Monsters and Creatures: Discover Beasts from Lore and Legends (Supernatural) - Hardcover

Marin, Gabiann

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1925017451 ISBN 13: 9781925017458

Verlag: ROCKPOOL PUB, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

Have you ever wanted to track Bigfoot? Slay a dragon? Introduce yourself to a vampire?

From the author of Gods and Goddesses, Monsters and Creatures delves into the legends of some of the world's best-known and most bizarre magical beasts and ghastly creations, revealing the facts and the fictions.

Explore the real-life origins of some of the strangest creatures ever encountered in the murky depths and enchanted forests--and even lurking under your bed. Discover the real werewolves of medieval Europe, glimpse the magical history of the famed unicorn, and encounter the terrifying bloodsucking dogs of Mexico.

More than a bestiary, this carefully researched book documents the mythologies, sightings, and origins of over 100 weird and wonderful beasties from every continent and every time period, including modern monsters stalking us today. All of these creatures have inspired films, books, scientific research, poems, and music, as well as our collective dreams and nightmares. It's time to meet these legendary mythical beasts and find out the amazing true stories behind them.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Gabiann Marin is an award-winning author, screenwriter, editor, academic, and lover of all things supernatural. Her very first stage play won the Australian Bicentennial Premier's prize and her book, A True Person won the international White Raven Literary award for work of outstanding merit and importance.

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Monsters and Creatures

Discover Beasts from Lore and Legends

By Gabiann Marin

Rockpool Publishing Pty Ltd

Copyright © 2018 Gabiann Marin
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-925017-45-8

Contents

Introduction, 
1. Vampires and Demons, 
2. Frankenstein's Creature and the Living Dead, 
3. Werewolves and the Beasts Within, 
4. Unicorns and Night Mares, 
5. Chimera and Fantastical Beasts, 
6. Mermaids and Mysteries of the Deep, 
7. There be Dragons!, 
8. Mythical Birds and Other Flights of Fancy, 
Afterword, 
References and Further Reading, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Vampires and Demons

* * *

From the beginning of time there have been gods and goddesses both light and dark. The dark ones most often symbolised sickness, disease, death and natural disaster. Over time they lost their place in the divine pantheons. Fallen to the depths of the Earth, they were renamed monsters and demons.

One of the most popular and eternal demonic monsters is the vampire, a shapeshifting bloodsucker said to drain the blood from its victim.

The First Vampires

Although popularised in fiction in the 1800s, stories of vampires have existed since the earliest civilisations. There are tales of vampiric demons in the myths and legends of Mesopotamia, where they were almost exclusively seen as the Lilitu-demonic women who drank the blood of infants.

The Lilitu evolved from the Sumerian storm goddess of the same name who was originally believed to reign over natural disasters, illness, disease and death. She was later adopted into the early Hebrew texts as Lilith, Adam's first wife.

Many Christians ignore the story of Lilith, believing that Eve, made from Adam's rib, was the first female in Christian lore. But it was Lilith, made from dust and dirt just as Adam was and therefore his equal, who was actually created first.

Lilith refused to submit to Adam's will and, fed up with his demands for her obedience, she left him, retreating to a cave on the edges of the Garden of Eden. There she transformed back into her original Sumerian manifestation of a demoness. It is said in the ancient Sumerian and Hebrew texts that she mothered the Neophyte, black angels who spawned the first witches. In the original Hebrew, Arabic and Persian versions of Lilith she is said to suck the blood of any who encountered her.

As well as being one of the first demonic monsters ever recorded, she is also often cited as the mother of vampires and the beginning of the vampire legends.

Descending from the Lilitu are the Striga of Ancient Greece. This new iteration lost their connection to the goddess and were simply demonic vampire women who transformed themselves into ravenous birds to prey on the blood of children and young men.

The Striga formed the basis of the Eastern European vampire witches, the Strigoi. Written about in the early Middle Ages, these shapeshifting vampire women also preyed on children and could transform themselves into flying insects.

Penanggalan and Manananggal

Asia, too, has a tradition of blood-sucking women. Two of the strangest creatures in vampire mythology come fromSouth-East Asia, their stories ranging across Malaysia, Borneo, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam.

The Penanggalan appears as an attractive, ordinary woman by day; but at night her head disengages from her body and flies through the skies looking for victims, her entrails dragging behind her.

Penanggalan delight in terrifying people and she is rumoured to eat newborn babies in their cradles - if she can find them.

One way to identify a Penanggalan in her intact form is her strong smell of vinegar, because she must clean her dangling entrails with this every morning before stuffing them back into her body.

Similar to the Penanggalan is the Manananggal, another female vampire who preys on pregnant women and uses her tongue to suck the blood of their unborn babies.

Children born with facial deformities are said to have been victims of a Manananggal attack.

While the Penanggalan separates from the neck down, the Manananggal achieves the ability to fly through the air by separating at the waist.

Once separated, she is able to unfurl large bat wings from her shoulder blades and can fly across the country searching for victims, while her bottom half stands patiently awaiting her return.

This creates the only real weakness for the creature, who can be killed if the bottom half is covered with salt, garlic or ashes.

Origins

The origins of the Penanggalan and Manananggal vary depending on legend, but the most popular story of the Penanggalan is that she was just an ordinary woman until one day she suffered a shock so great it made her head pop off her shoulders. From that time on she had the ability to remove her head and entrails.

In Thailand and Cambodia similar entities called the Krasue or Ahp are said to be able to disconnect their heads and torsos as a result of abusing black magic.

Belief in the Penanggalan is intensely strong in Malaysia, and rituals for protection are frequently enacted for pregnant women or in households with newborns. One such ritual suggests surrounding the outer border of the dwelling with thorny branches, which will enmesh the dragging entrails and prevent the demon from gaining entry into the house.

The Penanggalan and the Manananggal can create others of their kind by getting human women to ingest their saliva. This is usually achieved through offering a tainted glass of water to an unwitting victim while the creature is in her humanoid form.

African vampires

In Africa the vampire is more closely associated with blood-sucking insects such as leeches or mosquitoes. The Adze, which takes the form of a firefly to seek out its victims, sucks their blood while they sleep. The bite of the Adze is said to cause sickness, and if the victim lives they become a witch possessed by the Adze's spirit. This story is probably a traditional explanation for malarial outbreaks.

The people of Ghana and Togo believe an Adze can only be killed in its human form and say that if you capture an Adze firefly it will revert to its human appearance.

Another African vampire legend concerns the Ranganga, a vampire from Madagascar who only attacks nobles, feeding off their blood and, quite unexpectedly, their toenails. This is a nice reversal of the aristocratic vampire leeching off the poor.

Dracula and the Rise of the Romantic Vampire

The modern Western version of the vampire owes more to the book Dracula, written by Irish writer Bram Stoker, than to any vampire of Asian, African or European folklore.

In his horror classic Stoker writes about the Romanian Count Dracula, who embarks on a journey to England where he preys upon the innocent people of Whitby and London. He has a particular fondness for beautiful, young women, specifically the lovely Mina Harker and her vibrant friend Lucy Westenra.

When Lucy starts to sicken and then dies of a mysterious disease, only to return as a blood-hungry vampire, her friends and suitors soon realise that the Count is a master vampire intent on possessing Lucy and Mina as his brides. Knowing that Mina will soon suffer the same fate as Lucy, the book's heroes, aided by vampire hunter Van Helsing, seek out the Count.

In the book, Dracula is killed by the vengeful men, although his death is fairly poorly described. What we do...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: ROCKPOOL PUB
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1925017451
• ISBN 13: 9781925017458
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 176
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar