Bandersnatch

A Bandersnatch is a fictional creature from Lewis Carroll's 1872 novel Through the Looking-Glass and 1874 poem "The Hunting of the Snark". Although neither work describes the appearance of a Bandersnatch in great detail, in "The Hunting of the Snark" it has a long neck and snapping jaws, and both works describe it as ferocious and extraordinarily fast. Through the Looking-Glass implies that Bandersnatches may be found in the world behind the looking-glass, and in "The Hunting of the Snark", a Bandersnatch is found by a party of adventurers after crossing an ocean. Bandersnatches have appeared in various adaptations of Carroll's works; they have also been used in other authors' works and in other forms of media.

Description

Carroll's first mention of a Bandersnatch, in the poem "Jabberwocky" (which appears in Through the Looking-Glass), is very brief: the narrator of the poem admonishes his son to "shun / The frumious Bandersnatch"—this particular portmanteau being a concise way of describing the creature's fuming and furious character. Later in the novel, the White King says of his wife (the White Queen): "She runs so fearfully quick. You might as well try to catch a Bandersnatch!"

Bandersnatch (disambiguation)

The Bandersnatch is a fictional creature mentioned in Lewis Carroll's poem Jabberwocky.

Bandersnatch may also refer to:

Bandersnatch (Known Space)

The Bandersnatch (plural bandersnatchi) is a fictional alien species in Larry Niven's Known Space universe. The species is named for Lewis Carroll's Bandersnatch.

Characteristics

Niven's first story to discuss the Bandersnatchi was World of Ptavvs, published in 1966. That story relates the way that they were named as follows:

Bandersnatchi are described as enormous herd animals, twice the size of an Apatosaurus with a slug-like shape and completely white, slick skin. A sauropod-like neck, with no head, extends about as high as the bandersnatch's body. The tip is thick and rounded, entirely featureless, other than two tufts of black bristles (sense organs). At the front of the body, low to the ground, is a large mouth adapted to scooping a form of mutated yeast out of shallow ocean-like yeast colonies.

Niven's works describe Bandersnatchi as one giant cell with long chromosomes as thick as a human finger, rendering them impervious to the mutagenitive effects of radiation and therefore unable to mutate. As single cells, they reproduce asexually by budding. Their nerves have no cell body and no nuclei; nothing to separate them from other specialized protoplasm. The Bandersnatchi also have 6 large hearts, each weighing about 11 pounds. The brain is large, shaped long and narrow, and is encased in a bony cage. The skull is one end of this jointless, flexible, very strong cage that keeps them from ever shifting position.