Mythology @ FreshCaffeine.com

Folklore of Scotland
Similar to Irish Banshee

Although this Scottish Gaelic name has exactly the same meaning as the Irish BANSHEE “woman of the fairies”, in Highlands the name refers to beautiful but evil female SPIRITS. They are usually dressed in green and can recognized by their deer’s hooves if they appear in human form, but they may also take the shape of hooded crows or ravens. The BAOBAN SITH live on the blood of humans, especially young huntsman on the moorlands.

In his Scottish folklore and folk life, D.A. Mckenzie tells of four young huntsmen resting overnight in a shieling (a Shepard’s shelter), who wished for company and were delighted when four young women entered. While making music for the others, one hunter noticed that the “woman” had hooves and drops of blood on them, and he fled to hide with the horses, whose iron shoes were protection. He realized that these were the fearful BAOBAN SITH and his friends had succumbed to the enchantment of these demon women. Try as she could, his supernatural partner the BAOBAN SITH could not reach him., and she disappeared at sunrise. Later, to his horror, he discovered the drained and bloodless bodies of his companions.

Source: Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins Encyclopedia

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English Folklore
A Sleep Spirit

This is the name of a nursery spirit in the folklore of England. The DUSTMAN is a sleep SPIRIT who comes at night to small children, and by sprinkling magic dust over their eyes, like the OLE LUK OJ of Denmark, the children fall asleep. By his enchantment, he ensures that they have pleasant dreams.

Source: Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins Encyclopedia

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Greek Mythology
His tree was the laurel.
The crow his bird.
The dolphin his animal.

Apollo is the son of ZEUS and LETO. His twin sister is ARTEMIS. He is the god of music, playing a golden lyre. The Archer, far shooting with a silver bow. The god of healing who taught man medicine. The god of light. The god of truth, who can not speak a lie.

One of Apollo's more importaint daily tasks is to harness his chariot with four horses an drive the Sun across the sky.

He is famous for his oracle at Delphi. People travled to it from all over the greek world to devine the future.

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Mythology of Europe/England
Described as ”Tiny Devils” or “Little Devils”
Purpose is to cause mischief and disruption

In the folk beliefs of Europe, this is a mischievous little devil, devilet, or minor fiend that is often described as being the childlike offspring of the DEVIL. It is a very old term, and may be seen in ancient documents in various spelling such as Emp, Himpe, Hympe, or Ymp. Imps may manifest in any form, but are often portrayed as evil-looking infants with tiny horns protruding from their heads and tiny wing from their shoulders. The Imp may also feature in witch trials as the familiar SPIRIT of the accused. Then legend of the Lincoln Imp tells how the DEVIL, in a frivolous mood, set loose some of his more playful IMPS to create mischief. One of them descended from the air into the English town of Lindum, as Lincoln was then known, entered the new cathedral being built, and started to wreak havoc. An ANGEL observing the little fiend put a stop to his pranks by turning the Imp into stone on the column where he had alighted, and that is where he remains to this day.

Source: Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins Encyclopedia

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European Folklore
A type of Fiend

This is the medieval European female fiend of the night. The name is from the Latin Sub, under, and cubare, to lie down. Just like the INCUBUS that mounts a sleeping woman for the purpose of sexual relations, this is the female form that copulates with man in his sleep. It may take on any shape, male or female, but it usually appears in the semblance of he wife or lover, or it may be entirely invisible. During witch-hunts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, women were often accused of being the SUCCUBUS of the DEVIL, with little chance of refuting such a charge.

Source: Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins Encyclopedia

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Celtic Folklore
Teutonic Folklore

A supernatural being taking the form of a crone. The spirit may be benevolent but is more often of malicious intent. Hags abound in Celtic and Teutonic folklore, and the term is often applied to the queens of the SIDHE and CORN SPIRITS such as Scottish CAILLEAC. They are said to build islands, cromlechs, and other topographical features. The activities of these SPIRITS are often associated with the weather, harvests, and spinning. A hag may also be a SUCCUBUS. Plaguing a sleeper, especially during the Celtic feasts of Beltane and Samhain. In this respect, the term HAGGE is the sixteenth-century English name for the nightmare.

Source: Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins Encyclopedia

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Mythology of Wales
Evil Mountain Fairies
Takes the shape of a goat

These are the evil mountain FAIRIES in the folklore of Wales. The GWILLION are described as hideous HAGS seen walking on the roads in foul weather. They could also materialize in the shape of goats. It is said that they combed the goats’ beards on Wednesdays, the FAIRY Sabbath. The most feared of them is the OLD WOMAN OF THE MOUNTAIN. The GWILLION, when not leading night-bound travelers astray in the mountains and forest, may call at the homes of the community about Aberystwyth, where the terrified inhabitants allow the GWILLION to shelter on stormy nights. These supernatural HAGS, like many others of their kind, are vanquished and disappear at the sight of an iron knife.

Source: Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins Encyclopedia

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Many countries share this mythology
Has many names and many stories

This is the name of a trickster of West African, West Indian, South American, and southern US folklore. As a typical shape shifting, cunning, sly, supernatural SPIRIT of folktales, ANANSI features extensively in moralizing tales, with other animal spirits and sometimes humans as dupes. His origin, according to West African folklore, was human, but he was transformed by the gods to be a used as a spirit messenger.

In West Africa, the names of this supernatural spider vary from GIZO and KWAKU ANANSE among the Hausa and Akan peoples, respectfully, while in the New World his names vary from Mr. Spider, ‘TIL MALICE in Haiti, and NANSI in Curacao, to the feminine forms of AUNT NANCY and MISS NANCY in parts of South Carolina in the United States. The original name for this trickster survives in stories from Jamaica and Surinam.

The most common tales involve ANANSI in some attempt to fool another creature by supernatural manipulation, but ANANSI does not always succeed and sometimes falls prey instead of his intended victim. Some tales are unique to one area, but others like the TAR BABY feature under one name or another wherever the spider stories have survived. The spider may be adapted to a different animal form and his demise affected by some other sticky substance. In the Ashanti and Yoruba form, this tale is known as “The Pot Always Full of Food”, in Surinam as Anansi and the Gum Doll, in Angola as the Hare and the Gum Doll, and in South Africa Hottentot folklore as The Jackal and Gumdoll. Some tales remain essentially the same, while the characters have been changed. Thus, in West Africa, ANANSI may be the Hare and the Tortoise in Bantu tales, B’Rabby in the Bahamas, and the Brer Rabbit in the southern United States. In this way the original tale becomes in Sierre Leone Turtle Rides a Leopard, in Surinam ANANSI rides a tiger, and in the Southern United States Brer Rabbit Rides Brer Fox/Brer Wolf.

One of the most delightful of the original tales describes how, when caught in a brush fire, ANANSI changes into his spider shape and jumps into the ear of a freighted antelope. He tells her which way to run clear of the fire, they both escape. The grateful spider promises to repay her. Some time later, the antelope and her fawn are in the path of some hunters and she runs desperately to lure them away from her baby but to no avail. When she returns, exhausted, she cannot find her baby and believes it to be slaughtered, until ANANSI reveals where he has hidden it safely – inside an enormous spider web.

Source: Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins Encyclopedia

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Mythology of West Africa
A type of Spirit

The trickster SPIRIT of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, ESHU is known as ELEGBA and LEGBA to other people of West Africa. He cased discord and misery through his pranks and mischief making but was also a protector of mankind against evil SPIRIT and other dangers. As such, he is the patron of mothers in childbirth and the miners of the Nigerian coalfields. ESHU is depicted as having hair resembling an enormous lock of plaited and sculpted hair resembling a penis, adorned with the fruit of the oil palm, extending from the back of this head. Initiates into his cult both in West African and the Americas wear a mask or their hair resembling this feature.

Source: Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins Encyclopedia

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Mythology of Europe/England
Also originated with water spirit of Celtic Mythology

This is the mysterious fairy figure and spirit in the legends of King Arthur. She also goes by the names of FATA MORGANA, MORGAINE, MORGANA, MORGANE, MORGAN LA FAEE, MORGANETTA, and MORGUE LA FAYE. Originally, in the Arthurian legends she is the Lady of the Lake and the healing SPIRIT that takes the wounded Arthur to Avalon. In Malory’s Morte Darthur (ca, 1469), she is Arthur’s fairy half-sister, who plots the demise of Guinevere and Lancelot, and thus Arthur’s eventual downfall. MORGAN DE FAY also features in other works such as Ogier the Dane, Orlando Furioso, and Orlando Innamorto. Her magic is also considered to be responsible for the mirages of the Straits of Messina, which are known as Fata Morgana. It has been suggested that she may be derived from a mermaid or a Celtic water deity, and thus connected with Morrigan or Ireland and the Mari Morgan of Brittany.

Source: Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins Encyclopedia

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