Tag: myth
AMENTI Teaser Trailer
Amenti Second Edition is available now
Recently I attended a writer’s workshop and one of the speakers inspired me to pull an old novella from KDP, tidy it up, and re-upload it with a new cover.
Amenti is my first and only attempt at young adult horror.
It tells the story of Bobtail, a kitty, who moves to a neighbourhood where cats are being killed viciously. Immediately Bobtail finds himself being accused of the murders by the terrified Toms who will do anything to stop the killings.
It is up to Bobtail and the strange female Mishka to find the real killer, but how can they do that when everything about the murders is impossible?
Folklore: Bukavac
Stay away from the water
Today I want to tell you about the Bukavac.
Not a lot is known about the Bukavac in all honesty, beyond that, it lives in bodies of clear water, such as lakes and rivers. Generally, it is imagined as a large six-legged creature with large horns, and its favourite method of hunting is apparently strangulation.
Interpretations of this creature differ slightly, not surprisingly given that there’s not a lot of information out there in the first place. Some have it looking toad-like, others envision it as much larger and give it an almost dragon or crocodile-like design.
In several tellings, the creatures tend to lurk in water, much in the manner of crocodiles and alligators, with their horns looking like driftwood. Some descriptions have them as being ungainly on land due to the six legs, but others have them being extremely fast because of this. Consistency seems to be an issue.
It is Slavic in origin and appears today mostly in games, in particular roleplay type games where it is used as a standard monster for a party to face. They don’t seem to be overly popular or even that well known which makes them excellent creatures to use in fiction as they are so flexible.
Due to the lack of information and conflicts with the information that does exist it is difficult to say why people invented the Bukavac, possibly to explain deaths near water, or people falling into water and becoming trapped and entangled in plants. It is truly impossible to tell, but regardless we’ve been gifted with an interesting creature and given a hell of a lot of freedom of interpretation.
Folklore: Skogsra
Pretty girls in the woods
Folklore: Gashadokuro
Solid ghosts
Today I am writing to talk to you about the Gashadokuro.
The gashaokuro, also known as the odokuro, come from Japan. They are classified as a ghost or spirit, but they do have a physical substance to them aka they are not incorporeal.
Appearance wise the gashaokuro look like epic skeletons, they are around 80-90 feet tall. They gnash their teeth as they walk which I can only imagine as being very loud given their size.
They are pulled together from the bones of people who died from either starvation or warfare. Naturally, as you can imagine anyone who died in this awful manner would be pretty miffed. This makes the gashaokuro full of anger, rage and bloodlust.
Any angry bloodthirsty spirit worth its salt is going to eat people.
The gashaokuro roam the countryside during the night hunting people to drink blood from. If they locate someone, they will stalk them silently somehow before ambushing them and biting their heads off and drink the insides. There is no way to fight off the gashaokuro, the only thing you can do is run when you hear a ringing in your ears as this is the only warning you will have. Though honestly, outrunning a gigantic skeleton? Unlikely.
The gashaokuro appear throughout modern culture both as themselves and as the inspiration for other monsters.
The gashaokuro have appeared in video games such as Chrono Trigger with the character Zombor, there are a fair few of them popping up in Castlevania. There is a gashaokuro in AdventureQuest Worlds it is a forbidden Beast of Chaos.
They also appear in animation, such as Hellboy: Sword of Storms, and the Studio Ghibli movie Pom Poko.
Lastly, they are also seen in manga and some of the subsequent anime such as InuYasha and Inu x Boku SS.
Lastly, though I’ve not seen this confirmed anywhere I got very distinct Attack on Titan vibes when I was researching this creature.
Folklore: Nykur
Today I want to talk to you about the Nykur.
Today I am writing to you about the Nykur.
A Nykur is an Icelandic myth, it usually appers as a horse (kinda, a weird horse). It has a lot of similarities with the Scottish Kelpie.
The Nykur, much like the Kelpie, finds sport in drowning travellers that it lures into mounting it and then runs into water. Its skin is sticky so once the beast is mounted struggling will not free you.
In order to protect yourself you have to engage in Christian practices aka make the sign of the cross against the creature, or in the alternative you can call out the name of the Nykur. Calling its name will send the Nykur away into the water (without the victim), making the sign of the cross will calm the creature so that you can ride it like you would a normal horse.
Legend says that you can tell when a Nykur is around by the sound of cracking ice, which is supposed to be the sound of the creature neighing.
The Nykur, like many water demons, could have been created as a way for parents to warn children away from dangerous bodies of water. They could also have been created as a way for people to make sense of the unexpected behaviour of water.
Folklore: 3 Monsters that you might not have heard about
Folklore: The Aswang
Vampires everywhere
Today I am writing to talk to you about the Aswang.
The Aswang is a creature from the Philippines, or, according to some, it can be a catch all term for a group/type of creature.
Generally Aswangs are thought of as shapeshifters, they look human during the day and tend to portray themselves as mild mannered and feeble (superman vibes?). They will tend to make friends, who are none the wiser.
If you are looking at them as a group then said group can be broken down into, Vampires, the typical beautiful women who drinks blood, but this vampire does so via a long tongue and tends to live in forests rather than graveyards. The Aswang can also be a witch, a vindictive creature fond of curses. The curses tend to cause foreign bodies like rice or bugs to come out of the victims body (grim). Then you have the Viscera Sucker, which feats on organ meat of young or unborn children. Next you have the ghoul, who eats dead people. Lastly, there’s the Werecreature, they can become anything, from a dog or cat to a pig, this version eats pregnant women who have tied up their hair (keeping your hair lose keeps you safe).
The aswang is a creature, or group of creatures, with a lot of variety and because of this it can tap into a lot of different types of fear. However, there are similarities, most of the Aswang prey on women, pregnant women or children. They hide in plain sight either in or close to a village and they trick people into trusting and in some cases even marrying them.
They play into the intrinsic fears we have, especially the werecreature who can become a threatening animal. But they also play into the more esoteric fears we have around women and pregnancy. Pregnancy is risky, even today women and children can be lost to a complication and the Aswang could easily have been a cultures way to explain those losses in a way we can understand. Like most stories and myths they are created to help us understand the world, monsters are made to make the world less frightening, to make it make sense.
The Aswang also plays up to our fear of being bamboozled, they hide in plain sight, they get us to trust them only for them to betray us and harm the community. This is almost a societal tension, mistrust of outsiders, fear that those around us aren’t being honest with us, are hiding something or are more than they seem.
As said above, Aswang were probably created to explain death and injury, particularly to children and pregnant women. They were created to help us explain and understand tragedy. But they were also created to give us a sense of control. There are various countermeasures that can be taken to keep the Aswang at bay, there are various holy objects and behaviours that can be used to fend these creatures off, prevent miscarriage and protect the village.
Folklore: Funayurei
Horrific little mermaid
The legend I want to talk about today comes from Japan and delves into Japan’s apparent love for creepy ghost ladies. We will be looking at the funayurei, a type of ghost, commonly portrayed as women with a passion for sinking ships.
Continue reading “Folklore: Funayurei”
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