Culture guide placeholders

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Greek

People

Ancient Greeks

Language / record

Ancient Greek

Primary source scope

Hesiod, Theogony; Homer, Odyssey

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Roman

People

Romans

Language / record

Latin

Primary source scope

Ovid, Metamorphoses; Virgil, Aeneid

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Etruscan

People

Etruscans of central Italy

Language / record

Etruscan; visual evidence rather than a surviving narrative corpus

Primary source scope

Alabaster cinerary urn with Vanth, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Open the source or collection record ↗

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

Culture guide · Available to explore

The Norse Worlds

Gods, giants, serpents and enchanted beings in medieval Old Norse sources, with an illustrated guide to the texts and their later reception.

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Icelandic

People

Medieval Icelanders

Language / record

Old Icelandic (Old Norse)

Primary source scope

Völsunga saga; Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Anglo-Saxon

People

Anglo-Saxons of early medieval England

Language / record

Old English

Primary source scope

Beowulf, Cotton MS Vitellius A XV

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Germanic

People

German-speaking storytellers recorded by the Grimms

Language / record

German; edited literary collection

Primary source scope

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmärchen

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Irish

People

Medieval Irish learned and storytelling communities

Language / record

Old and Middle Irish

Primary source scope

Táin Bó Cúailnge, Book of the Dun Cow and Book of Leinster recensions

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Scottish

People

Gaelic-speaking communities of the Scottish Highlands and islands

Language / record

Scottish Gaelic; Gaelic texts with English translations

Primary source scope

John Francis Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Welsh

People

Medieval Welsh storytellers and scribes

Language / record

Middle Welsh

Primary source scope

Four Branches of the Mabinogi, White Book of Rhydderch and Red Book of Hergest

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Breton

People

Breton-speaking communities of Lower Brittany

Language / record

Breton; François-Marie Luzel’s French recordings

Primary source scope

Luzel, Contes populaires de Basse-Bretagne (1887)

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Cornish

People

Cornish communities recorded in the nineteenth century

Language / record

English collection; distinct from the Cornish-language textual tradition

Primary source scope

Robert Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England (1865)

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Eastern Slavic — Russian

People

Russian-speaking storytellers represented in Afanasyev’s collection

Language / record

Russian

Primary source scope

Alexander Afanasyev, Narodnye russkie skazki

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Western Slavic — Polish

People

Polish communities of the Kraków region

Language / record

Polish

Primary source scope

Oskar Kolberg, Krakowskie (1871–1875)

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Southern Slavic — Serbian

People

Serbian-speaking storytellers

Language / record

Serbian

Primary source scope

Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, Srpske narodne pripovijetke (1853)

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Baltic — Latvian

People

Latvian singers and collecting communities

Language / record

Latvian

Primary source scope

Krišjānis Barons and Henrijs Visendorfs, Latvju dainas

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Baltic — Lithuanian

People

Lithuanian-speaking storytellers

Language / record

Lithuanian

Primary source scope

Jonas Basanavičius, Lietuviškos pasakos įvairios

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Sumerian

People

Sumerian scribal communities

Language / record

Sumerian

Primary source scope

Gilgamesh and Huwawa; Enki and Ninmah

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Akkadian

People

Akkadian-language scribal traditions

Language / record

Akkadian

Primary source scope

Anzu epic; Atrahasis

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Babylonian

People

Babylonian scribes

Language / record

Babylonian Akkadian

Primary source scope

Enūma eliš; Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Assyrian

People

Assyrian court and library scribes

Language / record

Akkadian; Assyrian and Babylonian literary registers

Primary source scope

Gilgamesh tablets from Ashurbanipal’s library at Nineveh

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Avesta

People

Iranian Zoroastrian communities

Language / record

Avestan

Primary source scope

Avesta, Yasht 19 (Zamyād Yasht)

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Shahnameh

People

Persian literary communities

Language / record

New Persian

Primary source scope

Ferdowsi, Shahnameh

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Persian folklore

People

Kermani Persian and Bakhtiari storytellers recorded in Iran

Language / record

Kermani Persian and Bakhtiari; translated into English

Primary source scope

D. L. R. Lorimer and E. O. Lorimer, Persian Tales (1919)

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Ancient Egyptian

People

Ancient Egyptians of the Nile Valley

Language / record

Egyptian; hieroglyphic writing

Primary source scope

Book of the Dead, Papyrus of Ani (British Museum EA10470)

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Hindu — Sanskrit epics

People

South Asian Sanskrit epic communities

Language / record

Sanskrit

Primary source scope

Vālmīki, Rāmāyaṇa; Mahābhārata

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Buddhist — Pali narratives

People

Theravāda Buddhist textual communities of South Asia

Language / record

Pali

Primary source scope

Jātaka verses and their prose commentary; distinguish textual layers

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Jainist — Prakrit narrative

People

Jain narrative communities of South Asia

Language / record

Jain Māhārāṣṭrī Prakrit

Primary source scope

Vimalasūri, Paumacariya

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Regional folklore — Bengali

People

Bengali-speaking storytellers

Language / record

Bengali oral accounts; English literary recording

Primary source scope

Lal Behari Day, Folk-Tales of Bengal (1883)

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Classical Chinese

People

Early Chinese textual communities

Language / record

Classical Chinese

Primary source scope

Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas)

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Chinese religious literature

People

Ming-period Chinese literary and religious readerships

Language / record

Literary and vernacular Chinese

Primary source scope

Journey to the West, traditionally attributed to Wu Cheng’en

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Regional tales — Shandong

People

Shandong writer Pu Songling and the communities represented in his tales

Language / record

Literary Chinese

Primary source scope

Pu Songling, Liaozhai zhiyi; authored tales, not unmediated oral records

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Shinto sources

People

Early Japanese court and ritual communities

Language / record

Old Japanese represented through Chinese characters

Primary source scope

Kojiki (712), compiled by Ō no Yasumaro

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Japanese Buddhism

People

Early Japanese Buddhist communities

Language / record

Literary Sinitic (kanbun)

Primary source scope

Kyōkai, Nihon ryōiki

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Yōkai

People

Edo-period Japanese print culture

Language / record

Japanese

Primary source scope

Toriyama Sekien, Gazu hyakki yagyō (1776)

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Tales

People

Japanese communities represented in medieval tale literature

Language / record

Early Middle Japanese

Primary source scope

Taketori monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter)

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Korean historical and Buddhist tales

People

Korean communities represented by the Goryeo monk Iryeon

Language / record

Literary Chinese; some Old Korean songs transcribed in hyangchal

Primary source scope

Iryeon, Samguk yusa

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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West Africa — Yorùbá

People

Yorùbá communities of southern Nigeria

Language / record

Yorùbá; English retellings by M. I. Ogumefu

Primary source scope

M. I. Ogumefu, Yoruba Legends (1929)

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Southern Africa — Zulu

People

Zulu narrators in nineteenth-century Natal

Language / record

isiZulu with English translations

Primary source scope

Henry Callaway, The Religious System of the Amazulu (1868–1870)

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Southern Africa — ǀXam

People

ǀXam narrators, including ǀA!kunta and ǁKabbo

Language / record

ǀXam with English translations and annotations

Primary source scope

Bleek and Lloyd notebooks, University of Cape Town

Open the source or collection record ↗

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Guatemala — K’iche’ Maya

People

K’iche’ Maya of the Guatemalan highlands

Language / record

K’iche’; Spanish translation in the surviving Ximénez manuscript

Primary source scope

Popol Vuh, Francisco Ximénez manuscript

Open the source or collection record ↗

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Central Mexico — Nahua

People

Nahua authors, elders and painters working at Tlatelolco

Language / record

Nahuatl and Spanish

Primary source scope

Florentine Codex, especially Book 11; Nahua collaborators and Bernardino de Sahagún

Open the source or collection record ↗

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Arctic — Greenlandic Inuit

People

Inuit storytellers from Greenland represented in Rasmussen’s collection

Language / record

Greenlandic varieties; Danish and English translation layers

Primary source scope

Knud Rasmussen, Eskimo Folk-Tales (1921 English edition; historical title)

Open the source or collection record ↗

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Bestiaries — England

People

Medieval English manuscript communities

Language / record

Latin

Primary source scope

Aberdeen Bestiary, University of Aberdeen MS 24

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Chronicles — England

People

Medieval English monastic writers

Language / record

Latin

Primary source scope

Matthew Paris, Chronica majora

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Hagiographies — Liguria

People

Latin Christian communities; Jacobus de Voragine of Liguria

Language / record

Latin

Primary source scope

Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea, including the life of Saint George

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Dante

People

Florentine author Dante Alighieri

Language / record

Italian

Primary source scope

Commedia, especially Inferno

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Shakespeare

People

English playwright William Shakespeare

Language / record

Early Modern English

Primary source scope

A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Tempest

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Carroll

People

English author Lewis Carroll

Language / record

English

Primary source scope

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; Through the Looking-Glass

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.

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Shelley

People

English author Mary Shelley

Language / record

English

Primary source scope

Frankenstein; distinguish the 1818 and 1831 editions

No creature catalogue is published on this culture guide yet. For completed entries, visit the creature index.