MYTHICAL BEASTS ----II



European - Part 1


11.       Ceffyl Dŵr: This Welsh water horse has the power not only
to shape-shift at will, but also to fly. Some people say one
can feel when Ceffyl Dŵr is nearby due to its foreboding
presence and that you must never look into its fiery eyes,
whereas others say he is purely a cheeky pest who playfully
swims in mountain pools and over waterfalls. It is said that
if you approach Ceffyl Dŵr, one of two things will happen
- either it will evaporate into the mist, or it will jump out of the water and trample you to death.
12.       Ant Lion:  sometimes  referred  to  as  Myrmecoleon  or
Formicaleon, there are supposedly two forms of Ant Lion.
One is the result of a lion mating with an ant, having
the face of the former and the body of the latter. In this
configuration, because the lion part can only eat meat yet
the ant part can only digest grain, the creature starves to
death after being born. On the other hand, some say it is
a huge ant that hides amongst dust before jumping out to
hunt other ants. This is perhaps one of the strangest hybrid
creatures in the medieval bestiaries!
13.       Wyvern: This beast has a reptile’s body, two feet and a
Dragon’s head and tail. If you pay attention to European
coats of arms, you will come across this creature quite
often; it is even thought to have been the symbol of the
medieval kingdom of Wessex. Another common place for
the Wyvern to appear is on the badge of athletics teams in
both Europe and America. According to legend, you may -
if you are lucky enough - come across a
Sea-Wyvern, which
sports a fish’s tail rather than that of a Dragon and is (of
course) water-dwelling.



14.     Barbegazi: Featuring in French and Swiss mythology,
the Barbegazi are small white-furred gnomes that sport
extremely long beards and enormous feet which they use
as skis to navigate around their mountain homeland. These
creatures hibernate during the warmer summer months
and are rarely sighted by humans - except to help round up
lost sheep or warn of an impending avalanche by whistling.
15.       Owlman: It is 1976 and a man by the name of Don Melling
is taking a holiday in Cornwall with his two daughters.
Walking past Mawnan church, the girls look up and see a
terrifying sight - a cross between a man and an owl hovering
around the belltower. Running to their father they abandon
their holiday and drive back to Lancaster. If you find this
hard to believe, perhaps the second sighting that came two
months later will convince you... a fourteen year old girl
reported seeing a huge owl as big as a man with pointed ears
and red eyes whilst camping in woods close to the church.
Still not enough? Over the next two years, more and more
people reported seeing what came to be dubbed
Owlman,
with no explanation offered other than the supernatural or
paranormal. Interestingly, in 1989, over a decade after talk
of the monster had subsided, a witness described having
seen a very similar beast in the area; one which five years
later a visitor from Chicago also saw...
16.       Shug Monkey: Living between Balsham and West Wrattling
in Cambridgeshire, this cryptid has an ape-like body and
head, but huge paws more akin to a dog. Locals say they have
seen the beast walking on all fours, but when approached
it faded away like a dissolving apparition. Little is known
of the origin of the Shug Monkey - even the etymology is
unknown - although some believe the myth dates back to
Norse settlers from over a thousand years ago.



17.     Salmon of Knowledge: Also known as Fintan mac Bóchra,
this ‘big fish’ of Irish legend gained all the world’s knowledge by eating nine hazelnuts from nine different trees that surrounded the Well of Wisdom. Anyone who found the fish and subsequently cooked and ate it would themselves gain all of this knowledge - and according to the stories, a servant boy called Fionn did just that.
18.       Reynardine: mentioned commonly in English ballads of
Victorian times, this Werefox is said to attract beautiful
women to him who he then captures, taking them to his
castle of bones. Worryingly, no original source ever tells
us what happens to the women once they reach their
destination - perhaps every single one of them is still there,
wherever it is!
19.       Grim: Also known as Padfoot, Shag and Skriker, there are
tales across most of Europe that refer to this blackest of
dogs. Some say that seeing one is a sure sign of impending
doom, whereas others tell tales of a ghost who barks
throughout the night but causes harm to none. Perhaps the
strangest Black Dog legend is in Devon, where the headless
Yeth Hound (said to be the spirit of an unbaptised child)
prowls through woodland, all the time a-wailing.
20.       Hippogriff: First described fully in the 16th century, the
Hippogriff is said to be the offspring of a horse and a Griffin;
it is essentially a winged horse with the head and shoulders
of an eagle. Apparently able to fly to the moon and back,
the Hippogriff is extremely fast and can only be ridden by
magicians.




























A Hippogriff

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