Owls appear frequently in the medieval literature, particularly in bestiaries. It is unlikely that Stolas’ teeny owl body with those teeny owl wings and itty-bitty tail could haul around those legs during flight (especially while wearing his resplendent crown.) There’s a lot going on with the appearance of Stolas that suggests he is a walker. The dimensions of Stolas are fascinating: the woodcuts of Collin de Plancy show an owl with rather long legs, standing on the ground. Collin de Plancy does not give us a sense of scale but one’s brain does jump to “large,” or at least larger than life, when talking about demons. Most of the demonic entities in the Dictionnaire Infernal (and earlier works on the same subject) appear as human-animal hybrids or large versions of familiar animals. As a field palaeontologist I would find a twenty-six-legion strong field crew very useful. The geology link of Stolas is what makes the connection of Stolas to paleontology even more interesting. If Stolas were real, he’d likely be a great resource of information for many in astronomy, botany, and geology. I dare you.” Image from Collin de Plancy, Dictionnaire Infernal. Known for Twenty-six legions general.” Stolas: “Go ahead: run. “Stolas, great prince of Hell, who appears in the form of an owl when he takes that of a man and shows before the exorcist, he teaches astronomy, as well as the properties of plants and the values of precious stones. Here is my extremely rusty high school French (with a double-check in Google Translate) translation: Vingt-six légions leire connaissent pour general.” “Stolas, grand prince des enfers, qui apparaît sous la forme d’un hibou lorsqu’il prend celle d’un homme et qu’il’se montre devant l’exorciste, il enseigne : l’astronomie, ainsi que les propriétés des plantes et la valeur des pierres -précieuses. Collin de Plancy describes Stolas on page 635-6 of the Dictionnaire Infernal: Stolas is my favorite (is favorite the right word?) character of Collin de Plancy’s demon mythology from the perspective of both an owl fanatic and a palaeontologist. Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal when I searched for “giant owls.” I was looking at adaptations that cursorial (ground-running or walking) birds have in the tarsometarsus bones. My research takes me down a few interesting rabbit holes. It’s time for the next installment of my OWLS! series of blog posts! This one is going to be a little bit different from my other posts…although, if you’ve read any of my Bigfoot or ghost posts you may not be surprised at the theme of this post.
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