Stephan Mifsud: The Maltese Bestiary. Merlin Publishers, 2014. 137 pp.

Books about mythical creatures hold a fatal attraction for me. I say fatal, because between Dracopedia, Beasts, The Hidden Bestiary, Trolls, The Cottingley Fairies, Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book, Goblins, Vampire The Masquerade... well there is not much space left on my shelves.

Not that, of course, this would have stopped me from get-ting Stephan Mifsud’s The Maltese Bestiary.

If you’ll excuse the poor pun, this is a beast of a book – hardbound, with just the right ‘heft’ to it, with a cool cover design by Pierre Portelli featuring the għorab (raven). The book carries an explanatory foreword. Entries, as is the norm with books of this nature, are presented factually.

The introductory explanation offers a basic deconstruction of Maltese mythical creatures. However, the book itself goes beyond the established legends and lore that we are already quite familiar with and that most of us who are into this topic probably find boring by now.

Instead, Mifsud takes the basic mythos surrounding our islands and creates something new, often delivering his own take on this compendium.

The book is divided into 15 chapters, kicking off with a nice piece about the folklore that the Maltese have been familiar with since childhood, with a rather nifty explanation about the way supernatural creatures travel from the netherworld to above ground.

As is to be expected, the sea and the underwater world it houses play a significant part.

Mifsud goes on to explain the particularities of Malta’s flora and fauna and the role that they have to play when it comes to these creatures.

The Dragonara Serpent. Right: The belliegħa tal-bir.

Thus, the olive tree is essential for a spot of good, old-fashioned tbaħħir (exorcism of evil spirits); the rummiena (pomegranate) is used in fertility rites; the siġra tal-ħarrub (carob tree) is immune to exorcised spirits, which often find refuge in other plants; and so forth; the baħrija (hawk moth) is a harbinger of death and so forth.

A delightful and beautifully-presented publication. Some of the illustrations are pretty stunning in their detail

The fun starts properly with the fourth chapter and the book focuses completely on a variety of creatures from then on, some dark and some supernatural, others less exotic, such as parts of the chapters dedicated to mammals , avians, sea creatures and reptiles.

But even in the latter instance, there is always the touch of the magical about them, no matter how prosaic they might appear to be.

Thus, the common rat might herald not only disease but also signal that a house is haunted by evil spirits. Cats should be treated with respect, because they might very well be the embodiment of a guardian spirit, while the writhing tail of a gecko that has just been killed is actually delivering a curse.

The well ghoul.

The more exotic stuff starts right after the part that deals with sea and water creatures – from the latter, I particularly enjoyed the part about the belliegħa and the mħalla , well-dwelling creatures that used to scare the hell out of me and ensured I never approached a well on my own when younger, which was the idea I suppose.

But these are nothing compared to the creep factor of the men-beasts, the humanoid creatures that tend to prey on children. From the gawgaw (a zombie like creature that preys on children) to the Valletta vampire (heaven knows how I used to keep my eyes peeled for this gentleman on my way from my parents’ house to my grandmother’s, as a child), tal-ixkora, the man who would literally kidnap you and throw you into a sack and the ħajbu (perfectly normal men who were demonised for being misanthropes).

All these creatures brought back childhood memories of being deliciously creeped out at the tales brought forth by elderly relatives.

I also enjoyed the section dedicated to old gods and ghosts, as well as the whole chapter dedicated to The Eye.

I still remember a time when the horns were ubiquitous in homes and when the sight of anyone with unusual looks would prompt the sign to be made surreptitiously, usually discreetly hidden under one’s coat. These are but a handful of the creatures chronicled. There are numerous others such as the nephilim, the siren, the werewolf, the afreet, the imp, the ghoul, the changeling, the witch, the mage...

Mifsud’s compendium is a delightful and beautifully-presented publication. Some of the illust-rations, which are all the author’s own work, are pretty stunning in their detail and grotesqueness.

Each entry is accompanied with a small write-up detailing the origins of the creature being described, together with some related anecdotes and the illustration, of course (after all, should one encounter one of these creatures in some dark alleyway, one would rather like to know what one is up against).

The book concludes with references and a glossary.