If "National monster" was a thing, what would be your country's monster?

If "National monster" was a thing, what would be your country's monster?

It doesn't have to be one that only occurs in your nation, so long as it's more common in it than anywhere else

For USA, or other places that are huge, you can pick one based on state, province or whatever


Pic obviously related
Trolls are a big part of fairy tales, and figurines are often sold at tourist places

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Shuck#Appearance_in_Bungay_and_Blythburgh
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_illness
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunyip
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basty
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Basty
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare_(folklore)#Other
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldgeister
youtube.com/watch?v=IsUxZC9dUgo
youtube.com/watch?v=sVi9ed2wKak
youtube.com/watch?v=LB3zDAxbwCs
youtube.com/watch?v=SiyOajnJnTg
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

We've got more than a few in local folklore, ahuizotl would probably be the better known amongst Aztec mythological creatures, although Chupacabra is likely the most famous one.

Adamastor. Or the coco.

>tfw all your folklore is gone because mr. imam said it's idolatry

Iron Wolf desu

this is some sparkledog tier shit LMAO

No way dude. Bauer was Swedish.

This
Thalassophobia is the shit

ogopogo is the canadian loch ness monster, native word and supposedly legend

it's an area heavily dependent on tourism

let me repeat
>It doesn't have to be one that only occurs in your nation, so long as it's more common in it than anywhere else

I'm sure Sweden has something that's more common to you than is to Norway
Can you think of any?

Well,the most used one in our legends is the kulshedra

Fuck knows.
We have kingsnake, gravedigger, sad mother, bull rider, girl that asks "why" etc.
Can't think of one special.

white canadians don't have much, we have a lot of stories about the devil because he was the only acceptable monster

most common one for natives was wendigo, when people would do something wrong they would say wendigo had taken control of them

all the way from montreal-edmonton-arctic they had stories about the wendigo

meh, it was a decent available image

'nokken' is better fåvæ (for å være ærlig/to be honest)

I don't know... We have our own sea serpent, like Scotland and Canada... I guess Näcken is pretty iconic in Sweden

probably this guy

we've got so many, my personal pick would be the Γρυπας

IKU-TURSO ÄIJÖN POIKA

This pic is not very relevant, but it is -a- local monster

Well which one's most important to your culture?
Any local painters, or poets or anything that have made anything based on them?

And the debate goes on
How is Nökken portrayed in Sweden?

You've got so many you could pick one based on which city you live in
But aren't Gryphons from Persia?

nuh uh were keeping ''nokken'' too

for the west coast it's definitely bigfoot

Where I'm from it's the Santa Compaña, a procession of wandering souls that emerges at midnight and visits the houses of people who are going to die.

>MORIR ES VIVIR

Witte Wieven or Druon Antigoon

Except for the goverment, mula sem cabeça.

In the parts of Bosnia I'm from, Babaroga stories was commonly told to scare us as children from wandering in the forest at night.

Though I think Babaroga is common in all Slavic countries.

this doggo i guess

he had some pretty spoopy happenings in the 1500s

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Shuck#Appearance_in_Bungay_and_Blythburgh

>How is Nökken portrayed in Sweden?
Nude, blonde, playing a violin. Usually effeminate, but sometimes handsome and manly. Not always monstrous or murderous, sometimes just a kind of nymph hanging out near a stream.

Same around here

You can have Nökken. Especially if you can't think of something that fits better

>You can have Nökken.
speak for yourself

There's a lot of Slavic spooks to pick from, but since Poles are field people I'd go with południca, the noon wraith.
Most probably it's a personification of this:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_illness

Most probably the Bunyip.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunyip

This thing...

or a leaf.

The quintessential American monster is "Bigfoot", often equated with the Sasquatch of Northwestern Native American lore.

Bigfoot is usually portrayed as a massive hairy humanoid that's kind of a median between humans and gorillas. They live in the woods or up in the mountains, stealing food from hikers... or worse. The Tibetan yeti is basically the same idea.

Florida has their own bichromatic version of Bigfoot called the Skunk Ape.

Sasquatch Dumpling Gang

We share like 99% of our monsters/shit with either scandis or slavs

...Perkele?

>Gulyabani (Pic related)
>Bastı
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basty
>Albastı
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Basty
>Karabasan
literally "Mare" : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare_(folklore)#Other

nah you got the harp guy
I remember that don rosa donald thingy from when I was a kid
seemed based
I think my parents still have those lying around..

Nationwide our folklore is far too varied to have one "best" monster (aside from naybe dragons/wyrms) regionally the monster of choice was Ettins. basically giants, derived from the Norse for giants Jotnar.

Perkele = Ukko = a god. Not a monster.

Cool, we have that here in antigua too (colonial city)

Oh, I've been mislead, I was always under the impression it meant like "Evil Monster". Damn I feel stupid

Someone already pointed out Iku-torso


La ham være, kompiss
Ikke skap meningslöst tröbbel, vi har jo trollene

How about fairies?

You mean Väinämöinen? He isn't a monster, he's a demi-god.

We have shittons of them but those are at least very popular at regional processions

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldgeister

Germany is a scary place when it comes to folklore

men jeg liker nokken bedre enn troll!
nokkeljegerne NÅR?!

Well the christians made it so that in their speech Perkele is the same as the devil.

Well yes there is the 1%, but honestly I can't think of a single monster besides that which other countries don't also have on the top of my head.

Fairies and small folk are far more popular around celtic areas such as Cornwall, Wales, Ireland.
In Yorkshire they tended to be translated as elves or dwarves with strong differences between dark elves and fair elves in folklore.

Most of our legends are native peruvian or old spanish/portuguese/german
The only purely local one I can remember right now is the Sacháyoj.

Wait isn't it spelled færie in England? When I read the His Dark Materials series as a child It was always written that way

In kentuckistan we have a legend of something called the pope lick monster which is like a goatman. It's supposed to lurk on train bridges and if any thrillseekers are crossing the bridge he appears and throws them off or some shit. Anyway people do actually die walking on train bridges here because they get run over especially the particular one the monster lurks around.

tulihänd/kratt

an evil fire spirit animated by a malicious thieving person by ritual sacrifice of blood and part of soul. it flies around like a serpent thieving and can turn on its master requiring additional sacrifice of life, guarding the stolen treasure to death

it has commonalities with other baltic sea surrounding cultures. it has been compared to the skratt (the name kratt is thought a loan), a witch creature of ancient north, however it is not a person transforming by witchcraft, it's an animated object, sort of necromancy. it has also been described as a dragon like creature which used to be more common here and in finland and in the parts of russia where our brethren live(d).. lohe/lohikäärme, literally flying snake or something. it's interesting that popular culture now has this creature by smaug for instance. this makes me think it's more common, but i just don't know

btw we also have the deceitful water creature called 'näkk' or 'näkineid' among other evil water spirits (amusingly most of the spirits of water are fucking evil).

*pic

here in the form of a dead chicked tormenting some innocent blond person

It`s leshy, an unfriendly host of a forest, that lurks in the shadows and makes visitors get lost.

>Mörkö
>monster
ayy lmao

Literally what's the difference

>We share like 99% of our monsters/shit with either scandis or slavs
YEAH NAH
WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH FINNISH PEOPLE
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY CHILDREN YOU'VE TRAUMATIZED

Then why not pick that exact thing as your national monster?
It seems to fit the bill pretty perfectly to me

Slutt å skape deg

I guess Wyvern then
It might not be specific to england, but it is more common there than the rest of europe

most things like this have several spellings, don't get your twist in a bundle
a bunjep is still a bunyip, after all

æ has fallen out of popular usage altogether and færie is a very archaic spelling, nowadays only used for historical accuracy or to create a connotation of a more ancient and deep culture than modern english.
It is lyke iff Iye spelled lyke þis in þy manner of þy auld Anglesch.

The Trauco.

It's a kind of midget/goblin that supposedly lives in the forests of Chiloé island in southern Chile.

He has the ability to "rape" and get girls pregnant only with his stare.

Niggers. we have niggers

Australia

If we are counting spooks, we've got La Lllorona, a sort of banshee which might be a mix of Spanish traditions like this one and pre-Columbian ones like Cihuateteo. This is a sort of banshee that chases after children since in life she killed her own after she was spurned by her lover.

>mapuche girl: daddy, I'm pregnant
mapuche father: who is it? I'm going to kill him!
>mapuche girl: no daddy, I saw the trauco

Looks a lot like basilisk/cocatrix.
We call him borowik or dziad borowy.
>He has the ability to "rape" and get girls pregnant only with his stare.
That's a cool ability.

ooga booga

> Get your twist in a bundle
What?

Also
> J = Y
I've never understood this about a lot of other languages, always fucks with my head in language lessons. Same as a C = K in latin lessons, literally why hkqweqlkj just one of those things I guess i'll never learn properly.

Oh okay, so it's spelled the same as here then, for some reason I just assumed since it was written differently in novels by English writers, it must be written like that by regular English people too. Makes sense your way I suppose.

They are "Lagiban". Depending on the dialect, but generally its similar to this in my Territory.

That's from a Swede author, not from slav folklore

Gah, you beat me to it. t. New Mexico

Is this story just big in the north there?

Actually anthropologists consider that that is exactly the origin of the myth.

OP's pic is Kittelsen you absolute pleb

This tbqh.

kek, is that Wojack?

el chapo

Monsters arent really that popular anymore, most of the weird stuff comes from fairytales
We have a lot of very common ones though, for example the big bad wolf in "Little Red Riding Hood" or the witch in Hänsel & Gretel


Personally I was always really scared of all kinds of fairytales, they just have a weird vibe to them.

We have a national monster

>swede author

I'd say it's more typical of Mexico City and the surrounding area, usually the tale is set in Colonial times with llorona being a beautiful indigenous woman and her lover a Spaniard who's ashamed of acknowledging her and the children she bears him.

Sad legend with a lot of subtext.

The books were written in swedish, get over it Pekka.

She was a Finn whose mothertongue was Swedish, doesn't make her a Swede.

Troll, näcken, skogsrår, gårdstomtar, vättar and lindormar. These are all ours and you can't have them.

What about that kobold/goblin disambiguation ? One is a loanword of the other?

A Batalha de Mitos é uma iniciativa muito boa, pena que não damos o devido valor... Boitatá FTW

Yes it does, stop being so petty.

Borders are just lines on a map, Pekka. Blood is real, and Tove Jansson's blood was Swedish.

Only one per state/province/whatever

Me and the other guy agreed you can have nökken though
Unless you have a better one

Mind if I drop some myth-related poetry?
youtube.com/watch?v=IsUxZC9dUgo

1.
Who is this lad so handsome and young?
Who is that maiden so fair?
Who at the moonlight, by waters livid
Of Świteź awalking are?
2.
With razzes from basket she dowers him,
He gives her the blooms to her wreath;
Suppose, that his true lover is she,
As he is the sweetheart of her.
3.
Nearly each night, at the same hour
Upon this larch they two meet,
The lad is a hunter in forest near,
And who is the lass? I don't wit ...
4.
Where has she come from? In vain one traces;
Where's gone she - Who's there to observe?
As crowfoot wet in swamp she arises,
As glimmer of night she’s a-fading.
5.
"Tell me my darling, my maiden sweet,
Must in mystery we live?
What path to me thy feet have lead,
Where's home thy, and parents of thee?
6.
Yellowed the leaves, the summer gone by,
And comes rainy season along,
Must I await each arrival thine,
On the lake's haggard shore?
7.
"Always as deer reed among the woods
Through dark night as a phantom roamst thee,
Oh, better stay with the one that loves thou,
Oh, darling my, stay with me!"
8.
"My little log-cabin from hence stands near,
Amongst the filber-trees thickset,
Galore we have there of fruits and milk,
And plenty of game one finds thither"
9.
"Stop, stay!", replies she, "my lad so lofty,
My father old said, I'll remind:
Nightingale's grace is in man's voice,
But foxiness in his heart.
10.
More of your cant I am afraid,
Than trust I the fervor of thine;
Maybe thy boon I would embrace,
But would you be a true love of mine?
11.
So kneeled down the lad, took handful of gravel,
And summoned the forces infernal,
Upon the holy moonlight he swore,
But will he to oath his be faitful?
12.
"Be faithful, oh hunter, that's my advice,
For whosever the oath sacred breaks,
Oh, wellaway to him while he lives,
And wellaway when he’s dead!”

Samodivi (literally self-wild), essentially hot supernatural wild women living in the forests, usually get men killed or steal them away
The rest is boring spirits, 'dragons' and personified forces of nature.

If we're sharing songs/poetry here's an old yorkshire song about a man who dies of cold
ON ILKLEY MOOR BAHT 'AT
(Traditional English - Yorkshire)


Wheear 'as ta bin sin ah saw thee,
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?!
Wheear 'as ta bin sin ah saw thee?

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?!
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?!

Tha's been a cooartin' Mary Jane
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Tha's been a cooartin' Mary Jane|

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

Tha's bahn t'catch thi deeath o'cowd
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Tha's bahn t'catch thi deeath o'cowd

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

Then we shall ha' to bury thee
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Then we shall ha' to bury thee

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

Then t'worms 'll cum and eat thee oop
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Then t'worms 'll cum and eat thee oop

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

Then ducks 'll cum and eat oop t'worms
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Then ducks 'll cum and eat oop t'worms

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

Then we shall go an' ate oop ducks
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Then we shall go an' ate oop ducks

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

Then we shall all 'ave etten thee
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Then we shall all 'ave etten thee

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

That's wheer we get us oahn back
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
That's wheer we get us oahn back

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

youtube.com/watch?v=sVi9ed2wKak

13.
So spake, no more the maiden abides,
She put her wreath on her head,
And, from afar the hunter she’s blessing,
To fields green comes she away.
14.
In vain is hunter following her,
Can't catch her swiftly a-running,
As gentle aflatus she faded away,
And all'lone stayed he, thither standing.
15.
All'lone stayed he, wild path a-returning,
The quicksand and slush is a-sagging,
Silence around, only under his feet
A withered twig is a-rustling.
16.
At the water he's walking, with steps uncertain,
With faraway look he is ogling,
Swiftly, in thickset wood wind has blown,
And waters are seething and ruffling.
17.
They're seething, they're ruffling, the mirror is bursting
O, following phantoms nameless!
A vestal fairness outgushing is
Through Świteź' silvery waters
Like rose's pale lobes her face appearing,
Sprent with a tear of a dawning,
Light as a mist is the attire
The heavenly figure is wearing
18.
"My lad o handsome, my lad o youtful,"
The maiden's tenderly humming,
What for art thou, round Świteź waters,
Must at the moonlight a-roaming?"
19.
"Why are thou for this maid haggard moaning,
Who thee in those forests is luring,
Troubles thyself, forsakes thou yearning,
And maybe of thee is a-taunting?"
20.
"Please, be persuaded with word so tender,
Abandon thy sorrow and sighing,
Come hither, to me, we'll hither together,
On water crystal be dancing.
21.
Would thou as keen as a swallow supple,
The water mirror be skimming?
Or, as sound as a trout, and as cheerful as trout
All day with me be a-swimming?
22.
And night to spend in silver cradle's deep,
Below the watery mirrors
On lilies pale white deeply asleep,
And dream of the phantoms prodigious"
23.
Swiftly, the swan-like bosom shines bare,
Down the ashamed hunter's gazing,
Slightly approaching to him is the maiden
And "come, come to me", she is calling.

Wendigo or Sasquatch.

youtube.com/watch?v=LB3zDAxbwCs

24.
Putting her feet light straight on the wind
In the air as a rainbow she’s dancing,
Then, watery mirrors slightly she hit,
With silvery drops she’s a-bursting.
25.
Runs near the hunter, in place he’s halting,
Both wants he to jump and he’s shuffling;
Once, the wave blue springs from the shore
And lightly his feet is a-tickling.
26.
It’s so a-tickling, it’s so alluring,
The lad’s heart melting completely,
As if his hand already held was
By a shy lover secretely.
27.
Forgot the lad of his loved maiden
With oath his sacred disdained he,
To abyss blue to his doom he’s rushing,
With a new seduction allured.
He’s looking and running, and running and looking,
The mirror of water him carrying,
And far he went from the shores dry,
In the lake’s middle he’s dancing.
28.
Once, the palm snowy in his hand holds he,
At the face gorgeous he’s gazing,
And, with his lips her lips he’s a-chasing
And circles high he’s a-dancing.
29.
Once zephyr’s swishing, the cloud’s a-fading,
Which hid her with glare illusory;
Now this lass well can he distinguish:
Ah, it’s the one from the forest!
30.
"Where's the oath thy? Where's my advice?
For whosever the oath sacred breaks,
Oh, wellaway to him, while he lives,
And wellaway when he’s dead!"

youtube.com/watch?v=SiyOajnJnTg

31.
Not thou in the waters deep will be dallying,
Not thou in the lake vivid be diving;
Crude soil will take the body of thine,
With dirt will be darkened thy eyes".
32.
"And spirit of thine, upon this tree conscious,
For thousand years will be waiting,
Forever suffering from heat infernal,
To put it out all unable"
33.
So heard the hunter, with steps uncertain,
With faraway look he is ogling,
And blows the gale in the forest thickset,
The water is seething and ruffling.
34.
It's seething, it's ruffling, till bottom's boiling,
Seizing them with current a-whirling,
The mouth of the lake's abyss is opening,
And with a lad a maiden is fading.
35.
Till now, the water is seething and ruflling;
Hitherto, at the moon's light shiny
A pair of shadows transient is spunning,
This is the lad and the maiden.
36.
She's dancing on the lake's silvery mirror,
He's upon this larch a-groaning,
Whom was the lad? - a hunter in forest,
And who is the lass? I don't wit.

The end.
>implying anyone will bother reading this

I can understand some words but a transaltion would help a lot lad.

we have so much folklore it's hard to pick just one thing

dragons are undoubtedly our most famous, but each region of the uk has its own rich mythology

where i'm from, our most famous figure is the soothsayer mother shipton; but if we're talking purely monsters and other things that go bump in the night, then it's hard to say
we have auld goggie (an over grown caterpillar who eats children whom go scrumping), the penhill giant and the giant jack-in-irons, barghests and brashes (the beast of the moors), boggarts and brownies, peg powler and other hags, and so on and so forth

>There are many tales of ghostly black dogs in Lincolnshire collected by Ethel Rudkin for her 1938 publication Folklore. Such a creature, known locally as "Hairy Jack", is said to haunt the fields and village lanes around Hemswell, and there have been reported sightings throughout the county, from Brigg to Spalding. Rudkin, who claimed to have seen Hairy Jack herself, formed the impression that black dogs in Lincolnshire were mainly of a gentle nature, and looked upon as a spiritual protector.[18]
Doggo is a friend of my county.

Where you been since I saw you
On Ilkley moor (A very windy, cold and barren rocky upland moor) without a hat
You've been courting Mary Jane (implication they were fucking on the secluded moorland)
You're going to catch your death of cold
Then we'll bury you
Then the worms will eat you
Then the ducks will eat the worms
Then we'll eat the ducks
Then we'll have eaten you
Then we'll have gotten our own back (for shagging the prettiest girl in the village)

why do brits name literally everything "jack"

where have you been since i saw you?
on ilkley moor, without a hat

you've been courting mary jane
on ilkley moor without a hat

you're bound to catch your death of cold
on ilkley moor without a hat

then we will have to bury you
on ilkley moor without a hat

then the worms will come and eat you up
on ilkley moor without a hat

then the ducks will come and eat up all the worms
on ilkley moor without a hat

then we shall go an eat up the ducks
on ilkley moor without a hat

then we shall all have eaten you
on ilkley moor without a hat

that's how we'll get our own back
on ilkley moor without a hat

it's written entirely in yorkshire dialect, so it's easy for us to understand but hard for even native speakers outside the region to grasp