Rare Monsters

  Ghostly black dogs that foretell doom are monsters that are found in the mythologies of the world over, from the okuri inu of Japan, to the cadejos of central America. These phantom hellhounds are especially common in European mythologies, and they reach critical density in England, where practically every county has its own legends about a local black dog. Black dog monsters in general tend to be well known beasts of mythology. And unlike many mythical beasts, who have slipped into the realm of fantasy in modern times, these black dogs are still occasionally seen by people today, falling somewhere between cryptid and ghost sightings. While ghostly black dogs would usually be too popular of a monster to cover on this blog, I have found some highly local and unusual black dogs to cover. The Black Dog of Newgate The legend of the black dog of Newgate supposedly started with a moral tale written by Luke Hutton. Luke Hutton was a college educated man and born into a fami...

  The three tailed Baavlorous is a fearsome critter from lumberjack lore, primarily found in Minnesota and Wisconsin. This wacky creature had the head of a bird with a spiralling unicorn horn. It had the body of an ungulate with split hooved feet. Sources are divided on if this creature had no wings or tiny useless wings, but it couldn’t fly, in spite of its bird like qualities. Most unusual of all the three tailed baavalorous had three tailed, as the name suggests. Each tail was different. To one side was a tail that was either a spike for defending itself, or a shiny scale its used as a mirror. The middle tail was a thick, fat club that it would sit on, and the final tail had peacock like feathers. Either the peacock tail’s feathered had dazzling colours or the entire baavalorous had dazzling colours, either way it led to the creature sitting on its fat tail and admiring itself all day. The other animals would call it the “King of the lumberwood” and give the baavalorous...

  The shu hu is a mythical creature from China, mentioned in the Classic of Mountains And Seas. It was said to live on Mount Yanzhi, which was a good and plentiful place. There were red trees which bore giant fruit. The Ruo River originated from here, it was full of jade and turtles, and many wet stones for sharpening tools could be found on its banks. Here the shu hu could be found. The shu hu was a good and gentle creature. It had the head of a human, the body of a winged horse and the tail of a snake. They were intelligent and could pick up objects and use tools with their flexible snake tails. Shu hus were helpful creatures who would give rides to humans. In spite of being intelligent, shu hus lived on their own and were often lonely. Sources: https://baike.baidu.com/en/item/Shu%20Hu/1414061 https://chinesemythology.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/%E5%AD%B0%E6%B9%96-shuhu/ https://www.chinafetching.com/mythical-animal-in-chinese-culture

   Campe was a primordial monster and guardian of Tartarus in Greek mythology. She appears in the Titanomachy. Campe’s name means twisting or crooked one. She was known as the nymph of Tartarus. Campe is described as one of the more confusing monsters from Greek mythology. She had the qualities of several other monsters mixed together. Campe had the head and torso of a human woman, albeit covered in reptilian scales. She had snakes for hair like Medusa. She had eagles talons for hands and wings as black as the night, alternatively wings like the sphinx. Her hips were wreathed in the heads of animals, similar to Scylla, but instead of dogs it was an assembly of every fearsome and vicious animal possible. She had snakes for legs like Echidna, specifically it was said Campe had one hundred snakes for legs. Finally Campe had a scorpions tail, which she held high over her head. It’s unknown if she was supposed to be beautiful apart from her monstrous features or a hideous hag. ...

  The Mississippi monster is one of those old time cryptid stories that appeared in 19 th century news papers. And like many of these stories it pushes the limits of what can be believed. Although I find this monster in particular pushes those limits more than most. Stories like the Swan Valley monster had a bizarre creature that defies biology, but only a small number of witnesses and ultimately the creature didn’t do very much. The Ape Canyon attack has lots of action and damage, which should leave a paper trail of police reports and insurance claims that can be verified if someone where to look deep enough, but involves big foot, one of the more reasonable cryptids to exist. The Mississippi monster involves both a confounding monster that is like nothing else alive, and over the top damage, which should be able to be verified by its own paper trail. However the story takes place long enough ago that such things like insurance claims and repair reports of company owned ships wo...

 The Alzada anomalies are one of the most bizarre and over the top cases of high strangeness. It happened during the month of July, 1974, in the unincorporated community of Alzada, Montana. A man and a woman, their relation not specified, were hunting for some caved used by ancient Native Americans. They were search for artifacts, although their intent for the artifacts and the legality of their hunt was never specified. The report was originally submitted to MUFON, but languished in obscurity. Alzada itself could barely be considered a community. In modern times it’s home to less than 30 people, with only slight more in the seventies when this took place. The landscape itself is semiarid ranch land and bad lands, filled with rough terrain and canyons. The two of them were staying in a rented cabin while they were on their search in Alzada. The strangeness started as they returned to the cabin after a fruitful days search around the caves. The first signs of something wron...

  The dingonek was an African cryptid known from lake Victoria and the surrounding rivers. It was first reported by big game hunter John Alfred Jordan. The incident first made its way to the media through another big game hunter’s book, In Closed Territory , by Edgar Beecher Bronson, in which he recounted Jordan telling the story to him. Jordan’s encounter happened in 1905. The okapi has recently been discovered. So Jordan had a network of local peoples always on the lookout for unusual large game that wandered into the area, in the hopes of discovering a new species himself. One day his informants told him that a reptilian beast was spotted up the Maggori River. So Jordan and his hunting party, two local men named Mataia and Mosoni, headed up the river in canoes to find the beast. Mataia and Mosoni scouted ahead. They soon came racing back down the river in pure terror, insisting the beast was resting on the river’s shore just ahead. Jordan insisted his two men come with h...

  I would just like to acknowledge the Benchends Blog https://benchends.wordpress.com/ They did all the research into the origin of the Gurt worm, without them I would have stopped at the legend as written and never realized something was off. This time we look into a mystery, exactly what is the Gurt Worm, and why does its legend not line up with how the beast is depicted in art? Specifically the Gurt worm is a rather odd wyvern, depicted with a second face in its chest, yet no such thing appears in the written accounts of its story. In the town of Crowcomb, Somerset there is a legend about a dragon who used to terrorize the near by Shervage Woods. It would eat livestock and attack anyone who entered the forest. Unfortunately for the people of Crowcombe, the Shervage Woods were the source of much needed firewood, as well as bilberries, the town’s claim to fame. The bilberries were so important that every year they would hold a festival when the berries ripen, and bake ...

  The hyakume is a yokai from Japan. It’s name means one hundred eyes. The hyakume is roughly human shaped, but made out of flabby flesh lumps. It had a hundred eyes poking out from under the flesh flaps all over its body. It’s also about the size of a fat human. The hyakume looks somewhat similar to the nuppeppo, which is another yokai made of flabby flesh roughly in the shape of a human. Although the nuppeppo doesn’t have any eyes. Hyakumes live in abandoned places, usually temples or large houses. They live alone and shy away from interacting with any other being. They also come out only at night as the sunlight hurts their eyes. Hyakumes are not aggressive and just want to be left alone. However they will defend their home from intruders and thieves. Each night the hyakume will remove one of its eyes and send it out to patrol its territory for intruders. The eye floats around on its own like a will-o-wisp fireball. If the eye spots anyone it will attach itself to the...

  The Aksar is an apocalyptic beast from Arabian mythology, where it’s also known as Dabbat al-Ard, or Beast of the Earth. The Aksar was a chimeric beast with parts from many animals. It had the head of a bull, eyes of a pig, ears of an elephant, antlers of a stag, neck of an ostrich, shoulders of a lion, hips of a leopard, tail of a ram and legs of a camel. Most scholars think this assemblage of animals is meant to just be freaky for the sake of freaky, to get across the idea of ‘monstrousness’, although I think it’s the result of someone explaining a giraffe to another person who’s never seen one before, and many more additions made in repetition. The aksar is said to be a stunning 30 meters tall too. The Aksar would take part in the destruction of the world at the end of time. It would wield Moses’s staff and Solomon’s ring, using them to separate believers from non-believers. Before this, while Moses was on Mount Sinai God brought the Aksar out from its sanctuary to ...

  The marool is a sea monster from the Shetland Islands in Scotland. It’s a mythological interpretation of a monk fish. In addition to the monk fish’s already strange appearance, the marool has a multitude of eyes on its head and a fiery crest in place of a back fin. The marool is about the size of a dolphin, which is larger than a real monk fish, but still not that big for a sea monster. The marool takes great pleasure in watching ships sink and sailors drown. It stirs up the sea and causes a glowing sea foam known as mareel. The marool also sings during storms and sea swells. It’s voice in haunting and causes fear. Sources https://britishfantasysociety.org/10-fearsome-foes-from-scottish-folklore/ https://abookofcreatures.com/2016/03/04/marool/

  The Grand Lake hoedag is a fearsome critter from St Mary’s Ohio, not to be confused with the more famous Wisconsin hodag. It was said to be a lake monster, albeit one that was completely different from the typical plesiosaur / Nessie type. The hoedag was said to be a one of a kind, female creature, not a species. It appeared in news articles from 1912 to the 1960’s, and was never meant to be taken seriously. The hoedag was the size and shape of a giraffe. She had fur on her body and a combination of feathers and porcupine quills on her neck. Her body was covered in a cow spot pattern and had a camel like hump on her back. Her front legs were long like a chicken’s and her back legs were short like a pigs. Both sets of legs ended in plate shaped feet, which were capable of moving over mud and water plants without sinking in. On her head she had a singular green eye, partly covered by cow licked bangs. Her tail stuck up in the air like a flagpole and at the end of it was a red eye. ...

  Bai Ze is a monster from Chinese mythology. It’s also found in Japan, where it’s known as hakutaku. It is a good and pure creature responsible for warding off evil spirits. The bai ze was a wise and intelligent creature. It was one of the nine spiritual beasts which resided in heaven. Bai ze descended to Earth where it taught the Yellow Emperor about the various harmful ghosts in the world and how to expel them. These lessons resulted in the Bai Ze Diagram, a scroll depicting various harmful spirits and how to ward them off. The Bai Ze is mentioned many times throughout Chinese literature. Over time the bai ze became a protective charm. Images of the beast were hung in homes or carried with people to ward off ghosts and disease. The bai ze has many varying appearances in Chinese mythology. In the History of Yuan, written in 1370, the bai ze was described as having the head of a tiger, the body of a dragon, a single horn and a red mane. In the Sancai Tuhui, written in 1609, the ba...

I’ve seen articles written about Cathach the dragon a few times. Each time her sisters were mentioned by name, but descriptions were never given for them. So I was determined to find out what her two draconic sisters also looked like.  The story starts with three Tuatha-De-Danann brothers, Crohan, Sal and Daltheen fighting a campaign against the boars of Ireland and successfully wipe them out but one. The last one, the All Devouring Sow, mates with the gatekeeper of hell and birthed three dragons in revenge, the sisters Cathach, Dabran and Farbagh. They were subsequently nursed by the red demon of Western Ireland. Farbagh was the oldest of the sisters. She was a cat like dragon with a crescent moon on her forehead and a deadly nail on her tail. The three brothers slayed Farbagh by waiting for her to pounce from a height on them and skewering her on their spears as she landed. When the three brothers returned home they were told a prophecy that their sister Aonbhean would marry Diar...