People, no matter from which era and what traditions, have always felt the need to explain their surroundings. After all, the greatest fear is the fear of the unknown. Before science did better explanations, myths, and mythical creatures fulfilled the need to know what, why, and how our reality exists.
Legends were often filled with grim events and scary monsters, and the reason for that was to scare people into behaving morally or into believing higher goodness. And no matter the ethnicity or beliefs, people thought that these supernatural creatures really exist and would warn each other to look out for them. Even though now these fantasy animals are accepted as fiction, stories of them still give us chills.
Artist from Portugal, Bruno Santos, brilliantly illustrated some of the lesser known mythical beasts. From a 400-year-old spider who eats handsome men to the mythological creature disguised as a ghost of a whale that brings famine. These terrifying monsters are sure to haunt your dreams.
Check out the illustrations below and tell us in the comments if you've heard about any of these mythical animals and monsters.
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Bubak
The Bubak is a creature present in the old Czech folklore. It is usually described as a scarecrow looking monster, with the ability to cry just like a newborn baby, to lure its victims to their deaths.
La Cegua
This supernatural creature from the Nicaraguan folklore is a shapeshifter. It typically takes the form of an attractive long haired woman who seduces drunken and unfaithful men before revealing her true face: a Horse Skull. The words she speaks to these men are so horrific that the victim goes insane instantaneously.
La Llorona
La Llorona (The weeping Woman) was a woman who committed suicide after drowning her own children in a Mexican river as a means of revenge against her husband. Her wandering spirit is said to cry every night
¡Ay, mis hijos! ("Oh, my children!) The legends warns all children not to go out in the dark for she might snatch them, throwing them to their deaths in the flowing waters.
I have a friend who grew up in Mexico who says she's real. She was outside using the restroom and she heard a lady crying. Right as she saw a female figure walking towards her, my friend's dad yelled for her and she ran away.
omg i did not now this was the foll story i fell so bad for the kids
once i took a trip to mexico to visit my grandma. we went to this river down by her house, and herd a woman crying, we weren't sure what it was so we went to go see what it was. we went to where it was coming from and i see flashing lights. i start to freak out and i faint. my parents didn't believe me.
It's said she can be heard anywhere near a body of water... she can lure you to it and drown you. Her cry it's a trick warning... if you hear her far away from you it means shes closer you may think
I guess the Mexican folk song is related to this legend. If you watch the movie Coco, you can hear it near the end.
I don't speak spanish, but I've learned that Llorona meant weeping woman. I thought it was a sad song, not horror related! :)
Load More Replies...Wendigo
A Wendigo is a half-beast creature appearing in the legends of the American Indians. The most frequent cause of transformation into a Wendigo was if a person had resorted to cannibalism.
Rokurokubi
The Rokurokubi are Japanese mythical creatures that look like normal women by day. By night, however, their bodies sleep while their necks stretch to an incredible length and roam around freely, drinking other people's blood and even (rarely) eating humans.
If I had such powers, I would roam around at night drinking other people's wine
Jorōgumo
According to the Japanese folklore, the Jorōgumo is a magic, 400 year old giant spider, that can change its appearance into that of a beautiful woman. She seduces young handsome men, wraps them up in her webs and eats them.
Ever noticed how many monsters disguise themselves as beautiful women?
Bake-Kujira
The Bake-kujira ("Ghost whale"), is a huge, ghostly whale skeleton that is accompanied by a host of strange birds and fish. They appear on rainy nights near coastal whaling Japanese villages, scaring the fishermen and delivering a powerful curse to anyone who spots it. The whale's curse brings famine, plague, fire and other kinds of disasters to the villages it hits.
This is actually really cool! I love it :D It reminds me of the Ghost Leviathan from Subnautica! I LOVE THE GHOST LEVIATHAN :D Sorry for wasting your time if you read this. Move along. :3
Manananggal
The Manananggal is a vampire-like mythical creature of the Philippines. It is described as hideous, scary, often dipicted as female, and capable of severing its upper torso and sprouting huge bat-like wings to fly into the night in search of its victims.
La Mano Peluda
La Mano Peluda or "The Hairy Hand" is said to belong to a man who was killed during the inquisition in Mexico, chopped up and buried in an old Indian cemetery. Only his hand came back to life, and lurks in the darkness under the bed of misbehaved children hoping to grab them by the ankle and drag them to who knows where
Really? Those few are not enough for cool nightmares yet? In that case try the like written on those pictures, maybe there will be more...
Load More Replies...I agree. The calligraphy is also amazing--so beautiful.
Load More Replies...In Brazil, we have the "mula sem cabeça" It is said to be a headless mule that wanders around forests and farms, kills animals and people by combustion (fire can come out of it's neck) and by brutally stepping on them until their head come out too. As a brazillian, I was terrified of this myth when little! I wouldn't go out alone at night, especially if I heard galop...
The Wendigo is fascinating because of how many other monsters it shares similarities to. Creatures like Ghouls, Trolls, Giants and a large assortment of other folklore monsters are human like creatures that are monsters BECUASE they eat human flesh. The idea being that eating human flesh is monstrous and LITERALLY makes you a monster (which also actually happens when you look at what Kuru turns you into). I think it's fascinating that by tracking the origins of different folklore you can see common themes among them (for example, look how many monsters across different cultures focus on infidelity represented by seductive monsters). As years and years go on the monsters become embellished (the wendigo gets horns, ghouls become undead, troll have green skin) but the central message is the same.
T.J About the similarities you are very right. BTW, have you ever heard why is a good wizard old man with staff? As I know the story, it came from the times when Europe was fighting all the time. Older man with staff wouldn't be so strange but if you will put some ornaments on the end, well, there is mercenary veteran who had something like medal on his stick. And when he was attacked by some robbers or muggers he showed them what this piece of wood can do... Usually they saw stars after, just like in cartoons.
Load More Replies...I don't know why, but I've been reading a lot of Not Always Right. So I just keep picturing customer service dealing with these monsters. "Ok sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to come down from the ceiling...". "Ma'am please reattach your head to the rest of your body, this is a respectable establishment."
As czech I am a bit disappointed by choice of czech mythical creature. There are many more interesting and known than "bubák" which is actually just a vague term for ghost or spook for most people. Polednice would make a better story for example. But still good idea, just the article could be a bit longer and with more text for each creature. Finally something really interesting on BP after quite a time.
the jorogumo sounds just a normal spider when its turns into a women eats men
i have heard of a few of these in creepy stories and creepypastas, of course i still believe in some like the wendigo, wonder why theres no fleshgate in this tho.. Love the descriptions and the artistic style!
Japan just has so many awesome creatures. Hachishaku-sama, Kamaitachi, and Teke Teke are my all time favorites.
Load More Replies...I love to see content like this. I am just very confused about Bubak - despite I am Czech, I have never heart about such a creature. I was pretty sure Bubak is just Czech word for bogeyman.
Really? Those few are not enough for cool nightmares yet? In that case try the like written on those pictures, maybe there will be more...
Load More Replies...I agree. The calligraphy is also amazing--so beautiful.
Load More Replies...In Brazil, we have the "mula sem cabeça" It is said to be a headless mule that wanders around forests and farms, kills animals and people by combustion (fire can come out of it's neck) and by brutally stepping on them until their head come out too. As a brazillian, I was terrified of this myth when little! I wouldn't go out alone at night, especially if I heard galop...
The Wendigo is fascinating because of how many other monsters it shares similarities to. Creatures like Ghouls, Trolls, Giants and a large assortment of other folklore monsters are human like creatures that are monsters BECUASE they eat human flesh. The idea being that eating human flesh is monstrous and LITERALLY makes you a monster (which also actually happens when you look at what Kuru turns you into). I think it's fascinating that by tracking the origins of different folklore you can see common themes among them (for example, look how many monsters across different cultures focus on infidelity represented by seductive monsters). As years and years go on the monsters become embellished (the wendigo gets horns, ghouls become undead, troll have green skin) but the central message is the same.
T.J About the similarities you are very right. BTW, have you ever heard why is a good wizard old man with staff? As I know the story, it came from the times when Europe was fighting all the time. Older man with staff wouldn't be so strange but if you will put some ornaments on the end, well, there is mercenary veteran who had something like medal on his stick. And when he was attacked by some robbers or muggers he showed them what this piece of wood can do... Usually they saw stars after, just like in cartoons.
Load More Replies...I don't know why, but I've been reading a lot of Not Always Right. So I just keep picturing customer service dealing with these monsters. "Ok sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to come down from the ceiling...". "Ma'am please reattach your head to the rest of your body, this is a respectable establishment."
As czech I am a bit disappointed by choice of czech mythical creature. There are many more interesting and known than "bubák" which is actually just a vague term for ghost or spook for most people. Polednice would make a better story for example. But still good idea, just the article could be a bit longer and with more text for each creature. Finally something really interesting on BP after quite a time.
the jorogumo sounds just a normal spider when its turns into a women eats men
i have heard of a few of these in creepy stories and creepypastas, of course i still believe in some like the wendigo, wonder why theres no fleshgate in this tho.. Love the descriptions and the artistic style!
Japan just has so many awesome creatures. Hachishaku-sama, Kamaitachi, and Teke Teke are my all time favorites.
Load More Replies...I love to see content like this. I am just very confused about Bubak - despite I am Czech, I have never heart about such a creature. I was pretty sure Bubak is just Czech word for bogeyman.