Sammelsurium Monstroes

A collection of odd ends from folklore and literature.

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Demon illustrations by Julius Nisle

The fifth volume of Johann Scheible’s literature series “Das Kloster. Weltlich und geistlich” contains a reprint of the German chapbook “Christoph Wagner - Faust’s Famulus” (”Faust’s assistant”) with additional illustrations by Julius Nisle.

These include depictions of 9 out of 25 demons that appear before Wagner in his room. The chapbook’s author took their names and descriptions directly from the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum though Nisle didn’t always stick to these descriptions literally.

Names as given in the original text, from left to right:

Marbas, Agares, Bael

Pruflus , Amon , Barbatos or Loray(?)

Lepar , Cacrinoloas

Bileth and minor spirits, Wagner himself showing reverence.

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Top row: (1) Polong by unknown artist (2) Penanggalan as drawn by Abdullah Abdul Kadir ; both reproduced in the notes to A.H.Hill's translation of the Hikayat Abdullah

Bottom row: (1,2) Penanggalan as drawn by Shigeru Mizuki

Readers of Shigeru Mizuki’s work have probably wondered why he decided to draw the penanggalan, usually depicted as a flying head with trailing entrails, as looking instead like a flying "stomach". The origin seems to lie in an illustration which Mizuki used as a model.

However, unintentionally or intentionally, he used an illustration of what was originally supposed to be a polong, a different entity; as the original context from the “Indo-Chinese Gleaner”, for which the illustration was produced, makes clear.

Note elements like the bottle top(?) which was interpreted as a set of jaws, the hair-like tendrils and the characteristic ridge running down the middle of the body. Both the illustration of the polong and a penanggalan, as drawn by Malayan author Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir, were featured side-by-side in A.H.Hills translation of Abdullah’s autobiography "Hikayat Abdullah" in the "Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society" and were also reproduced in a Japanese translation of the "Hikayat Abdullah", which would explain the eventual confusion. As Mizuki is confirmed to have used the (actual) penanggalan illustration as a model too it is likely he was also aware of the polong, making a connection likely.

Credit where credit is due: I wouldn’t have found out about this background if it hadn’t been for this twitter posting:  https://twitter.com/mitasuki/status/1297081072912539648

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Augustin Meinrad Bächtiger's illustrations for Arnold Büchli's "Sagen aus Graubünden 1. Teil" (Folktales from Graubünden vol 1) 

 Illustrations belong to the following stories 

Das Ungeheuer im Lüscher See (The monster in Lake Lüscher)

Die Wunschhöhle bei Arosa (The wishing cave at Arosa)

Hexenwerk (witchcraft)

Der Hexentanz (the witches' dance)

Die Mortatschjungfrau (The Mortatsch maiden)

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Month of Spooks #10 - Morkoláb

The 'Morkoláb' is a demonic parrot from the folklore of Hungary. During solar and lunar eclipses it is said to ascend to the sky and try to swallow the celestial bodies but will always regurgitate them. When it is not causing eclipses it nestles in the 'Tree of Dawn'. The name of the Morkoláb, also called 'Markoláb', is thought to derive from the Slavic varcolac, a vampiric being which would also travel to the skies and swallow the sun and moon. Nevertheless some early linguists thought they could derive the name from the Babylonian nergal or King Solomon's adversary Marcolf. Among the Palóc in the towns of Szőreg and Ságújfalu it was said that "the Morkoláb eats the day" and it's name was also used for a bogey. Sometimes the Morkoláb was also described like the Hungarian 'lidérc', as a vampiric being that hoards treasures. Comparisons have been drawn between the Morkoláb and other evil eclipse spirits, like the Hindu Rahu, the Finnish Rakhoi and the Mongolian Aracho/Arachol. An asteroid has been named after the Morkoláb because it was discovered during the time of a total lunar eclipse.

source: -Kálmány, L.; (1887) Der Mond im ungarischen Volksglauben; Ethnologische Mitteilungen aus Ungarn vol.1, Budapest p.25 -Kálmány, L.; (1887) Mythologiai nyomok a magyar nép nyelvében és szokásaiban; Budapest, MTA -Katona, L.; (1890) Morkoláb; Magyar Nyelvőr vol.19:3, Budapest pp.193-201 -Schmadel, L.D.; (2009) Dictionary of Minor Planet Names; Berlin, Springer -Szily, K.; (1890) Morkoláb; Magyar Nyelvőr vol.19:3, Budapest pp.107-108

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Visit lovely Bohemia! Get scalded by a beast with a bladder on its neck! From Le Livre des Merveilles.

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"Hot” on the trail of the Lomie.

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/94417#page/375/mode/1up

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Why did the trolls of 2012 movie Troll Hunter hate Christians?

Dunno about the movie itself, but fairies, elves, trolls, goblins etc hate Christianity in general. It’s a complex situation where a lot of the time they were pagan nature spirits whose worship/fear/belief was replaced by Christianity. Seeing a knotted horse’s mane is clear proof of fairy mischief; if you’re Christian you can add that to the reasons why fairies hate you.

Christianity has been very good about absorbing local beliefs. For a similar case, Pan morphed into the popular image of the Devil.

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The reasoning the movie gives is that the trolls smell “Christian blood” which in the original Scandinavian tales was simply a turn of phrase to mean “human blood” since any given person at the time was reasonably assumed to be Christian (though the origin of the trolls from a pre-Christian context might play into that too).

The movie decided to have fun with that by taking it literal.

Compare Jack and the Beanstalk: “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum I smell the blood of an Englishman”

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Month of Spooks #9 - Schnabelpercht

The Perchten are demonic beings which roam the Alpine countryside during the 'Rauhnächte', the shortest nights of the year which occur from Christmas until the 6th of January. Their name is commonly supposed to have been derived from the legendary figure of Perchta, a pre-Christian goddess, or the German name for the Epiphany. Usually during this time the youths of a village will dress up as the Perchten of their region and wander from household to household. The Perchten have a multitude of appearences, but usually can be categorized as either the more human-like 'Schönperchten' ("beatufil Perchten") and the devil-like 'Schiachperchten' ("ugly Perchten"). The Schnabelperchten ("beak Perchten") are a special form of the Percht which are only found in a few localities in the district of Pinzgau, mostly the Rauris valley. Their heads are formed with an intricately folded cloth, they wear old, patched dresses, on their backs they carry a wicker basket and in their hands hold brooms or giant scissors. The only words they are capable of saying is a deep "ga ga ga". The Schnabelperchten visit each house in the valley and go look if everything is tidied up and cleaned. Should they find anything not to their liking they will cut open the offender's stomach, dump in all the dirt they can find and sew it shut. Especially nasty children are taken away by them in their basket. The only way to appease them is to offer food and drink, especially alcohol.

sources: -Kaufmann, P.; (1982) Brauchtum in Österreich: Feste, Sitten, Glaube, Wien, Zsolnay -Motz, L., (1984) The Winter Goddess: Percht, Holda, and Related Figures; Folklore vol.95:2, pp.151-166 -Rauris Schnabelperchten retrieved Oct.10 2018 at www.raurisertal.at -Treuer, R.,Zinnburg, K.; (1977) Salzburger Volksbräuche; Salzburg, Verlag d. Salzburger Buchdruckerei

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Month of Spooks #8 - Hay Animal

The hay animal is a worm which causes skin diseases, according to the Ostyak (Khanti and Ket) people of Siberia. A whole range of different animals, including the wolf and magpie, are believed to cause all manners of diseases, but worms are specifically associated with skin diseases and boils. These animals are in fact just the assistants of lower spirits who are in turn servants to the actual major disease spirits (luŋk) who send them out to cause distress in their stead. The worm, thin as a hair, was said to enter the body through little cuts obtained during hay cutting. There it would cause scabies. The belief most likely stems from observation of the burrowing trail of scabies mites.

sources: -Jääsalmi-Krüger, P.; (1990) Ostjakische Krankheitsnamen und deren Benennungsmotivation; Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz -Karjalainen, K.F.; (1921) Die Religion der Jugra-Völker I; Folklore Fellows’ Communications vol. 41, Helsinki p.75

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The fat Lollus from Bechstein’s “Märchen und Sagen”

illustrated by Ruth Koser-Michaëls. source

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Month of Spooks #7 -Lollus

The Lollus was said by early Humanist scholarship to have been a pagan god of the Franks. Caesar was alleged to have mentioned the god Lollus in his writings and the Chronologica Swinfurtensia records how a brazen statue was found of a loincloth-wearing youth, bearing a wreath of poppy pods around his neck, holding his tongue pinched between the fingers of one hand and a cup filled with corn spikes in the other. The statue was sunken into the river Main. No such Caesar quote has ever been found, the Chronologica is the only other source which mentions the deity and nowadays the god is assumed to have been a fake, made up by Humanist writers. Lollus is the pseudo-latinisation of the name 'Loll', a West-German bogey, also known under such names as 'Lolla', 'Lollenkerl' or 'Lollekater'. In the Hessian fairy tale of "The Fat Lollus and the Thin Lollus" the spirit lives in the cellar of a thrifty innkeeper, eating away at his fortune until he is almost ruined. His brother, a monk, pays him a visit and conjures up the demon in a corner of the basement. It is described as looking like a fat, grey animal, so big it couldn't move out of it's corner. Repenting, the innkeeper became a better man and gains wealth again while the Lollus shrank down into a skinny little thing. In West-Phalia The Lolle was said to sit in dark places or on trees with an outstretched tongue, screaching loudly and casting evil magic. All these elements suggest as an origin the Eichkater, that is, the squirrel, which was said to be a demonic animal that could bewitch.

sources: -Benz, S.; (1995) Julius Cäsar in Schweinfurt?; Schweinfurter Mainleite 1995/II, Schweinfurt pp.12-22 -Hoffmann-Krayer, E., Bächtold-Stäubli, H.; (1927–1942) Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens 10 vols.; Berlin Leipzig, de Gruyter -Wolf, J.W.; (1853) Hessische Sagen; Leipzig, Vogel

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Month of Spooks #6 - Uncanny Crayfish

In the river Schöps by the Upper Lusatian village of Quitzdorf live plenty of crayfish. However one of them, it was said, was especially big and instead of claws it brandished giant, hairy, human hands. It's told that once a farmer, while fishing, encountered the giant crayfish and got so frightened that he ran away and left his catch behind. About thirty years later another farmer inadvertently caught the giant, but kept his wits this time and carried it home with him under great effort. But when he opened his bag with the catch the giant crayfish had vanished. The story has been connected to a legend from the town of Moryń (Mohrin) in the region of Neumark, of which it was said that a giant crayfish was chained to the bottom of nearby Morzycko Lake. According to one story the crayfish used to be venerated by the Wends who the Templar knights fought. The commander of the Templars finally bound the crayfish with a holy relic and a golden chain. The crayfish will constantly try to break free and should it ever succeed the whole town will drown. One song goes even so far to describe how the backwards-walking crayfish would cause time itself to go backwards until everything returns to it's roots and vanishes. When a howling was heard from the lake that was said to be the crayfish. The city Młynary (Mühlhausen) also said of itself to have a giant crayfish chained in it's lake. The oversized crustacean had eaten away at the city walls. Any visitor who asked to see the crayfish was thrown into the water.

source: -Handtmann, E.; (1883) Neue Sagen aus der Mark Brandenburg; Berlin, Abenheim, p.177-184 -Haupt, K.; (1862) Sagenbuch der Lausitz 2 vols.; Leipzig, Engelmann -Hennenberger, K.; (1595) Erclerung der Preussischen grössern Landtaffel oder Mappen; Königsperg, Osterberger p.321 -Koppisch, A.; (1848) Allerlei Geister; Berlin, Dunker -Kuhn, A.; (1834) Märkische Sagen und Märchen; Berlin, Reimer

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Wei Pang shooting, cooking and eating the meat spirit Tai Sui.

Illustrated in a Chinese picture book: source

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Month of Spooks #5 - Tai Sui

The Tai Sui is a mysterious being from China, with a multitude of different names and interpretations. It looks like a slab of meat with human eyeballs dotted all around. It's most common name is derived from association with the Chinese God of the Year Tai Sui (太岁, "Great Year") who is identified with the planet Jupiter. Of the god Tai Sui it was told that he was born as a lump of flesh which was split open to reveal the child inside. It was considered greatly inauspicious to do construction work towards or opposite the position of Jupiter. People who digged at a spot in such a direction would find the embodiment of Tai Sui buried there. Encountering one was said to be highly dangerous and could endanger the whole neighbourhood. The only way to fend off Tai Sui's evil influence was to beat it to death or drown it, which would then result in receiving good luck instead. So it is said that a student once encountered a Tai Sui while on the way to the toilet. Remembering what he had read about it, he immediately set out with a servant to beat it with a stick. With each blow Tai Sui's eyes would sparkle more. The student went on to pass the imperial examination the very same year. Another time a family carried out earthwork in their yard and found Tai Sui. No knife or heat could harm it before it finally dissolved into water. Later that year the family patriarch died. In older literature the Tai Sui was known under the name of shìròu (肉芝, "look flesh"). The Shan Hai Jing records the shirou to appear at burial places of deities and a commentary notes that it looks like an ox liver, has two eyes and no matter how much of it is eaten, it will always grow back. Finally the Tai Sui was also described as being a returning spirit of the dead. These were the Sānshā (三煞, "three evils") or huíshā (回煞, "returning dead"). The "animal soul" (魄, pò) of a human was believed to return seven days after death and to cause calamity. Every person in a household avoids the house on that day. A story is told of how the scholar Wei Pang once spend the night in such a house which had been deserted because of a neighbour's funeral. He really did encounter the sansha as a floating flame but showed no fear. Instead, being an expert marksman, he shot it with his bow. The spirit turned out to be a lump of flesh with eyes all over. Pang had it cooked by his servant and ate it. It was reported to be quite fragrant.

source: -Birrell, A.; (1999) The Classic of Mountains and Seas; London, Penguin -Eberhard, W.; (1941) Volksmärchen aus Süd-ost-China; Folklore Fellows’ Communications vol. 128, Helsinki p.177 -Eberhard, W.; (1942), Lokalkulturen im alten China 2 vols.; Leiden, Brill (translated in: (1968) The Local Cultures of South and East China; Brill) -Eberhard, W.; (1987) Lexikon chinesischer Symbole; Köln, Diederichs (translated in: (1988) Dictionary of Chinese Symbols; London, Taylor & Francis) -Li Fang; Taiping Guangji (李昉; 太平广记); 363 -Yuan, M.; (2013).; Zibuyu, What the Master Would Not Discuss; M.E.Sharpe, New York

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Month of Spooks #4 - Mammoth

Th bones and frozen cadavres of wooly mammoths have been regularly found in Siberia for centuries, especially often after they were laid bare by rivers. As a result it was believed by the indigenous people of Siberia that the mammoth was a subterranean or aquatic creature, which would die as soon as it got into contact with the surface air. When the ice cracks and bursts during winter it was said that the mammoth swims underneath and splits it with it's big 'horns'. Black coal, washed ashore, was believed to be the petrified liver of the mammoth. The Khanty call the mammoth 'jəŋk-ves' (water-ves) or 'ma:-χa:r' (earth reindeer bull) a meaning shared with Yurak-Samojed 'jeggora', while the Mansi call it vitkəś (water lord/demon). The mammoth was not thought to be one single being but it's origin was actually seen in a whole range of different animals, mostly oxen, reindeer bulls, stags, pikes and even beetles. Any sufficiently old animal could turn into a mammoth if it laid down to die at a river bank. The Khanty said that a stag of 25 years would have horns grow out of his nostrils and walk into the river to live there. Where a mammoth lived one could not fish as it would capsize any boat and cause the river bank to collapse. One could even fall ill just by finding the carcass of a mammoth On the other hand sacrifices to the mammoth would bring plenty of fish for the catch. One could even take a vow by the mammoth, but such an oath did not mean much as the mammoth would forget about it after seven years. Through the ivory trade these stories would find their way to China where the mammoth turned into a giant subterranean creature called an 'ice-rat' or 'mountain-stream rat'.

sources: -Finsch, F.H.O., (1879) Reise nach West-Sibirien im Jahre 1876; Berlin, Wallroth p.599 -Karjalainen, K.F., (1927) Die Religion der Jugra-Völker III; Folklore Fellows' Communications vol. 63, Helsinki pp.29-32 -Pfizenmayer, E.W., (1926) Mammutleichen und Urwaldmenschen in Nordost-Sibirien; Leipzig, F.A.Brockhaus (translated in: (1939) Siberian Man and Mammoth; Glasgow, Blackie) -Räsänen, M., (1952) Das Wort Mammut; Zeitschrift für Slavische Philologie vol. 21:2, Heidelberg pp.293-295

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Month of Spooks #3 - South Slavic Vampires

Just like other Slavic people the South Slavs had elaborate beliefs about the vampiric undead. These beliefs were also shared among the Balkan Romani people. Anyone, even 'quite just persons and creatures of God' could turn into a vampire after death if the shadow of a four-legged animals was cast upon their body. Originally it was believed that a human has two souls, a permanent one and a transitory one, which would leave the body at night during sleep. If both souls left a body the person would die, but if they didn't leave it at the same time the person would return as an undead vampire. The devil would take possession of their body. The spirit of the dead person would return from the grave in the form of a small animal, like a mouse or a moth and then form a new spiritual vampire body. The body itself would stay in the grave and consequently vampires were believed to be just spirits or to have no bones. The Muslim Romani of Prizrenski Podgor believed that a vampire was like a living shadow, breathing fire instead of air because the soul had been sent by the devil from hell. According to other Romani in the Kosovo a vampire is watery and jelly-like, a boneless sack of skin filled with blood and of a filmy appearance. It's long hair reaches the ground and on the outside it looks like mist, while on the inside it is clear like a picture 'just as you paint it'. Such a vampire was very strong a few days after burial but could easily burst open when pricked by a magician or bitten by a dog, spilling it's contents. On the Dalmatian peninsula of Pelješac such a being was known as a 'Kosac', it haunted ruined chapels and looked like a human skin filled with blood, it's hand and feet covered in thorns. If one met a Kosac on the road at night it was advised to beat it up immediately or to hit it on the left side, where it's weakspot was. The Kosac would burst open and release a storm wind.

source: -Vukanović, T.P., (1958) The Vampire; Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society vol. 37, Edinburgh pp.21-26 -Zderas, O.H.v. (1897) Aus dem Volksglauben von Sabbioncello; Zeitschrift für österreichische Volkskunde vol.3:1, Wien pp.84-86

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Month of Spooks #2 - Näkki

The Näkki is a Finnish water spirit, called Näkk in Esthonia. Just like elsewhere it's a dangerous shapeshifting sprite who awaits an annual sacrifice and drowns people in the deep rivers and lakes it inhabits. It can appear in human form, combing it's long yellow hair while sitting on a rock, but it can just as well appear in the form of animals or even inanimate objects. So it is that the Näkki has been seen as half-human half-horse, as a bearded dog or as a giant buck with a net tangled in it's horns. But the Näkki can also be rather inconspicious, looking like a tree trunk only identifiable by a single plate-like eye and a long mane on the back. As a tree floating in the water it waits for a hepless person to sit down on it to pull them with it into the water's depth. It may also look like a fine piece of silk or other desirable object floating on the water and waiting for children to pick it up, tangling around them and reeling them in. To a miller the Näkki once appeared in the form of a bag which fell into the water and cried like a pig.

source: -Holmberg, U., (1913) Die Wassergottheiten der Finnisch-Ugrischen Völker; Mémoires de la Société finno-ougrienne vol. 32, pp.191-196 -______, (1927) Finno-Ugric Mythology; Mythology of All Races vol. 4, University of Finland, Helsingfors

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Month of Spooks #1 - Il spirito del scaldino 

Women in Northern Italy used to carry a scaldino, a little earthenware pot containing charcoal and ashes, under their garments to warm themselves during the cold winter months. In the Etruscan regions it was said that the fumes of these little stoves would impregnate the women and result in them unwittingly bearing and birthing an aerial spirit. To see their supernatural offspring a woman would have to sing a chant: Spirit! Spirit! Spirit! Airy Fairy Light! Fleeter than the wind, Thou keepest from my sight, And from all; but now Come unto my spell, Truly I am one Of all who loves thee well, Thy mother, too, I am, And that I may see What my child is like, Come, I pray, to met!   The spirit child was said to then appear to the woman in a dream.

source: -Leyland, C.G., (1892) Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition; London: T.F.Unwin