Oros

Oros is an auroch bull. 

The auroch were an ancient breed of cow that used to roam the lands in what is now Europe. They were absolutely huge. Humongous. Much, much bigger than cows are now. Faster, stronger and fiercer – if anything or anyone bothered them. And they were bothered. More than this. Human beings hunted them down and killed them. Every one of them.

Except for a few – the herd that we came across under Stonehenge. 

At once we all knew that Oros was a very special being. The wisest and coolest cow we had ever met, with a deep intelligence that everyone was in awe of. I was really scared of him when I first met him because he was massive and his voice so deep that it was as if the earth spoke through him. But as big as his giant body, was his kindness. 

By the way, the word humongous is an interesting word I think. It came into use in the 1970’s, so over fifty years ago. People started to use it in America. It was a mixture of huge and monstrous, influenced by the other word, stupendous. Interesting. Well, it is to me as I am very interested in your human language and where it all comes from. Etymology is the study of words, how they started and how they have changed through history. The etymology of the word, bull? I’m going to look it up. Ah ha. It says that late Old English used the word, bula which comes from an old Norse word boli. The Norse language was spoken by the medieval people of the North in Scandinavia. Medieval times were between the 5th century and the 15th. We’re now in the 21st century. So the word bull has its roots in a word spoken 1,600 years ago!

The last auroch that humans saw was in 1627. It was seen in the Jaktorow forest in the middle of Poland. Aurochs were 155 – 180 cm high at their shoulders. If you have a tape measure you can put it up against a wall and see how big they were. Add the idea of a head and a huge, humongous head and body as well and you will see why I quaked at the knees when I first met Oros.