Creature of the Week – Questing Beast

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The Questing Beast is one of the mythical creatures mentioned in King Arthur legends.

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The Questing Beast is a hybrid – with the head and neck of a serpent, the body of a leopard, the hind of a lion, and the feet of a stag. It name comes from its bark because it sounds like the barking of twenty hounds on the quest.

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In Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, the Questing Beast appears to Arthur after he unknowingly slept with his half-sister, Morgause. Their son, Mordred, eventually kills Arthur. Merlin says that the Questing Beast is the offspring of an incestuous union between a royal brother and sister, like Mordred.