Rare Monsters

  The hiiden hirvi is a monster from Finland. It was an artificial moose created in the underworld to test the hero Lemmink ä inen. It was created from bones, hide, soil, tree roots, moss and creeping vines, anything associated with the soil and underground. The hiiden hirvi was also considered unnatural because it didn't have a mother. Overall the beast is supposed to be eerie and unsettling. As well the hiiden hirvi is supposed to be a moose. Moose are called elk in Europe, but I didn't realize this until after I drew the picture, so you got a wapiti instead. Often it's said the hiiden hirvi was created by goblins, which is a miss-translation of hiisi. Hiisi actually means a spring, cave, graveyard or any other sacred space relating to the underworld. So underworld spirits is more accurate. Although they would be considered corporeal living beings, not ethereal like spirit implies in English. The hiiden hirvi's creation was ordered by the goddess of winter and night...

  The snawfus is a pure white stag with flowering branches for antlers and supernatural abilities. It comes from the folklore of the Ozarks and is found in Arkansas and Missouri. The snawfus is associated with the cool misty winters of the region. It was said to be the origin of the blue haze which shrouded the Ozark mountains in the wintertime by breathing out clouds of blue mist. Legends most often speak of their only being one snawfus, unlike many fearsome critters which are treated like species. Instead the snawfus is more like a spirit, and guardian of the Ozarks' wilderness. The snawfus was much larger than the average buck, being more akin to an elk in size. Yet in spite of this, it was far more swift than any regular deer, to the point it couldn't be captured or shot down by any means. The snawfus was also able to jump up into the canopy of the forest and walk along the branches. In spite of its size the snawfus could perch on the smallest of twigs. Sometimes it just ha...

  Bies, also called Bes and Biesy, was a type of demon from Slavic mythology and paganism. They were known throughout eastern Europe. Bies had no consistent appearance other than it was beast like. Often depicted as either an anthropomorphic or beastial mish-mash of different animals, combining hoofed animals and predators together. It was a primeval nature spirit. Even in paganism it was considered a demon, personifying chaos, evil and everything uncontrolled in nature. Bies demons lived in mountain ranges, untouched forests and swamps, anywhere that human habitation had not encroached on nature. Beis's name means fury or rage, and was used as a euphonious for insanity, as it would cause this condition in it's victims. When a human enters the bies's home it can hypnotize and take control of the human, driving them mad and filling them with panic. If the human some how staves off such attacks and meets the bies face to face the bies will attack with more ferocity than any ...

  You would think that belief in unicorns would have ended in the medieval era and by the time the Americas were being explored people would have moved on from such notions. On the contrary, with all the strange wildlife being discovered around the world in the age of exploration interest in the possibility of unicorns was reignited in the minds of explorers and naturalists. In 1539, in the area of New Spain which would today be New Mexico there were reports by Friar Marcos de Niza that there existed a city of gold beyond the Zuni Pueblos. He said he had visited this city and seen untold treasures there. Some of these treasures he described in great detail, including the hide of an unknown animal. De Niza said it was like that of a large bull, but had a single horn on forehead, which pointed back towards its breast. No cities or creatures like these have ever been found. Its unknown what Marcos de Niza saw, or if he had made up the entire report, and why.   The next unicorn w...

  Everyone has heard about qilins. Although fewer people realize that the qilin is not as unicorn like as it is typically depicted. The qilin was originally depicted with two horns before comparisons between it and western unicorns were made. However there are other one horned beasts in Chinese mythology, several in fact. One being the luduan, which shares many aspects with both qilin and unicorns, and had a single horn before western influence. Written descriptions of luduan depict it as deer like, green in color and having a single antler or horn. Sculptural depictions instead show the luduan as a cat like creature with paws. Legends about the luduan say it could run 18 000 li in a day (7000 km), speak every known language and detect the truthfulness of a speaker. The luduan was a peaceful creature who hated violence in any form. Accounts by Buddhist monk, Yelu Chucai say the luduan appeared before Genghis Khan and convinced him to abandon his conquest in India. Although it's ...