The next mythical creature on the list is the dryad.
They are tree spirits from Greek mythology and are the daughters of Zeus, the
most powerful of the gods. They live in forests or woods and protect it by
frightening humans who wish to do it harm. Usually, though, dryads are peaceful
beings. They are not immortal, but live for many years and usually take the
form of young, beautiful women moving among the trees.
Hamadryads, on the other hand, are beings within
individual trees, each spirit having her own tree, unable to move and living as
long as the tree does.
This is the sort of spirit that the Celts and many
other cultures around the world believed in. Spirits were everywhere in the
landscape. Each tree, each stone, each river had its own spirit. I love this
idea and so I painted an image of a tree with its spirit inside it, something
you might miss unless you look really closely when you pass by….
Back in the time of the Celts - the Bronze Age and
Iron Age - and among cultures such as the Native Americans, the landscape was
sacred and commanded respect. If a tree was cut down for its wood to be used,
an offering was given back to make up for what was taken. They only took what
was needed.
I wonder if we had kept that belief whether we might
have continued with that respect for the natural world and treated it and its
animals better.
The idea that each tree has a spirit is actually not
that far away from the truth, because its been shown that trees are full of
life; the trunk pulling up the water and food from the ground, the leaves doing
their thing with photosynthesis, lichen and moss on the bark, insects living in
and on the bark and – this is what I really love – trees can actually
communicate with each other. If one is being attacked, it can send out a
chemical to warn the other trees around it. They can’t move to escape,
obviously, but those trees can then produce another chemical to make their
leaves less tasty to whatever is eating them.
As well as that, trees have a symbiotic relationship
with fungus in the ground. They share nutrients and the trees communicate
through the fungus too. How they do it is not really within the scope of this
blog, I’m here for art, myth and stories, but there are plenty of books or
websites that you can find information in. If you’re interested, do go and find
out. Nature is wonderful.
You can find me here;
Shop: Etsy: Rusty and Boots
Folksy: Rusty and Boots
Instagram: @rusty_and_boots
Twitter: @RustyandBoots
Facebook (art): @RustyandBoots
Facebook (writing): @talesfromdemetia
Pinterest: RustyandBoots
The third Mythical Creature in our alphabetical list
from Animal Alphabets is Cat Sidhe. twitter.com/AnimalAlphabets
The Cat Sidhe is an Irish or Scottish creature which
is all black except for a white spot on its chest. Names for it vary; as well
as Cat Sidhe, there is also Cait Sidhe and Cath Sith. It is a large fairy cat
which will try to steal the souls of the dead before they are buried, but in my
painting, he seems like he’d look really cute while doing it!
Just as a side note, in case you’re wondering, the
Sidhe are Irish fairies, which are divided into the Seelies and the Unseelies.
The cat is meant to haunt the Scottish Highlands and
there are many legends about it in Scotland and some in Ireland. He will try to
steal the souls of the dead before they are claimed by the gods by walking over
the corpse. To prevent this, people held wakes to keep the cat away and used
games to distract the cat, such as riddles and wrestling. The riddles were
always left unanswered for the cat to ponder, therefore taking his mind off the
dead body. They also spread catnip in other rooms to take the cat’s attention
and played music, as the cat loved to dance. They also never lit fires in the
room where the corpse was as the cat was attracted to the warmth.
The cat may also be a witch who can shape-shift, but
she can only become a cat nine times. If she transformed into a cat for the
ninth time, she would stay a cat permanently. This is thought to be where the
idea of cats having nine lives originated from.
It was believed that on Samhain (Halloween) the cat
sidhe would bless the house of those who left a saucer of milk out for him to
drink. Those who didn’t would be cursed, their cows failing to produce milk.
There are tales of the cat transforming into human
shape, but retaining his cat legs and his tail and feline features. They are
also told to be able to perform basic magic.
There are other cats in mythology which you may find
interesting too:
In France there are fairies called White Ladies. They
wait near bridges after dark and ask a lone man walking past to dance. If he
refuses, the White Lady throws him over the bridge or sets her pet owls and
cats on him.
Witches had familiars, of course, which were most
often cats.
Vampires, as well as being able to turn into bats,
dogs and wolves, could also become cats.
In Japan, there was a two-tailed vampire cat who
didn’t bite her victims, but strangled them.
Finally, there is a creature called the barguest,
which haunts lanes and churchyards at night. It is usually a huge dog, but can
become a cat or a goblin.
I hope, if you are interested in this, that my brief
summary of mythical beings leads you on to find out more. If you do, beware! It
can lead you down a mythical rabbit hole. I’ve been there! So much to read
about.
As always, you can find me here:
Instagram: @rusty_and_boots
Twitter: @RustyandBoots
Facebook (art): @RustyandBoots
Facebook (writing): @talesfromdemetia
Pinterest: RustyandBoots
Information from:
Wikipedia
Fantasy Encyclopedia, A Guide to Fabulous
Beasts and Magical Beings by Judy Allen
The next mythical creature set for the Animal
Alphabets challenge was Brownie. I’d heard of these beings, but didn’t know a
lot about them, as they’re Scottish. I’m more familiar with the Welsh bwbach,
so I started with finding out what they look like.
They’re creatures who live in houses but prefer farms
as they like being with the animals. They help with jobs that need to be done,
like tidying, washing, or mending at night when the people are asleep, so
they’re never actually seen. Payment for their work is a bowl of milk or cream
and some bread left out for them, but they are insulted if it is given to them
directly. If you’re critical of them, or annoy them, they’ll play tricks on
you.
They are dressed in ragged clothes, which is often a
brown hood and cloak or white robes and if given new clothes, they vanish
forever, either because they see it as the ultimate insult, or because they take
it as a full payment for all their work, (a probable influence for Dobby in
Harry Potter). They are variously brownish, covered in hair or have curly brown
hair and can be either human sized, very big or small. In fact, the original
idea of the brownie was thought to be very big and a spirit of the house,
looking after all inside.
An angry brownie can turn into a boggart, a creature
which loves to scare people, causing problems in the house, making noises,
throwing things around (a bit like a poltergeist) or following you in the dark.
They are covered in black hair.
So, taking all this into account, I went for the happy
version of the brownie and painted this:
There are versions of the brownie all over the world,
it seems; the gobelin, the bog and the baga are just a few. There’s also the
English hobgoblin and the bwbach in Wales. The bwbach was good-natured and
worked with the maid in the kitchen, where he was thought to live in the
fireplace. The maid would make the fire, sweep up, set the bowl of milk and the
bread ready for the bwbach at the end of the day, then leave the cream filled
churn nearby and go to bed. In the morning, she would wake to find the milk and
bread gone and the churn worked so that the butter was ready. The bwbach was
not fond of people who did not drink and would, if he took against someone,
cause mischief in the house, making dogs howl, or frightening the maid. He
could also carry people off into the air, transporting them somewhere
else.
All these versions of the brownie or bwbach are
probably descended from the belief of ancient people that every house had its
own spirit, as I mentioned above, looking after the house and the family,
either a spirit of the home or an ancestral spirit. For example, its possible
that the ancient Celts set some food aside for the spirit in return, or as
recognition, for its protection. If displeased, the spirit would probably have
shown its anger. For the ancient people it was just a fact of life that spirits
were everywhere and although they’ve been very much diminished in modern times,
I’m really glad that we still have these beings in folklore.
You can find me here:
Instagram: @rusty_and_boots
Twitter: @RustyandBoots
Facebook (art): @RustyandBoots
Facebook (writing): @talesfromdemetia
Pinterest: RustyandBoots
Books referenced:
British Goblins:Welsh Folklore, Fairy
Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes
Fantasy Encyclopedia A Guide to Fabulous
Beasts and Magical Beings by Judy Allen
Exploring the World of the Druids
by Miranda J. Green
You may have seen on Twitter and Instagram that
there’s an art challenge every Monday called Animal Alphabets. It’s a challenge
going through the alphabet with different themes and a creature beginning with
each letter. If you’d like to take a look at the type of thing I mean, you can
find it here: AnimalAlphabets The last round, which was the first one I joined in, was all on
birds. The current round has the theme of Mythical Creatures and, as I love
mythology, I thought I’d post here about each creature.
The first one was A for Afanc, which I was really
excited about because the Afanc is a Welsh creature. There is variation in the
name, though. In the tale Peredur, Son of Efrawg, which is one of The Three
Romances usually included with The Mabinogion, it is called an Addanc.
I knew what it was as I’ve read a lot of Welsh myth
and folklore, but none of the tales tell you what it looks like. I’d been
wondering about an Afanc’s appearance for a long time, since I first read The
Mabinogion, but never really come up with a solution. The general description
of this creature is that it looks like a beaver, a crocodile or a dwarf and is
very fierce. You wouldn’t want to meet one! But they can be tamed by maidens. The
thought of coming up with a picture of an Afanc put dread into me, but suddenly
I had a vision of what it could look like: a sort of beaver/crocodile cross in
brown and green looking very angry. Here is my painting:
In folklore, there are quite a few stories of the
Afanc. They live in rivers or lakes and cause inundations when angry. All tales
are more or less the same, with some variation. One tells of Hu Gadarn who
pulled an Afanc out of Llyn Llion (a lake) using two oxen to drag the creature
out in order to prevent an inundation.
Another tells of one in Llyn yr Afanc (Lake of the
Afanc) in the River Conwy. A maiden lured the Afanc out of the water and while
he slept on her lap, men bound him in chains. When he woke, he was furious
(quite understandably I think), threw the men off and headed back into the
lake. They sent for two oxen, attached the chain to them, and dragged the Afanc
out, taking him to Llyn Cwm Ffynnon Las (Lake of the Blue Well Valley) where
they left him. They obviously weren’t too bothered about that lake flooding!
There is even a tale of King Arthur pulling an Afanc
out of Llyn Barfog with his warhorse.
In the tale of Peredur, who was one of King Arthur’s
men, Peredur went on a long journey during which, he came to the court of the
Sons of the King of Suffering. He saw three horses carrying a man each in their
saddles, all dead. A woman took them off the horses and bathed them in turn in
a tub of warm water, applying ointment to their bodies and all three men came
back to life. Peredur asked one of the men why this happened and the man
replied that every day, they were killed by an Addanc in a cave and came back
to be revived to go through the same thing again and again.
The following morning, Peredur asked to go with the
men to the cave, but they wouldn’t allow it, saying that if he was killed,
there would be no one to bring him back to life. However, Peredur followed
them. On the way, he came across a woman sitting on a mound.
‘I know where you are going,’ she said. ‘You go to the
cave to fight the Addanc and he will kill you, not with his strength, but with
his guile. There is a stone pillar in the entrance of the cave and he hides
behind it so that he can see everyone who enters the cave, but they can’t see
him. He kills everyone with his poisoned spear. If you promise to love me, I
will give you a stone so that you can see him, but he won’t see you.’
Peredur said he did love the woman, she placed the
stone in his hand and disappeared. Carrying on his way, Peredur came to the
cave, took the stone in his left hand, making him invisible, and his spear in
his right hand. Entering the cave, he saw the Addanc, killed him with his spear
and cut his head off. As he left, he was met by the three men, who told him
that there was a prophecy about him, saying he would kill the monster. They offered
him any of their sisters for a wife and half their kingdom, but Peredur refused
the offer and carried on his journey.
So, there is a brief summary of the tales of Afancs.
I’m hoping to give you a brief overview of other mythical creatures as we go
along. I’m also going to tell you more stories from The Mabinogion and the
characters within it. I hope you’ll join me and enjoy what I have to tell.
You can find me here:
Instagram: @rusty_and_boots
Twitter: @RustyandBoots
Facebook (art): @RustyandBoots
Facebook (writing): @talesfromdemetia
Pinterest: RustyandBoots
Folklore from Myths & Legends of Wales retold
by Tony Roberts
Tale from Peredur, Son of Efrawg from The
Mabinogion translated by Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones
