Mutant wolves

 

It's believed that there are mutant wolves at Chernobyl with special powers, meaning, they've developed an immunity towards cancer. This is going to help scientists find new ways to help fight against the disease.

Chernobyl is the site where a nuclear power plant accident happened in 1986, causing in thousands of people leaving the area after they were evacuated to avoid radiation. That region has become abandoned ever since, and is called CEZ, or Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, which is a 1,000 square-mile area around the site that poses a radioactive danger. While this zone is no longer lived in by humans, wildlife certainly thrives there. Animals such as elk, horses, boards, dogs and wolves. Human houses including towns like Pripyat, are now spooky and overgrown, silent and with no sound other than nature itself that has claimed the region. 

It's believed that mutated species are at CEZ, especially among canines. When people evacuated in 1986, they also left behind everything including their dogs. Decades later, a population of wild dogs living in the exclusion zone have been studied to learn about the dogs. Generations of dogs have been exposed to high levels of radiation and they're not as healthy as other dogs outside of the zone. Wolves there have been exposed to high levels of radiation for generations, but they've adapted to it. Their immune system has a certain immunity to cancer risk. It's something that Dr Cara Love hopes to research more about these wolves. Further studies on this have been paused due to the conflict upon the Ukraine by Russia. These mutant wolves might be the answer to help survive cancer. 

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Heartbroken ghosts

While the season of February is full of positivity, there remains some very creepy hauntings by spirits of broken hearted people. These vary and most of them are residual energy, leaving behind sorrows and misery in the walls. 

A sinister and creepy ghost haunts Veremont House in London. There was an angry spirit described as having long dark hair and wearing a purple dress who frightens those who encountered her. It's believed that she is the spirit of a woman named Bertha Rungate, who lived in the 1900's and was angry because she felt spurned by a man who loved another woman. It's believed that she murdered him in rage, and he disappeared. The hauntings ceased when the remains of this man were found in the basement of the property and removed. 

In the early 20th century, a female figure dressed in black funeral garb haunted the railway track from London to Cardiff. It's believed she was the ghost of a woman who mourned the death of her fiancé who was killed in a horrific accident while taking a train journey ride with her. Their dream wedding was planned shortly in a few days but he died and this wedding never happened. 

A phantom white lady is often crying as she walks the grounds of Old Ranelagh in London and when she reaches Lower Richmond Road, she disappears. It's believed that she's sobbing for her lost lover who mysteriously vanished but it's not clear why. It's likely that her ghost uses that same pattern because it was where she was going to meet him. It's not even known what happened to her.

Two female ghosts have been seen fighting at Christ Church, Greyfriars. It's the ghosts of Queen Isabella and Lady Alice Hungerford who are jealous of one another and get into a cat fight. That location is full of other ghosts including a greyhound dog that runs around the gravestones, a monk that often appears late in the year, and a visionary psychic woman that was executed during the time of Henry VIII. She haunts the graveyard.

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Lambton Worm

This is folklore from the Dark Ages. One of the most well known monsters of North East England at the River Wear is the famous Lambton Worm. A young man named John Lambton went fishing at the River Wear. He caught a small eel, but John doesn't like it after noticing that it had legs. He threw it away down a well, according to some versions, because he decided it must be a demon. Later he joined the Crusades, while deep in the well, the creature he tossed away grew bigger and venomous. Soon livestock disappeared and some were found eaten. Local villagers were terrified one day to see this enormous serpent coiled around a hill. Some speculate that this hill was Penshaw Hill or another named Worm Hill. This monstrous creature killed animals and children, as well as poisoning milk from cattle. The creature uncoiled itself and slithered to Lambton Castle where John Lambton's aged father lived, who set out to meet it. A bargain was made, so that the lord Lambton would provide nine cows as food, or twenty gallons of their milk, to stop it preying on the villagers. While the beast was enjoying its food, many people tried to kill it but failed. It continued to grow and began uprooting trees. 

Years later, John Lambton returns from the Crusades. He finds the place abandoned with a large worm serpent. He confides in a witch from Durham, who tells him that to kill it, he must cover his armour in spearheads and fight it at the River Wear. She then told him that after he kills the giant worm, he must kill the first living thing he sees. If he doesn't do this, then his family will be cursed and not die in their beds. So later John covered his armour in spearheads and told his father that after killing the worm, he will sound his hunting horn three times, and that his father must release the hunting dogs to go to John. His plan was to kill a dog and prevent the curse. 

There is a battle at the River Wear, between John and the great worm, and it cuts itself on his armour. Pieces of the worm fall off and are washed away in the river before joining back again, so it dies. John blew on his hunting horn three times. Lord Lambton hears the sound of the hunting horn that his son is blowing, and he's filled with much excitement that the worm is dead. He forgets to release the dogs and runs out to meet his son. When John sees his father, he isn't able to kill him. When the hunting dogs are released and go towards John, he kills them but it doesn't matter, the curse has been done. The first living thing John saw after killing the monster was his father. And he didn't kill him. Nine generations of the Lambton family suffered the curse. 

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Eros and Psyche

Art by Rowena Morrill

Valentine's Day is almost here and full of love stories. It's worth mentioning this beautiful tragic romance story from Greek mythology. As I touched on the subject in my previous post about Cherubs, I will explain more about the story of Cupid (Eros) and Psyche. 

There was a princess named Psyche, the youngest of three sisters, daughter of a king from ancient Greece. Psyche was loved by everyone and she had so many admirers. They even called her Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. Then annoyed the goddess herself, who sent her son, Eros to give Psyche a magic potion to drink. This potion would make no one fall in love with Psyche or desire to marry her. Eros went to fulfil his mother's plan, but he accidently released one of his arrows and shot her, and in panic he shot another arrow at himself. His arrows are powerful and whoever is shot will fall in love. Psyche had already drunk the potion and found no men was interested in wanting her even though her sisters found lovers and settled down to marry. This made Psyche depressed, and her worried father sought help from the Oracle of Delphi. 

The god Apollo answered the king's worried question, and advised him on what to do. So Psyche was made to dress all in black, and spend her days on a mountain waiting for a husband. Zephyrus found Psyche on the mountain, and carried her off to the palace of her secret husband, who summoned her. There she was in a beautiful place, where she was treated very well, but on one condition: she must not look at her husband's face. This was only because she wasn't allowed to know who he was, and he was really Eros. So every night, Eros would go to Psyche and it would be dark, although blissful. 

While the nights were good, Psyche felt lonely during the daytime. At night when Eros went to her bed, Psyche asked him if her sisters could visit. He agreed, but that was a big mistake. When Psyche's sisters arrive seeing the beautiful palace and luxurious clothes, they felt jealous and became spiteful. They told Psyche that her husband was probably an ugly monster. Psyche was convinced this had to be true which is why he didn't want her looking at him. They advised her to bring a lamp at night, and also carry a knife just if the monstrous husband would turn violent. That night, she saw the truth, her husband was the god Eros. 

After that, Eros left her. An unhappy Psyche tries to kill herself by drowning in the river but nymphs rescue her. The goddess Aphrodite learns about all of this, knowing that her son failed to carry out her plan as she instructed. Psyche was summoned to meet the goddess Aphrodite, and was given terms to be spared punishment. The first was to sort through lentils, poppy seeds and chickpeas, and put them in their own piles. Psyche was helped by ants to complete the task. The second task was more dangerous, she had to skin the fleece of predatory carnivorous golden sheep, and a nymph suggested she try this while the sheep is sleeping, and to gather loose fleece on bushes and grass. After finishing the task, the third one was harder. Psyche was told to visit the Underworld and get a box of magic from goddess Persephone. But Psyche was warned she must never open it.   

However, what Aphrodite didn't tell Psyche was that the box contained an elixir for eternal sleep. After she successfully collects the box and returns to the earth, Psyche opens the box believing it would help her find Eros, and she quickly entered a deep sleep. Eros locates Psyche in her eternal deathlike sleep. Using his arrows, he brings Psyche back and she wakes up. Eros marries Psyche. Zeus makes Psyche a goddess of the immortal human soul.

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Cherubs

 

This has been mentioned before on She Wolf Night blog, so often every year that it's been done to death, the subject of Valentine's Day. I bring a new twisted version now, broken in different posts, to make it tasty and more exciting. 

That time has come when Valentine's Day gifts are appearing in the shops and exchanged between parties of loved ones. It's a time famously symbolic of love hearts and cute cherubs carrying bows and arrows. Cherubs are variations of little angels that resemble winged babies, but these are actually an altered version of the Roman Pagan god Cupid, an archer who looked like a very handsome man. His Greek counterpart is Eros, son of Ares the god of war and beautiful war goddess Aphrodite. Cupid/Eros is the god of love. There is a tragic love story of Eros who fell in love with a mortal woman named Psyche. 

Renaissance era artists painted mythological scenes and included cute cherubs in them. It then started to create the tradition of cupid babies and love. Cupid and cherub came to mean the same thing today, but what are cherubs? 

While it's become popular to give children endearing names like "cherub" it's all because of the Valentine's Day image of them. However, in the Bible cherubs themselves have a sinister appearance originally. These are part of a religious celestial order of the Cherubim, who look diabolical. They are said to be violent and have the features of scary monsters. In Ezekiel 1:5_11 they're described as having four faces like that of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle. Each cherub has four wings and two furry legs with cloven hoofs. There isn't that many (if any) Valentines cards showing accurate looking cherubs.  

More: https://the-demonic-paradise.fandom.com/wiki/Cherubim

Article with many cherub pictures posted by Marta Savova HERE

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Cryptid news February

 Here are some of the latest bits of cryptozoology that I found since posting about this subject a month ago. Every month I will deliver a few recent, and not so recent, news about strange mysterious creatures. 

In West Virginia, a cryptid enthusiast took a photograph of a footprint that he claims belongs to Bigfoot. It's size is 9 inches in width and has five toes. It was discovered in a muddy area in Ritchie County. He posted his picture on Facebook and a debate followed up. Many pointed out there was only one footprint and suggested Bigfoot was hopping around, and some claimed it belonged to another animal or was hoaxed. 

For photos on that story visit Sasquatch Chronicles HERE

While on the subject of Bigfoot, research has found that bears are actually responsible for many Bigfoot sightings. This was made in Pittsburgh by Floe Floxon of the Folk Zoology Society, and published in Journal of Zoology. For every 1,000 bears was a rise in Bigfoot sightings by 4%, and Floxon says: "As black bear populations increase, Sasquatch sightings are expected to increase." It's a case of, he believes, a mistake on the part of eye witnesses. 

Check these interesting articles on Cryptozoology at Gaia.com HERE

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