1. The fish man of Lirganes existence has been suggested but has not been proven and belongs to the mythology of Cantabria, an autonomous community located in northern Spain.
The fish man of Lirganes, according to urban legend, is an amphibious being that looks like a depressed man who had been lost at sea. Many people believed that the fish man was one of the four sons of Francisco de la Vega and Mar?a del Casar, a couple who lived in the area, w .....
2. The weird creatures named korrigan come from Brittany, a cultural region in the northwest of France with a very rich literary tradition and folklore. Some sources say a korrigan was a beautiful, kind fairy while other sources describe them as evil spirits that looked like dwarfs and danced around fountains while seducing people with their charm in order to kill them or steal their children. According to a popular Breton poem called Ar Rannou (whi .....
3. According to Japanese legend, a kodama is a peaceful spirit that lives inside certain kinds of trees. Those who have claimed to have seen a kodama describe it as a small white and peaceful ghost that syncs perfectly with Mother Nature. Nevertheless, according to legend, when someone tries to kill a kodoma (or cut down the tree a kodama lives in), the aggressor will be cursed and many bad things will happen to him. There are also claims of human .....
4. The fierce and powerful dullahan is a headless horse rider found in Irish folklore and mythology. For centuries the Irish have believed in its existence, especially during the Middle Ages and have described him to be a harbinger of doom who traveled on a black, malevolent horse with his terrifying, decapitated head under its arm. .....
5. Antaeus was a giant with super strength that he inherited from his father, Poseidon (god of the sea), and his mother, Gaia (Earth), but he became weak once he was lifted into the air. He was the bully type who lived somewhere in the Libyan desert and would challenge any poor fool who had the unfortunate luck of passing through his territory to a deadly wrestling match, ultimately killing them, and then collecting their skulls so he could one day .....
6. Baba Yaga is probably one of the most popular paranormal creatures in Eastern European folklore and, according to urban legend, had the appearance of a ferocious and extremely intimidating older woman. According to Andreas John, author of Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale; Baba Yaga is a many faceted figure, capable of inspiring researchers to see her as a Cloud, Moon, Death, Winter, Snake, Bird, Pelican or Earth G .....
7. According Jewish urban legend the Broxa is an aggressive, intimidating looking bird that attacked goats for their milk or, in rare cases, would go for human blood during the night. The Broxa legend became famous in Northern Europe during the Middle Ages where people seemed to believe that it took the appearance of a witch in its female form or of a demon in its male form and attacked people ( especially women and children). .....
8. The Lernaean Hydra was a mythical water monster with many heads that resembled big snakes, and which Heracles killed in the second of his twelve labors. The ferocious monster lived in Lerna, a small village near Argos, from which it took its name. .....
9. According to legend, when Heracles cut off one head, two emerged. For this reason, Heracles s nephew, Iolaus, burnt the root of each head once his uncle cut it off, only then did they stop multiplying. .....
10. When Heracles cut off the last head, which was the biggest one and believed to be immortal, he buried it in the earth so it would not rise from the dead and terrorize the area again. Heracles then used its blood (which was poisonous) to make poisoned arrows and thus a deadly weapon against his enemies. .....
11. According to Mesopotamian mythology and legend, the lamassu was supposed to be a protective deity whom a few people claimed to have seen and in their descriptions portrayed as a creature with a bull s body and wings, while others saw a creature with a lion s body, eagle s wings, and a man s head. Some described it as an intimidating looking male creature while others as a female deity with good intentions. Of course we will never know what exactl .....
12. The soucouyant is, according to Caribbean urban legend, specifically in Dominican, Trinidadian, and Guadeloupean folklore, the exotic black version of the European vampire. From mouth to mouth and generation to generation the soucouyant became part of local folklore, and tales about them talk about a hideous looking old woman by day who transformed to a gorgeous looking young black woman by night resembling a goddess. She then seduced her victims .....
13. The Pixiu is another legendary hybrid creature that comes from China. Even though no part of his body resembled a human organ, the mythological creature was often described as having a Chinese lion s body with wings, the legs of another legendary creature of Chinese myth, the qilin, and a head of a Chinese dragon. It is widely considered to be the guardian and protector of those who practice feng shui, while Tian Lu, the version of the Pixiu with .....
14. The tale of Tarasque is reported in the story of St. Martha, which is included in Jacobus de Voragine s hagiographic (biographies of Christian saints) collection The Golden Legend. Tarasque was a dragon with a very complicated appearance and bad intentions. According to legend, he had a lion s head, six short legs like a bear s, an ox like body covered with a turtle s shell, and a scaly tail that ended in a scorpion s stinger, and terrorized the .....
15. The grypas was a legendary creature with the head and wings of an eagle and the body and tail of a lion. As the lion and the eagle are the kings of the animal kingdom, the grypas, as a combination of both, was symbolic of power and domination. The grypas can be found in many depictions of Minoan Crete during the Bronze Age, but also later in the art and mythology of ancient Greece in general. However, some believe that the creature existed way be .....
16. According to the urban legend, the Menehune were an ancient race of dwarves who lived in the forests of Hawaii before the Polynesians settled there. Many scholars attribute the existence of ancient statues on the Hawaiian Islands to the Menehune. Others argue that the legend of the Menehune emerged with the arrival of Europeans in the area and that there was no such race in reality, but rather a creation of the human imagination. The myth goes ba .....
17. Greek mythology has given to the world some of the most epic heroes, gods, and creatures, and Talos is no doubt one such case. The huge bronze giant supposedly lived in Crete where he supervised and protected a woman named Europa (from whom the continent of Europe got its name) from pirates and invaders. For that reason Talos patrolled the island s shores three times every day while in some other stories Talos takes the form of a bronze bull. The .....
19. Those of you who are familiar with psychology have probably heard the term Wendigo Psychosis, which describes a psychosis to eat human flesh. The medical term takes its name from the mythical creature called the Wendingo, which, according to the Native American tribe the Algonquian, was an evil creature that looked like a cross between a human and a monster, something similar to a zombie. According to legend, only people who ate human flesh wer .....
20. The Minotaur is one of the first epic creatures we meet in the history of humankind since it takes us back to the days of the Minoan civilization s prime. The Minotaur was said to have the head of a bull on the body of an extremely large, muscular man and dwelt at the center of the Cretan labyrinth, which was designed by Daedalus and his son, Icarus, at King Minos s request. As one can easily understand, whoever was unlucky enough to get lost in .....
21. The legend of the Kraken came from the Nordic seas and its presence was initially limited to the coasts of Norway and Iceland. With time, however, its notoriety grew, thanks to the wild imagination of storytellers, which caused later generations to believe it also lived in other seas as well.
The Norwegian fishermen originally described the sea monster as a gigantic animal that was as big as an island and presented danger to passing ships not fr .....
22. In Greek mythology, Cerberus is the guardian of Hades and is usually described as a bizarre looking monster that looks like a dog with three heads and a tail whose end is a dragon s head. According to the ancient tragedian Aeschylus, Cerberus was born from the union of two monsters, the giant Typhon and Echidna, which would make Cerberus brother of the Lernaean Hydra. Cerberus is not considered an evil creature that hurts people intentionally, bu .....
24. The ghoul is one of the most well known creatures in Arabian folklore and we were introduced to it in the collection of tales, One Thousand and One Nights. The ghoul is described as an undead monster that can also take the form of an immaterial spirit and usually goes into graveyards to eat the flesh of the recently dead. This is probably the main reason why the word ghoul is associated in Arabic countries with anything macabre and they often use .....
25. The Bubak is pretty much to Czech tales and folklore what the bogeyman is to Western European and American folklore. It was usually described as a creepy creature resembling a scarecrow, and could cry just like an innocent, unprotected baby to lure its victims to their deaths. Also, some of the most popular tales regarding the Bubak always take place on the night of the full moon when the Bubak supposedly weaves cloth from the souls of those he h .....
