What, you never heard about the creature from Bavaria? It has only two short front legs - or maybe not. Maybe it does not have any legs. Or maybe they are arms and not legs after all? Some say it looks like a lizard, brown in color. Or black? Others settle on greenish gray. Hm! No, not like a lizard, more like a dragon! A snake with two tiny feet? Does it have a cat like head? It has clawed feet! Sure! No hair on it, just naked! Really? It stinks! Is it true, its odor is poisonous? It is two feet long - or three, or much more? It has been spotted in Switzerland and the Austrian Alps too. Any way, it lives in the higher mountain regions, in caves and tunnels, which it digs into the rock.
It has sharp claws! Is it an amphibian or a reptile? Or something in between? Don't be fooled by its shy appearance - if you approach it, it will attack you!!! It can leap a great distance! It has not been seen for a long time! Is it extinct? Or just fed up with human beings and hiding from us? Is its alleged existence due to confusion and imagination? I found it also described as a member of the family of lizards, with a plump torso, broad head, blunt tail and short legs, with its skin covered with rough, wart-like scales and a mouth, bright red inside, equipped with sharp teeth and a forked tongue, with sharp eyes and an angry combative attitude.
Legend has it, that when this fabled dragon of the mountains crawls through sand, the sand will become glass, because the Tatzel emits so much heat.
Maybe one day this mystery of a lizard, a worm, a dragon, will be solved, until then we remain with the stories and fantasies that revolve around that creature. By the way a "Tatze" is German and translates into a paw.
My dear friend Eva-Maria from Germany had her own interpretation of the Tatzelworm. She made several funny drawings about it. I got one from her as a present and printed it on fabric. Now a new bag is decorated with it - a pretty practical and elegant tote style bag.
Size: ca. 10" (26cm) at the bottom, 14" (36cm) at the top, 14" (36cm) high, 4,5" (11,5cm) deep
Handles 25" (54cm) longHave a look at Eva's beautiful and joyful Tatzel drawings:
http://colourful-research.
http://colourful-research.
http://colourful-research.
http://colourful-research.http://colourful-research.
http://colourful-research.
6 comments:
Wonderful bag, Yael! Very unique and very creative. I really like Eva's drawing, the little Tatzelworm is very sweet :)
Have a happy weekend :)
Oh I hope I won't meet the Tatzelwurm here in the Piedmontese Alps... maybe he crosses the borders sometimes... ;)
Eva-Maria's drawing is amazing!!! And you truly celebrated its beauty with yet another stunning bag!
Liebe Yael,
das ist wieder ein wunderschöne Tasche. Da hast Du was sehr schönes und einzigartiges. Das findest Du dann auch kein zweites Mal.
Ich wünsche Dir ein schönes Wochenende.
Liebe Grüße
Jutta
Brilliant, it is great upholstery.
Thank you, Yael! You really made something out of it.
By the way, there is another mythological connection to the astrological "moon knodes", the points of the eclipses. Ancient Indian astrology saw these as a dragon's head and tail. The dragon ate the sun or the moon from time to time. The symbol is a knode, either up or down; the tatzelworm's position is the one of ketu, downward.
http://www.sanskrit.org/www/Astronomy/Rahu.html
It's a joy to see how you put this together--outstanding as always!
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