-
Benandanti: The Dream-Walking Witch Hunters
The Salem Witch Trials are the best-known witch hunts, but they were prominent throughout Europe during the Catholic Revival. While most witch hunts were terrible tragedies involving the execution of innocent women and other vulnerable people, not all witch hunters did that. The Italian tradition of the Benandanti fought a different kind of witch: malignant…
-
Creature Feature: The Slimy Salamander
The salamander is not a singular species, but a family of amphibians (animals that can live on land and water). This family includes true salamanders, newts, and some fun names like hellbenders and mud puppies. They all have tails, stumpy bodies, and generally slimy skin. Some of them are plain, some are brightly coloured, but…
-
The Story Behind The Little Mermaid
Hans Christen Anderson’s The Little Mermaid is a classic fairytale of magic, transformation, and forbidden love. Most people know the Disney version, where the prince falls in love with Ariel and they live happily ever after. The original version was much darker and bleaker, and likely came about because of an event in Anderson’s personal…
-
Animals Mistaken For Mythical Creatures
Monsters and mythical creatures have always captured the human imagination. They are humanity’s answer to things we can’t explain, and proof that storytelling is our oldest art form. Before we had access to a great wealth of information about the world, there were a lot of things we had no name for. Palaeontology, the study…
-
The Legend of Medusa: Myths and Misconceptions
If you didn’t know, I’m very interested in Greek mythology – so much that I wrote a thesis on feminist interpretations. One of the biggest figures in Greek mythology that isn’t a god or a hero is possibly Medusa, the snake-haired gorgon who can turn people to stone with a glance. Medusa has become somewhat…
-
Vampires from Around the World
The common perception of vampires comes from the European archetype of the pale, fanged, aristocratic monster. Count Dracula is usually the first vampire that people think of, but he’s not the original. Bram Stoker was influenced by John Polidori’s The Vampyre, a story developed at the same party of Lord Byron’s where Mary Shelley wrote…