![]() The wonder whale allows for a close connection of people with the strange, enormous, paradoxical, ambivalent, still much unknown, oceanic realm. An animal that still attracts crowds of people when it strands on nearby shores or when its blow is spotted in the horizon. ![]() It is not merely a whale, but a wonder whale. What we find is that the whale – real or conceptualized – has continuously been an element of human fascination. For that, we run through a long timeframe analyzing the whale, mostly based on Portuguese written sources, in comparison with European data, to discuss it as a commodity, a monster, a show and an icon. We aim at understanding the significance of whales and how culture, knowledge and values determine human behavior and actions towards these mammals. Working from the question – what's in a whale? – we present a study on the long-term human-whale relationships (from the 13 th century onwards) connecting history and literature, to highlight the deep entanglement of societies and cultures with the marine environment. To the whale is always assigned a role, but its relevance to distinct groups of society and its presentation to diverse audiences, across history, can be very different from one type of source to another. It is, for sure, a being of some kind, but one that is described, depicted and appropriated in several forms, in a multitude of ways. ![]() ![]() (left) 11/87 rag Man Woman Royal Highness Highnesses Crown Prince England UK. An animal, a good, a belief, a surprise, a part of these aspects or the encompassing of them all. Warrior on Board a Ship with a Woman Being Attacked by a Sea Monster. Whale, a common name, a simple word, but so many meanings. ![]()
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