The Martian Riding Beast & Other Forms of Transport

Writers of the fantastic have had to make peace with an idea that may not sit well with them. That is quite simply, once you move away from the Earth, what do heroes ride on? Unless humans are going to take horses (or camels or donkeys) out into space, you are going to have to find an alternative. This has lead to a plethora of ride-able beasts that range from “almost a horse” to definitely not a horse.

I will admit this issue has come to the fore for me because of Star Wars. Whether you like the new ones or not, or The Mandalorian, or even the originals, Star Wars has taken this one on with more zest than most. Whether you like the Bantha of Tatoonie, or the Imperial Dewback, or the Tauntauns of Hoth, or the new Blurrg, Orbaks or the pathetic Fathier. All these critters date back to the Pulps and their rich heritage of make believe fauna.

The great-granddaddy of them all has to be the thoat, from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series. beginning February 1912, “Under the Moons of Mars” in All-Story gave us the Martian riding beast. After describing the fearsome thark, ERB tells us of his mount:

“And his mount! How can earthly words describe it! It towered ten feet at the shoulder; had four legs on either side; a broad flat tail, larger at the tip than at the root, and which it held straight out behind while running; a gaping mouth which split its head from its snout to its long, massive neck.

Like its master, it was entirely devoid of hair, but was of a dark slate color and exceeding smooth and glossy. Its belly was white, and its legs shaded from the slate of its shoulders and hips to a vivid yellow at the feet. The feet themselves were heavily padded and nailless, which fact had also contributed to the noiselessness of their approach, and, in common with a multiplicity of legs, is a characteristic feature of the fauna of Mars. The highest type of man and one other animal, the only mammal existing on Mars, alone have well-formed nails, and there are absolutely no hoofed animals in existence there.” (A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs)

Zitidars

Burroughs would add other, larger beasts. If the thoat is the horse, then the zitidar is the elephant:

“There were about two hundred and fifty of these vehicles, each drawn by a single animal, any one of which, from their appearance, might easily have drawn the entire wagon train when fully loaded. The chariots themselves were large, commodious, and gorgeously decorated. In each was seated a female Martian loaded with ornaments of metal, with jewels and silks and furs, and upon the back of each of the beasts which drew the chariots was perched a young Martian driver. Like the animals upon which the warriors were mounted, the heavier draft animals wore neither bit nor bridle, but were guided entirely by telepathic means.” (A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs)

Zandars

The first and most successful Burroughs clone was Otis Adelbert Kline with his Venus series. The trilogy features countless creepy aliens from giant lizards and spiders to less-easy-to-describe monsters. In the third book, Kline got around to a mount for his hero, Grandon.

“The one-wheeled cart was no novelty to Vernia. She had seen many like it in her own country. But the fearsome, three-horned white beasts that were hitched to it were creatures she had never seen or heard of before.

“Zandars,” said Thid Yet, noting her look of surprise. “They make strong beasts of burden and admirable chargers for our warriors to ride. We get them from the White Ibbits who inhabit the Mountains of Eternal Snow, far to the south. Let me help you.” (Port of Peril by Otis Adelbert Kline)

Malagors

Burroughs got tired of all that thoat-riding to get around Mars so in the ninth book in the series he introduced the malagor, the flying mount of Mars:

“We turned simultaneously to look back, and the sight that met our eyes was so astonishing that we could scarcely believe the evidence of our own senses. About twenty birds were winging toward us. That in itself was sufficiently astonishing, since they were easily identifiable as malagors, a species long presumed to be extinct; but to add to the incredibility of the sight that met our eyes, a warrior bestrode each of the giant birds.” (Synthetic Men of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs)

Saddle Dolphin

John Murray Reynolds (1900-1993) may not be a household name but he was a productive Pulpster writing for Planet Stories, Weird Tales as well as the adventure Pulps like Sea Stories, Frontier Stories and Adventure. In the premiere issue of Planet Stories he gives us the aquatic mount, the saddle dolphin of Venus:

“From a corral at one side an orderly brought three saddle-dolphins. The big fish were equipped with rubber saddles strapped around the body, and short stirrups. They were guided by a bridle similar to that used on Earthly horses. As Gerry swung up to the saddle his dolphin bucked once or twice with quick flips of his tail, then steadied down as he felt the tight pressure of his master’s knees. When the other two were mounted, the officer commanding the outpost lifted his arm in salute.” (“The Golden Amazons of Venus” by John Murray Reynolds)

Martian Riding Beast

Leigh Brackett can easily claim the crown of Edgar Rice Burroughs who inspired her stories of Mercury, Venus and Mars. Whether it is Eric John Stark or another character on Mars, they always use the same mode of transport, The Martian riding beast:

“There was only a single rider, mounted on one of the big scaly beasts the Martian nomads use as the Earthly desert-folk use camels.” (“Mars Minus Bisha” by Leigh Brackett)

Unlike terrestrial lizards, the Martian riding lizard does not seem to be affected by temperature. They can be ridden at night. The lizard mounts of Mars are a probable inspiration for the Dewlaps from Star Wars.

Dahara

Another Burroughs clone was Edward P. Bradbury who wrote a trilogy of novels set on Mars. The author was really Michael Moorcock who would take Sword & Sorcery in new directions with Elric. A very young Moorcock wrote for Tarzan Adventures, a British magazine. I guess to get the last of the ERB out of his system he wrote this pseudonymous trilogy. His heroes, of course, aren’t going to walk everywhere. They have beasts called Dahara:

“Travel was effected in two main ways. Most ordinary travel relied on the
dahara, a riding and carriage beast of great strength and endurance. But many nations had a few aircraft…His dahara was not the quiet beast that I rode. It seemed as fierce as its rider, pawing at the delicate green moss of the glade, its head sporting a metal spike and its body partially protected by the same dark brown, padded leather armor.” (Warriors of Mars by Edward P. Bradbury (Michael Moorcock)

Tarns

Perhaps one of the longest Burroughs/Mars homages is the Gor series by psychiatrist, John Norman. Though the sexual elements of the Gor novels may not be to everybody’s taste, the Burroughsian ones are pretty easy to see. Descended from the Barsoomian malagor is the tarn, giant hawks that each Tarnsman rides:

“The tarn dropped to the roof of the cylinder and regarded us with his bright black eyes.

Though the tarn, like most birds, is surprisingly light for its size, this primarily having to do with the hollowness of the bones, it is an extremely powerful bird, powerful even beyond what one would expect from such a monster. Whereas large Earth birds, such as the eagle, must, when taking flights from the ground, begin with a running start, the tarn, with itsincredible musculature, aided undoubtedly by the somewhat lighter gravity of n with a spring and a sudden flurry of its giant wings, lift both himself and his rider into the air. In Gorean, these birds are sometimes spoken of as Brothers of the Wind.

The plumage of tarns is various, and they are bred for their colours as well as their strength and intelligence. Black tarns are used for night raids, white tarns in winter campaigns, and multicoloured, resplendent tarns are bred for warriors who wish to ride proudly, regardless of the lack of camouflage. The most

common tarn, however, is greenish brown. Disregarding the disproportion in size, the Earth bird which the tarn most closely resembles is the hawk, with the exception that it has a crest somewhat of the nature of a jay’s.

Tarns, who are vicious things, are seldom more than half tamed and, like their diminutive counterparts the hawks, are carnivorous. It is not unknown for a tarn to attack and devour his own rider.

They fear nothing but the tarn-goad. They are trained by men of the Caste of Tarn Keepers to respond to it while still young, when they can be fastened by wires to the training perches. Whenever a young bird soars away or refuses obedience in some fashion, he is dragged back to the perch and beaten with the tarn-goad. Rings, comparable to those which are fastened on the legs of the young birds, are worn by the adult birds to reinforce the memory of the hobbling wire and the tarn-goad. Later, of course, the adult birds are not fastened, but the conditioning given them in their youth usually holds except when they become abnormally disturbed or have not been able to obtain food.” (Tarnsmen of Gor by John Norman)

Not everyone on Gor is a Tarnsman so Norman had to provide some other form of travel:

Tharlarion

“The tarn is one of the two most common mounts of a Gorean warrior; the other is the high tharlarion, a species of saddlelizrd, used mostly by clans who have never mastered tarns. No one in the City of Cylinders, as far as I knew, maintained tharlarions, though they were supposedly quite common on Gor, particularly in the lower areas – in swampland and on the deserts.” (Tarnsman of Gor by John Norman)

Voves and Zorcas

The next longest-running series was Alan Burt Akers’ (the prolific Kenneth Bulmer) Scorpio series. Again heroic types need to ride on something:

“The voves were eight-legged, large, savage, horned and tufted, shaggy with a russet color glorious beneath the suns of Antares. Their endurance was legendary. Their hearts would pump loyally for day after day in the long chase if necessary, until the animal dropped dead, still struggling on. They carried the main war divisions of the clansmen, fighting with bulk and strength. The zorcas were lighter, fleeter but without the awe-inspiring stamina of the vove.” (Transit to Scorpio by Alan Burt Akers)

Thaptor

It seems if one wants to copy Edgar Rice Burroughs they must not do it once but as many times as possible. Taking a page from Norman and Bulmer’s book, Lin Carter wrote numerous series, each with its own unique form of Martian riding beast. The first series was about Thongor of Lemuria but in a far more Burroughsian vein was Jandar of Callisto. Once again, the horse that isn’t a horse (this one has a beak):

“Among the possessions of Koja were a number of thaptors. These are the weird bird-horses the Thanatorians use for steeds. They are the size of terrene stallions, or perhaps a bit larger, and, like their equine counterparts on Earth, they have four legs, an arched neck, are ridden from a saddle and guided by reins and a bit. But there the resemblance to a horse ends. For the thaptor is a quadruped species of wingless bird, with clawed feet spurred like those of a rooster. Around the base of their skulls a stiff ruff of feathers extends, almost like a horse’s mane. Their heads are very unhorselike,

though, with sharp yellow parrot-beaks and glaring eyes wherein a
bright orange pupil, ringed with a black iris, stares forth with fierce malignancy. These bird-horses are broken to the bridle with great difficulty and never become completely tractable, although they come at length to recognize their owners and are resigned to carrying them. But woe to the stranger who attempts to ride one!” (Jandar of Callisto by Lin Carter)

Zaiph

Carter struck again, almost instantly, with a series inspired by Burroughs’ Venus instead of Mars. The Green Star series is set on a world of gigantic forests. A horse just isn’t going to work:

“The steed was like a dragonfly—but larger than a Percheron. Four long narrow oval translucent wings flickered in the currents of air…wings like thin slices of glassy opal, veined with crawling threads of glistening jade!

A head like a glittering helmet of burnished gold, crowned with branching antennae of crimson velvet, soft as down; and, for eyes, the fabulous creature had two immense, curving, teardrop-shaped protuberances offaceted jet. Its long, tapering, and cylindrical body was plated with overlapping flat rings of flashing silver, powdered with dust of azure. Like the goblin steed of some impossible elf-knight, it flashed through the dim amber gloom on its undreamable mission!” (Under the Green Star by Lin Carter)

Sluth

If you can’t ride a dragonfly what else is there? Carter stay in the insectoid vein…

“I tightened my jaw grimly, and, beside me, Klygon shivered with an involuntary grimace. For the sluth were the enormous worm-monsters the cave-savages tamed for riding— if “tamed” be the proper word. We certainly had no chance of fleeing through a cavern thronged by the immense, glistening worms, for they could writhe and wriggle many
times faster than a man could run.” (By the Light of the Green Star by Lin Carter)

Zawkaw

The Burroughsian malagor has many cousins…

“The blue wings were weary after long hours of flight. Spying the jungle isles below, the exhausted zawkaw began to circle downwards towards one small isle. The hand at the reins gave no indication of its wishes; thus the giant hawklike bird, given its head, settled downwards, alighting upon the dewy sward of the nearest isle.” (As the Green Star Rises by Lin Carter)

Of course, I have merely skimmed the top of Science Fiction and Fantasy’s corral of critters. Think of the sand worms of Dune, the dragons of Pern, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Moon creatures and the dino-riders of Pellucidar, and I am sure Lin Carter has at least another dozen tucked away in his Godwane, Mars and Lemuria series. And no doubt, the Star Wars crew will go on making up new and interesting mounts for their heroes to ride.