Legendary creatures

In Greek and European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk (from the Greek basiliskos, a little king, in Latin Regulus) is a legendary reptile reputed to be king of serpents and said to have the power of causing death by a single glance. According to the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder, the basilisk is a small snake that is so poisonous that it leaves a wide trail of deadly veno ...

Including:

• Basilisk - Usage in market-directed culture and video games
• Basilisk - Basis of the myth
• Basilisk - Links

Read more here: » Basilisk: Encyclopedia - Basilisk

Fantasy media Fantastic art Fantasy literature Fantasy authors Fantasy fiction magazines Fantasy art Fantasy films Fantasy operas Genre studies History of fantasy Fantasy subgenres Fantasy themes Quests & Artifacts Fantasy races Fantasy worlds Legendary creatures Fantasy subculture Lovecraftianism

Read more here: » Artifact fantasy: Encyclopedia - Artifact fantasy

Bahamut (Arabic: بهموت Bahamūt) is originally an aquatic figure of Arabic mythology, though this figure has been significantly altered in the process of modernization. Bahamut is an enormous fish that resides in a vast sea. He supports a huge bull named Kujuta who has four thousand eyes, and the same number of ears, noses, mouths, tongues and feet. Between every one of each is a distance of fiv ...

Read more here: » Bahamut: Encyclopedia - Bahamut

Monster is a term for any number of legendary creatures that frequently appear in mythology, legend, and horror fiction. The word originates from the medieval vulgar Latin verb monstrare (plural monstrum), which translates as either "to exhibit" or "to point out". Monster - Monsters in history. Monster - Social concept. At one time, the monster was an important social concept. Monsters were often associated with unknown lands and unknown things. For instance, histo ...

Including:

• Monster - Monsters in history
• Monster - Social concept
• Monster - Religion and mythology
• Monster - Monsters in literature
• Monster - Monsters in philosophy
• Monster - Monsters in cinema
• Monster - Pre-World War II
• Monster - Post World War II
• Monster - Miscellaneous

Read more here: » Monster: Encyclopedia - Monster

A gnome is a mythical creature characterized by its small stature and subterranean lifestyle. According to Paracelsus, gnomes are the most important of the elemental spirits of the classical element earth, and they move as easily through the earth as humans walk upon it. The sun's rays turn them into stone. In other traditions, they are simply small, mischievous sprites or goblins. Some sources claim they spe ...

Including:

• Gnome - Garden gnomes
• Gnome - Gnomic Culture

Read more here: » Gnome: Encyclopedia - Gnome

The manticore is a mythical creature, a kind of chimera with the head of a man — often with horns, gray eyes, three rows of iron teeth, and a loud, trumpet/pipe roar — the body of a (sometimes red-furred) lion, and the tail of a dragon or scorpion, which may shoot out venomous spines or hairs to incapacitate prey (thus confusing its imagery with the cryptozoology of a porcupine, though real tarantulas do something similar with their hairs). Occasionally, a manticore will possess wings of some description. Size reports range from l ...

Including:

• Manticore - The manticore in literature art and popular culture

Read more here: » Manticore: Encyclopedia - Manticore

Fantasy media Fantastic art Fantasy literature Fantasy authors Fantasy fiction magazines Fantasy art Fantasy films Fantasy operas Genre studies History of fantasy Fantasy subgenres Fantasy themes Quests & Artifacts Fantasy races Fantasy worlds Legendary creatures Fantasy subculture Lovecraftianism ...

Including:

• Bangsian fantasy - History
• Bangsian fantasy - Characteristics
• Bangsian fantasy - Works of Bangsian Fantasy

Read more here: » Bangsian fantasy: Encyclopedia - Bangsian fantasy

Imp is a term for an imaginary being similar to a fairy, frequently used in folklore. Because of the recurrent use of the term, it is possible to give quite a detailed description of how imps are, or were, viewed by the superstitious. A being described as an imp would be more likely to be mischievous than seriously threatening, and to be a lesser being rather than a greater one — an attendant on an important supernatural being. The attendants of the devil are sometimes described as imps, but this is an unusually malign usage of the term. The term carries an implication of liveliness and small stature. They are usually, ...

Including:

• Imp - External link

Read more here: » Imp: Encyclopedia - Imp

Zilant is a legendary creature, something between dragon and wyvern, which has been an official symbol of Kazan since 1730. This winged snake is a part of Tatar and Russian folklore, mentioned in legends about the foundation of Kazan. Zilant - Nomenclature and etymology. The word Zilant is the English transcription of Russian Зилант, itself a rendering of Tatar yılan (i.e., "snake", sometimes pronounced as /ʓɨlɑn`/).

Including:

• Zilant - Nomenclature and etymology
• Zilant - Legends
• Zilant - Interpretations
• Zilant - Zilantaw in Kazan
• Zilant - Zilant as a state symbol
• Zilant - Miscellaneous

Read more here: » Zilant: Encyclopedia - Zilant

Cryptozoology is the study of rumored animals that are presumed (at least by the researcher) to exist, but for which conclusive proof does not exist, or for animals which are generally considered extinct, but are occasionally reported. Those who study or search for such animals are called cryptozoologists, while the hypothetical creatures involved are referred to by some as "cryptids", a term coined by John Wall in 1983. Invention of the term (adding the Greek prefix kryptós, or "hidden" to zoology to mean ...

Including:

• Cryptozoology - Justifications for cryptozoology
• Cryptozoology - Criticism of cryptozoology
• Cryptozoology - Notable cryptids
• Cryptozoology - Primates and hominids
• Cryptozoology - Bipedal monsters
• Cryptozoology - Carnivorous mammals
• Cryptozoology - Herbivorous mammals
• Cryptozoology - Sea and lake monsters
• Cryptozoology - Reptiles
• Cryptozoology - Birds
• Cryptozoology - Marsupials
• Cryptozoology - Amphibians
• Cryptozoology - Others
• Cryptozoology - General terms for cryptids
• Cryptozoology - Bodies of water in which water monsters are said to live
• Cryptozoology - Lists of cryptids
• Cryptozoology - Sources

Read more here: » Cryptozoology: Encyclopedia - Cryptozoology

Fantasy media Fantastic art Fantasy literature Fantasy authors Fantasy fiction magazines Fantasy art Fantasy films Fantasy operas Genre studies History of fantasy Fantasy subgenres Fantasy themes Quests & Artifacts Fantasy races Fantasy worlds Legendary creatures Fantasy subculture Lovecraftianism Tolk ...

Including:

• Dark fantasy - Tending toward horror:
• Dark fantasy - Tending toward fantasy:
• Dark fantasy - Dark Fantasy in other media

Read more here: » Dark fantasy: Encyclopedia - Dark fantasy

Ysätters-Kajsa was a wind-troll, that people used to believe in, in the Swedish province of Närke. She was probably the only one of her kind in Scandinavia. The Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf immortalised Ysätters-Kajsa in her famous novel The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (1906-1907). She wrote that in Närke, in the old days, there was something that existed nowhere else and it was a troll named Ysätters-Kajsa. She had been named Kajsa because wind-trolls used to be called by that name, and her ...

Read more here: » Ysätters-Kajsa: Encyclopedia - Ysätters-Kajsa

The Ceryneian Hind, also called Cerynitis, was an enormous hind sacred to Artemis, the chaste goddess of the hunt and moon. It had golden antlers like a stag and hooves of bronze or brass, and it was said that it could outrun an arrow in flight. The capture of the hind was one of The Twelve Labours of Heracles. When Artemis was a child, she found five gigantic hinds grazing in Thessaly and captured four of them to draw her chariot. The fifth had escaped across a river ...

Including:

• Ceryneian Hind - The 3rd Labour of Heracles
• Ceryneian Hind - Origin of the myth

Read more here: » Ceryneian Hind: Encyclopedia - Ceryneian Hind

A ghoul is said to be a monster from Persian folklore that feeds on human flesh. The English word comes from the Persian name for the creature: الغول ghūl. The Arabian ghoul taken from the original Persian is a desert-dwelling, shapeshifting demon that can assume the guise of an animal, especially a hyæna. It lures unwary travellers into the desert wastes to slay and devour them. The creature also preys on young children and robs graves to eat the dead. Because of the latter habit, the word ghoul is sometimes used to refer to an ordinary human grave robb ...

Including:

• Ghoul - Ghouls in fiction
• Ghoul - Literature
• Ghoul - Movies and television
• Ghoul - Ghouls in gaming
• Ghoul - Dungeons and Dragons
• Ghoul - Shadowrun
• Ghoul - Vampire: The Masquerade
• Ghoul - Other games

Read more here: » Ghoul: Encyclopedia - Ghoul

Mother Nature is a mythical personification of nature. Images of women representing "mother" earth, and mother nature, are timeless. Long before history was recorded, goddesses were worshipped for their association with fertility, fecundity, and agricultural bounty. Priestesses held dominion over Incan, Assyrian, Babylonian, Slavonic, Roman, Greek, Indo-European, and Iroquoian fertility cults in the millenn ...

Including:

• Mother Nature - Western tradition
• Mother Nature - History
• Mother Nature - Greek Myth

Read more here: » Mother Nature: Encyclopedia - Mother Nature

In Greek mythology, Ipotanes were a race of half-horse, half-humans, unlike the satyrs, who were half-goat. The typical Ipotane looked overall human, but had the legs, hindquarters, tail, and ears of a horse. However, some had humanlike rather than horselike legs (compare with early Centaurs, whose front legs were often humanlike). Ipotane - Silenus. The Sileni were Ipotanes who were followers of Dionysus. These Ipotanes were drunks, and looked mainly like other Ipotanes except that th ...

Including:

• Ipotane - Silenus
• Ipotane - Reference

Read more here: » Ipotane: Encyclopedia - Ipotane

In Iranian Mythology, Sênmurw Middle-Persian (Pahlavi), Sîna-Mrû (Pâzand), is a fabulous, mythical bird. The name derives from Avestan mərəγô saênô 'the bird Saêna', originally a raptor, either eagle or falcon, as can be deduced from the etymologically identical Sanskrit s‚yena‚. Saêna is also attested as a personal name which is derived from the bird name. The mythical bird, Simurgh or Simorgh was depicted in Iranian art as a winged gigantic creature in the shape of a bird, that can carry an elephant or a camel; a kind of peacock with the head of a dog and the claws of a lio ...

Including:

• Simurgh - Source
• Simurgh - External link

Read more here: » Simurgh: Encyclopedia - Simurgh

Fantasy media Fantastic art Fantasy literature Fantasy authors Fantasy fiction magazines Fantasy films Fantasy operas Genre studies History of fantasy Fantasy subgenres Fantasy themes Quests & Artifacts Fantasy races Fantasy worlds Legendary creatures Fantasy subculture Lovecraftianism To ...

Read more here: » Race fantasy: Encyclopedia - Race fantasy

In Greek mythology, Pegasus (Pegasos) was a winged horse that was the foal of Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and the Gorgon Medusa. Descriptions vary as to the winged stallion's birth and his brother the giant, Chrysaor; some say that they sprang from Medusa's neck as Perseus beheaded her, a "higher" birth, like the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus. Others says that they were born of the earth as Medusa's blood spilled onto it, in which case Poseidon would not be their sire. Minerva caught and ...

Read more here: » Pegasus: Encyclopedia - Pegasus

Kobolds are ugly spirits of German folklore. The name comes from the German word kobalt or kobold meaning "evil spirit", and is often translated in English as goblin. The most common version, Heinzelmännchen, is similar to Robin Goodfellow and brownies: as household elves of ambivalent nature, they sometimes perform domestic chores, but play malicious tricks if not appeased (Hinzelmann is a particular example). Kobold is often used in German to translate the wor ...

Including:

• Kobold - Kobolds in fantasy fiction

Read more here: » Kobold: Encyclopedia - Kobold