House dragons

 

While famous for being powerful, vast creatures of the sky, land or the mountains and sea. There is few well known smaller domestic dragons that guarded the home in folklore and other old customs. Associated with the cosmos, or the weather, elements, and even regarded as deities, some dragons are fire breathing or venomous, harmful and demonised. Not all dragons were monstrous.

Puk is a small friendly dragon with a serpentine body, four legs and wings. They appear in Germanic and Slavic folklore. The Puk is a domestic dragon who protects the livestock and the family, treated as a pet dog, who views the house owner as master, and in return is rewarded with treats. The favourite things Puk dragons like are honey and milk. So people who leave gifts for their own domestic dragons will get good fortune. Despite the friendliness of a Puk dragon, these don't feel that same love towards the neighbours, who they sometimes steal from. 

Kaukas is a Baltic and Slavic dragon, small and glittering, who guard treasures, relics and even machines. A patron of blacksmiths, the Kaukas dragons tend to shelter in a house or a barn. These can protect and guard the home, as they leave signs to their owners such as a bit of straw and grass. Considered ghosts taking on the form of little dragons because it was believed they were once humans, Many people left offerings (food) out for the Kaukas dragons.  

Aitvaras is a white or black supernatural creature that resembles a bird with a fiery tail, found in Lithuanian folklore. They can take up residence in a house and bring either good or bad luck on the humans living there. If people treat the Aitvaras well, leaving offerings, the dragon will bring stolen gold and grain. If not the home itself would end up burned. 

Source and info from The Circle of the Dragon 

Posted by She Wolf Night 

Picture of the month

 

A wolf being very nosey. Proudly gazing into the lens and thinks the camera is a good find. 

"Try not to tell anyone that I found a camera! It's mine now!" whispered wolf.

"I heard you!" shouted the second wolf who appeared behind the trees!

She Wolf Night

Photo credit by Wolf Conservation Centre.

Bisclavret

 Bisclavret or "the Werewolf" is one of the twelve Lais of poet Marie de France. "Bsclavret" is a tale about a man named Bisclavret, a baron of Brittany. Great friends with the king, Bisclavret would disappear for a few days and nights. It happened more than one time. Everyone including his wife wanted to know where he would vanish to. Bisclavret told them that he was actually a werewolf but goes away to keep himself hidden. The wife of Bisclavret becomes frightened of him. She confides in her lover, a knight, about ridding her werewolf husband. When Bisclavret becomes a werewolf again, he leaves the castle and goes off into the woods. His wife and her lover take Bisclavret's clothing, and on Bisclavret's return, he can't find his clothes and remains in his werewolf form. He stays away from the castle, and soon his wife marries the knight. There is a search party for the missing baron, but after so long of not finding him, they soon give up. All is not over.

The king is hunting in the woods a whole year after Bisclavret disappeared. The royal hunting dogs soon discover a timid Bisclavret as a wolf. Bisclarvet grovels to the king and talks like a man. So the impressed and amazed king decides to keep the wolf, and takes him back with him to the castle. The king wants to celebrate and show off his new pet, so a lot of nobles are invited including the knight who married the wife of Bisclavret. Once the knight enters the castle, he's attacked by the angry wolf Bisclavret. The king intervenes and threatens to kill Bisclavret with a staff. Feeling curious about the wolf reacting so aggressively to that particular knight, the king visits the knight's house, taking the wolf with him. Upon finding his wife there, Bisclavret bites off her nose. As if things couldn't get worse for the woman. She's taken by the king, and she's questioned severely under torture. She admits to taking the clothes of Bisclavret, her first husband, who vanished to trick him into staying as a werewolf so she could be free to marry the knight. The king gives the clothes back to the wolf, who soon becomes a man. So happy to see the baron again, the king restores land and castle to Bisclavret. The knight and baroness are exiled. Future female generations of the baroness are born without noses. 

The author Marie de France originally called the baron "Garwaf", a Norman word, until she changed it to the Breton "Bisclavret." Her work appears in the Strengleikar ("Stringed Instruments"), Old Norse stories based on the Old French Lais of Marie de France. She was born in 1160 in France and spent time living in England at the royal court of king Henry II. An early scholar, storyteller and poetess, she was able to speak many languages. She translated the Aesop's Fables from Middle English to Anglo-Norman French. She could read Latin, and wrote many other stories. She was an extremely intelligent woman, creative and educated. This is a Medieval horror story author. She died in 1215.

Posted by She Wolf Night 🌹

The Greyman

This is a creature called The Big Grey Man of the mountain Ben MacDhui. It also goes by the name of Am Fear Liath Mor. Many simply call it The Greyman. Ben Macdhui is the second highest mountain in Britain, found in the Cairngorms mountain range in Scotland. 

Shrouded in rugged beauty, the mountainous region is frigid in Winter with dense snow and mist. It's the home to a giant called the Greyman, who was encountered by many who dared climb the mountain including J. Norman Collie, explorer and scientist. The mountain's mysterious Greyman is said to be over ten feet tall, bulky, covered in hair, and with very long arms. The area is so foggy that it's often heard walking heavily with loud crunching footsteps. 

During the Second World War, the Greyman was witnessed by Peter Densham who worked there as a rescue operation, experienced intense fear when he heard ominous sounds when the fog increased. His friend, Richard Frere was stationed up in the mountain and he saw the Greyman standing near his tent.

 Again the Greyman was seen by other people including Alexander Tewnion, a mountaineer and he described a frightening close encounter with the Greyman. Huge footprints were found although it was later decided to have been caused by water. Three men saw the entity as they hiked in the area, and another occasion the friends saw it again while in the car. This time the Greyman attempted to chase after them and followed the car as they sped off, until they lost the Greyman. 

Posted by She Wolf Night

A mystery cat woman

In Edmondthorpe, Leicestershire, there is a strange local legend of a cat woman. It's believed that there lived a witch who shapeshifted into a cat. 

Edmondthorpe is a small parish village that once existed under the Danelaw in the Early Middle Ages. It was well known in the past for it's castle, named Edmondthorpe Hall, built by knight Sir Roger Smith. This grand house was destroyed by fire in 1943 and all that remains of it today are ruins. Some believe that witchcraft or a curse by the cat woman was responsible. Sir Roger Smith died in 1655 and is buried in a tomb at St Michael's Church, surrounded by statues of his family including his wife, Lady Ann, believed to be the actual were-cat witch. 

People believed Lady Ann had magical powers. There was a vicious household cat in the hall that always stole from the kitchen. A butler tried to kill the cat using a meat cleaver, but only wounded the cat on its paw. The cat quickly fled from the manor house and disappeared completely. Lady Ann was soon found wearing a blood soaked bandage around her wrist to cover a severe gash. The statue of Lady Ann in the tomb has a strange red "scar" showing on her wrist that sometimes bleeds. This is regarded as proof that Lady Ann was the cat all along. Also adding to the folklore about statues turning to life. Some say it's just discoloration of the stone. What do you think?

Posted by She Wolf Night