Here are 8 of the most horrific Mythological creatures of folklore around the world

Grotesques from Reims, France, photographed by Joseph Trompette (ca. 1870-90) (via Cornell University Library)

Mermaids, unicorns, and fairies have been romanticized through the ages, but what about the Pennsylvanian Squonk? Here is a motley assortment of mythical beasts and beings found in folklore from around the world. From soul-sucking cats to child-thieving shape-shifters, these are the oddballs found in the magical bestiary that haven’t gotten much love. 


The Squonk 

This sad, mythical creature hails from the legends of northern Pennsylvania. The Squonk was said to be a hideous forest animal with grotesquely loose, scaly skin entirely covered in warts and blemishes.

The Teary Squonk - Indrachapa J - Medium

The squonk as illustrated by Coert Du Bois from Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods. photo: wikipedia

The animal was so miserable over its own gruesome appearance and lack of companionship that it almost constantly wept. Local legend had it that the Squonk was quite easy to track; you could pretty much just follow the sound of the animal’s sobs and salty, tear-strewn trail through the woods. Capturing one proved much harder: when greatly distressed the Squonk was said to literally dissolve into a puddle of its own tears.


The Tiyanak

The Tiyanak takes various forms in Philippine mythology. In one version it is an evil dwarf-like creature posing as a human baby, in another it is an actual demon child. 

The Demon Child Vampire Tiyanak photo: bookroar

The Christian take on this mythical monster turns Tiyanaks into the restless ghosts of children who have died unbaptized. In any case, the Tiyanak is said to mimic the cries of a human baby to lure its victims in. Once picked up, out come the fangs and things get gory.

T is for Tiyanak - Supposedly the "true" form of the tiyanak

The Tiyanak also enjoys confusing travelers into losing their way, leading them deeper and deeper into the Philippine jungle with its cries. If you ever find yourself being lured astray by this monster baby, the traditional trick for escape is to turn your clothes inside out. According to Philippine lore, this amuses the Tiyanak to no end, and he may just think that you’re funny enough to let you live.


The Cat Sìth or Cat Sidhe


The Cat Sìth is a fairy creature from Celtic mythology, said to resemble a large black cat with a white spot on its chest. Legend has it that the spectral cat haunts the Scottish Highlands. The legends surrounding this creature are more common in Scottish folklore, but a few occur in Irish. Some common folklore suggested that the Cat Sìth was not a fairy, but a witch that could transform into a cat nine times

An Illustration from More English Fairy Tales from the story The King of the Cats photo: wikipedia

Fairy Myths: The Cat Sidhe The Paranormal

A large, dog-sized breed of black and white cat said to roam the Scottish Highlands, the Cat Sìth was believed to steal the souls from newly deceased bodies awaiting burial. In a wake called the Feill Fadalach (aka the “Lake Wake”), unburied bodies were watched over night and day to ensure that the Cat Sìth would not gain access to the corpse. Kitty distractions such as catnip and music were sometimes employed, as were games of leaping, wrestling, and riddles, all of which were thought to offer additional protection to unburied bodies.

The Cat Sìth or Cat Sidhe photo: pinterest

While some believed the Cat Sìth was a type of feline fairy, a common Celtic legend proclaimed that Cat Sìths were in fact witches who were capable of morphing into a magical cat eight times. Those attempting the transformation a ninth time would be permanently trapped in kitty form, hence initiating the myth that cats have nine lives.



The Yara-ma-yha-who 

A cross between a vampire and the bogeyman in Australian Aboriginal folklore, the Yara-ma-yha-who is a strange, red-skinned humanoid that dwells in the branches of fig trees, waiting to drop on unsuspecting victims. 

Yara-ma-yha-who A Book of Creatures

Yara-ma-yha-who photo: villains.wikia.com

The creature was said to have suckers attached to its hands and feet that it would use to drain its prey of blood, much like a giant leech. Once its victim was sufficiently weak, the Yara-ma-yha-who would ingest them whole, resting for awhile before regurgitating the person (still alive) and beginning the whole process again. With each regurgitation, the victim would return slightly shorter and a little bit redder in tone, finally becoming another Yara-ma-yha-who.


The Ijiraq

Things That Go Bump — Ijiraq - A shapeshifter from Inuit mythology Tumblr

An elusive Arctic shapeshifter found in Inuit mythology, the Ijiraq is said to live between the world of the living and that of the dead. The Ijiraq could take many forms, including that of a half-man, half-caribou monster called Tariaksuq, generally only seen when looked at from the corner of one’s eye. The shadowy form would vanish when looked upon directly.

The Ijiraq photo: Pinterest

In Inuit lore, the Ijiraq was a kidnapper of children, accused of stealing little ones to hide and then abandon in the Arctic cold. When a hunter stepped into the cursed Ijiraq’s territory he would become hopelessly lost and unable to find his way home.

Librum Prodigiosum — The ijiraq is a shapeshifting creature

Oddly enough, certain areas traditionally associated with Ijiraq activity are also home to large deposits of toxic sour gas, sulphur smoke, and geothermal activity. It’s possible that rising vapors sometimes created mirages; pockets of gas may even have been responsible for disorientation and hallucinations.


The Liderc

There are several types of Liderc in Hungarian folklore, all of which are said to hatch from the first egg of a black hen that has been kept warm in a human’s armpit or a heap of manure. 

The egg eventually hatches to reveal a magic chicken, a small imp-like creature, or a full-grown woman or man, sometimes even taking the form of a deceased lover or family member. In addition to behaving as an incubus or sucubus and performing its owner’s every wish, the Liderc immensely enjoys hoarding riches.

The Liderc photo: Pinterest

Over time, the owner of a Liderc will accumulate great wealth, but the arrangement is a deal with the devil. Periodically, the Liderc crawls atop its owner’s chest, drinking his or her blood, and gradually leaves them more and more weak. The Hungarian word for nightmare is lidercnyomas, which literally means “Liderc pressure” from the feeling of having the creature’s weight upon one’s chest. The only way to be completely rid of a Liderc is to command it to perform an impossible task. After trying its hardest to comply, the Liderc will grow so consumed with frustration that it will essentially implode.


The Impundulu

Found in the folklore of several South African tribes, the Impundulu, or “Lightning bird,” is a human-sized vampiric bird said to cause lightning by setting its own fat on fire. It is heavily associated with tribal witchcraft, and is believed to be immortal, allowing it to be passed down as a familiar through generations of female witches. 

The hammerkop, one believed manifestation of the lightning bird photo: wikipedia

The Impundulu was believed capable of morphing into human form to make love to his witch owner and to feed on the blood of her enemies, causing bad luck, sickness, and death.  

Impundulu the Lightning Bird – Southern Africa Travel

Traditionally, when a man became ill it was not uncommon for his wife to be accused of secretly harboring an Impundulu.


Puckwudgies

The forest fairy of North America, Puckwudgies are found in the folklore of several American Indian tribes. Oddly similar to their Celtic counterparts, Puckwudgies are small, magical woodland beings with poison arrows and the ability to appear and disappear at will. Legend has it that the Puckwudgies were once a friend of humans, but an accumulation of grievances and jealousies caused the little guys to turn against us. They’ve been known to attack people, kidnap children, burn down homes, and lead travelers astray, and are sometimes even blamed for staging suicides by pushing their victims off cliffs.

The Pukwudgies photo: Pinterest

Paranormal Encounters What Exactly Is A Puckwudgie?

Certain forested parks and pockets of wilderness in New England are still said to be rampant with Puckwudgies.


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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Atlasobscura . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Land of The Dead and the Power of Satan in Middle Ages

People in the Middle Ages led certainly lives quite different from ours. But their thinking was so "different" than ours? In many ways, there are undeniable similarities: they had families, society was divided into states (or classes), living the same ambitions for their children as new and evolving into a world of emotions largely similar to ours.

On the other hand, the ratio of those emotions have another chip. Among other things, that superstition which is antechamber distress, kept the souls and minds trapped in some cruel straps. The taste for morbid faith that the world of the dead intersect naturally with the living conviction that between natural and supernatural no borders precise dark at the "mob" (and not only) serenity reason that gave evidence, however, Christian thinkers and mystics of the same period.

St. Bernard, in the late twelfth century, denounced with a gentle authority this train of superstitions and visions borrowed lack of logic of the delusion: "What sense are there in the cells of the brothers settled down to reading all those monstrosities ridiculous? About there monkeys unclean lions grim, terrible centaurs ? But halves of man? You zari under a head multihull and, for the right balance, more heads under one flesh.

This is a quadruped tailed snake a snake-tailed quadruped! Colo horse ends with a goat and beyond, an animal with horns, finish by a body of a horse. from all sides, an entire naval forms wrongheaded, for your coming rather read marble than in the pages of books and to spend days studying those things strange than cumpanesti the law of Upper. My God, My God, if we do not hinder all this nonsense, even to be ashamed of the thoughts that arise " Useless warnings! As you submit to decline moment, medieval thinking will be given a space in increasingly large and violent images that grim fantasy, wanting to arouse anxiety related to spectrum damnation, actually hiding a whole retinue of lust.

Saint Bernard photo: wikipedia.org

In the Netherlands, Alain de la Roche, a Dominican home Breton visionary, fanciful devotion is perfect - devotio modern - and its religious expression ultraconcreta. In his work, largely composed of sermons and descriptions of fantastic visions, comes out strong sexual excess imagination. 

Here it is seeing "beasts symbolizing sins, endowed with fierce genitalia spitting streams of fire which darkened the earth, describes the meretrix apostasia the harlot apostasy, creating apostates, devouring them and vomitandu them take turns hugging him and dezmierdandu them like a mother "(Johan Huizinga, the decline of the Middle Ages).

Ars moriendi


As understood, so our ancestors world in medieval times? According to philosopher Alan of Lille (XII century), "every creature of this world is a book or a painting or a mirror for us." The author of "book" God and the purpose of life is to understand the meaning of this book, so we can lead a higher spiritual and moral existence. 

Starting with the Renaissance, people began to look at the world in a much different way. They were trying to comprehend so they can control and exploit for their benefit. Medieval world, in contrast, did not ask to be dominated, but rather contemplated. That's because at any moment could feats. For medieval consciousness, fear of impending Armageddon's descent represent a continuing threat and dark, and life beyond, as I said, it was not as limited by the obvious here. Death had visited the living without protocol, unpredictable and insidious, as confesses a story widely circulated in age, history of the three youths live and three dead, which describes the meeting of young rich members of some deceased on the edge of a forest . Skeletons keep them frightened young murmur in his ear a reminder lugubrious chorus: "So how are you guys now we have been us, as we will now be made." Testimonials about corpses traveling on the outskirts of towns and fields are so many, that chronicler William of Newburgh (XII century) complains that "you can not count." Frontiers of the natural and the supernatural are extremely fluid, and traffic between the here and the beyond is not, as one might hasten to believe, one way. Because life lasts "blink of an eye," the Middle Ages was looking for an extend beyond the Acheron.

The descriptive travel widely in the world after death is of course performed by Dante in the Divine Comedy. But she's not alone. Thurkell, peasant from Essex, is recovering from a deep coma bringing with him many and overwhelming images of geography Land of the Dead, and Fursey Irishman returns of Hell flames scorched his beard. 

When borders are passed in a sense, when in the other - and not only by humans but also for whole cohorts of spiritual beings: the nine orders of angels on the one hand, Satan and his hideous appearances Armia other. 

Two camps engaged in a merciless struggle, whose stakes represented the souls of the living. Besides angels who do not always have swords sufficiently sharp and I can not prove always the evil people are protected by the Church ( "Every monastery is - wrote on the 1100 monk Orderic Vitalis - a fortress built to protect us from Satan ") by baptism, which is a form of exorcism, through rites of passage are designed to provide effective protection in the dead man's" great journey ".

If Antiquity boasted the famous Ars Amandi of Ovid, late Middle Ages, in almost all northern Europe, he has made one of the first printings of the West, Ars moriendi (written, apparently, by a Dominican monk at the express request of the Council of to Constance, 1414-1418), the most popular book of the time. Widely read and translated into all the languages ​​of Western Europe, the long version of the paper - Tractatus (or Speculum) artis bene moriendi - it has become extremely popular in England, where he created an entire tradition literary that will culminate later in the eighteenth century, the Holy Living and Holy Dying. This "art of dying properly" consisted of six chapters: the first describes the good parts of death and concluded that death should not scare us, the second depicting the five temptations (lack of faith, despair, impatience, pride and stinginess) you assault the dying and described the methods of their ward, the third listed seven questions that must be addressed dying and consolation available thanks to salvation offered by Christian love, the fourth chapter describes the life of Christ, to be taken to any good Christian as a model, the fifth address intimates and family, indicating rules of behavior that need to be followed around his deathbed and, finally, the sixth proposed set of prayers which was entitled read at bedside of the dying.

 The short version of the book, produced in the Netherlands around 1450, is a development of the second chapter (the temptations of the dying) and contains 11 etchings, the first ten are distributed in pairs, one for each temptation. Every pair is the demon that it seeks to deceive the dying and the way to avoid temptation. The eleventh depict dead coming out victorious in harsh trials, the time when i open the gates of Heaven and Hell demon returns.

When it ended the Middle Ages?


For some, in jest, half seriously, it was not until the twentieth century, when civilization Countryside (life rhythm of the seasons, obedience to nature village) gives way to urban civilization (life rhythm of wages, taxes, subjecting nature , the city). 

Darwin as an old man photo: wikipedia.org

For others, just when the man loses, with modernity, central position in the world thanks to Darwin's theories, he will find that is not found in the middle of its own history (Adam and Eve is but a myth) and by Freud is assured that it is not even the center of his own people, can only with difficulty be master of personal destiny (as long as the unconscious governs a large part of our existence).

Historically, things are simpler: Middle Ages ended with the Renaissance. A decisive year, an absolute frontier 1492, the year of the discovery of America, the moment when Europe, Asia and Africa cease to be the only continents of the planet. 1492 manifests its historical vocation limit and if we consider that marks the end of the Arab invasions in Europe (fall of Granada) and gives the signal that the massive integration of Arab culture (astronomy, mathematics, medicine, culinary arts, sciences, etc.) and by it has scientific treasure of antiquity. I mean is where the premises constitute emergence of humanism, individualism of political development, the notion of progress.

Yet when it ended the Middle Ages?


Here's an artistic perspective on the theme of the end of the medieval world, a parable revealing. One day the summer of 1520, riding a stallion with stumpy wrists and croup stately, melancholic Albrecht Dürer penetrate cutting on a rainy day in the city of Hertogenbosch. Received with honors by some of orfevrii vase you place the artist confesses his astonishment at seeing bold cathedral in the heart of the fair, embodied in a late gothic style. That's because her expectations are as of that day mood: gloomy.

About the settlement in question he knew, in advance, two things: that it was just an overlap surly bricks and that perpetrated with little while ago, there had taken his entire existence Hieronymus Bosch, painter all visions medieval illustrator darkest aberrations morphological mad grafting of species and kingdoms, who had given thousands of faces of people fear and demons of ancient times. 

If seaworthy surprising cathedral delighted him, he Durer, geometrically rational, who draw lines with precision architects man with eyes burned calculations not said a word about the great praise disappeared. It was his way to part with the past tradition dead and obsolete ages, looking for some values over which blew premonition of the future. 1520, the year past was met future, in the central square of Hertogenbosch.


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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Descopera . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.