Sigil of Bifrons
At a glance
- Entry
- 46 of 72
- Rank
- Earl
- Legions
- 6 in the text
- Also written
- Bifröus, Bifrovs
Description in the text
Bifrons is said to teach astrology, geometry, and other sciences, along with the properties of stones and woods. The source also links him to moving bodies of the dead and lights that appear on graves.
Read entry 46 on page 37 of the 1916 edition
Appearance
A monster that later takes human shape.
Topics attributed to this entry
- Astrology
- Geometry
- The dead
Reading this entry
Bifrons, with Bifröus and Bifrovs as variants, is first described only as a monster and later as a man. The earl teaches astrology, geometry, other arts, and the properties of stones and woods. The choice of woods, rather than the more frequent herbs, is a useful distinguishing detail. He is also said to move dead bodies and place seeming candles above graves.
Those grave lights are described as appearances in the passage; turning them into an established physical phenomenon would go beyond the source. His six legions are notably few compared with many neighbors. The text gives no exact shape for the monstrous first form, so elaborate beast portraits add features absent from this account. The scholarly and funerary offices coexist without explanation, making Bifrons one of the catalogue’s stranger combinations.
Read entry 46 on page 37 of the 1916 edition or compare the 1904 transcription.
A closer reading of entry 46
What the numbered text says
Bifrons begins with an unspecified monster and only later becomes human; the source does not provide body parts for the first form. Its educational office spans astrology, geometry, stones, and woods. Then the passage turns to displaced dead bodies and lights that merely seem to burn on graves. That word of appearance matters: a modern illustration of actual candles would be more definite than the written claim. Six legions are a notably small command within this group.
About the printed seal
The Bifrons emblem is numbered 46 on frontispiece 5. It supplies an identifier where the source withholds the monster’s anatomy. Three printed name forms attach to this one number, not to three different plates or signs.
Compare another entry
Compare entry 50: Furcas. Furcas likewise teaches astrology and other learned arts, but specifies rhetoric, logic, palmistry, and fire divination, with no graveyard scene. Bifrons joins mathematical learning to stones, woods, and the dead. Their similar syllabus has different boundaries.