Mythology @ FreshCaffeine.com

Native American Mythology
Evil Spirits

This is the name of a group of evil spirits in the legends of the Native American people in the Southwest United States. These SPIRITS inhabited a marvelous palace made of glistening precious jewels. Travelers who passed by and saw this beautiful dwelling were tempted to go in and thus sealed their fate, demons attacked and devoured them. These spirits were eventually defeated by NAGENATZANI, the child of the sun, who tricked them with magic salt and fire.

Source: Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins Encyclopedia

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Native American and Canadian Folklore
Cannibal – eats the flesh of humans

This is the name of a monster in the traditions of the Native American people off the United States. There are three different descriptions f the WENDIGO, which may also be known as the WIENDIGO or WINDIGO, according to beliefs as follows:

1. In the beliefs of the Algonquin people in the WENDIGO is a transformed lost hunter who, having been lost without food, preyed upon human flesh and metamorphosed into a cannibal Ogre.

2. This is the name of an amphibious monster with the body shape resembling that of an alligator but having tracks left by feet resembling those of a bear and / or cloven hooves. It was said to inhabit the Berens Lake in the region of Ontario, Canada, where it did considerable damage to the fishing nets of the community.

3. The WINDIGO is the name of an OGRE in the traditions of the Ojibwa people that has been used as a form of Nursery bogie to control their children’s behavior.

Source: Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth

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Religious Mythology of Islam
Gigantic Serpent

This is the name of a gigantic serpent in the mythology associated with Islam. It is within this cosmic serpent, lying below the vast bulk of the supporting BAHMUT, that the fires of Hell and eternity are located.

Source: Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth

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Religious Mythology of Islam
The creature that supports the earth

In the mythology associated with Islam, this is the name of a vast creature that supports the earth. BAHAMUT is described as an immense and dazzling bright fish with a head resembling that of a hippopotamus or elephant. According to one account, it was created to support a gigantic bull, which in turn supported a gigantic ruby, on which stood and ANGEL holding six hells above which was the earth and it’s seven heavens. According to another source, BAHAMUT supported a layer of sand on which stood a gigantic bull, on whose forehead rested a mountain of rock holding the waters in which the earth was located. Whatever the description and hierarchy, BAHAMUT’S proportions were such that no human could imagine the size of the creature. Uniquely in the four hundred and ninety-six tale in The Tales of the Thousand and One Nights are we told that ISA (Jesus) was the only one ever to be granted the privilege of seeing BAHAMUT in all its magnitude. We are further told that beneath BAHAMUT, bearing all the fires of Hell is the monstrously vast serpent of hell called FALAK.

Source: Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth

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Religious Mythology
Hebrew, Christian and Muslim Faiths
Male version of the female LEVIATHAN

This is a monster in the religious traditions of the Hebrew, Christian, and Muslim faiths. BEHEMOTH is described in both the Hebraic books of Enoch (40:7-9) and Job (51:15-24) as the male counterpart of the LEVIATHAN. It is of enormous proportions, so vast that the desert of Dedain extends across it’s upper body; it’s bones are as of brass; it’s huge jaws consume thousands of acres of vegetation at one gulp and the river Jordan at one swallow.

It was prophesied in Jewish tradition that at the coming of the Day of Judgment and the messiah, the LEVIATHAN and BEHMOTH would be locked in combat to the death. The resulting bodies would be food for the “chosen”, who would have lived their lives in righteousness.

In European medieval Christian tradition, BEHEMOTH was regarded as a most powerful tempter that manifested itself in the shape of a groteque4 elephant. His domain is that of the “delights of the belly”, and he charged by the devil with tempting humans into the vice of overindulgence.

In the Muslim tradition, BEHEMOTH equates with the monstrous BAHAMUT, the vast monster that supports the earth in the cosmos.

Source: Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth

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Mythology of Greece and Rome

This is the name of a class of giants in the classical mythology of Greece and Rome. They were the three original sons of GAIA and URANUS and primordial monsters born of vast proportions with fifty heads and a hundred arms and hands, as the name implies. They were also known as HERCATONCHIRS (Greek) and CENTIMENES (Roman), both meaning “having a hundred heads.” They were origin ally three in number – Briareus, Cuttus, and Gyges – but others, such as Enceladus, were named later. URANUS was so disgusted by their appearance that he cast them into the darkness of Tartarus. They were the siblings of the TITANS and related to the Olympian gods, who made war on the TITANS. GAIA informed the king of the Olympian gods that the HUNDRED HANDED GIANTS were in Tartarus and could help defeat the TITANS. When they were released, they help defeat the Titans. When they were released, they helped the gods, and when the Titans in turn were cast into Tartarus by the victorious by the victorious gods the HUNDRED HANDED GIANS were given the task of being guards.

Source: Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth

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Mythology of Greece and Rome
The Sky God
Was castrated by his son Cronos

This is the name of one of the primordial giants in the classical mythology of Rome and Greece. URANUS, also spelled OURANOS or OURANOUS, was the progeny of GAIA, with whom he produced the TITAINS, the HUNDRED HEADED GIANTS, and the monstrous CYCLPOPES. He so detested these beings that he enforced their stay in GAIA or, according to some versions, in the depths of TARTARUS. However, GAIA conspired with CRONOS to overthrow URANUS, and while he lay with GAIA, CRONOS castrated his father with a sickle. The blood from this act engendered the FURIES, and when it dropped over the sea, APHRODITE/VENUS was born from the foam.

Source: Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth

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Drinks Blood To Survive
They may be defeated by the use of holy water, the use of a silver cross, pinning through the heart with a wooden stake, and allowing the sunlight to fall on them

This is the name of a monstrous humanoid being that has been transformed from wicked unrepentant mortal human into an immortal creature that must suck the blood of another in order to survive. These beings are found in most cultures around the world but do not necessarily take the form of a human when they hunt their prey. In many European traditions, they are the development from the dead WEREWOLF. They may take the form of a monstrous bat, fox, or a cat to mesmerize and drain the blood of their victim. The only ways in which they may be defeated is by the use of holy water, the use of a silver cross, pinning through the heart with a wooden stake, and allowing the sunlight to fall on them. Hawthorn and garlic were said to repel them, and they could be recognized from throwing no shadow, or a reflection in a mirror. During the middle ages and for sometime after, whole graveyards were exhumed when a catastrophe set the people looking for the VAMPIRE that was to blame.

The European Concept was developed from an eastern European tradition of the Balkan states where the Slavic word vampir exists with variants in the Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Russian languages. The legends of the VAMPIRE were current long before the Greek scholar Leone Allaeci mad his study in the middle 1600s. By 1734 some of the legends had been translated into English, and in 1746 the French Benedictine monk Augustine Calmet (1672-1757) published a study of the phenomenon. By the end of nineteenth century Europe had become fascinated by the horror story of the VAMPIRE, with both eminent authors such as Goethe and Baudelaire responding to the publics demand that spawned horror comics such as “Varney the Vampire” (1847). The major development of the theme came wit the publication of the classic horror novel Dracula (1897) by the Irish author Bram Stoker. It has been conjectured that much of the frisson gained in this type of horror comes from the sexuality involved in the “kiss”, usually depicted as piercing the neck with fangs, that drains the blood of the victim.

In other countries, the tradition of El Broosha has devolved into the traditions of Spain from the early Jewish settlers. This Vampire was derived from the legend of Lillith, the first wife of Adam in the book of Genesis. In Japan, the VAMPIRE is the ca of Nabeshima, which takes the form of the princess who was its first victim and then tries to kill the royal prince but is destroyed. In China, the VAMPIRES inhabit abandon temples and castles and attack travelers at night. In the beliefs of the Araucanian people of Chile there are COLO-COLO, the Invunche, and the Pihuechenyi; in Surinam the Azeman; in the Islands of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean it is the Sukuyan. In the US the Skatene is the VAMPIRE in the beliefs of the Choctaw Native American people of the southeastern US and the Stikini in the beliefs of the Seminole Native American People of Oklahoma. In Scotland, the VAMPIRE is Lammikin. In ancient Rome, it was Lamiaqa and the Strigae, which was the source of the modern greek VAMPIRE, the Stringes. The Vulkodlac is a VAMPIRE in modern Slavic folklore and the UPIR in modern Russia. In India, the Pey is the Vampire in Tamil mythology; in West Malaysia, he Pottianak is the VAMPIRE of the Malay people; while VIS is a Vampire in the beliefs of the Lakalai people of central New Brittan in Melanesia

Source: Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth

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European
May be spelled Alfe, Alve, Elve, or Ylf

This is a type of SPRITE or MANNIKIN in British, Icelandic, Scandinavian and Teutonic legend. Originally, the word in Anglo-Saxon meant all fairies, but later denoted a special breed. This was then adapted by other cultures. Elves are tiny human-shaped supernatural creatures that can shape shift at will.

In England the ELF men a said to be like little old men, but the ELF maidens are young and beautiful. It is believed that they live in communities with kingdoms and kings in the same way as humans. They will use their supernatural powers on humans whenever they can, sometimes benevolently but more often with mischievous intent. The ELVES live in the forest and the trees mostly in hollowed out tree trunks. They also live in long burrows and ancient burial mounds where they spring from at night and dance in the moonlight.

In Teutonic mythology the ALFAR are divided into Dark and Light Elves who are malicious and benevolent, respectively. In German folklore, the forest ELF is called SCHRAT.

In Danish folklore the ELLEN or ELLE Folk are particularly malicious towards humans if seen in the woods. They reward a housewife whose home is particularly clean, but are prone to stealing her bread and other things from her kitchen.

In Sweden he ELVES are known as ELVOR, GROVE FOLK or GROVE DAMSELS.

In Iceland they are known as SPAE-WIVES. Sometimes they will be friendly towards humans, and stories are told of them asking for help, but the ELF community is usually quite independent and very powerful, taking terrible revenge on any human who offends them. They may also steal babies, cattle milk and bread or enchant and hold young men in their spell for years at a time. An example of this is the well-known story of RIP VAN WINKLE.

So well known is the harm that ELVES offer to humans, that many conditions and phenomenon have been attributed to them, as follows:

Elf Arrows: Neolithic arrowheads, supposed to have been shot at humans by ELVES.
Elf Bolt: a disease of farm animals caused by ELF arrows
Elf Bore: a piece of wood from which the knot has dropped out.
Elf Cake: an enlargement of the spleen
Elf Child: a CHANGLING
Elf Cup: a stone with a hollow from dripping water
Elf Fire: Will o’ Wisp
Elf Locks: tangles and knots in the hair caused by ELVES tangling the hair at night.
Elf Marked: natural defects at birth or birth marks caused by mischievous ELVES
Elf Twisted: said of a person who suffered a stroke, or of fascinated, deformed vegetation.

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