this creature is that instead of having a straight spine, it is built around a diamond structure, like many other animals in their world. It has a leg in the front, under the head, a leg in the back, and two legs on the side. The other unusual thing about the Mulefa is that it moves on wheels when it matures. I will explain this later on. Lastly, the Mulefa's enemy is rather like a huge swan that attacks the village every once in a while and steals food and destroys houses.

The Mulefa features in The Amber Spyglass, part of the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. I think that the Mulefa played a very big part in the book. They helped to take care of Dr. Mary Malone, an ex-nun turned scientist who was hiding from the authorities in our world. They played a big part in Dr. Malone's creation of an amazing amber spyglass, which could see "Dust", particles that fall from the heavens that are vital to the Mulefa's existence. The Mulefa also took care of the two children Will (who is, like Dr. Malone, from our world) and Lyra, who are the main characters of the trilogy. Overall, the creatures acted as protectors or maternal figures to the humans in the story, and were very important indeed.

One special power/strength/interesting fact of the Mulefa is that the adults move on wheels. I mentioned before that the creatures have a diamond shaped structure. The front leg and back leg each have a curved claw that the Mulefa hook in the middle of perfectly round seedpods that grow on the giant trees in their world. The legs on either side of the creature push along on the ground to move the Mulefa. The Mulefa's biggest weakness is probably their gentle and mild outlook towards life. It may not sound like a big weakness, but the Giant Killer Swans that I mentioned earlier attack the villages that the Mulefa live in, eating food, killing Mulefa, destroying houses, and stealing the valuable store of seedpod wheels. The Mulefa get angry, of course, but they are too gentle and kind to stop the Swans or do anything else about it. They just rebuild the village and wait for the next attack.

I chose to write about the Mulefa because The Amber Spyglass is one of my favorite books and I saw the Mulefa on the list of suggested creatures. They are interesting animals that are intelligent enough to build villages, have a language, and use their surroundings and nature to help them, such as using seedpods as wheels to get around faster. They are social creatures who value family and are open and welcoming to newcomers such as Dr. Malone and the children.

And here is a picture....

Well done to everyone who has completed this assignment - your essays were very interesting to read.

Ravenclaw:
mcfly_42 - 38 points
so_yun - 35 points
fantastic_sarah - 35 points

Gryffindor:
purelyhermoinegranger - 10 points
WaterLily - 38 points
amberg93 - 35 points

Slytherin:
pillowloverchick - 35 points

Hufflepuff:
cookiemonster - 40 points

You may continue to post your class submissions below!