Regional monsters / mythical beings

Discussion in 'The Village Square' started by Frank, Dec 16, 2014.

  1. Frank

    Frank GardenStew Founder Staff Member Administrator

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    The thread about regional dialects got me thinking about other things 'regional'.

    Do you have any regional monsters or mythical beings?

    In Ireland we have Leprechauns which I'm sure you all know about (I'll explain if necessary :)). Another mythical being we have is the Banshee. She is a the spirit of an old woman with long, white hair and a flowing dress. The legend goes that you will hear her wailing at night someone on the area is about to die. The wail is supposedly blood curdling. My theory is that the wail is actually a fox's cry at night time which do sound very spooky.

    I once read an article about Japanese monsters and spirits. They have so many and they are especially frightening.
     
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  3. Capt Kirk

    Capt Kirk Thank a Veteran today!

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    When I was a youngster I was in the 4 H program which is a farmer based program for kids to learn how to grow things and raise animals. One year I went to 4H camp in South Western Ohio. It is called Camp Clifton. Ay night periodically you would hear a very loud piercing scream. The story was that during the time when American Indians lived in the area, a princess killed herself by jumping off a cliff because her boy friend had forsaken her. In actuality the scream was from a Lynx. They were not uncommon in that area.While I was their, I heard the scream in the middle of the night. I had goosebumps on my arms and did not sleep the rest of the night.
     
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  4. marlingardener

    marlingardener Happy

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    Texas supposedly hosts the "chupacabra" or "goat sucker". It looks a lot like a dog or hairless raccoon, and lives by sucking the blood from cows or goats. Selective palate?
    There have also been Bigfoot sightings in East Texas, and the area even hosted Bigfoot conventions for a while. I guess they gave up on the conventions because Bigfoot refused to come.
    Locally we have sightings of the "wild woman," but that's just on my bad hair days.
     
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  5. carolyn

    carolyn Strong Ash

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    We have "Rogues Hollow" here. I don't go through the area because it isn't on the way to anywhere, but it is ghostly.

    and....

    the Shreve Swamps. You don't go through there if'n you can avoid it. It really does have an "atmosphere" of strange, weird and downright uncomfortable. It is also known as the "witch capital" of the world. I had to drive through there a long time ago at night time. It was eerie! Water lapping to the sides of the road, there was no place to pull over and it was the darkest of places I have ever driven in. Strange and downright UGLY things happen there.
     
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  6. Jerry Sullivan

    Jerry Sullivan Garden Experimenter Plants Contributor

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    New England is not without its ghosts, goblins and various other ‘things that go bump in the night.’ One of our local restaurants has its own resident ghost that has on occasion unsettled a patron or two as well as the owner during off hours. Her name is Elizabeth Ford, she was the wife of a sea captain in the year 1741. Her story is well documented by local media which I will present in brief.

    Captain Ford, many years Elizabeth’s senior spent his time at sea, often months at a time. On one such occasion the captain returned home after a voyage of almost a year to find that his 22 year old wife had recently given birth. The captain, incensed with his wife’s conduct, locked her in a closet for two days. Upon her release, she found that the captain had killed and buried the baby. Elizabeth flew into a rage and in an altercation with her husband was stabbed with a knife. The Captain disposed of her body by dumping it down a well on the property.
    The house was long known for the ghost of Elizabeth and when it was converted to a restaurant in the 1980’s the wistful doings of Elizabeth did not stop. Movement of objects and a young woman in white generate many stories and serves to enhance the popularity of the establishment.

    The story is easily located by Google with a search of ‘The Country Tavern, Nashua, NH’ or of Captain Ford or his wife Elizabeth.

    Jerry
     
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  7. toni

    toni Mistress of Garden Junque Staff Member Moderator Plants Contributor

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    Whoa, don't let Salem,Mass know that Shreve Swamp is called the witch capital of the world ;)

    Frank, some of the Japanese spirits (he uses only the gentler ones) are the story lines of most Miyazaki movies, great stories.

    There are the Marfa Lights... http://www.livescience.com/37579-what-a ... texas.html

    I haven't had personal experience with any of these but we might spend a weekend in Jefferson to take the ghost tours.

    http://thegrove-jefferson.com

    http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/ghos ... nTexas.php

    http://ghosts101.com/hauntedplaces/5-mo ... stin-texas

    And some say they see Susanna Dickinson (female survivor of the Alamo) wandering in and out of the house where she was living in 1869 in Austin.
     
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  8. eileen

    eileen Resident Taxonomist Staff Member Moderator Plants Contributor

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    We have a few regional monsters/mythical beings here in Scotland.

    The most famous is, by far, the Loch Ness Monster who inhabits Loch Ness but is rarely seen. She's fondly known as 'Nessie' and does a grand job of attracting tourists hoping to catch a glimpse of her.

    We also have the Ghillie Dhu who is said to be a faerie who is the guardian of the trees and is clothed in leaves and moss.

    The devil is called Black Donald here in Scotland and can change his appearance to whatever he wants to become. However, you'd recognise him if you saw him as his cloven hooves give him away.

    Lastly we have a mythical bird called the Boobrie which is said to resemble a Great Northern Diver but with white markings on its body. It is said to have the ability to roar like a lion.
     
  9. S-H

    S-H Hardy Maple

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    Does anybody remember this picture I posted from April of this year??? Yes, this is how the Summer time in my part of the world starts, (and lasts for almost 10 months) - Which I guess is enough to scare away just about any daemonic/evil supernatural being from my area... :D

    In fact, (specially if you ask my neighbors), everybody will unanimously point their finger at me - For I am the greatest trouble making daemon in my community!
    :rofl: :smt044

    [​IMG]
    Karachi summer conditions at midday ( photo / image / picture from S-H's Garden )

    But seriously, there aren't many stories or legends about supernatural beings in my country. And it's because people over here are Muslims (over 95%). So the basic concept in everybody's mind is that there is only one God, and one Devil (who is very easy to ignore, provided you don't fall for temptation).

    So generally speaking, people believe that God created the universe, as well as Adam and Eve. Even the stories of Prophets and their names is almost identical to what the Jewish and Christian people believe. Like Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Moses, Jonah - People also solidly believe in the second coming of Jesus, as well as all the end of world preconditions mentioned in the Bible and Quran.

    So anything that does not conform to this Islamic form of belief, is quickly dismissed/discarded as a pointless paganistic myth.

    However one myth has survived in the Norther Areas of Pakistan. Which is of the Himalayan mountain Yeti. Which is very similar to the North American Bigfoot (Sasquatch).

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeti

    But aside from this, there isn't much else...

    No wait - I just remembered, there is something of a supernatural anomaly that I have heard about from my elders. It's from during the 1965 war we had with India, which was widely reported in all the Pakistani newspapers of the time also.

    The story is that very large division of the Indian Army had crossed over into Pakistani territory. And our military had not yet mobilized. So without any resistance they crossed over the international border, and were now fast moving deep inside Pakistan. However Indian spotter planes soon noticed a greenish glowing fog on the ground. And upon closer observation, they saw an extremely large military contingent hiding in it. Aircraft radioed back what they saw, and the Indian Army on the ground soon sent ahead a few observers of their own to see exactly what they would be facing.

    In a while they reported back that there are about 20,000 men marching towards them (using that greenish fog as cover). And some are on horseback, while the majority of them are dressed in old style Muslim chain mail body armor, and also carried swords (not guns)... This caused a lot of confusion in the advancing Indian Army (as nobody wore that kind of body armor anymore, not do they use horses or swords) - But they still decided to play it safe, and altered their course.

    Which actually turned out to be a very stupid mistake, as it drove them straight into the path of Pakistani Army. And so that is where the biggest tank battle in the world (after WW2) took place, and is also known as the graveyard of Indian tanks... That place is called Chawinda, which by the way is also the exact same place where the ancient wars between the Muslim armies and the Hindu armies took place almost 1000 years ago.

    The Indian war plan however was a very good one, which was to speedily move in central Pakistan before dawn, before our military had time to mobilize - Effectively cutting Pakistan into 2 halves. So had it succeeded, the outcome of the war would have been a totally different one... But because of that observational mistake, they made a crucial error in their course. And so were face to face with the Pakistani Army before sunrise.

    Next day air forces from both sides also fought over that same area. But since the element of surprise was lost by the Indians, they suffered a humiliating defeat.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_3YIaYuDc8

    Later many captured Indian officers swore that they saw this giant army (dressed in old style uniforms) heading their way, (using that unusual green glowing fog as cover). Because of which they deviated their course. Upon their return to India, many Indian Army officers also faced court martial for this colossal blunder. But there too they kept on insisting that they saw almost 20,000 men marching towards them! A few Indian tank commanders even claimed that when the actual battle took place, the moment they took aim of a Pakistani tank, men on horseback and on foot actually came between their sights. Which caused them to lose their aim...

    Eventually, the Indian high command labeled this as yet another very clever and unexplained trick by the Pakistanis. While we in Pakistan are till this day scratching our heads over this, as we really saw nothing... And in our own military records, we had no military unit of 20,000 men in that area. We also didn't dress in old style chain mail body armor, nor did we use horses, or swords and spears. But weather records do mention this unusually heavy fog in the area at that time.

    Since majority of the Indians are Hindus, who refrain from eating meat (as they worship the cow). We joked that perhaps it was some vitamin deficiency which made them hallucinate in the dark...

    However, almost a 1000 years ago there was a battle in that area. Were the Muslim conqueror named Sultan (General) Shahabuddin Ghori used about 20,000 men in battle. Which defeated the Hindu ruler Pritvi Raj, who controlled the Indian subcontinent. So that is how Muslims decisively took control of India, until a 1000 years later, when the British arrived/invaded.

    But when the British too couldn't hold onto India anymore (after WW2), India got split in 2 nations. A Hindu dominated India, and Pakistan, where Muslims are the majority. And since then we have been at each other's throats endlessly! :D

    However generally speaking, this story (on our side) is today thought of as just something which the Indians generals must have thought up in our prisoner of war camps, to cover for their drunken mistake of altering their course, (and thus save themselves from future court martial when they'll return back to India)...

    But a small amount of people over here do believe that the ancient and legendary army of Sultan Shahabuddin Ghori came back to us for a while, at a time when we needed them most.
     
  10. Jerry Sullivan

    Jerry Sullivan Garden Experimenter Plants Contributor

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  11. Theresa1984

    Theresa1984 New Seed

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    Bigfoot, Black eyed children, vampires, werewolves are mythical beings that supposedly roam my area. I've never seen any of them but I believe them to be real... There are a lot of hoaxers out there but there are a lot of genuine eye witness accounts.
     
  12. 2ofus

    2ofus Hardy Maple

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    I don't think Big foot is suppose to be in the area but we have enough bears, bobcats, wolverines, badgers and skunks to worry about anyway.
     
  13. Sjoerd

    Sjoerd Mighty Oak

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    Wodan on his horse with 6-8 legs riding over the clouds and sent out his black ravens to see what the people were doing. When Christianity made its entrèe, Wodan disappeared and his place was taken by Sinterklaas.
    His horse then went walking over the roofs and lost its extra legs and the ravens became Moorish helpers.
    Sinterklaas (Saint Nicolas); in fact, was based upon the REAL Bishop of Myra who lived and was buried in what is present dayTurkey.

    The other figure is Santa Claus, from Coca Cola fame, and the date was moved up to Christmas. He evolved from our Sinterklaas. How lucky are we are here in Holland to have TWO holidays--Sinterklaas on 5 December and Santa Claus on 25 December.

    We also have kabouters--sort of like a cross between leprechauns and gnomes.

    Sommeltjes are beings that would dance in the moonlight on the Sommeltjesberg, a Roman burial mound which was long ago flattened. They came out only at night because if sunlight were to shine on them, they would turn to stone. They can become invisible and/or take on aspects of animals.

    Kaolmenke (or Kaspar)--These beings guard coal reserves in the mines. They have huge red eyes that are visible in the dark. When they whistle underground this can cause great disasters.

    There are a number of other "beings" in Friesland taken from the Scandinavian plethora of mythical entities.

    When I called out and asked my bride if she could think of any more, she chirped, "The Easter Bunny"?
     
  14. Droopy

    Droopy Slug Slaughterer Plants Contributor

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    *lol* The last one cracked me up. :D

    Your Wodan is probably our Odin with the 8-legged horse Sleipner and his two ravens Hugin and Munin. Norse mythology.

    We have plenty of mythical beings in Norway. The best known to foreigners are probably trolls, but also huldra, the beautiful woman with the cow's tail who lure young men into the mountains and nøkken, a chap living in or near forest ponds, luring young women to their doom.

    We've got the underground people, sort of dark fairies in a way. They used to snatch babies, exchanging them with one of their own. Silver would protect the babies.That's why newborns were given silver. Old heirloom silver worked best. Composer Edvard Grieg made a play called Peer Gynt. Peer went adventuring and visited the hall of Dovregubben. This music piece is well known and much loved in Norway.

    Then we've got a monster called Utburden, a horrible beast composed of babies put out to die. People who meet him usually loose their sanity.

    We've also got lots of local ghosts and monsters scattered about the country. The monk in Nidaros cathedral, Trondheim. The White Lady in Fredrikstad fortress. The big monster in a lake not far from here. I haven't seen any of them but then I haven't gone looking either.
     
  15. zuzu's petals

    zuzu's petals Silly Old Bat Plants Contributor

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    These unexplained booms occur fairly frequently here in the Cape Fear region of NC, with reports dating as far back as the 1850s.



    I can personally vouch for the fact that when the booms happen, the doors and windows rattle, as do pictures on the walls (although the video re-enactment over dramatized that part of it, based on my experience. ;))
    Even so, on one occasion, a large, round, antique glass platter which had belonged to my grandmother, and which was standing on edge safely in the back of my vitrine, split right down the middle, with each half rolling neatly outward from center, still remaining in the plate groove in which it had been standing. Nothing else in the cabinet was disturbed - I can only assume that there must have been a flaw in the antique glass which caused the break in reaction to the sonic boom. :confused:

    UFOs? Well, I dunno about that, but some folks claim so. :nerdy:
    Here's a link to an article with a bit more info: http://www.rense.com/general13/mysterybooms.htm
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2016
  16. eclecticgarden

    eclecticgarden Seedling

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    In Florida we have the Skunk Ape... which is just another name for Bigfoot. My brother swears that he saw him one time. He actually fell out of his tree stand trying to get out of the woods and was visibly shaken for quite a while.
     

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