Wympsis - [Fearsome Critter]

 Wympsis - [Fearsome Critter] - (Latin:  Rotolitterus Betula Pix.)

• About this critter: Appearing in the Autumn, when the golden leaves fall from the tall birch trees across North America. A small, mysterious critter rolls around in the pitch & peat below. It works hard to cover its body in resin, then it rolls around in leaves, creating a thick (& very itchy!) full body coat for warmth. The creature has long sharp claws, but the poor thing no concept of scratching!! a critter of great endurance & fortitude needed for the season ahead, An ode to autumn and the colours of fall.

• History & Early appearances: The Earliest description of this critter is from 1939; The critter was named in the introduction for "Fearsome Critters" by Henry H Tyron who described it in the same paragraph with other critters as the "Will-Am-Alone", "Timmerdoodle" &"WhopperKnocker" and a couple others which he did not bother to elaborate on, but only describe briefly &/or name drop:

[the one namedrop from the book]

Unlike the aforementioned, this one was not given even a semblance of a proper description, perhaps it was better known orally at the time? somehow, about 30 years later, in 1969's [Gilly galoos and gollywhoppers] a short poem by Ennis Rees (1926-2009) about the critter with an illustration by Sir.Quetein Blake was written, it went as follows:

"In the fall, the Wympsis covers itself from head to tail with resin and pitch. Then rolls on the ground til its covered in leaves, Which keep it warm––but they itch!!"

Somewhat of a disappointment is that there's not much more to say about this one, absolutely nothing else comes up when searching the name on google, in newspapers or other archival sites, searches, even lumberwoods.com rotunda lists it as a "name only" critter. thus if there are other books that contain mention of what the "wympsis" might be, is not known to me!

i do have a couple theories but nothing to say with 100% certainty! - A folkloric parallel to Ennis's description is that "pitch" surprisingly comes into play quite often in EU folklore, mainly in regards to various fairies, pixie and a couple leprechaun related stories from britan Scotland and Ireland, "Pix" as a matter of fact is Latin for pitch and if i recall correctly, it was sometimes said that certain pixies would hide in peat & pitch, leaping out of the mud rather suddenly. - [see also leprocaun?] - Perhaps Ennis took inspiration from there? or perhaps he took his inspiration from another critter, the similar sounding "whirling wimpus" comes to mind, afterall, what is 'rolling' but whirling sideways?... i digress, it might be a bit of a stretch to call this an American version of the Ghillie Dhu

...Perhaps a proper definition of a what Wympsis is still out there, somewhere? or perhaps, it was just something Tyron came up with on a whim for a nice bit of alliteration... Alas, perhaps we will never know for certain.

sticker art by samkalensky part of my fearsome critters collection of stickers, check my shop and follow for many more! :)