Cinnămolgus, Rochester Bestiary, c.1230

The cinnămolgus, or cinnamon bird, is a mythical creature described in various ancient and medieval bestiaries. Aristotle referred to this bird as kinnamômon orneon. It is believed to inhabit Arabia and is renowned for building its nests from cinnamon sticks. Since the trees are too tall and the branches too fragile for humans to climb, lead-weighted arrows are used to knock down the nests. This method yields cinnamon that is highly prized by merchants, who pay premium prices for these coveted fruits.

To harvest the cinnamon, people used ingenious methods. For example, Herodotus wrote that Arabian traders would place pieces of meat near the nests. The birds would carry the meat back to their nests, causing the nests to collapse under the weight, thus enabling the collection of cinnamon sticks. Aristotle and other sources described using lead-weighted arrows to knock down the nests from the high branches or cliffs.

Pliny the Elder was sceptical of these tales, suggesting that traders invented these stories to inflate the price of cinnamon. Despite his scepticism, these stories persisted in medieval literature and were featured in bestiaries, which often combined natural history with allegorical tales.

The cinnamon bird was not just a symbol of exotic and rare spices but also represented the allure and mystery of the spice trade in ancient and medieval times. It highlighted the lengths to which people would go to obtain valuable goods like cinnamon.

Cinnamolgus et ipsa est avis arabie. Ita vo-
cata; quod in excelsis nemoribus texit nidos;
ex fructibus cinnami. Et quoniam non possunt homines
ibi conscendere. propter ramorum altitudinem et fra-
gilitatem; eosdem nidos plumbatis appetunt iaculis.
Et sic cinnama illa deponunt. pretiisque amplioribus
vendunt. eo quod hec cinnama magis quam alia mercato-
res probent.

The cinnămolgos is also a bird of Arabia. It is called so, for it weaves its nests on very tall trees, from the fruits of the cinnamon tree. Since men cannot climb up those trees due to the height and fragility of the branches, they aim for those nests with lead-weighted arrows. In this way, they bring down the cinnamon and sell it at higher prices, for merchants prefer these cinnamon fruits to other types of fruit.

Further Reading

David Badke, The Bestiary Blog: Animals in the Middle Ages, Cinnamolgus, November 6 2023, https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast242.htm

Mynott, J, Birds in the Ancient World (New York: Oxford University Press 2018)

Josh Goldenberg (BA 2012) and Matt Shanahan (BA 2014), Logeion, November 2022, https://logeion.uchicago.edu/

Castiglioni, L. and Mariotti, S. (1996). Vocabolario della Lingua Latina: Latino-Italiano Italiano-Latino. Terza Edizione. Loescher Torino

Curley, M. J., Physiologus: A Medieval Book of Nature Lore (University of Chicago edition 2009)

Rackham, H., M.A., Pliny Natural History Volume III, Libri VIII-XI (London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1949)

Collins, A. H., M.A., Symbolism of Animals and Birds (New York: McBride, Nast & Company, 1913)

Henderson, C., The Book of Barely Imagined Beings (London: University of Chicago Press, 2013)

White, T. H., The Bestiary: A Book of Beasts (New York: G.P Putnam’s Sons, 1960)

Matthews, J. and Matthews C., The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A-Z of fantastic beings from myth and magic (London: HarperElement, 2005)

Barney, S. A., Lewis, W. J., Beach A., Berghof O., The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006)

Endnotes

[1] Nĕmŭs means both forest/wood and tree in Latin.