Bestiary |
Yan-gant-y-tan
Breton will-o-the-wisp, native to the department of Finistère. It is said to be distinguished from other large hairy woodland men by the five candles in its right hand. A quick twist of the palm and one sees a wheel of fire. It is bad luck to see him unless you bribe that bogeyman: just leave a small bag of gold coins unattended and Fire John will grab it and disappear.
According to some sources, he is the male counterpart of the Bête havette, a water demoness who specializes in drowning children in Brittany and the Channel Islands. It usually hides in wells and pools.
Illustration: Louis Le Breton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
1.9.2024 (27.4.2014)
Had se zlatou korunkou (The Snake with the Golden Crown)
is not only a Czech bogeyman, but I don't have much information about his foreign relatives, so I turn chauvinistically to my native land. So then: the snake with the golden crown (in Frýdek-Místek's legend called Zlatohlavec) is of course the head of all snakes. He's pretty touchy about his jewel, just as his crown is the target of many thieves. History records a number of more or less successful attempts to steal it.
For example, at Strašín in the Klatovy region, the usual hero of folk tales, the farm worker, attempted a robbery using the well-known serpentodemonological practice of conveniently placing a white scarf near the place where the snake king goes to bathe. The serpent did indeed defer, the farm boy waited for an opportune moment, grabbed the crown in the scarf, and made his escape. But the snake began to chase him. And since in a reptilian way, despite all his efforts and man's belief in the snake's speed, he could not catch him (the fastest real snakes can develop a speed of about three meters per second for a short while, while man can do ten), he, being supernatural, chased the thief by air. But even the art of levitation did not save the crown, and it ended up first as an ornament of Our Lady of Strašín in the local church, and later as the loot of another thief.
At other times the snake crown hunt was not successful, especially when the king was surrounded by bodyguards. Admit it, running from dozens of snakes can make you a little bit nervous. Some crowns offer themselves in an easier way, for example in Vlašim. At dawn on St. Peter and Paul's Day, one of these is up for grabs by the biggest oak tree in the local castle park. If you follow a simple rule, namely to approach the incriminated place without looking back, then you can take that jewel. However, the King's Guard is close by so you must dash across the nine boundaries to escape the snakes.
In addition to reigning in the serpent kingdom, the snakes with the golden crown were also the contractual guardians of treasures, for example under Třemšín. But not every crowned reptile is a snake king. In the castle of Pajrek near Nýrsko, the daughter of the castle lord is enchanted in the form of a golden-crowned viper. In this case, you will not lose your treasure, but it is not guarded by her but by the familiar black dog.
And finally, I have information about the snake army that is waiting at Žinkovy near Nepomuk in Černá skála (Black Rock) for the right time when the country was in the worst trouble. Then the snakes come to us to help.
So far, those suckers have never come out.
1.9.2024 (15.3.2004)
Renenutet
Ancient Egyptian goddess, of course, as was the custom of the time, a lady with an animal head. In this case, a cobra. She used to be a fertility goddess and a guide to the pharaohs, plus she took a role in wrapping the deceased in the neat form of a mummy.
She was as good at defeating enemies with her legendary gaze as she was at ensuring record harvests. Harvest time was also a common time for her official worship. The most important center of her cult was Terenuthis in the Nile Delta.
1.9.2024 (21. 3. 2004)
Ea, otherwise known as Oannes
The ruler of the deep sea, Sumer called Enki by the Sumerians, Ea by the Semites, and Oannes by the Greeks, was one of the trinity of the chief Babylonian gods. He created mankind from the clay and blood of the monster Kingu, whom the gods had to defeat along with Tiamat. He played a major role in that battle, and if it hadn't been for him, Tiamat and her horrific descendants would have been left to rule the world.
Like the later Prometheus, Ea protected his creation. An example is the subtle warning received by Utanapishtim's hut (he could not tell its owner, so he simply talked to the wall).
Wall, wall! Hearken, O Reed-hut, consider, O Wall! O thou Mortal,
Thou of Shurippak, thou scion of Ubara-Tutu, a dwelling
Pull down, (and) fashion a vessel (therewith); abandon possessions,
Life do thou seek, (and) thy hoard disregard, and save life; every creature
Make to embark in the vessel.1)
The following are construction details, which I omit because technology has advanced considerably since then. Both in the construction of the ships and in the destruction of mankind.
Ea simply loved humans, which he proved by teaching them crafts, science, and probably, according to some sources, helping to discover writing. Of course, he also practiced the secret sciences, magic, divination and medicine. According to later versions, brought back from Mesopotamia by the Greeks, Ea - Oannes in Hellenistic terms, of course - taught mankind by day and returned to the depths of the Persian Gulf by night, for like a proper sea god he had his palace somewhere at the bottom of the deep ocean.
1)
Reginald Campbell Thompson. The Epic of Gilgamesh, Complete Academic Translation
Ea in accompanying picture:
c. 2300 BC (design); 2012 (this file) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
9.9.2024(28.3. 2004)
Yofune Nushi
A sea dragon that lived in a cave on the coast of the Japanese island of Oki. Among his habits was one well known to European dragons – every year, on the night of the thirteenth of June, he demanded a sacrifice in the form of a beautiful maiden. If he didn't get one, he became enraged and used storms to destroy fishing boats. Until one year, a volunteer named Tokoyo appeared on the coast. I don't know if she knew the exotic European tale of Ulysses, but she did to the serpent what the cunning king did to the Cyclops. When Yofune Nushi tried to eat her, she pulled out a knife and stuck it in his eye. The blinded dragon began to have other things to worry about than the annual dinner, writhing in pain, and it was no longer difficult for Tokoyo to do what many strong and trained men around the world could do, and what was left to weak girls, shepherds, and children to do – kill him.
14.9.2024 (28.3. 2004)
Su
A large but harmless sea monster, famous for its long tail. It is often longer than its body and is used for swimming, of course, because Su does not particularly like human company and so when it sees a boat, it disappears at record speed. Or, as you can see in some old pictures, the tail serves as an umbrella or parasol for the young su, which the old one carries on her back.
14.9.2024 (28.3. 2004)
Pěnita, or new findings about the White Lady
Today's collection of supernatural creatures comes from required school reading. Specific for my country, of course. Alois Jirasek's Ancient Bohemian Legends.
There is a whole chapter devoted to the Bílá paní (White Lady), with the main part dedicated to the most famous one, the one from Jindřichův Hradec. But apart from that, the author also mentions a number of others. There are also tales in which the lady in white is not a family ghost, but a water creature that announces death. She was called Pěnita, Parychta, Peruta, or Perchta, and in Moravia Šperechta. Which are just variants of the German Berchta by sight and hearing.
This was the South German pagan goddess (in the North, Hulda was her equivalent), who later became both an iron-nosed hag who frightened or protected children. The question of the origin of the White Lady also leads to a similar goddess. Whether she haunted the riverbank or the battlements.
14.9.2024 (4.4.2004)
Zmek or Plivník
Later, it became better known under the name Zmok, which caused demonologists in Czech countries some minor problems. There is another Zmok in the same area, a dragon that has not been seen for seven years. Isolation leaves consequences because that dragon is very dangerous.
But back to the Zmok – the Zmek.
The original Zmek was a fiery creature, probably a black snake, hence its name, and only later metamorphosed into a black chicken, a Plivník, a mischievous devil. For seven years he carried good fortune, whether as a black chicken or a red fiery one. He was occasionally harmful, but the biggest problem was to get rid of him. Why? After seven years of service, it was all about the soul. The surest way was to take it backward to the place where one came to it, one was not allowed to speak or look back during this operation.
But how a man got rid of a Plivník he had raised himself by carrying a black hen's egg in his armpit for nine days, I don't know.
Illustration by Petra Bobalová, (Full size in Gallery).
14.9.2024 (4.4.2004)
Kováříček
For the Kováříček (a little blacksmith), a half-ell high midget, I refer you to the permoniks and their rock relatives. That's where he belongs.
14.9.2024 (4.4.2004)
Jedubába
Jedubába (the Poison Hag) used to be the local form of Ježibaba. At her place, you might learn more than in the short half-sentence from Ancient Bohemian Legends, where Mr. Jirasek mentions only that the famous living and dead water is in the possession of that woman.
14.9.2024 (4.4.2004)
.jpg){kind=link}