Let us go to the sea. In Flemish mythology, probably from the Medieval time period, is a curious species of merfolk called Zitiron. They had the tails of fish, but human upper bodies, heavily armoured and wearing helmets. Those helmets look like those worn by knights. The zitiron's have physical functions of gills, baleen traits, and metallic scales on their bodies. Such creatures are often in groups called Tables. What else is interesting is the codes of chivalry among the Zitiron kind. These marine knights are tough and have a strong defence. Existing descriptions of the Zitiron are found in Der Naturen Bloeme by Jacob van Maerlant, published in 1350.
What seems also incredible is that, many people today assume that everyone who lived centuries ago were thick! Modern people guess that the Zitiron were really turtles. While the myth sounds weird enough, people who lived during the Middle Ages were not that stupid to mistake turtles for knights! It's more likely that they were telling stories and hallucinating.
Now onto a slightly different topic but keeping with marine knights. The heikegani are a species of crab from Japan, with shells that look like human faces. It was believed that souls of angry Samurai warriors who were killed at sea in the 12th century appear on Heike crab shells. Fishermen refuse to keep the shells with human faces out of respect for the dead warriors and toss them back into the sea.
More: Heike crab
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