Creature index

All records

110 records

• Ammit

  A source-specific profile of Ammit in Ani’s judgment scene, distinguishing the translated ancient text from Budge’s commentary and comparisons with other papyri.

  Creature · Ancient Egyptian funerary religion

• Anansi

  Anansi in George Parkes’s Jamaican tale The Fish-basket, collected by Martha Warren Beckwith: stolen fish, a trick against Tiger, and the limits of this account.

  Creature · Jamaican oral storytelling in Beckwith’s published transcription

• Arachne

  Arachne in Ovid's Metamorphoses VI: the Lydian weaver, her contest with Minerva, and her transformation into a spider in More's 1922 translation.

  Creature · Lydia in Ovid’s mythic world

• Asgard

  Asgard in Snorri’s Prose Edda: the gods’ stronghold, its halls and builder’s bargain, with exact references and the limits of its geography.

  Place · Mythic cosmos: Snorri’s Norse divine world

• Aswang

  A source-specific account of the osuang in Juan de Plasencia’s 1589 report, read through Frederic W. Morrison’s 1903 translation.

  Creature · Visayan beliefs as reported by Juan de Plasencia

• Avalon

  Avalon in Geoffrey of Monmouth: the island where Caliburn was made and Arthur was taken for healing, with exact source references and limits.

  Place · Heroic lands: Arthurian Britain and its narrative geography

• Aži Dahāka

  Aži Dahāka in the Ābān Yasht: a sourced profile of the three-headed antagonist, his rejected prayer, and the boon granted to Thraetaona.

  Dragon · Zoroastrian mythic cosmos; his sacrifice is placed in Bawri

• Baba Yaga

  Baba Yaga in Ralston’s translation of Vasilissa the Fair: her forest dwelling, mortar, demanding tasks, and gift of a burning skull.

  Figure · Russian collected folk tale in English translation

• Bakeneko

  The shape-changing cat of Nabéshima in Mitford’s Tales of Old Japan: O Toyo’s stolen form, an enchanted watch, and the source’s two-tailed description.

  Creature · Japanese legend as presented in Mitford’s English collection

• Baku

  The dream-eater in Lafcadio Hearn’s Kottō: Japanese household protection, older book reports, and a separate literary encounter.

  Creature · Japanese dream-protection beliefs as presented in Hearn’s English essay

• Barghest

  The Barghest in William Henderson’s 1879 folklore collection, with local accounts and the collector’s interpretations kept separate.

  Creature · Northern English folklore

• Basilidean Abraxas

  Abraxas in Irenaeus's report of Basilidean teaching: the chief of 365 heavens, the number in the name, and the limits of a hostile ancient witness.

  Figure · The 365 heavens of the reported Basilidean cosmos

• Basilisk

  The basilisk in Pliny's Natural History: a small serpent of Cyrene with a diadem-like marking, deadly influence, and a fatal encounter with the weasel.

  Creature · The province of Cyrene in Pliny’s account

• Beowulf’s Dragon

  A sourced reference profile of the fire-dragon in Beowulf, including its stolen cup, barrow hoard, battle with Beowulf and Wiglaf, and Old English source.

  Dragon · Old English heroic poetry

• Blemmyes

  The headless people reported in Pliny’s Natural History, with the account’s source and limitations.

  Creature · Roman geographical wonder literature

• Boggart

  The Syke Lumb Farm boggart in Harland and Wilkinson’s Lancashire Folk-lore (1867): farm labour, destructive retaliation, and the limits of a local account.

  Creature · Lancashire local belief, presented by nineteenth-century compilers

• Bunyip

  Toor-roo-dun, the Western Port bunyip in R. Brough Smyth’s 1878 collection: deep water, Kurruk’s drawing, and the limits of a colonial account.

  Creature · A permanent water basin on the Western Port plains

• Catoblepas

  The catoblepas in Pliny’s Natural History: its heavy head, fatal eyes, and reported location.

  Creature · Roman natural history

• Centaur

  Centaurs in Apollodorus's Library: Pholus's shared wine jar, the pursuit to Chiron, and accidental deaths in Frazer's 1921 translation.

  Creature · Greek mythic world: Pholoe, then the pursuit to Malea

• Cerberus

  A sourced reference profile of Cerberus in Apollodorus, including his form, place in Hades, and capture by Heracles.

  Creature · Greek mythology

• Charybdis

  Charybdis in Homer's Odyssey, Book XII: the personified whirlpool, Circe's warning, and Odysseus's fig-tree escape in Samuel Butler's translation.

  Creature · Greek mythic world: the lower rock opposite Scylla

• Cockatrice

  The cockatrice in Edward Topsell’s 1658 natural history: basilisk names, disputed cock’s eggs, deadly poison, and his rejection of wings and mirror tales.

  Creature · Africa and separate European reports in Topsell’s compilation

• Cuélebre

  The winged treasure-guarding serpent in Aurelio de Llano’s 1922 Asturian folklore collection, with distinct local accounts and their conflicting endings.

  Dragon · Asturian local folklore as collected and presented by Llano

• Domovoi

  The Domovoy in Ralston’s 1872 folklore survey: a household spirit associated with the stove, domestic warnings, offerings, and distinct regional portraits.

  Creature · Homes, stoves, and farmyards in reported Russian household belief

• Draugr

  This record examines the draugr through Glam’s bodily return after death in Grettis saga, distinguishing that episode from a universal account of Norse undead.

  Creature · Icelandic saga literature

• Empusa

  Empusa in Aristophanes's Frogs: Xanthias's changing apparition, Dionysus's fright, and the limits of the comic encounter in B. B. Rogers's translation.

  Creature · Hades on Dionysus’s journey, after the ferry crossing [1]

• Erymanthian Boar

  The Erymanthian Boar in Apollodorus’s Library: the animal that ravages Psophis and is captured alive in deep snow, following Frazer’s 1921 translation.

  Creature · Erymanthus and Psophis in the Greek mythic world

• Fenrir

  A sourced reference profile of Fenrir in the Prose Edda, including his parentage, broken fetters, binding with Gleipnir, Tyr's hand, and role at Ragnarok.

  Creature · Old Norse mythology

• Frankenstein’s Creature

  A sourced reference profile of Frankenstein's unnamed Creature in Mary Shelley's 1831 novel, including his creation, appearance, education, strength, rejection, and Arctic ending.

  Creature · Ingolstadt, Geneva, the Alps, Britain, and the Arctic

• Fáfnir

  A sourced reference profile of Fáfnir, the dragon of the Völsunga Saga, with book citations and reading notes.

  Dragon · Old Norse heroic legend; the Sigurd cycle.

• Grendel

  A sourced reference profile of Grendel from Beowulf, including his attacks on Heorot, defining traits, realm, and book citation.

  Creature · Old English heroic poetry

• Grendel's Mother

  A sourced reference profile of Grendel's Mother in Beowulf, including her attack on Heorot, haunted mere, underwater hall, fight with Beowulf, and giant sword.

  Creature · Old English heroic epic

• Griffin

  Griffins in Herodotus: gold-guardians beyond the Issedones, the Arimaspian tale, and the limits of reported knowledge in Godley's 1921 translation.

  Creature · Reported northern lands beyond the Issedones

• Guivre

  The guivre in John Vinycomb’s 1906 heraldic study: the Visconti serpent and child, with its conflicting origin legends and symbolic interpretations kept separate.

  Dragon · Heraldic tradition : the Visconti of Milan in Vinycomb’s British heraldic study

• Harpies

  The Harpies in Apollodorus: winged food-snatchers, Phineus, the sons of Boreas, and conflicting pursuit endings in Frazer's 1921 translation.

  Creature · Greek mythic world: Phineus’s table at Salmydessus in Thrace

• Hippogriff

  The hippogriff in Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, Canto IV: griffin and mare parentage, flight, Atlantes’s training, and Rogero’s departure in Rose’s 1823 translation.

  Creature · Ariosto’s romance world: Riphæan hills and the Pyrenees

• Hydra

  The Lernaean Hydra in Apollodorus’s Library: nine heads, regrowth, Iolaus’s help, and the burial of the immortal head, following Frazer’s 1921 translation.

  Creature · Lerna in the Greek mythic world

• Jiangshi

  A source-limited profile of the animated corpse, centered on Pu Songling’s tale in Herbert A. Giles’s 1880 translation.

  Creature · Chinese supernatural storytelling; Qing-period literary accounts

• Jorōgumo

  Jorōgumo in Toriyama Sekien’s 1776 illustrated yōkai collection: a woman-spider image, with its visual evidence kept separate from later tales.

  Creature · Edo-period Japanese yōkai print culture

• Jotunheim

  Jotunheim in Snorri’s Prose Edda: giant households, Angerboda’s children, and Idun’s rescue, with exact source markers and limits on its geography.

  Place · Mythic cosmos: Snorri’s Norse mythological world

• Kappa

  The Kawachi river kappa in Lafcadio Hearn’s collection: a horse, a capture, and a promise sealed with an inked handprint.

  Creature · Japanese local folklore recorded in English by Hearn

• Kikimora

  Ralston associates Kikimora with interference in sleepers’ breathing and reports a belief connecting Kikimori with girls who died unbaptized or were cursed by their parents.

  Creature · Russian folklore as reported by W. R. S. Ralston

• Kitsune

  The fox parents in Mitford’s The Grateful Foxes: human appearances, a rescued cub, and a tragic repayment of kindness in a Japanese tale.

  Creature · Japanese tale in Mitford’s English collection

• Kraken

  The Kraken reported by Erik Pontoppidan: Norwegian fishermen's accounts of an island-like sea creature, with the 1755 text's doubts and conjectures preserved.

  Creature · Norwegian coastal waters in Pontoppidan’s account

• Ladon

  Ladon, guardian of the golden apples in Apollonius’s Argonautica: a sourced profile distinguishing the poem’s serpent from other Greek accounts.

  Dragon · Greek mythic cosmos: the garden of Atlas

• Leshy

  The Lyeshy in Ralston’s 1872 folklore survey: changing forms, misleading forest paths, and distinct regional accounts of animals and herdsmen.

  Creature · Russian folklore survey with explicitly regional comparisons

• Leviathan

  Leviathan in Job 41, following the 1901 American Standard Version: sealed scales, fiery breath imagery, and the limits of human power in the divine speech.

  Creature · The waters of Job’s divine discourse

• Lindworm

  The lindworm in John Vinycomb’s 1906 heraldic study: a wingless dragon or wyvern in the definition, with conflicting illustration terminology kept visible.

  Dragon · Heraldic tradition : Vinycomb’s British heraldic study, including a German-labelled illustration

• Manticore

  The mantichora in Pliny's Natural History: a human-faced, lion-bodied animal reported from Aethiopia, with Ctesias's description kept distinct from Juba's speech-imitation claim.

  Creature · Æthiopia in Pliny’s account

• Medusa

  A sourced reference profile of Medusa in Apollodorus, including her Gorgon form, mortal status, petrifying gaze, death at Perseus's hand, and enduring severed head.

  Creature · Greek mythology

• Nekomata

  Nekomata in Toriyama Sekien’s 1776 Gazu hyakki yagyō: a cat yōkai pictured upright, with the illustration kept separate from later narrative lore.

  Creature · Edo-period Japanese yōkai print culture

• Nemean Lion

  The Nemean Lion in Apollodorus’s Library: the invulnerable lion killed by Heracles in his first labour, following Frazer’s 1921 translation.

  Creature · Nemea in the Greek mythic world

• Norse Dwarfs

  A sourced reference profile of the Dwarfs in the Poetic and Prose Eddas, including their origin in primordial matter, human likeness, underground dwellings, and catalogue of names.

  Creature · Old Norse mythology

• Níðhöggr

  A sourced reference profile of Níðhöggr, the dragon beneath Yggdrasil in the Poetic and Prose Eddas, with translation notes and citations.

  Dragon · Old Norse mythology

• Oni

  The horned island oni defeated by Momotarō in Griffis’s Japanese Fairy World, with their treasure and surrender kept within the 1887 account.

  Creature · Japanese folklore retold in English

• Orthrus

  Orthrus, called Orthus in Frazer’s 1921 translation of Apollodorus: the two-headed watchdog of Geryon’s cattle on Erythia.

  Creature · Erythia in the Greek mythic world

• Pegasus

  A sourced reference profile of Pegasus in Hesiod and Pindar, including the winged horse's birth, Bellerophon, the Chimera, and service to Zeus.

  Creature · Greek mythology

• Penanggalan

  A source-specific profile of the Penanggalan in Walter William Skeat’s Malay Magic (1900).

  Creature · Malay folklore of the Malay Peninsula

• Phoenix

  The phoenix in Herodotus, Histories 2.73: a sacred bird reported at Heliopolis, its father's burial in myrrh, and the historian's explicit doubt.

  Creature · Arabia and Heliopolis in Egypt

• Polyphemus

  A sourced reference profile of Polyphemus in Homer's Odyssey, including his cave, single eye, encounter with Odysseus, and escape.

  Creature · Ancient Greek epic poetry

• Puck

  A sourced reference profile of Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, from A Midsummer Night's Dream, including his fairy magic, mistakes, woodland realm, and play citation.

  Creature · The enchanted wood near Athens

• Qilin

  The qilin in the Book of Rites: one of four intelligent creatures in an account of ritual harmony, following James Legge’s 1885 translation.

  Creature · Chinese ritual and cosmological thought in the Liji

• Rokurokubi

  The detached heads in Lafcadio Hearn’s Rokuro-Kubi: a mountain household in Kai, the priest Kwairyō, and the limits of this particular tale.

  Creature · Japanese supernatural storytelling retold in English by Hearn

• Rumpelstiltskin

  A sourced reference profile of Rumpelstiltskin in the Brothers Grimm tale, including the gold-spinning bargains, promised child, three-day name test, and defeat.

  Creature · German fairy tale in English translation

• Rusalka

  The rusalkas in Ralston’s 1872 folklore survey: water, woodland and field spirits, seasonal encounters, and explicitly different regional traditions.

  Creature · Waters, woods, and fields in Ralston’s regional reports

• Saint George's Dragon

  The unnamed dragon of Silene in Caxton’s Golden Legend: poisonous breath, the princess’s girdle, and Saint George’s victory in Ellis’s 1900 edition.

  Dragon · Medieval Christian hagiography, in a historical English translation

• Satyr

  The satyrs in Euripides's Cyclops: Silenus's children, their captivity at Aetna, and their part in Odysseus's escape, in Coleridge's translation.

  Creature · The Cyclops’s cave and flocks at Sicilian Aetna

• Scylla

  Scylla in Homer's Odyssey, Book XII: Circe's warning, six heads, the loss of six sailors, and the limits of heroic resistance in Butler's translation.

  Creature · Greek mythic world: the cliff opposite Charybdis

• Selkie

  The selkie wife of Wastness in Walter Traill Dennison’s 1893 Orkney folklore account: her stolen sealskin, life ashore, and return to the sea.

  Creature · Orkney folklore, recorded by Dennison

• Simurgh

  Simurgh as Zal’s foster mother and helper in Helen Zimmern’s 1883 retelling of Ferdowsi.

  Creature · Persian epic tradition, as retold by Helen Zimmern

• Siren

  The two Sirens in Homer's Odyssey, Book XII: their song, promised knowledge, and Odysseus's escape in Samuel Butler's translation.

  Creature · Greek mythic world: the Sirens’ island and flowering field

• Stymphalian Birds

  The Stymphalian Birds in Apollodorus’s Library: the woodland flock of Arcadia driven into flight by bronze castanets, following Frazer’s 1921 translation.

  Creature · Stymphalus in the Greek mythic world

• Talos

  Talos, the bronze guardian of Crete in Apollonius's Argonautica: Europa's warder, Medea's sorcery, and the vulnerable ankle in Seaton's 1912 translation.

  Creature · Greek mythic world: Crete, at Dicte’s haven

• Tatzelwurm

  The Tatzelwurm in Doblhoff’s historical folklore survey: Salzburg’s Birgstutzen, conflicting foot counts, and separate Swiss Stollenwurm accounts.

  Dragon · Alpine folklore places ; Salzburg account foregrounded, Swiss comparisons distinguished

• Tengu

  The long-nosed and crow-beaked tengu in Griffis’s Japanese Fairy World: mountain teachers, proud masters, and comic nose games in the 1887 edition.

  Creature · Japanese folklore and artistic subjects retold in English

• The Banshee

  A sourced reference profile of the Banshee in Croker's Irish fairy legends, including the Bunworth omen, her keening, appearance, and connection with death.

  Creature · Irish folklore

• The Beast

  A sourced reference profile of the Beast in Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's Beauty and the Beast, including his enchanted castle, character, proposal, and transformation.

  Creature · French literary fairy tale in English translation

• The Brownie

  A sourced reference profile of the Brownie in Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales, including its appearance, night work, household ties, and dislike of rewards.

  Creature · Scottish and Border folklore

• The Cheshire Cat

  A sourced reference profile of the Cheshire Cat from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, including its disappearances, grin, realm, and book citation.

  Creature · Wonderland

• The Chimera

  A sourced reference profile of the Chimera in Apollodorus and Hesiod, including its lion, goat, and dragon form, fire breath, Lycia, and defeat by Bellerophon and Pegasus.

  Creature · Greek mythology

• The Daoine Sídhe

  A sourced reference profile of the Daoine Sídhe in W. B. Yeats's Irish folklore collection, including their shifting form, music, gatherings, raths, and fairy cavalcade.

  Creature · Irish folklore

• The Dragon Kings

  A source-aware reference profile of the Sea-dragon Kings described in E. T. C. Werner’s Myths and Legends of China.

  Dragon · Chinese mythology as presented by E. T. C. Werner in 1922

• The Dullahan

  A sourced reference profile of the Dullahan in Croker's Irish fairy legends, including the headless horseman, death coach, and encounter with Charley Culnane.

  Creature · Irish folklore

• The Golem of Prague

  The clay servant in Leopold Weisel's Prague legend: the Schem, Sabbath rest, a destructive rampage, and the remains reportedly kept in the Old-New Synagogue.

  Creature · Prague Jewish folklore, recorded in German

• The Headless Horseman

  A sourced reference profile of the Headless Horseman in Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow, including the Hessian legend, midnight pursuit, hurled head, and pumpkin clue.

  Creature · Sleepy Hollow near Tarry Town, New York

• The Jabberwock

  A sourced reference profile of the Jabberwock from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, with traits, story realm, and book citation.

  Creature · Looking-Glass world; the poem’s tulgey wood

• The Kelpie

  A sourced reference profile of the River Conan kelpie in The Doomed Rider, including its warning, false ford, and place in Scottish folklore.

  Creature · Scottish Highland folklore

• The Laidly Worm

  A sourced reference profile of the Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh from Joseph Jacobs’s English Fairy Tales.

  Dragon · Northumbrian and Anglo-Scottish border folklore

• The Lambton Worm

  The Lambton Worm in William Henderson’s 1879 folklore collection: the Wear-side monster, its reuniting body, and the broken vow of the Lambton heir.

  Dragon · County Durham folklore in a nineteenth-century English collection

• The Light Elves

  A sourced reference profile of the Light Elves in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, including Álfheim, their radiant appearance, their contrast with dark-elves, and Vidblain.

  Creature · Old Norse mythology

• The Little Mermaid

  A sourced reference profile of the Little Mermaid in Hans Christian Andersen's tale, including her fish-tail form, rescue of the prince, bargain for legs, sacrifice, and transformation.

  Creature · Danish literary fairy tale in English translation

• The Minotaur

  A sourced reference profile of the Minotaur in Apollodorus, including its form, the Cretan Labyrinth, the Athenian tribute, Ariadne, and Theseus.

  Creature · Greek mythology

• The Peluda

  La Velue of the Huisne: a source-bounded record of the anonymous Sarthe legend pamphlet, using the description quoted by the departmental archive.

  Dragon · The Huisne and La Ferté-Bernard in the archive’s account

• The Roc

  The roc in Sindbad's second and fifth voyages: immense eggs, a flight to the diamond valley, and the parent birds' attack in Andrew Lang's Arabian Nights.

  Creature · The islands and diamond valley of Sindbad’s voyages

• The Snow Queen

  A sourced reference profile of the Snow Queen in Hans Christian Andersen's tale, including her appearance, kisses, living snow guard, palace, and capture of Kay.

  Creature · Danish literary fairy tale in English translation

• The Sphinx

  A sourced reference profile of the Sphinx in Apollodorus, including her hybrid form, Theban riddle, victims, parentage, and defeat by Oedipus.

  Creature · Ancient Greek mythography

• The Tarasque

  Tarasconus, the Rhône dragon subdued by Saint Martha in Caxton’s Golden Legend, read in F. S. Ellis’s 1900 edition, volume IV.

  Dragon · Medieval Christian hagiography in a historical English translation

• The Welsh Red Dragon

  The red dragon in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s British History: Merlin’s interpretation, the fight beneath Mount Erir, and the limits of the 1842 translation.

  Dragon · Medieval British legendary history; a Latin textual witness

• The White Rabbit

  A sourced reference profile of the White Rabbit from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, including his watch, house, duties, and role in Alice's journey.

  Creature · Wonderland

• Tikbalang

  A source-specific profile of Miller’s Tic-balan, with its appearance, capture of Juanita, and defeat within the poem’s Christian framework.

  Creature · Philippine folklore in John Maurice Miller’s Christian-framed English literary retelling

• Troll

  The unnamed bridge troll in The Three Billy-Goats Gruff, sourced to George Webbe Dasent’s 1862 selection of Norwegian tales.

  Creature · Norwegian folklore, read through Dasent’s English translation

• Tír na nÓg

  Tír na nÓg in P. W. Joyce’s Oisin in Tirnanoge: the Land of Youth across the Western Sea, its altered passage of time, and the limits of this version.

  Place · Heroic lands: the Western Sea in Oisin’s narrative

• Unicorn

  The unicorn or monoceros reported by Pliny: a fierce one-horned animal of India, described in Natural History 8.31, with later imagery kept separate.

  Creature · India as described by Pliny

• Vampire

  The dead warlock in Ralston’s The Soldier and the Vampire: stolen blood, a soldier’s escape, and the destruction of a village revenant.

  Creature · Russian tale translated by Ralston from Afanasyev’s collection

• Vodyanoy

  The Russian-named water spirit in Jan Máchal’s 1918 mythography, with the source’s regional and descriptive limitations made explicit.

  Creature · Russian water-spirit folklore within Jan Máchal’s comparative Slavic account.

• Werewolf

  Bisclavaret, the werewolf baron in Marie de France’s lay, following Eugene Mason’s 1911 translation: stolen clothing, royal protection, and recovered human form.

  Creature · The forest and royal court of Brittany in the lay

• Wyvern

  The wyvern or wivern in Boutell’s Handbook to English Heraldry: a winged, two-legged heraldic creature, with the limits of the historical distinction explained.

  Dragon · English heraldic tradition

• Yamata no Orochi

  Yamata no Orochi in the Kojiki: the eight-headed serpent defeated by Susanoo, following Chamberlain’s 1882 translation with source and image provenance.

  Dragon · Japanese mythic cosmos: Tori-kami, at the headwaters of the River Hi in Izumo

• Yuki-onna

  The snow-woman in Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan: a deadly winter encounter, a marriage as O-Yuki, and a forbidden memory.

  Creature · A Japanese village legend retold in English by Hearn

• Zmey Gorynych

  Zmey Gorynych in W. R. S. Ralston’s 1872 mythography: the name Goruinuich, its serpent context, and the limits of the source’s weather interpretation.

  Dragon · Russian story traditions as discussed by Ralston

No matching records.