With thoughts of sugarplums dancing in your head, you may not be worried about what goes bump in the night during these long winter months. However, Santa Claus and Jack Frost aren’t the only characters that come with the cold, dark winter.

Throughout history, several mythical creatures and monsters have scared generations of people who were getting into the Christmas spirit. Winter brings not only cheer and happiness but fright and terror to those who still believe in ancient myths of ice monsters and wicked snow creatures.

While most of us are getting ready for winter with holiday preparations and hand warmers, others are anxiously awaiting the arrival of a wild assortment of monsters. Here is a collection of evil winter creatures you definitely don’t want to run into this holiday season.

10 Yuki-onna

Just because she’s pretty doesn’t mean you should ask her in for a drink. Yuki-onna (“snow woman”) is a myth with apparent sightings documented as far back as the 14th century. The Yuki-onna is said to be an evil being taking the form of a beautiful woman.

With long, dark hair and skin so pale that it appears transparent, she is a beautiful woman at first sight. Many say that she does not even have feet as she glides around during harsh snowstorms and blizzards. She appears to travelers who are lost or stranded in bad weather and kills them with her frigid breath, leaving behind nothing but frost-coated corpses.

Some say that she is able to manifest as a woman holding a baby, enticing well-intentioned strangers to help her and her poor child out of the storm. As soon as a mortal touches her baby, that human being is frozen on the spot. While her beauty is enticing, it is known that she can be identified by her eyes, which strike fear into the heart of any mortal if he is unfortunate enough to gaze into them.^[1]

9 Chenoo

Chenoos also take a humanlike form, and yet they are much more frightening. Of course, this may be because they are human-eating giants. Maybe the most terrifying thing is that they were once mere humans, which essentially makes them really tall, overweight cannibals with a lack of proper hygiene.

Occasionally, an evil spirit will possess a human, turning him into a Chenoo. More often, however, a human is turned into a Chenoo as a result of such a heinous crime that it is believed one cannot remain human after it is committed.^[2]

This crime?

Cannibalism. Yes, almost every Chenoo was once just a man-eating human. Due to this crime, it is said that the heart turns to pure ice, triggering the change from human to monster.

Unlike most other evil creatures, though, a Chenoo can return to its human form. To do this, the heart must either be extracted or thrown up by the Chenoo itself. Then the icy heart must be destroyed by being completely melted. When the Chenoo has its heart replaced by a human heart, it turns back into a human.

The lesson here? Don’t eat other people!

8 Ijiraq

An Inuit shape-shifter, the Ijiraq preys on small children and those with naive hearts. No one knows what an Ijiraq looks like in true form as it is invisible when not shape-shifting into its decided form. As a result, they are very hard to spot.

They can appear as any sentient being they desire, making their tactic similar to guerrilla warfare. It is said that they live in a world between the living and dead. This world cannot be reached by mortals.

If a human were to be near their home, the human is suddenly confused and gets turned around, ensuring their evil stomping grounds are never discovered. However, these beasts can take children with them and then feast on the kids with their shape-shifting friends.

Ijiraqs lure children far away from their villages where these monsters will abandon, hide, or eat the children. If the child is spared as a meal, he still will never be able to find his way home, making his death drawn-out and cruel.^[3]

The only hope for surviving such an encounter is listening closely. When an Ijiraq arrives, a humanlike whistle is heard. Yet there is no source. If you hear this upon meeting someone, it is a good sign to run as it’s probably a shape-shifter looking for its next tasty meal.

7 Nuckelavee

This creature is the centaur from your worst nightmares. A crude depiction of a creature similar to a centaur yet much more sinister is what people typically believe that a nuckelavee looks like. They have two heads with one giant red eye that resembles flames.

Most disturbing, perhaps, is the fact that they have no skin and you can see their black blood coursing through their twisted veins. A demon that roams the snow-laden grounds of Scotland’s uppermost northern isles is confined during the summer months, which only makes it more eager to cause pain and suffering during the winter.

During the summer, the Sea Mither, or spirit of summer, is able to keep these demons at bay because they live underwater then and only emerge when the Sea Mither can no longer control them. It is said that the breath of the nuckelavee is toxic, and just one faint breath can kill even the strongest of men.^[4]

The nuckelavee has been blamed for past famines and droughts within the surrounding villages. The villagers used to say a prayer each time its name was uttered as they were terrified that the nuckelavee would torment them for speaking such taboo.

6 Mahaha

The Mahaha is another Inuit demon that terrorizes the Canadian Arctic. They are extremely gaunt yet muscular, with strength unimaginable. They have ice-blue skin that appears to be stretched so tightly around their bodies that their bones are visibly protruding. The creature’s head hangs low as its large, sullen eyes peer at its victims from behind the stringy hair falling over its face.

The Mahaha is always smiling and giggling as it thoroughly enjoys the torture of its victims and becomes giddy upon having a new one. This monster has inhumanly long fingernails that resemble knives. With these nails, the Mahaha “tickles” its victims to death. This tickling is merely shredding the victim bit by bit.^[5]

The mark of the Mahaha is just as unsettling as the sight of the creature itself. Every last victim of the Mahaha is left with a twisted, evil smile bared as the corpse lay frozen after the attack. The sight of a victim alone was enough to strike fear into the hearts of generations lost long ago.

5 Pal-Rai-Yuk

Yet another Inuit creature, the pal-rai-yuk is purportedly a giant sea monster that resides in the bays of the Alaska Key Islands. This sea creature has a snakelike head that protrudes from the water almost 3 meters (10 ft). Although its upper body resembles a snake, it is said to have thick fur, six legs, three dorsal fins, and two heads. Each head has a long, slimy tongue ready to eat up.

Despite its size, the pal-rai-yuk is known for being able to whisk its human victims right off docks and piers so quickly that no one but the victim even notices. If one is crazy enough to try to set up a playdate with this monster, it is rumored that the creature can also be summoned.

To call the pal-rai-yuk, one must tap on the bottom of a wooden pier. If you’re feeling a little crazy, you can even summon it via the bottom of a wooden kayak. While this monster stays in the water throughout most of the year, it is able to “swim through the earth” with the aid of snow during the winter months.^[6]

4 Kogukhpak

One of the oldest Yupik mythological tales is the story of the Kogukhpak. Over 40,000 years ago, it was believed that mammoth carcasses were actually the corpses of these subterranean monsters. These massive creatures were said to have large tusks like a mammoth. Yet, they had bulbous bodies and legs like frogs.

As the Sun was the only thing that could kill them, they lived underground for most of the year. The winter solstice is the only time that they can emerge from the earth to hunt and ignite the fear of the locals.^[7]

Those mammoth skeletons were rumored to be from the foolish Kogukhpak that stayed out a little too long during their solstice solitude and were evaporated as soon as the smallest bit of sunlight touched their round, bulging bodies.

3 Qiqirn

While some believe it to be a vampire dog or a hellhound, the Qiqirn is typically known as a large, evil, spirit dog. It is very easily distinguished from a regular dog as it is completely bald with the exception of its paws, the tip of its tail, and the area around its mouth.

These spirit dogs approach travelers during the winter months when they are alone at night in unknown lands. When the beasts get close enough to the traveler, he will suffer endless fits until liberated from the pain by death.

While this may seem awful, it is easy to ward off a Qiqirn as they are known for being just as skittish as they are fierce. As long as you can identify the beast, you can escape its wrath. Simply shouting the name of the being sends it running with fear.^[8]

A Qiqirn feeds off the unwitting and feels threatened when its intended victim knows its intentions.

2 Wendigo

Native to the northern forests of the Atlantic coast, wendigos are humanlike, man-eating monsters from Algonquian folklore. Known for its striking height of 5 meters (15 ft), this creature is typically associated with famine and hunger as well as the disappearances of many villagers long ago.

Wendigos have an ash-gray skin tone with inhumanly sullen eyes. Their lips are said to be dried out and always covered in blood. While they have a humanlike torso, they have unnaturally long limbs with razor-sharp claws at each end. Their heads are a human-wolf hybrid with horns above the forehead.

Known as “the spirits of lonely places,” wendigos lure lone victims away from others with an imitation of a human voice. The creatures offer warmth and shelter. Once a human is successfully trapped, the wendigos continue to feast on the victim’s flesh. It is said that the putrid smell of their breath reeks of death and decay.^[9]

These creatures can also possess humans. If a person is too greedy, he could be susceptible to wendigo possession and develop an insatiable craving for human flesh himself.

1 Kallikantzaroi

Ever met someone who tried extremely hard to be the best at something, but he could never seem to achieve his goal?

In the mythical world, that is a kallikantzaros of Greek mythology. No matter how hard they try at being evil, they are just no good at it.

These tiny, gnomelike creatures spend their lives working from home, which just happens to be the center of the Earth. They spend the year hacking down the tree of life, which holds up the Earth, in an attempt to end mankind.

They have one flaw, though. During the 12 days of winter solstice, kallikantzaroi can come to the Earth’s surface, something they cannot resist. While they are not inherently evil, they do wreak havoc on humans’ homes and villages when let out.^[10]

People would ward them off by setting colanders on their doorsteps before nighttime. Kallikantzaroi are known for being incredibly dumb, so much so that they cannot even count to three. It is believed that they will waste away in front of the colander trying to count all the holes until sunrise, when they are forced back into the Earth.

When these annoying creatures finally return to their home, they will find that the tree of life has completely restored itself. They spend the rest of the year trying to hack it down again until they can come to the surface once more.

Every culture has stories that are passed down from generation to generation. They serve many purposes. They teach us how to live, explain the world around us—and, occasionally, serve as warnings. English folklore is among the most well-known in the world: From King Arthur to garden gnomes, it has shaped the folk culture of English-speaking countries around the world and inspired globally successful works of literature like Harry Potter.

There is another side to English folklore, though. A darker side, full of unexplained mysteries and stories of the paranormal. These are the stories we’re looking at today.

10 Redcap

For hundreds of years, the continuous war between England and Scotland made the Anglo-Scottish border a lawless and dangerous place. Raiders frequently passed from one country into the other, committing crimes they knew they wouldn’t be punished for when they returned home. Over time, myths and legends about evil criminals and their horrific deeds sprang up. Alongside these, there also appeared many stories of malevolent spirits and creatures who took advantage of the hostile land to wreak havoc on the people who lived there.

One of these creatures was the Redcap, a sinister being which took the form of an old man with iron shoes.^[1] He had long, unkempt hair, red eyes, thin fingers with nails like talons, and long teeth. He wore a deep red hat.

Prowling between the abandoned castles along the border, he would hunt for bodies left behind by war or raiding and use their blood to dye his cap. If there were no bodies, he would lie in wait in the old ruins, looking for unfortunate travelers, who he would kill with a rock and exsanguinate.

While the Redcap sounds scary, there was a way of defeating him: It was said that if someone recited the scriptures in front of him or brandished a crucifix, he would scream in pain and disappear in a ball of fire, leaving one long, ragged tooth behind.

9 Cutty Dyer

Cutty Dyer was either a water sprite or an ogre who stalked the waters of the River Yeo or Ashburn, depending on who you ask.^[2] The legend is most famous in the town of Ashburton, where he was said to have slept in the darkness under the King’s Bridge. He watched for children or drunks who strayed too close to the river’s edge and then pounced on them, pulling them under the water and gorging himself on their warm blood.

The legend of Cutty Dyer stretches back to at least 1879, when it was first written about in a local publication, but even then, it was said that people’s great-grandparents also feared him when they were children. Cutty Dyer was often used as a bogeyman figure to scare children into behaving themselves and staying away from the river. Two men claimed to have seen him one night, standing waist-deep in the water, with bright red eyes like saucers and teeth like a shark’s. They were frozen to the spot in terror and only fled when he reached out and touched one of them.

Fortunately for the people of Ashburton, legend also has it that Cutty Dyer fled once the town was equipped with streetlights.

8 Drake’s Drum

Sir Francis Drake accomplished a lot during his lifetime. As well as being the first Englishman to see the Pacific and circumnavigate the world, he performed many feats of skill in his career as a privateer, particularly by defeating the Spanish Armada in 1588 and putting an end to Spain’s hopes of invading mainland England.

Drake is undoubtedly an English hero, but there are many dark tales that have followed him. For example, some believed that he elicited the support of the Devil in order to beat the Spanish. In his final days, he was said to have ranted and raved deliriously “in words that no one cared to record.” Shortly after his death, one of his friends wrote a poem in his honor, which seems to hint that, in its time of dire need, he will return to save England again and usher in a new age of glory.

This led to the rise of a popular myth surrounding “Drake’s Drum,” an artifact which was kept on display until recently in his home of Buckland Abbey.^[8] According to the legend, in times of hardship or peril, the drum can be heard beating. People are said to have heard it beating in the Napoleonic Wars as well as both World Wars. In recent times, the drum has been moved to a secure, climate-controlled location to keep it safe. A replica now sits in its original place.

7 Legend Of The Mistletoe Bough

The Legend of the Mistletoe Bough was first written in 1822, though its author, Samuel Rogers, insisted it was much older.^[4] According to him, it was already a story well-known across the country, and many old houses asserted that the tragic events of the tale happened in their halls. The story was put to verse in 1830, and by the middle of the 19th century, it was one of the most popular songs ever written in England. People frequently sang it on special occasions, and thousands across the country knew its words.

So the tale goes, a newly married couple and their guests were celebrating long into the night. After getting tired of dancing, the bride started a game of hide-and-seek. She went deep into the castle and found an old oak chest, which she crawled inside. The lid snapped shut, and she was unable to open it. As days, weeks, and years went by, they hunted for her but couldn’t find her. Eventually, in his old age, the husband found the chest and opened it, finding the skeleton of his beloved bride inside.

6 Will O’ The Wisp

The Will o’ the Wisp, also known as a Will o’ the Torch or Jack o’ Lantern, is a softly glowing light that often appears at dusk or early night in marshes and swamps, though they occasionally occur elsewhere. References to these mysterious phenomena (which are also sometimes called “orbs”) appear in folklore across the world but have a particular prevalence in cold, wet England.^[5]

According to myth, they are often found along out-of-the-way paths, trying to lure travelers who are lost along the road. Depending on how the traveler treats the wisp, they may lead them to safety or even to treasure, but most of the time, the wisp is a malevolent creature seeking to lead the unsuspecting to their doom. In Celtic myth, the wisp is a light carried by a fairy or other mischievous spirit, who will blow it out once the traveler is well and truly lost.

In some myths, the named character, Will or Jack, was an individual who led an extremely wicked life. When he died, he was cursed to roam the world forever, and the Devil gave him a single hot coal to warm himself. He used the coal to make a lantern, which he uses to lead people to their deaths. Others think they are spirits or paranormal beings. They have the power to predict the future, sometimes appearing before a local tragedy happens.

5 Black Annis

Black Annis, originally called Black Anny, is a mysterious witch who was first mentioned in a title deed in 1764, which referred to a road known as “Black Anny’s Bower Close.” According to the myth, Annis lived in a cave known as Black Anny’s Bower, which had a large tree by its entrance. The site of the cave is now lost; it is widely believed to have been built over during the housing boom that followed World War I.^[6]

Black Annis herself was a witch with a blue face and claws made of iron. She would haunt Leicestershire at night, looking for young children or animals to eat. She had long, spindly arms, which she would use to reach in through people’s windows and snatch their children. Once she had them, she would take them back to her bower, drain them of all their blood, and then drape their skins on the tree outside. Once the skins were dried, she would add them to her skirt (which she’d made from the skins of children she’d killed before). Fortunately, Annis’s howls could be heard up to 8 kilometers (5 mi) away, so people had plenty of time to secure their windows and place protective herbs above them to ward her off.

4 Spring-Heeled Jack

Spring-Heeled Jack was a mythical creature who terrorized Victorian Britain, particularly London, from the 1830s onward.^[7] The mythical creature was first mentioned in a newspaper in Sheffield, England, in the 1810s, but Spring-Heeled Jack became notorious almost overnight after a spate of stories in 1837 and 1838. At least three women reported being attacked by a strange figure with red eyes, a skin-tight black suit, long fingers, and metal claws. In some cases, he breathed blue flames in their faces, paralyzing them. Fear spread like wildfire across Victorian London. People formed vigilante groups to try to catch Spring-Heeled Jack, and the police interrogated several suspects, but no culprit was definitively identified.

In the following years, Spring-Heeled Jack became an extremely popular figure, featuring again and again in sensationalist pamphlets and penny dreadful horror stories. As his popularity increased, actual accounts of his attacks became rarer and rarer, until he essentially became a figure of folklore, used as a bogeyman character to scare children into behaving—or Spring-Heeled Jack would jump up to their windows and get them.

Nowadays, most people believe the original Spring-Heeled Jack was the creation of a prankster with a daring sense of humor. The finger is often pointed at Lord Beresford, Marquis of Waterford, who apparently enjoyed scaring unsuspecting people at night and was in London when the first stories appeared.

3 Gytrash

The countryside of Yorkshire is one of the most mysterious and least-traveled parts of Britain even today. The expansive hills are crisscrossed by ancient pathways that have been in use for hundreds of years. As a result, it is easy to get lost there, especially if the traveler is not familiar with the area. The wilds of Yorkshire are stalked by all manner of mysterious beings, from hobgoblins to wailing spirits that would lead the unsuspecting off cliffs or into marshes.

The Gytrash was one of the most dangerous spirits said to live in Yorkshire.^[8] Often appearing as a black dog, mule, or horse with fiery red eyes, it would haunt out-of-the-way paths at sunset in search of travelers who had lost their way. The traveler would follow the Gytrash, only to be led further astray and become totally lost. Once the traveler was at its mercy, the Gytrash would either attack or disappear, leaving the lost voyager alone on the dark road. Occasionally, however, the Gytrash could also be a benevolent figure, leading lost people back to civilization. Famously, the Gytrash makes an appearance in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, when she is scared by a solitary horse following her down the road.

2 Beast Of Bodmin Moor

Bodmin Moor lies in the southwest of England, a place infamous for sightings of the unusual and the paranormal. It is sparsely populated and dotted with ancient ruins from the Neolithic period onward. Many local people consider it to be haunted.

The Beast of Bodmin Moor, however, is not thought to be a ghost but a large black cat that stalks the highlands and attacks livestock.^[9] The stories first began in 1978, alongside several reports of animals being found mutilated. Some speculated that a large panther must have escaped from a private zoo—and since the panther would have been kept illegally, the owner didn’t report it missing. As time went on and the sightings continued, however, people began to look to other explanations. Some now think there might be a whole family of black cats roaming Bodmin Moor. Others say they are the descendants of ancient black cats which used to stalk Britain in the distant past.

There have been over 60 reported sightings of the Beast of Bodmin Moor over the years—enough to interest the UK government, which conducted an official investigation into the mystery in 1995. They concluded that there was no definitive evidence of an unusual beast living in the Moor, but the attacks on livestock were not adequately explained. Sightings of the beast continue to this day, and no definitive explanation has been found.

1 Boggarts

Boggarts have been made famous by J.K. Rowling, who featured them in her Harry Potter novels as evil creatures who take the form of whatever the victim fears most. In English folklore, however, a boggart was a kind of evil creature which attached itself to families or households and was a nuisance.^[10]

According to traditional fairy tales, boggarts love to hide in dark spaces, such as unused attics or cellars, cupboards, or under beds. They were sometimes described as shape-shifters. Boggarts were the source of many misfortunes in the home: They broke things, turned food sour or rotten, and made the house creak, among other things.

Boggarts were also notoriously difficult to get rid of, following families from place to place even if they moved house. People were warned not to name their boggart, because once it was named, it would become even more powerful and angry and much harder to remove. There are many similarities between the boggart and the modern idea of the poltergeist, the main difference being that a boggart wasn’t a ghost but a malevolent fairy or other mythical creature.

Ireland has a rich tradition of weird and wonderful creatures – but it’s not just fairies and leprechauns. Some denizens of the Irish Otherworld are truly horrifying. Like these 10!

10. The Abhartach

Long before Irish novelist Bram Stoker came up with Dracula, Ireland had the blood-sucking Abhartach. Once an evil wizard king from the hills around Glenullin, Abhartach, a dwarf, was killed by his subjects and buried standing up. When he returned the next day, demanding blood from their veins, his terrorized subjects had him killed again. But it didn’t help. Abhartach kept coming back.

In desperation they sought out a hermit in the woods and asked him what to do. “Abhartach is not really alive,” he explained, he’s “one of the neamh-mhairbh [‘undead’].” In other words, he couldn’t be killed. But he could be “suspended” if slain with a sword made of yew wood and buried in the earth upside down, sprinkled with ash twigs and thorns, beneath a very large stone. Abhartach would stay there as long as the stone did, said the hermit.

The rock is still there to this day, with a tree that sprang up from the thorns. Even now, it’s considered ‘bad ground’. Eerily, the most recent attempt to clear it—in 1997—was thwarted by malfunctioning chainsaws, as well as blood loss when a chain lifting the stone broke and cut one of the workers.

9. Banshees

Perhaps the best known ghoul from the Emerald Isle is a banshee, which in Irish (bean sí) means ‘Otherworld woman.’ Her wails and screams, heard at night, foretell a death in the family—but only if your family’s Irish. Irish poet W.B. Yeats described the banshee as “an attendant fairy that follows the old families, and none but them.” More than one is considered an honor.

The queen of the banshees, Clíodhna, was a goddess of love and beauty accompanied by birds that cured illness. But she also lured sailors to their deaths. For this, she was punished by the sea god Manaanán MacLir. When she left the Otherworld to be with her lover, a mortal, MacLir drowned her with a wave. Hence the legend in Glandore, County Cork that a loud wave belongs to Clíodhna.

8. Bananach

The bánánach (bánánaigh) are a type of shrieking female specter drawn by combat to circle the skies over battlefields. They’re kind of like banshees, and their name may have a similar root. If not just from bán, meaning ‘white’ or ‘pale’, bánánach may come from bean/ban, meaning ‘woman’.

In early Irish texts, they usually appear alongside their male counterparts, the bocánach (bocánaigh). These “demons of the air,” as monastic scholars called them, more actively encouraged the bloodshed of war. Based on their name, from bocán (meaning ‘he-goat’), it’s assumed they had a Puck-like appearance.

7. Fomorians

In Irish mythology, there are basically two main factions—one good, the Tueatha Dé Danann, and the other evil: the Fomorians, or Fomors. The name is thought to derive from fó, meaning “from below,” and a suffix meaning “the sea,” “demons,” or “giants.”

Thought to have built Ireland’s megalithic monuments, the Fomorians are said to have been the first Irish settlers—numbering 200 men and 600 women to begin with. But their prevailing characteristic is their mutant appearance, which they themselves see as a blessing from the dark gods. Mismatched limbs, animal heads, too many eyes, and so on are common. They’re also wielders of old, earthy magic—the “power of the wyrm”—with control of the weather and plagues.

Their king, Balor of the Evil Eye, had a flaming eye so huge it took four men to lift the lid. With it, he can reduce a man to ashes and lay waste to whole regions—as he did to the islands west of Scotland. In fact, it was so dangerous that he kept seven cloaks over it at all times and never got it out among his people. Whenever the time came to use it on an enemy, the cloaks would come off one by one—the removal of the first withering ferns, the removal of the second browning grass, the third heating up trees, and so on, until the removal of the sixth and second set the land itself on fire.

6. Fear gorta

The fear gorta or ‘hungry man’ stalks Ireland during times of famine, begging from house to house for something to eat. His ancient origins are murky. According to some, he rises from the “hungry grass” (or féár gortach), which curses anyone who walks on it to starvation. Others say the fear gorta is the ghost of a man who starved to death close to a fairy mound.

Whatever his origin, the wretched fear gorta appears emaciated, dressed in rags with long, dirty fingernails and carrying (often dropping) an alms bowl. Unlike hungry grass, which you can burn, there’s no way to destroy the fear gorta. There is, however, a way to protect yourself: compassion. Those who feed him whatever they can are thanked or rewarded for the favor, while those who don’t—especially if they mock (or worse yet attack) him—are cursed with bad luck and starvation.

Hence it’s said that the fear gorta has made kings into paupers and beggars into princes. However, he’s always an omen of hard times to come.

5. The Fetch

A fetch (derived from the old Irish faíth, meaning seer) is Ireland’s answer to the doppelgänger. Depending on whether you see it in the morning or the evening, it may bring good luck or bad. But mostly the fetch is a bad thing.

Assuming the form of someone whose death is impending, this shapeshifting spirit appears either to them or their loved ones as an omen. What sets it apart from a regular doppelgänger is the fetch’s tendency to hint at the cause of coming death—showing burns if it’s fire, clutching its chest for a heart attack, etc. Also it doesn’t have a shadow. Needless to say, this all makes the fetch look more terrifying.

A fetch might also appear after the death, walking among loved ones at the funeral with a distant look on their face. Apparently, if you follow one a while it’ll disappear in a dark corner or vanish behind a tree.

4. Sluaghs

Sluaghs are monsters with a taste for human souls—especially souls in true love. According to the ancients, sluaghs are faeries gone “amuck,” “warped and twisted, without fear, reason or mercy.” Later, Christians explained them as the souls of sinners doomed to wander the land dragging souls with them to Hell. They’re said to be especially active at Halloween, when all fires were traditionally forbidden so as not to attract their attention. But whatever day of the year it is, there’s an old Irish tradition of keeping west-facing windows shut tight to keep the sluaghs at bay. (They were said to fly in from the west after dusk.)

Sluaghs also snare mortals as slaves, commanding them to do their bidding. If the sluaghs are denied a soul they crave, for instance, they’ll get their slaves to slaughter cattle, sheep, and pets. This is because the sluaghs themselves have no corporeal presence, typically appearing as undulating shadow resembling a great flock of ravens. In fact, the word sluagh means ‘host’.

So feared was the sluagh in times gone by that people favored death as their fate.

3. Dobhar-chu

Otters—with the hand-holding, the pouch they keep their stuff in, the fluffiness, and so on—are impossible not to feel good looking at. They’re basically the penguins of the northern hemisphere; you can’t help but smile when you see them. But trust Ireland to make them scary.

The dobhar-chú is a kind of otter from Hell, a vampire with “gargantuan fangs.” It was first encountered on the shores of Glenade Lake in County Leitrim, lying fast asleep on the blood-soaked body of one Grace Connolly. At the sight of the creature, her husband Terence McLoughlin ran home, got his gun, returned and shot the creature—which let out a terrifying shriek like a death rattle. In response, another dobhar-chú emerged from the lake and had to be slain by the man. Creepily, both Connolly and McLoughlin have carvings of the creatures on their gravestones.

They weren’t the only encounters, though. The dobhar-chú—or “Irish crocodile,” as it’s sometimes called—has allegedly been in scuffles with others. It’s also been seen and photographed as recently as 2000. According to photographer Sean Corcoran, who spotted the creature on Omey Island, Connemara, it swam across the lake within seconds, leapt onto a boulder, and gave the “most haunting screech.”

2. Ollipheisteanna

We’ve all heard of St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland, but what does the old legend mean? Well, scholars aren’t exactly sure but it may have something to do with a breed of giant, worm-like monsters. Likened to dragons, olliphéisteanna (singular, olliphéist: from oll, ‘great’, and péist, ‘worm’, ‘beast’, ‘reptile’) are so massive that their snaking around carves rivers into the landscape. The River Shannon is said to have formed this way, left in the wake of an olliphéist fleeing St. Patrick.

Otherwise, they’re said to bide their time in deep lakes, underground caverns, and especially marshes and swamps. Even their blood is toxic. Hence when the healer of the gods, Dian Cécht, removed three olliphéisteanna that had been growing inside a baby’s breast, he burned them to ashes and cast the ashes into a river. But even then, the river stopped flowing and the water turned black—killing everything in it. Another tale has an olliphéist crawling from a witch’s broken thigh bone, growing full size, and devouring Ireland’s cattle. The warrior Conán leapt into its mouth to slay it from within, but its blood forever stained the County Donegal lake Lough Derg red.

The greatest of all the olliphéisteanna was Caoránach, mother of all worms and demons. She is still thought to inhabit Lough Derg.

1. The Dullahan

Long before The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Ireland had its own headless horseman. The Dullahan (meaning ‘dark man’) is a black-robed decapitatee, a harbinger of death who “thunders through the night” on horseback, using a human spine as a whip. Alternatively, he might ride his enormous black coach—the “coach-a-bower”—pulled so incredibly fast by six headless horses that it sets the roadside ablaze. 

Traditionally, the Dullahan is a manifestation of the pagan fertility god Crom Dubh—whose sacrificial blood rites involved decapitation. He keeps his head close to hand, despite its resemblance to a lump of mouldy cheese. By holding it up, the Dullahan can see for miles around the countryside in his midnight pursuit of the dying. It also serves as a lantern—its decaying phosphorescence enough for his vision. 

All gates fly open for the Dullahan, locked or not. So it’s no use resisting. You don’t want to be too eager, though. Folk tales abound of those who watch from their windows for a glimpse of the Dullahan only to get blood in their eyes.

Food and folklore go hand in hand. From telling children that the crusts on bread will make their hair curly to the idea that carrots help you see in the dark, there are myths and tales about almost everything we eat. Some of the stories are harmless fun, but there are older and stranger bits of folklore surrounding some of our favorite—or not-so-favorite—foods.

The international view of British food is not always complimentary, to put it mildly, but the lore of the United Kingdom’s dishes is as rich as any in the world.

10 Fairy Food

If you’re anything like me, you love to get free food. Folklore, however, gives a stern warning—never accept from the fairy folk! Except that it also warns about the dangers of not taking food when offered by fairies. Folklore is not an exact science.

If you accept fairy food, there is the danger that you will be trapped in the realm of the fairies and unable to escape. In the story “Childe Rowland,” the wizard Merlin warns someone venturing into fairy-land that they should “bite no bit, and drink no drop, however hungry or thirsty you be; drink a drop, or bite a bit while in Elfland you be and never will you see Middle Earth again.”

If you encounter fairy food in the real world, though, it is wise to accept it. In a tale from the isle of Arran, two farmers jokingly wished for the fairies to lay out a feast for them. When the meal magically appeared, they were too scared to eat it. For refusing the offered meal, the field went barren, and nothing ever grew again.^[1]

9 Cockle Bread

Bread has always been a staple food for most people. Getting the ingredients, mixing them, kneading the dough, and baking it took a great deal of time. Every stage was filled with the chance for folklore to creep in. If a hole formed in the middle of your loaf, it was called a “coffin” and predicted a coming death. If the yeast failed to rise, then you had been cursed by a witch—but they could be kept off by marking the bread with a cross on top.

One form of bread was made in a very peculiar way. Cockle bread was used by young ladies as a way to win a lover. While they made the bread, they would chant the following rhyme:

My granny is sick, and now is dead,
And we’ll go mold some cockle bread.
Up with my heels and down with my head,
And this is the way to mold cockle bread.

In order to ensure their love went into the bread, the dough was kneaded with the girl’s buttocks. A morsel of this bread fed to the desired boy would ensure he fell in love with her.^[2]

8 Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns are one of the most delicious aspects of a British Easter. The buns are stuffed with dried fruits and spices and marked with a cross on the top. It is the presence of that cross that has inspired much of the folklore surrounding them.

According to tradition, a hot cross bun will never go moldy. There are many examples of ancient hot cross buns which suggest they do last a long time. In several London pubs, hot cross buns are hung up every year and still look remarkably good. Their sanctity preserves the buns from rotting, it is said (though it may be the spices as well), and also gives them magical properties.

In former years, preserved hot cross buns were grated into food and drink as a cure for all manner of ailments. They were also hung in houses to prevent fires. When hung in barns, the buns stop evil spirits from attacking the livestock. Sailors wanting to ensure their ship did not sink would always have a hot cross bun on board.^[7]

7 Wedding Cake Predictions

Wedding cakes are the most important cakes in many people’s lives. The act of cutting the cake together signals the first joint act of a couple’s lives together. Many couples would keep one of the tiers of their wedding cake to serve at the christening of their first child to bring it luck. But there are other magical uses of a wedding cake.

If you can resist eating your slice of cake, then you can use it to predict who your own spouse will be. Take your bit of cake and place it under your pillow before you go to sleep—watch out for crumbs; that’s how you get ants. When you sleep that night, an apparition of your eventual partner will appear in your dreams. Some say that you do not need a full slice of cake. All you need is a piece of the cake that has been passed through the new bride’s wedding ring.

There is also a tradition that a girl should put a piece of wedding cake in her pocket for the duration of the newlyweds’ honeymoon. If she does, then she will be married before the year is out.^[4]

6 Dumb Cakes

Perhaps the most popular method of divining who your lover will be is to bake a dumb cake. There were a number of variations of the ritual, but all involved the makers of a cake working in absolute silence, hence the name dumb.

In one version, three girls come together, and all place a handful of flour and salt into a pile. With a little water, they work it into a dough and mark the cake with their initials before baking it. Once it was ready, the girls wait until midnight. At the stroke of 12, a ghost will enter and point to the initials of the girl who will marry next.

One tradition involves only two girls working in silence, and they chant:

Two to make it,
Two to bake it,
Two to break it.

That night the cake is placed under the pillow, and a vision of their future spouse will come to them. Most dumb cakes were not intended to be eaten. Probably wisely, as some recipes call for them to contain bits of fingernail, hair, dust, and usually an unhealthy amount of salt.^[5]

5 Vegetable Cures

There is something magical about growing vegetables. You plant a few seeds and watch them seemingly grow from nothing into something that you can harvest and eat. But some people put their crops to use in actual magic.

Small potatoes were sometimes worn on a string around the neck to protect people from rheumatism. Even today, you can find examples of people putting bits of potato on people with fevers and claiming that they draw out fever, turning black in the process. In fact, this is just the oxidation of starch, but some prefer the folklore explanation.

Onions have been put to similar use. For example, when smallpox broke out in Sheffield in 1927, many houses hung up onions in their home. It was believed that onions absorbed the pestilence. Some even used onions to ward off plagues in their cattle.

If you have an earache, you might consider warming an onion in the fire until it is soft and taking out the heart in the middle. This, inserted into the ear, was thought to cure the pain. Probably best not to try this at home.^[6]

4 Salt Lore

One of the most commonly acted out superstitions is performed at dinner tables across the country. If you happen to spill the salt, you must take a pinch of it and cast it over your left shoulder, or disaster is sure to follow. This is supposed to be because when you spill salt, the Devil takes it as an invitation to join the meal. Throwing it over the shoulder hits him in the eye and keeps him at bay.

Salt could also be used to drive off witches. In some places, a pinch of salt was thrown in the fire, and the following charm was spoken: “Salt! Salt! I put thee in the fire. May the one who has bewitched me neither eat, drink, nor sleep until the spell is broken.”

Salt was also useful to the dead. When graves are dug up, plates are sometimes found on the skeleton. These plates were filled with salt and left with the body because they were thought to keep the soul safe from the Devil as “the devil loveth no salt with his meat.” Which sits at odds with the tradition of spilling salt. Folklore is allowed to contradict itself, it seems.^[7]

3 Wedding Shortbread

Big and elaborate wedding cakes have not always been the center of a wedding feast. In Scotland in the past, the most important element of the day was the Infar-cake. This was a decorated piece of shortbread that had a number of folkloric uses.

The wedding shortbread was traditionally baked by the mother of the bride. On the day of the wedding, it would be held over the heads of the new couple and broken. As the pieces fell around them, the number of fragments was examined. The more bits it shattered into, the more children the couple were destined to have. Sometimes the pieces of shortbread were tossed over the heads of the bride and groom before they entered their new home. Though it does seem to be a bit of a waste of shortbread.

The bits that were left on the floor could still be used, however. Guests would scramble to gather some up, especially those who were unmarried. These were then carried home and placed under the pillow (again) in hopes that they would provoke a dream—a dream of future love.^[8]

2 Turnips

Turnips are not the most lovely of vegetables. This perhaps explains why they were once carved into punkies—lanterns that children carried around as they went begging from door to door. The results could be incredibly spooky and much more uncanny than the more familiar pumpkin.

If your child had whooping cough, then there was one way for turnips to be a cure. Take a turnip and slice it into half-inch strips. These were then layered with brown sugar between them. The thick liquid that oozes out was then fed to the sick child.

In Wales, a turnip could be used to predict who a girl would fall in love with (this seems to be a theme). The girl had to sneak out at night and steal a turnip from a neighbor’s field. This turnip then had to be peeled in a single piece. The peeling was then taken into the garden and buried. The turnip itself had to be hung behind the bedroom door and was supposed to give the girl a dream of her husband.^[9]

1 Devil’s Blackberries

If there is one character that is sure to provide a good bit of folklore, it is the Devil. In folk tales, he is always up to some mischief or other. But given his back story, you can maybe forgive him for some of his naughty ways.

Michaelmas, the 29th of September but the 11th of October in the old calendar, is a celebration of the archangel Michael. It also traditionally marks the day when Michael cast the Devil out of heaven. According to British folklore, the Devil not only had a long fall, but he also had a very painful landing in a blackberry patch, getting torn by its thorns. This gave Lucifer a lasting hatred of blackberries.

Folklore says that blackberries must never be picked after Michaelmas because on this day, the Devil takes his revenge on the berries. In some tellings of the story, the Devil touches the berries then and poisons them, but in others, he does something more extreme. Whether he spits on them, urinates, or defecates depends on who is telling the tale. Still, probably best not to risk it.^[10]