The Little Book of Cosmic Horrors

I was not mentally prepared for "The Cosmic Baby Battle of 1536", just when you think medieval art couldn't get any weirder.

Just as a reminder:
"miracle" in the positive sense is a more modern thinking.
In the past, any perplexing or incredibly rare event was labelled as a "miracle" as in "unbelievable", as, of course , people in that time and, especially with such a subject, wouldn't use "unbelievable" as these are biblical and the word simply wouldn't make sense.

The big difference is that Lovecraft's horror was atheist, or anti-theist. It posited a hostile universe and reflected the horror of an atheist concluding he was alone in an uncaring and hostile world.

In contrast, the Christian cosmic horror, as you might call it, may posit a universe of unfathomable horror and danger and evil, but God is still master of it all and will ultimately save and protect those who look to him. Some of this optimism may have slipped, societally, during the Black Death, but other than that, never really left Christian society.

That 'early drawing of a sloth' is hilarious. It's just so casual. It looks like a man with a bear's body just going about his business like it's totally normal.

Years ago while doing research for a story I was writing, I came across a blog post with a theory that the Ophanim was not a literal wheel, but an angel or group of angels, who were spinning, and they spun so fast they were just a blur, so to the (no doubt terrified) observer on the ground they looked like circles/wheels with many eyes. Something to do with the translation from the original Hebrew. Anyway, great video as always!

I love this channel so much. Never else do I experience both interesting history and theology whilst being so calm and comfortable at the same time.

I’m so glad you pointed out the weird HP Lovecraft connection to catholic art. I’ve been thinking about this subject for awhile and can’t help but believe that it must’ve been his influence. I think Bloodborne draws a connecting line as well with the many-eyed unfathomable creatures, worshipped by man as gods.

When you mentioned these things being holy, it took me back to a time in my younger years when I was studying the Bible. I studied Hebrew and Greek and wanted to get where all the stories came from. I even bought an Aramaic dictionary believe it or not. LOL. Anyway in studying the word holy, came to the conclusion that most biblical scholars did also: that when we see the word holy in religious texts it does not mean godly or divine, rather means set apart. Something which is designed for a single purpose. And if you think about it it makes sense. In the early days of the church (whether Catholic or Protestant) things were blessed or consecrated which was symbolic of setting it aside for a purpose. So this book makes a lot of sense. These Creatures and visions are considered holy BECAUSE they are different. They are set apart from the normal. Great video by the way... Excellent script and narration.

That chick (baby chicken, not a girl) with two sets of legs is actually a mutatuion that can happen. It's really cool to see real world things represented in these early illustrations.

I will say, I think the way the Roman "ball in the sky" zips around is far more characteristic of ball lightning than of a meteor.

I always find the idea of celestial events being bad omens a bit funny. Sure, the transit of Halley's Comet coincided with the Norman invasion of England, but that made it a pretty darn good omen for the Normans.

If you're dying to find new and miraculous beasts, look no further than the deepest depths of the ocean or the most isolated jungles/geographies. There are many animals we've yet to actually document, let alone name.

Great video! Thanks for piquing the imagination!

I'm amazed how well preserved this precious book is! The colours are still so vibrant, wonderfull!

The imagination of those who made these images is very unique and creative.
These are not scary, but confusing and weird, in a good way...

I'm surprised you didn't mention that Lovecraft quote at the end when you were talking about the unknown...

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."

8:50 Nearly killed myself laughing at the early drawing of a sloth 😂

On the depiction of God's throne that four-headed angel is actually called tetramorph. It is a symbol of the Gospels: the lion represents Mark, the bull is for Luke, the eagle for John, and the angel is Matthew. Usually they are shown separately and are the integral part of medieval art, especially in manuscripts.
And that angel of clouds and column legs feeding a book to Saint John is a copy after the famous Dürer woodcat of The Apocalyps. It is interesting to see how the author was inspired by still contemporary prints of famous artists such as Cranah the Elder or Dürer.

Every time I watch a Hotchelaga video, I have to put aside a few minutes first just to get into the right state of mind. I need to pay proper attention, as to not miss anything.

This is far one of my favorite channels. Everything amazing: This guy's voice is relaxing, the edit is simple but yet high quality, nice accent, always well researched topics and a lot of insteresting comments.

I'm hooked on this content. Found this channel when I searched for videos on the book of Revelation because i was curious. Now I'm diving deep into all this interesting stuff. Thank you so much for making these videos. They are so fascinating and relaxing, yet creepy and unsettling at the same time. I love it. Can't wait for the next one.