Fastitocalon (ファスティトカロン, Fasutitokaron) is a chain Guardian ÄRM that creates a giant whale to attack his foes. Those who are swallowed, save for the cursed Poco, ultimately die and are dissolved down to the bones thanks to its slimy digestive juices.
Etymology and Origin[]
The second-century Latin Physiologus tells of a sea-monster, the Aspidochelone. This is retold in the Old English poem "The Whale", where the monster appears under the name Fastitocalon, in the Exeter Book, folio 96b-97b. J. R. R. Tolkien would also go on to write his own poem titled "Fastitocalon" about a gigantic sea turtle. The poem is included in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. By etymology, the name "Fastitocalon" is a corruption of the Greek Aspido-chelōne, "round-shielded turtle", with the addition of the letter F, according to Tolkien, "simply to make the name alliterate, as was compulsory for poets in his day, with the other words in his line. Shocking, or charming freedom, according to taste". Tolkien commented that the tale of the monster that treacherously simulates an island is from "the East", and that the turtle is mixed up with a whale when the story arrives in Europe, so that the Old English version has him feeding like a whale "trawling with an open mouth".
The Guardian itself is directly based on Walt Disney's 1940 Pinocchio portrayal of the Terrible Dogfish, which appears in Carlo Collodi's 1883 book The Adventures of Pinocchio as one of the main antagonists and the final one. The Dogfish, named "Monstro" in the film, is described as being a monstrously-sized sea creature-like dogfish, however in the film Monstro is shown as a terrible aggressive sperm whale.
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