By the Gods!
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Selkie
Way up north, sitting by the sea, looking at seals all day, who could honestly say they haven’t had at least one romantic thought about those little water-dwelling blubber-bags? The story of the Selkie is the story of that love that dare not speak its name (basically).
In the folk tales of Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands the Selkie pops up from time to time; maintaining the form of a seal while in the water, the Selkies can come ashore, shed their skin, and take the form of a beautiful human. Nearly every story involving a Selkie is a romantic tragedy of some sort, whether it’s that of a beautiful lady Selkie tricking a sad farmer boy into the water to smash him up on rocks, or a guy with nothing better to do stealing the shed sealskin of a Selkie maiden and forcing her to marry him, the tales generally aren’t “feel-good.”
The males of the supernatural species spend most of time seeking out women who are angry or dissatisfied with their husbands and seducing them; their homewrecking abilities are unquestioned.
The leading theory on where the Selkies come from, regardless of what they do, is that they are the bizarre reincarnation of restless drowned souls.
The Cŵn Annwn, found in ancient Welsh folklore, were spectral hounds thought to be associated the Annwn, the Otherworld of Welsh folklore. Annwn was, unlike most modern Otherworld myths, a land of delights and eternal youth beyond the imagination of mortal man.
The hounds were supposed to hunt only on specific nights of the year, roaming the Welsh countryside in packs. It was said that the hounds were louder at a distance, their growling and howling fading as the neared their target. At the moment they were no longer audible, it was said that your death was a certainty.
(I would humbly suggest to the reader that they make no attempt to pronounce the Welsh words here. It’s just embarrassing for everyone involved.)
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Beowulf vs. Grendel’s Mother
The celebration of Beowulf’s victory against Grendel was like an Anglo-Saxon rock star: it partied incredibly hard and died young.
The very next night, after Hrothgar’s people and Beowulf’s thanes went to sleep in Herot, Grendel’s mother crept in and slaughtered a good portion of the partygoers. After all the rewards that had been heaped on Beowulf for slaying Grendel, he felt obligated to help Hrothgar again, and in the morning everyone who could hold a sword set out to track Grendel’s mother to her lair.
Beowulf and the Geats and Hrothgar and his Danes followed her tracks to the water, frothing red with blood, and filled to the brim with monsters. Hrothgar himself shot and killed one aquatic-beast with an arrow, but no one was especially eager to follow Grendel’s mother into her wet home. Luckily, “bloody and full of monsters” is exactly how Beowulf gets his bath-time on. In he jumped, thrashing about with an ancestral sword lent him by one of Hrothgar’s men. His armour protected him from the claws and tusks of the sea-beasts, but once Grendel’s mother grappled him and dragged him into her own monstrous hall the game changed entirely; the gifted sword broke against her magic hide, and she hit him hard enough to send the hero sprawling.
From his new vantage point on the ground, Beowulf spotted a magic sword among the hoarded treasure splayed around the hall. Lose one enchanted blade, find another; the universe never closes a door without opening a window, I guess. It was an ancient sword of the Eotens (giants) that Beowulf managed to lift with his vast strength, and in one mighty swing he finished the fight by decapitating his foe. His blade melted like ice under her corrupted blood, so Beowulf returned victorious with her head as his only trophy. In fact, it was a two-for-one head sale that day: the corpse of Grendel had been displayed by the late Grendel’s Mom in her cavernous abode as an attempt to brighten up the place, and it was just begging to have its head removed.
So finally, up comes Beowulf after nine hours to at last celebrate his victory and the safety of the Danes. There aren’t words in the English language to accurately describe how much mead was consumed that night, but most scholars estimate is was close to “a buttload.”
The Demiurge
When we’re talking about the Gnostics, all the rules change for what you know about Christianity. Well, not all the rules, but the big ones. The Demiurge was the name for the Gnostic deity who jealously guarded and reigned over the world, lost in a fog of its own ignorance. In the Gnostic view, this was the god of the Bible (at that time, this would be referring to the Hebrew Bible, as the New Testament was still in the process of being assembled and standardized).
Right off the bat— that definition of the Demiurge is a simplified one. The Gnostic view, one developed through decades of philosophical and theological debate, was that Wisdom, known as Sophia, was the true creator of the world, and her child was the Demiurge. The Demiurge was born into a cloud of its own ignorance, and remained unaware of Sophia’s existence above itself; it thus assumed that it was the greatest force in the universe, the creator of our world, and our natural ruler. The goal of the Gnostic movement was to reunite the spirit with the divine spark of Sophia through thought, prayer, and internal discovery.
To sum up, the Gnostics thought of the Hebrew/Christian God as a pouty infant with both hands on the wheel of a speeding universe. This high-speed baby they named the Demiurge.
One last thing— while this is what the Gnostic view of the Demiurge consisted of, there was also the idea of the Demiurge developed by Plato, centuries earlier, which referred to a more benevolent artisan of the universe. Be aware of the difference, for as you know: knowledge is power. While that thought may be laughably cliché, I use it in a form as un-ironic as possible.
Unless I’m just being really ironic.
The Ouroboros
The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a dragon/snake swallowing its tail to form a circle. The Ouroboros often represents cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly recreating itself, like the regeneration of a forrest after a fire, or the never ending return of that thing that you keep telling yourself is a cold sore. The ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist’s opus.
There is many-a-fable with creatures that represent or mimic the Ouroboros. Norse myth has quite a few, for example; the serpent Jörmungandr, one of the three children of Loki and Angrboda. This serpent grew so large that it could encircle the world and grasp its tail in its teeth. An Ouroboros-like serpent appeared again in the legends of Ragnar Lodbrok, when Geatish King Herraud gave a lindworm (a small, poisonous dragon) as a gift to his daughter, Pora town-heart. Don’t get your girl boring ol’ diamonds, get her the poisonous serpent she’s always wanted!
The lindworm then grew into a great serpent that bit its tail, encircling poor Pora. Ragnar slaughtered the creature and saved Pora, not knowing that one day they would be wed and make strangely eyed babies. The son of Ragnar was born with a white pattern of a snake eating its tail on the son’s eye.
Sphinx
The Sphinx is an unusual creature depicted across the ancient world, from Greece to India. While the Sphinx is mainly an Egyptian symbol, (and modern associations certainly point first to Egypt) the word ‘Sphinx’ comes from Greek, Σφίγξ, which means “to strangle,” as lionesses strangle their prey. In Egypt the Sphinxes are mysterious creatures; where did they come from and what do they mean? Some scholars believe them to be representations of either Sekhmet or Bast.
The Sphinx is almost always depicted as a feline with the head of a woman, and Greek representations usually include the breasts of the woman as well. However, the Sphinxes of Karnak have the head of a ram, and there is some evidence of bird headed Sphinxes, too. Persian Sphinxes were made in tribute to kings, featuring the head or bust of a particular king on the body of a cat, the best example of this being those at the Palace of Darius. Other Sphinxes can be seen in India and are called Purushamriga, though keep in mind the term “Sphinx” seems to be applied to any creature with a feline body.
In Greek myth the Sphinx was a bringer of bad luck and was the daughter of either Echidna and Orthrus or Echidna and Typhon, which would make her a sister of the Chimera, and incredibly badass. The Greek version of the Sphinx isn’t just a lady-cat, though. Usually they are depicted with eagle wings and a snake headed tail. The most well known story of the Sphinx in Greece is the story of Oedipus, who defeated the man-eating Sphinx by solving her riddle. Pity the Sphinx didn’t come out on top in that encounter; it would’ve spared the world some serious issues. Oedipus, you weirdo.
Tsul ‘Kalu
Tsul ‘Kalu (literally translating to “the slant-eyed or sloping giant”) is a figure in Cherokee mythology who is “the great lord of the game,” a title used in hunting rituals. Tsul ‘Kalu is a giant with sloped eyes by day, but a normal sized man at night. Many believe Tsul ‘Kalu to be the Cherokee version of the Sasquatch.
The story of Tsul ‘Kalu goes a lil’ somethin’ like this: A young girl of marrying age was told by her mother that she should marry a great hunter. That very night a nice young man (Tsul ‘Kalu) greeted her at her home and brought with him a whole deer for the young girl and her mother. He left before daylight, and the mother approved, although they hadn’t met yet. The next few nights he brought more deer until the mother told her daughter to ask him to bring wood next visit. Tsul ‘Kalu heard the mother’s thoughts (due to his clairvoyance) so that night he brought two whole trees. The mother and daughter didn’t catch on that it’s impossible for a single man to bring two whole trees, so they invited him to stay the night. Tsul ‘Kalu warned them that neither would like what they would see in the morning, (which goes for many of us night-owls) but he eventually agreed and curled up on the floor by his lady friend. The next morning the young woman awoke to find a huge man doubled over, legs reaching the roof and his head against the far wall. Tsul ‘Kalu grew angry and wandered away into the wilderness, where everything makes sense, never to be seen again.
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