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The yale or centicore (Latin: eale) is a mythical beast found in European mythology and heraldry.
The name "yale" is believed to be derived from the Hebrew word יָעֵל (yael), meaning "ibex". Other common names are "eale" or "centicore". The Septuagint translation of Job 39:1 rendered the word יָעֵל as τραγελάφων, which referred to the mythical tragelaphus, a half-goat half-stag, which in 1816 gave its name to a genus of antelope Tragelaphus.
The yale is described as an antelope- or goat-like creature with the tusks of a boar and large horns. These horns possess the ability to swivel in any direction which makes them good for both offensive and defensive attacks.
The yale was first written about by Pliny the Elder in Book VIII of his Natural History . He describes the eale as a creature found in Aethiopia:
it is the size of the river-horse, has the tail of the elephant, and is of a black or tawny colour. It has also the jaws of the wild boar, and horns that are moveable, and more than a cubit in length, so that, in fighting, it can employ them alternately, and vary their position by presenting them directly or obliquely, according as necessity may dictate. [1]
Pliny reports sighting the yale while on the sub-Saharan African plains. The antelope and buffalo inhabit this region and loosely match his description, so may have given rise to his misunderstanding.
The yale subsequently featured in medieval bestiaries and heraldry.
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The yale is among the heraldic beasts used by the British Royal Family. It was used as a supporter for the arms of John, Duke of Bedford, and by England's House of Beaufort. Its connection with the British monarchy began with Henry VII in 1485. Henry Tudor’s mother, Lady Margaret (1443–1509), was a Beaufort, and the Beaufort heraldic legacy inherited by both her and her son included the yale.
Lady Margaret Beaufort was a benefactor of Cambridge's Christ's College and St John's College, and her yale can be seen on the college gatehouses. There are also a pair on the roof of St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. The Yale of Beaufort was one of the Queen's Beasts commissioned for the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953: the plaster originals are in Canada, while stone copies are at Kew Gardens, outside the palm house.
In the US, the yale is associated with Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Although the school's primary sports mascot is a bulldog named Handsome Dan, the yale can be found throughout the university campus. The mythical beast occupies two quadrants of the coat of arms of the Yale Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). The yale is also depicted on the official banner of the president of the university, which, along with a wooden mace capped by a yale's head, is carried and displayed during commencement exercises each spring. Yales can also be seen above the gateway to Yale's Davenport College and the pediment of Timothy Dwight College.
A bestiary is a compendium of beasts. Originating in the ancient world, bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals and even rocks. The natural history and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson. This reflected the belief that the world itself was the Word of God and that every living thing had its own special meaning. For example, the pelican, which was believed to tear open its breast to bring its young to life with its own blood, was a living representation of Jesus. Thus the bestiary is also a reference to the symbolic language of animals in Western Christian art and literature.
The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead.
The European dragon is a legendary creature in folklore and mythology among the overlapping cultures of Europe.
The wyvern is a type of mythical draconic beast or lesser dragon with two legs, two wings, and often a pointed tail.
The manticore or mantichore is a legendary creature from ancient Persian mythology, similar to the Egyptian sphinx that proliferated in Western European medieval art as well. It has the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion or a tail covered in venomous spines similar to porcupine quills. There are some accounts that the spines can be launched like arrows. It eats its victims whole, using its three rows of teeth, and leaves no bones behind.
In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon (shield). That may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object, building, or other device. In French blazon, the ordinaries are called pièces, and other charges are called meubles.
The bonnacon is a legendary creature described as a bull with inward-curving horns and a horse-like mane. Medieval bestiaries usually depict its fur as reddish-brown or black. Because its horns were useless for self-defense, the bonnacon was said to expel large amounts of caustic feces from its anus at its pursuers, burning them and thereby ensuring its escape.
The Tudor rose is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the House of Tudor, which united the House of Lancaster and the House of York. The Tudor rose consists of five white inner petals, representing the House of York, and five red outer petals to represent the House of Lancaster.
The Queen's Beasts are ten heraldic statues representing the genealogy of Queen Elizabeth II, depicted as the Royal supporters of England. They stood in front of the temporary western annexe to Westminster Abbey for the Queen's coronation in 1953. Each of the Queen's Beasts consists of a heraldic beast supporting a shield bearing a badge or arms of a family associated with the ancestry of Queen Elizabeth II. They were commissioned by the British Ministry of Works from the sculptor James Woodford, who was paid the sum of £2,750 for the work. They were uncoloured except for their shields at the coronation. They are now on display in the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec.
A Panther is a creature in ancient legend that resembles a big cat with a multicoloured hide.
The House of Beaufort is an English noble family which originated in the fourteenth century as the legitimated issue of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, by Katherine Swynford. Gaunt and Swynford had four children: John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset (1373–1410); Cardinal Henry Beaufort (1375–1447), Bishop of Winchester; Thomas Beaufort, 1st Duke of Exeter (1377–1426) and Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland (1379–1440). When Gaunt finally married Swynford as his third wife in 1396, the Beauforts were legitimized by Pope Boniface IX and by royal proclamation of the reigning monarch King Richard II the following year.
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion, and the head and wings of an eagle with its talons on the front legs.
In heraldry, the term attitude describes the position in which a figure is emblazoned as a charge, a supporter, or as a crest. The attitude of a heraldic figure always precedes any reference to the tincture of the figure and its parts. Some attitudes apply only to predatory beasts, exemplified by the beast most usual to heraldry – the heraldic lion; other terms apply to docile animals, such as the doe, usually emblazoned as a "hind".
The calygreyhound is a mythical creature that appears on medieval heraldry. The de Vere family, who were the Earls of Oxford, used the calygreyhound in their coat of arms in the 15th and 16th centuries. The calygreyhound may be unique to the de Veres, and unlike most heraldic monsters, it made no attempt to seem realistic.
The royal standards of England were narrow, tapering swallow-tailed heraldic flags, of considerable length, used mainly for mustering troops in battle, in pageants and at funerals, by the monarchs of England. In high favour during the Tudor period, the Royal English Standard was a flag that was of a separate design and purpose to the Royal Banner. It featured St George's Cross at its head, followed by a number of heraldic devices, a supporter, badges or crests, with a motto—but it did not bear a coat of arms. The Royal Standard changed its composition frequently from reign to reign, but retained the motto Dieu et mon droit, meaning God and my right; which was divided into two bands: Dieu et mon and Droyt.
The Forest Bull, also known Ethiopian Bull and Ethiopian Forest Bull, is an animal from ancient and medieval bestiaries. According to Pliny the Elder, they were a breed of ferocious, tawny cattle living in Ethiopia, with mouths gaping open to the ears. Their horns, like a Yale's, could swivel in any direction. To fight, they raised them, after which the horns remained in this position. According to Aelian, they were called "flesh eaters" and were the most ferocious and savage of all animals. They were twice the size of regular bulls and could run at great speeds. He cites their hair as being red. No weapon could physically hurt the bulls, be it spears or arrows because even iron deflected from their skin. The forest bulls hunted herds of wild animals and horses. To protect their flocks, herdsmen who lived in the area dug deep ditches, in which the bulls would fall and consequently choke on their rage. The Troglodytae (cave-dwellers), a nearby tribe, supposedly "judged [this] to be the king of beasts, and rightly so, for it possesses the courage of a lion, the speed of a horse, the strength of a bull, and is stronger than iron."
Theow, also called thos, thea or thoye, is a hybrid heraldic beast, represented by a wolf with goat's hooves.
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