I'm just your local folklorist sharing daily myths and folklore for you to enjoy.
Posts will usually be accompanied by information and context for you to understand the cultural and historical context a little better, as well as just to know cool pieces of information when I have them.
Please remember that there are almost always regional variations and not every story is going to be the same everywhere. I will try and make sure to include the region or people each story is associated with.
Requests are absolutely welcome, though it may be a bit for me to get to them or to find a good source. They may be requests for specific stories or stories from specifics regions or cultures. I also include most cryptids as local folklore and welcome localized folklore you may want to share!
While most people think of Dracula when they hear the word vampire, Jewish mythology tells a much older and more mystical story about a creature called the estrie in English or striyas in Hebrew. These beings are fascinating because they occupy a strange space in Jewish mysticism as they were said to be created during the twilight hours just before the very first Shabbat. Because they were made in that liminal space between the mundane week and the holy day, their bodies were never fully finished and left them with the ability to shapeshift and change their form.
An estrie is described as a female spirit who looks like a human woman and lives among people in towns or villages to satisfy her need for blood. But unlike the vampires we see in movies, her power is deeply connected to her hair. Folklore says she can only fly when her hair is completely unbound and loose. If she wants to take flight to hunt or escape, she must let her hair down, but this also becomes her vulnerability. If you can manage to bind her hair or cover it, she is instantly grounded and can no longer use her powers of flight.
These shapeshifters are masters of disguise and often take the form of night creatures to move around unnoticed. It is common in these legends for an estrie to transform into an owl so she can watch from the trees or swoop down in the night. Other stories describe her taking the form of a cat to walk silently through a home or village without drawing any attention to herself.
There is a very specific way to heal or disarm them that speaks to the ancient Jewish value of hospitality. If an estrie is injured by a human, she can only be healed if that same person gives her bread and salt. This creates a powerful spiritual bond between the injurer and the vampire because offering bread and salt is a sign of sustaining life and welcoming a guest. By accepting this food, she is bound to the person and her injury is repaired.
It’s a beautiful and eerie reminder that Jewish folklore is full of mysterious creatures that walk the line between the physical and spiritual worlds. Shabbat Shalom 🧿✨
@sweetwolf4evr requested a story from the Cherokee Nation this time, a shared community we both belong to, so I was so happy to have a few on hand. (Although, this one is a little short and a little disturbing. TW for consent issues, as I believe this would fall under Thomson Motif D1900 "Love Induced by Magic")
A man was in love with a woman who disliked him and wanted nothing to do with him. He tried every way to win her favor, but with no success. At last he grew discouraged and made himself thinking about it.
Mole came along and finding the man so low in mind, asked what the trouble was. The man told him the whole story and when he had finished, Mole said: "I can help you. Not only will she like you, but she'll come to you of her own free will."
That night, burrowing underground to the place where the girl was asleep, Mole took out her heart. He came back and gave the heart to the discouraged lover, who couldn't see it in the dark, even in his own hand. "There," said Mole. "Swallow it and she will be so drawn to you that she has to come."
The man swallowed the heart, and when the girl woke up she somehow thought of him at once. She felt a strange desire to be with him, to go to him immediately. She couldn't understand it, because she had always disliked him, but the feeling grew so strong that she was compelled to find the man and tell him that she loved him and wanted to be his wife. And so they were married.
All of the wise men and women who knew them both were confused and wondered how this had happened. When they found that it was the work of Mole, who they always thought was too insignificant to notice, they were angry and threatened to kill him.
That's why Mole hid under the ground and still doesn't dare to come up.
A dark one for sure, but not all of the world's stories can be completely happy. This story dates back quite a while, but this particular edition was collected in the late 1800s.
This is another animal story, though it's less of an origin story and more of a lesson in paying attention, even when something or someone seems insignificant or unimportant.
The ATU, or Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index is a cataloging system used by folklorists to classify folktales based on plots and motifs. It contains over 2,000 types of folktales and was originally a much smaller list collected by Antti Aarne, a Finnish folklorist, and later expanded on by American folklorist Stith Thompson, whose work was even further expanded upon by Hans-Jorg Uther.
As always, requests for specific or area-specific stories, folklore, and mythologies can be made at any time in my asks. You can also be moved to the head of the line by becoming a Patreon!
As always, thank you to our requester, @i-pray-emo-now, for her request of a folktale from China! She specifically requested a love story, but ( on purpose) didn't specify the type of love story. Enjoy!
When the universe first emerged from chaos, mankind had not yet been created and the firmament and all the territories beneath it were inhabited by Gods or giants who had sprung forth from the body of Pan Gu. At that time, one particularly powerful goddess appeared on earth in the company of her chosen heavenly companion. The Goddess' name was Nu Wa and her companion's name was Fu Xi. Together these deities set out to bring an even greated sense of order and regulation to the world.
Of all of the other Gods in the heavens, Nu Wa was the strangest and most unusual in appearance: The upper half of her body was shaped like a human being, while the lower half looked like a snake. Nu Wa also possessed the unique ability to change her shape up to seventy times a day and she came to the earth in several different guises.
Although she loved the wondrous beauty of the newborn world she occupied, deep within she felt it to be a little too silent and she yearned to create something that would fill the empty stillness. One day, as she walked along the banks of the great Yellow River, she began to imagine spending time in the company of other beings not unlike herself, animated creatures who might talk and laugh with her and with whom she could share her thoughts and feelings. Sitting herself down on the earth, she allowed her fingers to explore its sandy texture and without realizing what she was doing, began to mould the surrounding clay into tiny figures. But instead of giving them the lower bodies of reptiles, the Goddess gave her creatures little legs so they would stand upright. Pleased with the result, she placed the first of them beside her on the earth and was surprised but overjoyed to see it suddenly come to life, dancing around her and laughing excitedly. She placed another beside it and again the same thing happened! Nu Wa was delighted with herself and with her own hands and continued to make more and more of her little people as she rested by the river bank.
But as the day wore on, the Goddess grew tired and it was then she decided to make use of her power to complete the task she had begun. She broke off a length of wood from a nearby mulberry tree and dredged it through the water until it was covered in mud. Then she took the branch and furiously shook it until several hundred drops of mud landed on the ground and as each drop landed it was instantly transformed into a human being. Then Nu Wa pronounced that the beings she had formed with her own hands should live to become the rich and fortunate people of the world, while those created out of the drops of mud should lead ordinary and humble lives. And realizing that her little creatures should themselves be masters of their own survival, Nu Wa separated them into sons and daughters and declared that they should marry and multiple until the whole world had become their home and they were free once and for all from the threat of extinction.
Notes under the cut.
As always, there are of course regional variants, though I believe this one tends to remain largely the same. Creation myths are some of the most important in most cultures and this one doubles as answer to why some people are rich and others poor.
This story refers to three primary gods:
Nu Wa is a central mother goddess in Chinese mythology, revered as a deity of fertility and marriage and social order, as well as justice, compassion, and virtue. She is also credited with repairing the sky in another myth when cosmic pillars broke and threatened to drop all of heaven down on the earth.
Pan Gu is the primordial giant and creator deity which makes up the physical features of the world, such as the mountains and rivers but also the sun and moon. (Very similar to Ymir in Norse mythology in that regard, just with a much less antagonistic story)
Fu Xi is often depicted in the same description as Nu Wa (human top half, snakey bottom half) and is also a very important figure regarding early humans. He's credited with bringing civilization to humans, especially laws, writing, cooking, and even tools such as fishing nets! He and Nu Wa are also depicted as representations of Yin and Yang throughout art.
As always, you can become a Patron and make requests any time!
Our first story is probably familiar to some of you, though it has various versions across the continent of Africa. This specific version is from Sierra Leone, West Africa.
Long ago, Leopard and Fire were the best of friends. Every morning, without fail, Leopard made a special effort to visit his friend even though the journey took him quite a distance from his own home, It had never bothered him that Fire did not visit him, until the day his wife began to mock him and tease him for it.
"He must be a very poor friend," she jeered, "if he won't come and see you at home even once."
Day and night, Leopard was forced to listen to his wife taunt him, until finally he began to believe that his home was somehow unworthy of his friend.
"I will prove my wife wrong," he thought to himself, and set off before dawn next day to beg Fire to come and visit his home.
At first, Fire gave every possible excuse. He never liked to travel too far, he explained. He always felt uncomfortable leaving his family behind. But Leopard pleaded and pleaded until Fire eventually agreed to visit on one condition: That his friend construct a path of dry leaves leading from one house to the other.
As he walked home, Leopard gathered as many leaves as he could find and laid them in a long line between the two houses just as Fire had asked. He brought his wife the good news and she immediately began to prepare the finest foods to welcome their guest.
When the meal was ready and the house was so clean it sparkled like new, the couple sat down to wait for their friend. They had only been seated for a moment when suddenly they felt a strong gust of wind and heard a loud crackling noise outside their front door. Leopard jumped up in alarm and opened the door, anxious to discover who could be making such an awful commotion. He was astonished to see Fire standing there, crackling and sparking in a haze of intense heat, his body a mass of flames that leapt off him in every direction.
Soon the entire house had caught fire and the smell of burning skin filled the air. Leopard grabbed a hold of his shrieking wife and sprang, panic-stricken, through the window, rolling in the grass to put out the flames on his back.
The two lay there exhausted but grateful to be alive. But ever since that day, their bodies were covered all over with black spots where the fingers of Fire, their reluctant houseguest, had touched them.
Notes below the cut.
Many stories regarding animals have lessons to them, but just as many are just explanations for why an animal is the way it is. And then, of course, there are some stories that are primarily for entertainment, such as most stories of Anansi the Spider. This story may have originally been told when a small child asked why leopards had spots, like asking why the sky is blue.
There are many such stories all throughout folklore from across the globe and this one has been included in collections of similar stories. Rudyard Kipling illustrated a collection in 1902 called Just So Stories for Little Children, which included a very different version of how Leopard got his spots as well as several others.
It should also be noted that most African myths and legends were originally part of a vast oral tradition and were changed at least minutely over the centuries and over distances. One person might tell it one way while another may tell it another and still another in a completely different region will have a vastly different tale to tell, which makes collecting tales in certain regions slightly difficult but infinitely rewarding.
If you would like to become a Patreon and make requests for stories or research, please head over here!
