Bestiary |
La Corriveau
Marie-Josephte Corriveau lived in Canada in the 18th century – at that time, however, it was known as New France. This political entity came to an end in the same year that the aforementioned lady passed away: in 1763. The British were involved in both events; while we will not analyze and evaluate the Seven Years' War, we will examine the trial of the woman accused of murdering her husband. The experience of the honorable Mr. Dubé, whose character is revealed by the accompanying illustration, brought her into our collection.
The Quebec beauty first married a young, handsome farmer at the age of sixteen. Legend has it that she soon grew bored with him, but austere registry records show that she bore Mr. Bouchard three children before he fell from his horse and died. The legend adds that the cause of death was a blunt object in Mrs. Bouchard's hand, and that dragging the body behind the horse was merely an attempt to cover her tracks. In any case, Marie-Josephte Bouchard, née Corriveau, remarried after eighteen months to Louis Étienne Dodier. The marriage did not last nearly as long as the previous one, and before long, Mrs. Dodier was a widow again. Once again, it was the horse's doing.
Or an axe, as it soon turned out.
We will leave the trial, which was actually a consequence of previous proceedings for another crime, to historians of crime, judicial and police practice, and move on to the stark verdict: guilty, and the sentence: execution by hanging. The punishments meted out by the British justice system at that time were truly exemplary – after the execution, the murderer's body was displayed in a cage by a busy road.
And that was that. Criminals are particularly suitable material for posthumous torment (whether of themselves or those around them), and although Marie-Josephe's body was buried after the prescribed time, observers confirmed that her spirit, including the aforementioned cage, began to haunt the area. Already displayed by the roadside, her corpse gazed at passersby at night with glowing eyes and tried to reach out to them with her decaying hands. When she was freed from her physical existence, she began to rise from the grave and return to the road.
One night, the esteemed Mr. François Dubé saw blue lights above the St. Lawrence River, in the vicinity of which the haunting took place and which only became important to the story because of this incident. He also saw dancing bogeymen. This disturbed him, but before he could bravely or cautiously set off on his journey home, skeletal arms embraced him from behind.
"Carry me across the river, Dubé," he heard a terrifying whisper, "Only an honest Christian like you can help me across the water. I cannot do it myself."
The honest Christian began to scream and call on all the saints, until he fell as if struck down and lay in a deep swoon on the road until morning, when his own wife found him.
It doesn't pay to scare people with a good reputation; the story of poor Mr. Dubé quickly spread throughout Quebec, and the power of the rumor forced the authorities to act. A priest was called in to exorcise the ghost of the dead murderess, who at that time was already rumored to have killed seven husbands.
The scene of Mr. Dubé's unforgettable experience with the Quebec ghost was drawn for Les Anciens Canadiens by Philippe Aubert de Gas
Henri Julien [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
8.12.2025 (12.4.2015)
Klepálek
One of a long line of Bohemian Forest gnomes. He was gray, wore a tricorn hat, and tapped tree trunks or walls with a hammer. If no one teased or shouted at him, he ignored people. Otherwise, however, he behaved similarly to a hejkal or other such creatures – he jumped on the back of the mocker. He let himself be carried, pulled his involuntary horse by the hair and ears, and held on until the person thought of a proper curse. That helped.
There are several stories according to which Klepálek would occasionally sit on someone – figuratively speaking – and appear to them until he tormented them.
8.12.2025 (9.7.2006)
Pís wurm and Ničemnej bejk
A huge bull with dried cowhides tied to its tail is actually the Novohradské hory variant of The Bohemian Forest's Dobytčí děs, one of the first inhabitants of this Bestiary. In neighboring region, it is called Ničemnej bejk.
The Bohemian Forest Pís wurm is described in the same way as the Dobytčí děs, i.e. as a lizard whose tail sparks and whose voice frightens domestic animals. Storytellers add wings to it, thanks to which it (also because of the wurm – worm in its name) can be placed in the Dragons category.
8.12.2025 (9.7.2006)
Borowy
The Polish Borowy is the guardian of the forest and its inhabitants. He takes on the appearance of a bear or a pale old man. His height changes continuously according to the height of the surrounding trees, a characteristic shared by other Slavic demons, such as the vegetation demon Polevoi.
His behavior is, of course, no different from that of other forest spirits. He can be characterized by the well-known proverb: What goes around comes around. When he encounters a lost tourist with pure intentions and environmentally friendly behavior, he leads them out, while guiding arrogant fools into the swamps. He sometimes empties the baskets of children picking blueberries and mushrooms, but in return, they can rely on his protection from wild animals.
Nothing is simple and little is unchangeable, and so one of the forms of Borowy, a forest demon named Boruta, who was not exactly known for his pleasant behavior even in pagan times, later became a representative of hell. In order to disguise his pagan past a little, he preferred to take the legend of a nobleman who fell to the devil, but the deer antlers of the old Indo-European lord of the forest betray him anyway.
8.12.2025 (16.7.2006)
Dobrochoczy
Today's next Slavic visitor is again from Poland and again from the forests. However, this is a positive creature who protects pilgrims of pure spirit and punishes those who are evil. While he gave a purse of gold coins to poor orphans, for example, he gave dishonest people an ugly disease.
Later, he took on a side job as the Wild Rider – compared to the folkloric origins of the Wild Hunters of this country, this seems a little unusual, but the Wild Hunt and its leaders are truly ancient phenomena, with roots stretching back to the deep Paleolithic settlement of Europe, so it is no surprise that its history has taken various paths to the present day.
8.12.2025 (16.7.2006)
Gumiennik
Thirdly, from our northern neighbors, but this time nicely under the roof.
Gumenniks are domestic goblins, just like brownies or sprites. They are essentially a slightly different version of the domovoi – the main difference is in their place of residence, with the domovoi living at home behind the stove and the gumiennik in the barn. This address acknowledges a certain relationship to their colleagues in the fields, but it is not a legitimate kinship; the barn is simply a borderland between two worlds, so the acknowledged sacrifice of a plate of oatmeal from the first ears of the harvest may just as well be a thank you for the harvest as a subscription for the protection of stored property. It's a bit of a lottery: gumienniks protect the harvest from thieves (like Czech Stodolník) or fire, but sometimes they set it on fire themselves – when a taboo is broken.
8.12.2025 (16.7.2006)
Nuku-mai-tore
In most cultural areas, one thing applies: supernatural creatures, goblins, dwarves, fairies, or giants passed on knowledge, especially technology, to humans when they felt like it, which was not often. I could list a whole series of examples, including those I have already mentioned, but there is no need. Only in exceptional cases was the opposite true, and most of those exceptions occurred in Polynesia.
The Nuku-mai-tore are a Pacific nation of little people – fairies – who lived according to ancient principles until a certain sea wanderer named Tura came among them. He got lost on an expedition he was undertaking with Whiro, an adventurer and, after his death, the patron saint of thieves (not to be confused with Whiro – the personification of darkness and death). He ended up on the island of O-tea, where at first he found no living soul, only a blind old woman named Ruahinemata-marari. It was thanks to her that he discovered the Nuku-mai-tore, little people who lived in trees with birds.
He married one of the fairies, the old woman's daughter Turaki-hau, and on that occasion he discovered, first, that he was living with a supernatural being among supernatural beings, and second, that the little people ate raw meat, not knowing fire. He immediately remedied this cultural deficiency, which was not without the initial terror caused by the flames, but the result, as is almost always the case in such situations, convinced the fairies.
Similar attempts were not always successful, by the way. In the case of other elves – which I will not discuss today, and you will find out why at the end – the innovations were simply rejected on the grounds that the usual way was simply better.
Outdated eating habits are one thing, not harmful in any way, except for the possibility of coexisting with tapeworms. Gynecological practices are another. The Nuku-mai-tore were beings untouched by time, but death still came for their women. During childbirth, the baby was delivered by Caesarean section and the mother was left to her fate. Tura (whose real name was unknown, so he was called Wairangi on the island) solved this problem too. When his pregnant wife told him that he would soon become a father and a widower, he did not hesitate.
He built a hut, taught his wife the appropriate karakie, or incantations, and also equipped a makeshift maternity ward with supports named Pau-tama-wahine and Pau-tama-tane, so that Turaki could be brought into the world more easily in the classic birthing position. When her hour came, the child cried out for the first time without killing its mother.
Time passed, and Tura shocked his wife's nation for the third time—this time, however, it was not pleasant for his family. He, a human, was aging, a process unknown among fairies. This frightened them so much that the former vagabond preferred to leave the island to live out his days elsewhere. Many years later, he returned to his wife and the fairies, brought back by his son.
Raw food is a common identification of spirits in Polynesian legends, but they do not always accept its thermal treatment. In the case of other fairies, named Turehu, a certain Mata-Ora, for example, was unsuccessful – there is a nice story connected with this tale, similar to our European ones – about the departure of a fairy wife to her native land when her human husband hurts her. In Oceania, however, everything can be remedied, which is not usually the case in other cultures (I will point to a similar example from Japan, not so far from the Pacific Ocean, the case of yuki onna). Turehu, incidentally, passed on certain technologies to humans, but as I mentioned above, I will not elaborate on that.
Polynesian myths are an extremely complex matter. While Greek mythology, for example, underwent a synthesis in classical times, when older and local versions were forgotten or merged into one official version that is still valid for laymen today, the opposite was true on the other side of the globe.
The gradual settlement of Polynesia differentiated the originally uniform culture both linguistically and, quite logically, marked the myths with different versions, expanding them with new stories based on old roots. In addition, there is the significant influence of European collectors and ethnographers, as well as the prevailing European and modern Asian culture, which influences and buries old myths.
The result is a confusing jumble for even a partially knowledgeable layman, which is certainly not easy to untangle. Therefore, I will limit myself to occasional isolated excursions, and this was just one of them.
8.12.2025 (2.8.2006)
Whiro
Full name Whiro-te-tipua. A lizard god who, according to the Maori, rules the underworld, evil, and wickedness. He resides in a cave called Taiwhetuki. He feeds on the bodies of the dead, which is why the Maori preferred to cremate their deceased. Otherwise, Tane's brother could gain enough strength to climb out into the world and devour everything in it.
8.12.2025 (7.7.2024)
Hiro
A little entropy never hurts. We call what causes it (not only) in our collection the Babylonian confusion. Even transcribing from one language (or rather, from the custom of recording that particular language in writing) to another is often quite difficult. This is especially true when there are several stops along the way.
Hiro belongs by right of domicile to Pacific Tahiti, where he serves as the patron saint of thieves. However, he is sometimes read as Whiro. And Whiro, already known to us as the Maori god of the underworld, is sometimes taken as the god who watches over thieves. Because thieves are covered by darkness, after all...
These may be different aspects of an ancient deity, from which individual nations chose what suited them at the time. Or, even more complicated: both the New Zealand representative of evil and the Tahitian thief are sometimes confused with a man of the same name. Whiro-te-tipua (also known as Iro) was a famous navigator to whom several New Zealand tribes claimed genealogical ties (although it is unclear whether he ever landed on the islands). Because this is such ancient history, it is quite possible that he was not named after any of the above, but that they are reflections of him.
8.12.2025 (7.7.2024)
Hiro
To make things more complicated in Polynesia, there is another Hiro. The god of rain (according to Katherine Routledge, of the heavens) operates on Easter Island. I prefer this mention by the well-known researcher to the more frequently cited meteorological specialization. E te u'a matavai-roa a Hiro-é, or rain, Hiro's big tears, can be shed by a god of much broader scope only in moments of sadness or other strong emotions.
8.12.2025 (7.7.2024)
Caladrius
Caladrius is a white bird with a long neck and a highly specialized profession as a soothsayer. Similar to the Grim Reaper in Czech fairy tales, he sits on the bedstead and shows the sick person the outcome of their treatment by simply changing his position. If he looks at them, they will recover; if he turns away, it is bad news. At first glance, that is. In Christian symbolism, however, he does more – when he looks into the face of the sick, he takes on their illness, just as Christ took on the sins of mankind. And just as Jesus died on the cross, Caladrius flies away, filled with pain and illness, to the Sun to destroy disease in its fire.
He resides at the royal court – which is also symbolic – and mainly in Western Europe, where he is known from several bestiaries and temple decorations; he can be found in a church in Alne, Yorkshire. Probably the only real (or only preserved) continental Caladrius can be found on one of the windows of Lyon Cathedral.
Its literary distribution is somewhat wider, covering writings from all of Christian Europe and adjacent areas, and not only from the Middle Ages. Like many of its counterparts, this white bird came from the ancient Mediterranean and is mentioned, for example, by Aristophanes.
If you want to read a truly insightful study on the subject of Caladrius, I recommend a comprehensive article in the Archaeological Journal from 1912 – The Caladrius And Its Legend, Sculptured Upon The Twelfth-Century Doorway Of Alne Church, Yorkshire. Don't be put off by its age and inaccessibility: thanks to the Canadian project The Medieval Bestiary, you can also access the article in electronic form.
8.12.2025 (6.8.2006)
Kaukas and Pukis
In western Lithuania, Kaukas is a welcome little helper. In addition to household and field work, this elf brings good luck.
His northern Lithuanian and, above all, Latvian relative is an elf named Pukis, a goblin who flies in the air and steals whatever he can for his master. It is difficult to say how a whole series of domestic gnomes came to have such a reputation; it seems that envious neighbors were responsible for this, but in any case, as the author of the Pukis entry in Encyclopedia Mythica, Aldis Putelis, eyewitnesses describing Pukis's appearance use the same words as today's casual observers of the traffic of little green men. The same flying balls of fire, the same rapid movement of something unidentifiable. Well, the world is changing.
8.12.2025 (13.8.2006)
Aether
The goddess of the night, Nyx, had a whole host of children, including the aforementioned (and not very seriously intended) Momus, as well as many famous figures from Greek mythology, such as the ferryman Charon, the goddess of vengeance Nemesis, Thanatos, and Hypnos. I will skip all of them now and introduce a lesser-known descendant. He belongs to the light, even though his birth was surrounded by darkness, as his father was Erebos, the god of eternal darkness.
Aether represents bright light, and you know his name well from the later transcription of ether. Before it became the name of a chemical, it referred to air and also to the invisible matter that fills the space of the gods and stars.
8.12.2025 (19.8.2006)
Troll
Trolls are among the most popular lesser mythological creatures that Norse mythology has given to the world. Today, they can be found in fairy tales and fantasy stories, on the shelves of toy stores, and even lurking under bridges, as tradition would have it – fortunately (today) only in the form of statues. In their most widespread form, they are stupid, even dull-witted, dangerously strong giants who come out after dark and hunt people, but this is not the only possibility. In South Scandinavian legends, for example, there are trolls that resemble humans, but on closer inspection, they can sometimes be recognized by their tails. Not all of them have tails, and those that do hide them under their clothes. So they are a common bogeyman, there are forest trolls and sea trolls, trolls from the hills. Some trolls can make themselves invisible and fly in the wind. When you smell lunch being prepared in the Nordic forests, there is a troll kitchen somewhere nearby. Here and there, they exchange their children for human ones, they are experienced thieves and owners of golden treasures. They fear steel and the sound of church bells.
Let's return to the more familiar branch of these supernatural beings. The origin of trolls is largely unknown, as is often the case in such situations. There is also a peculiar theory by Björn Kurtén, according to which trolls are an ancient memory of Cro-Magnons of their Neanderthal cousins. Unlike their more pleasant smaller counterparts, who live in certain communities, large trolls are nocturnal loners, and according to tradition, they can turn to stone in daylight. Their dangerousness is balanced by their stupidity – female trolls, however, are much smarter, more cunning, and do not share the repulsive appearance of their male counterparts. As already mentioned, a certain group likes to jump out from under bridges – if you visit the US state of Washington, you will find the most famous one in Fremont under the Aurora Bridge, unfortunately safely turned to stone.
Ilustration: Theodor Kittelsen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
8.12.2025 (27.8.2006)
Trowe
The Vikings imported a significant part of their culture to the Shetland and Orkney Islands, including supernatural beings. Trowe is the local variant of the Nordic troll, complete with all the usual attributes – there are sea trowes and land trowes, they fear daylight, and in local households you can hear the well-known phrase directed at naughty children: If you misbehave, he'll take you away...
8.12.2025 (27.8.2006)
Glatisant, or Questing Beast
King Arthur met Glatisant at a spring, where he was waiting for his new horse to be brought to him; he had exhausted his previous one while hunting deer.
The Czech king Charles IV found the Karlovy Vary springs while hunting, King Arthur first heard the barking of a pack of hounds, then saw the strangest animal he had ever seen or heard of approaching him. His ears did not deceive him; the barking came from the belly of the beast. Many other observers agreed on the number of dog voices – as if there were thirty of them – so I will believe them.
No sooner had the beast quenched its thirst than it barked again; a moment later, a knight appeared, just like Arthur, who was waiting on foot. It was King Pellinor, who had not exhausted his horse by chasing high game, but by pursuing Glatisant. He had been chasing it for twelve months, so no wonder he refused Arthur's offer that the legendary king take his place. Only someone from his lineage could pursue the beast, he said.
The barking beast appears on the fringes of Arthurian legend, in stories of important but now lesser-known lords, of whom Percival's (but also Elaine's, Dindrain's, Tor's, Lamorak's, and Agloval's) father was the first, but not the last. He borrowed Arthur's horse on the condition that they would meet again later in the tournament, and disappeared, only to reappear later, unrelated to today's monster. Arthur quickly forgot about the strange animal, because that day he learned from Merlin in various incarnations whose son he actually was.
The next man on Glatisant's heels was Sir Palomides, and this time it was not King Arthur who observed him, but Pellinor's son Lamorak with Sir Tristan. They had just made friends after a long and fruitless struggle when a monster rushed past them, barking like thirty hounds, with the body of a leopard, the legs of a deer, the head of a snake, and the tail of a lion, followed by the well-known Saracen, Mr. Palomides. To uphold his knightly honor, he casually knocked both Lamorak and Tristan from their saddles with a single blow; however, he did not want to delay with a fight on the ground, which somewhat upset both lords. He did not catch up with the monster anyway.
Tristan later met him again (while hunting a deer himself), and Palomides claimed that he had not fought any other knight on his way to Glatisant (which was not entirely true, as he had participated in several tournaments) and that he would have to fight anyone who wanted to follow in its footsteps, as this was his destiny. He immediately demonstrated this by clashing with Sir Bleoberis, who was riding by and was intrigued by the pursuit of the animal. Palomides later fought Tristan himself, but for other, more familiar reasons—because of Isolde, of course, you are right. Even at that time, he had not yet abandoned Glatisant's trail and was no closer to her than before. An animal that has a quest in its name is not easily caught by just anyone.
You may have noticed, or maybe not, but I will now admit that until now I have only drawn information from one source – let me excuse myself by saying that it is the best known, namely Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. But it is not the only source, and besides, this work is very late. So here are a few words from elsewhere.
According to Merlin, the Questing Beast was the result of incest (plotted by the devil) and the subsequent paternal curse, and symbolized the possible destruction of Arthur's kingdom – the allusion to Arthur's own family history is, I think, obvious. His father threw his brother to the dogs, his sister gave birth to a monster with their voices.
Sir Percival, another knight on the quest, encountered another form of the Questing Beast, a creature smaller than a fox, white and friendly, with a voice that was not barking but also came from its entrails. The white color here points clearly in one direction—towards Christ. Some other medieval authors also adhered to this meaning, which is the opposite of the usual one.
Both those who interpreted it as evil and those who interpreted it as good succeeded in completely burying the original creature (if it ever existed).
Who knows what really happened to it?
Ilustration: H.J. Ford, "Arthur and the Questing Beast". From King Arthur, Tales of the Round Table, w:Andrew Lang, 1904.
8.12.2025 (9.9.2006)
