Questingbeast

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A mythical creature from Arthurian legend known for its strange hybrid features ; a figure embodying the focus of a long and difficult pursuit or quest ; a symbol of elusive or unattainable objectives in fables
2. An otherworldly beast in medieval tales combining aspects of various animals ; a legendary objective relentlessly sought by knights ; a representation of mysterious or bizarre challenges in mythology
3. A unique animal described in stories as having the parts of multiple creatures ; a legendary focus of ongoing chivalric search ; a metaphor for strange and seemingly unreachable ambitions

Etymology: The questing beast is a creature from Arthurian romance, first appearing in the prose "Post-Vulgate" Arthurian cycle and then in Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur" (published 1485). It has the body of a leopard, the haunches of a lion, the feet of a hart, and a head like a serpent's, and it makes a noise from its belly like the baying of thirty hounds. The beast is pursued by Sir Pelleas and later by Palamedes, who never quite catches it, and the chase itself becomes its defining feature. The name is a straightforward English compound: "quest" in the sense of a search or pursuit, plus "beast," the familiar word for an animal. In Malory, the creature is named as a "questing beast" because it is always being hunted, and the word "quest" carries its older sense of hunting, tracking game by scent. The adjective-noun pairing was coined in the medieval romance tradition rather than drawn from an older mythological name.

Synonyms: questing beast, mythical beast, legendary creature, Arthurian beast, chase beast