Rare Monsters

  What follows is the least modern of the modern dragon sightings I’ve researched, although it’s far from the medieval era where dragons belong. On October 5 th of 1877 a farm boy named Johnny Smith witnessed an epic battle between one of his bulls, and reportedly, a real dragon. All of this happened outside Saint Louis, about seven miles away from the ruins of the ancient city of Cahokia. In the farming community surrounding Saint Louis the Smith family was well known for being honest. Lead by their father Jabez, he was a pillar of truthfulness and practicality, never giving into any form of exaggeration or flights of fancy, to the point where he was known as truthful Jabez. Under his strict discipline his sons followed suit. So when his son Johnny reported seeing a monster fight their bull, and came home with a badly injured bull, people believed him, no matter how fanciful the events sounded. Around 4pm that day Johnny Smith had been sent out to collect one of t...

Even in comparison to the states I’ve covered so far, New Jersey has a lot of dragon sightings. Unfortunately they’re not as widely published as the other states, with so far only Lon Strickler compiling them. Another thing to consider is New Jersey has a lot of other flying cryptids which dragons could be mistaken for, or those cryptids mistaken for dragons, beings like the Jersey devil, thunderbirds and pterosaurs. Still, some of the dragon sightings are compelling, and I’ve recounted some of the best one bellow.  In this first story, the year was not given, but Lon Strickler said it was recent. A couple was driving home in the early morning after visiting a friend’s house. It was around 1:30 to 2:00 am and took place in Saleme County NJ. The witness was the wife of the duo, and she was driving home because her husband had a few drinks that evening. She was driving along back country roads while passing through a wooded area. It was then a huge creature flew over the vehicle,...

  The beithir is a Scottish dragon. It inhabits mountainous regions, near water. Hiding out in caves and steep mountain valleys. Unlike other European dragons the beithir lacks wings or fire breath. Instead it’s highly venomous and has a poisoned sting. It’s also associated with ice and lightning. The beithir was considered the largest and most deadly of serpents. In addition to its other abilities the Beithir was cunning and had the ability to shape shift. The beithir would lurk in high mountain valleys near water and wait for passing victims. When an unlucky person would enter the territory of the beithir the dragon would sting their victim. The stung person then had to run to the nearest water and wash off the sting. If they made it to the water before the beithir then they were saved. If the beithir reached the water first then the victim would be devoured. It was believed that if a snake was killed then its head and body had to be separated from each other by quite a distance,...

  The Salt Lake Fire Drake is a flying cryptid seen near the Great Salt Lake in Utah. It was seen once in 1903, and again just under a hundred years later, in 2001. This cryptid is often touted as a living pterosaur, however in my research I found this cryptid to be something far stranger. On September 3rd, 1903, a flying creature was seen by multiple witnesses on Stansbury Island, in the south end of the Great Salt Lake. Two hunters, John Barry and Martin Gilbert, gave the most detailed report of the creature. They described it as equal mixes of bat, fish and alligator, having the head of an alligator, the wings of a bat and the tail of a fish. In addition the creature was covered in either thick, rough scales, or salt accretions from the lake. The creature got its name from the fiery rainbow iridescence of its wings, shining with reflected sunlight. The two men described the monster as being prehistoric in nature, although they didn’t specifically say it was a pterosaur. Othniel ...

  The Cape Sable serpent is a sea monster spotted in Cape Sable, off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1976. It was described as an ugly creature, covered in lumps and barnacles. It's head is like that of a wart hog, with bumps protruding off it's cheeks, and prominent tusks in its mouth. The creature's eyes are bloodshot and set on top of stalks, like a snail. It has a long serpentine body, 10 to 15 feet long and two feet thick. There's a back fin running down the length of its body and a fish like tail at the end. Its color is greyish brown in color. It moves through the water by undulating its body up and down, creating rows of humps that protrude out of the water. A swimming method seen in many sea serpents reports. The first sighting was on July 5, 1976. Eisner Penny was fishing off the coast of Cape Sable Island when he saw the sea serpent rising out of the water. He first thought the monster was a whale, but has he approached he realized it was unlike any a...

  Xiangliu was a serpent with nine human heads. Sometimes the head each have different necks, and other times the head form a cone or a grid, all beside each other. In spite of this monstrous appearance, Xiangliu was intelligent and a minister to the equally monstrous water god Gonggong. Xiangliu was responsible for enacting Gonggong's orders to bring floods and devastation to the land. Xiangliu's mere presence was able to cause devastation everywhere he went. Everywhere he breathed became a bog with poisoned water. He was also immoral and took glee in destruction he caused and the suffering he created for others. When Gonggong rebelled against the heavens Xiangliu fought by his side. However once the goddess Nuwe killed Gonggong Xiangliu fled. Yu the Great, the last of the three sage kings, tracked Xiangliu to the swamps of Sichuan Province. He killed Xiangliu after a pitched battle. However Xiangliu's blood threatened to poison the whole region. If Xiangliu was left t...

  The Wawel dragon, also known as Smok Wawelski and the dragon of Krak ó w. It's legend is tied with the founding of Krak ó w and the life of its earliest ruler, King Krakus. The earliest account of the dragon comes from the 13 th century. No description of the dragon's appearance is given in the legend. However there's a statue of the dragon at the foot of Wawel hill in Krak ó w, near the entrance of a cave known as the dragon's den. This statue depicts a strange and spiky looking dragon with eight legs and fin like wings. The legend goes that in the time of King Krakus, the legendary founder of Krak ó w, a dragon lived in a cave under Wawel Castle. The dragon would ravage the countryside, devouring people and livestock. To avoid the dragon's wrath people would satiate it's hunger with three cows and three rams a day, a hefty toll in livestock. Many knights tried to slay the dragon but none succeeded. Then a cobbler named Scuba came up with a plan. He fille...

  Vishap is a dragon from Armenian mythology. He was depicted as a serpent with wings, often with features of other animals, such as horns. Vishap was closely associated with water. He was also venomous and able to taint everything around it, and associated with bad luck, curses and sudden tragedy. Vishap was thought to live in the Armenian highlands, especially Mount Ararat. The volcanic activity of Mount Ararat was attributed to Vishap. Vishap was also associated with thunderstorms, causing them when he ascended into the sky or descended back down to the ground. He was even responsible for eclipses. Unusual for dragons, but much like European fairies, Vishap was thought to steal children and replace them with a dragon whelp from its own brood. Vishap was slain by Vahagn, an important god in ancient pagan Armenia. He was the god of war, bravery and the sun. Vishap himself was also worshipped as an earlier god of water and fertility before becoming purely a monster. Vishap is also ...

  The knucker dragon was a water dragon who lived in a pond in Sussex England during the medieval and renaissance periods. It was a water dragon, but didn't have many water like features to its appearance. It looked like a stretched out western dragon with a long serpent like body. It is consistently depicted as red in color. The dragon was also considered unusually clever and conniving, and was capable of talking, which usually wasn't something dragons were capable of doing until modern fantasy. The name knucker is derived from words like nix or nacken, showing a connection back to malicious water fae. The pond the dragon inhabited is known as the knucker hole, and still exists on the Somptings Estate. Legend goes that the knucker dragon was quite a threat to the surrounding communities, coming out of its pond at night and eating livestock and people. The people begged an authority figure, in some version the local mayor of Lyminster, in other version they went all the way t...

  The jimplecute is a vampiric reptile from Ozark legend. It is a rarely heard of fearsome critter and shouldn't be confused with the gowrow, the more famous reptile from the region. There are two different descriptions of the jimplecute. The original appearance is of a long serpentine reptile, yet still baring short legs. It has skin the texture of dead leaves, which allows it to hide better in the forests. It even had the chameleon like ability to change color, so to blend in with leaves of different seasons. This jimplecute is able to wrap around its victims like a python to immobilize them while it feeds on their blood. The more modern version of the jimplecute is of a vampiric dinosaur, usually something similar to a raptor. This interpretation comes from the book We Always Lie to Strangers by Vance Randolph, which is a book about Ozarks folklore. There Mr Randolph describes the jimplecute as a prehistoric. Although I think he meant that all reptiles are primitive in his e...

 The grootslang is a monster, or possibly two monsters, from South Africa. The word grootslang literally means 'big snake' in Afrikaans. The first type of grootslang is purely mythical in nature and comes from the creation myths of pre-Christian stories, specifically those of the Zulu people. When the gods finished creating the land of the Earth they started creating the various creatures that would live on it. They made an entire species of grootslangs. These beings were a hybrid of snake an elephant, having the grace and agility of snakes, and the cunning and strength of elephants together in one being. This being their very first creation, the gods were inexperienced and didn't know how powerful they could make a creature before it was dangerous. When they made other animals the grootslangs would hunt them all down and kill them before they could get established. So the gods rounded the grootslangs up and pulled each one apart into two separate animals, a snake and an el...

  Falak is a gigantic snake from Arabian legend. It's larger than the whole world combined. Falak resides in the abyss, the seventh and final level of hell. The other levels of hell are held in its mouth. In Arabian mythology the world is carried on the back of an angel, who stands on the celestial bull Kuyuta, who in turn stands on the whale (not dragon) Bahamut. Bahamut in turn swims in the celestial ocean, which are the surface waters leading to the abyss. Falak desperately wants to reach up out of the abyss and devour all these other beings and the whole world. It's only the fear of God's punishment that stops Falak from doing so. God also gave Falak the other six levels of hell to hold to keep it busy and not focused on destroying the world.  

 Lake Ontario has had it's share of monster sightings over the year. Every sighting has been drastically different, which doesn't help the credibility of this monster. Yet the different forms it takes have been fascinating. Many of the sightings have been concentrated around the shores of Kingston, which has given the monster or monsters the name Kingsie. There are more sightings than I can list here, so I will only cover the most interesting. While sightings occurred before this point, the earliest that was given a definite date happened in July 3 rd , 1817, where a ship's crew saw a giant snake like creature in the water. It was one foot in diameter and 30 to 40 feet long. The name of the ship or the crew members who witnessed the event was not given. On July 1 st , 1833, Captain Kellogg and his crew on the Polythermus saw a giant worm like creature. It was blue in color and had no obvious head, tapering to a point at both ends. The creature swam by the ship in a smooth ...

  This month I'm celebrating the one year anniversary of this blog with all my favorite monsters which I've been saving up for a special occasion. So all month long I'll be posting articles on the most bizarre and epic monsters I've come across. On August 22, 1864 one of the strangest cryptids ever described was seen in Swan Valley, Idaho. The creature in question was spotted by an unnamed elderly man while crossing the river on the Olds Ferry. The trunk of the monster emerged from the water first, followed by the head and then the back. It swam to shore and climbed out of the water where the old man could see the rest of the creature. The monster had a snake like head, with an elephant's trunk. Sharp teeth lined the mouth and the creature had a flickering snake like tongue which was bright red. There was a singled horn on its forehead which continually moved up an down. The monster had thick whiskers on its cheeks and a pair of fin like wings, or wing like fin...

  The ophiotaurus was a monster who's front half was that of a bull, with a snake's tail replacing the back legs. It's only known appearance was from Fasti by Ovid. Although he's retelling a story from the lost Greek poem Titanomachia. The ophiotaurus was a primordial being existed at the beginning of time when the world was forming. At that time animals were not fully formed and so had miss matched parts from the wrong species. The ophiotaurus, as well as the other first animals, were born from the goddess Gaia without a mate. The bull was so toxic that its flesh could kill any being. If its entrails were burned (such as was done in ritual sacrifices) then the smoke would kill the gods. The bull was otherwise peaceful and not inclined to harm other creatures. Because of this the bull was trapped in a triple walled ring, within an endless dark forest, on the far side of the river Styx. During the Titanomachy one of the titans' allies, either Briareus the Hecatonch...

  The Filey Brigg is a low, rocky peninsula off the coast of North Yorkshire, right outside the village of Filey. There are many myth of supernatural things happening at Filey Brigg and it's the location of legends and monsters. One such legend is of a fierce dragon living in the waters around the peninsula. The exact time frame of this legend varies, some put it in the medieval era, while others say it only happened a few centuries ago. There was a massive dragon living in the waters off the shores of Filey. It was said said to be a wide range of sizes, up to a mile long in some cases. The dragon was a menace to the area, sinking ships and sweeping people out to sea. No one could approach the shore without risking their lives. The dragon had one weakness however, a love of the local sticky cakes known as parkins. The locals tried to appease the dragon with its favourite sticky cakes, but its apatite could never be satiated. There are multiple different stories about how the drag...

Mesopotamia is a collection of some of the oldest civilizations on Earth. Written records date back 6000 years. Because of this some of the earliest examples of dragons can be found here. While the dragons of ancient Sumeria, Acadia, Babylon and Assyria may seam strange today, they were the origin of many of the tropes we associate with dragons even until today; things such as dragons being types of snakes, even though they have legs and wings; being venomous to the point of having poison blood, being winged, having seven heads; and having the limb combination of four legs and a set of wings (at least for one dragon). Although Mesopotamia did not distinguish dragons from other monsters, and would have listed them along side less reptilian beasts, such as giant birds and scorpion men. Because the Mesopotamian civilizations are so old very little information remains on each dragon. Compounding this problem is the fact that Mesopotamia was not one one civilizations but a culturally simila...