Folklore Thread:

In my country we call those abbos

implying white people have any good myths that arnt shit teir christianity or ruined by modern pop nordic celtic culture.

Much as I hate to say it Germanic stuff is pretty neat.

Here in England we have a creature called Will-o'-the-wisp which are like hovering lights found in bogs, marshes and woods.

A peasant travelling home at dusk sees a bright light traveling along ahead of him. Looking closer, he sees that the light is a lantern held by a "dusky little figure", which he follows for several miles. All of a sudden he finds himself standing on the edge of a vast chasm with a roaring torrent of water rushing below him. At that precise moment the lantern-carrier leaps across the gap, lifts the light high over its head, lets out a malicious laugh and blows out the light, leaving the poor peasant a long way from home, standing in pitch darkness at the edge of a precipice.

Ah I remember my father telling me about these when I was a boy. I told the same story when I was a bit older around a campfire in Brecon

And the dumb bitch followed em.

Pukwudgies are said to be able to create glowing orbs of light to lead you deep into the woods.
>the light is a lantern held by a "dusky little figure"
hehehehe

...

fucking Leprechauns I swear.

Are things like "the Illuminati" or ayyy lmaos just modern versions of folklore?

Funny you should say that, I have an ongoing theory that the Irish invented all European folklore.

Spoopy

El Chuupa or Swamp Monster?

Them and the Welsh

>Ohlone folklore and legend centered around the Californian culture heroes of the Coyote trickster spirit, as well as Eagle and Hummingbird (and in the Chochenyo region, a falcon-like being named Kaknu). Coyote spirit was clever, wily, lustful, greedy, and irresponsible. He often competed with Hummingbird, who despite his small size regularly got the better of him.

Rougarou. Its a cajun wolfman monster that lives in the swamps and kidnaps children who sin during lent or something like that

...

Welsh are just fucking mental Irish people.

Reminds me of the Totonac balls of light that float in and devours babies souls.

Arent those pixies?

Ohh fuggg you from south east MA? we have puckwugies in our haunted Freetown state forest

They are supposedly stars that come down among humans and abandon the sky. They come down on july 20th- august 25th. They call them Tsisni-Staku.

You're forgetting this little nigger.
His kinda like a mischievous creature called "Saci", his little boy with really dark skin and only one leg, always seen wearing a red cap and smoking a pipe.
That's a little bizarre of a look, but what sets him apart from normal people is his skill of turning into a little typhoon, some versions also say hes invisible, and can only be seen in a night with a full moon because it makes his skin shine.

I personally like Kurupi.

It's the little nigger versus the ginger fuck.
I like to think they're bros.

Alright, I have a few.
Näcken is a creature who resembles a beautiful man, but is kin with the devil. He is often naked and next to a body of water, playing on his violin. It is said that he plays so magically beautiful that anyone who hears him play with approach and be drowned by him.

In the mid-1600s, a man was found with his throat slit near a lake. The authorities didn't bother to investigate or look for suspects. Everyone knew that Näcken had killed him.

The Tomte
There are several kinds of them, but the most common one is the House Tomte, a small bearded man (some stories mention entire families of them as well) who lives on a farm, out of sight of humans. As long as he was kept satisfied and people behaved in the house, he'd be benevolent and help the people (without them seeing him, of course). If he was treated badly, he could make animals sick or burn down the house. These days he is the one delivering presents on Christmas.

It's still common practice among families to put out a bowl of porridge for the Tomte on Christmas eve so that he'll continue to look out for the people living there.

The trolls were often depicted as large, with long hair and with lots of jewelry, mostly thanks to the drawings by John Bauer. They lived in the forests and slept during the day, which made them look like boulders. The trolls normally lived together in large families, and they could occasionally help humans (often asking for something in return though). They also kidnapped humans, such as in one story where the troll mother kidnapped a human girl for her son to marry. They could also try to eat people.

In the 19th century, a man disappeared from a small village and returned three days later, completely naked and with no memory of what happened. Everyone agreed that he had been taken by the trolls but was sent back for unknown reasons.

>his skill of turning into a little typhoon
Reminds me of a fucked up story one of my friends has about one of his brothers who died of illness.
He said a very strange looking man appeared out of a little tornado and touched the kid, the kid then started shaking and fell to the ground, that kid turned sick and finaly died after a year or two being very ill.

The älvor(feminine form of elves) were a mysterious people who could be seen in the mist. Similiarily to Näcken, they lured people into the forests or out in swamps, and the people were never seen again.

In 1759, a farmhand claimed to have visited the world of the elves. He noticed a path he had never seen before when he was going fishing, followed it, and was greeted by several beautiful elven women who offered him food and drink, but he refused and asked god to take him home, which enraged the elves and they banished him. When he returned, four days had passed, and when telling the people, the priest said that the farmhand was a god-fearing but simple man.

forgot pic

this thread is comfy as fuck

Gloym ikkje huldra!

The huldra was a female creature, who lived in the forests. From the front, she looked like a beautiful, sometimes naked woman, but from behind, you saw her tail and the hole in her back (she often covered this up with her hair though). If humans saw her, they would be enthralled by her beauty and follow her deeper and deeper into the forest. Once they saw what she really was and snapped out of it, it was too late.

Didn't find a suitable imagine, most were either not what I imagined or too lewd

more local tales pls

Sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest,
Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight,
Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns;
And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle,
And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain
In a most hideous and dreadful manner.
You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know
The superstitious idle-headed eld
Receiv'd, and did deliver to our age,
This tale of Herne the Hunter for a truth.

I'm convinced that Bigfoot/Sasquatch is just a modern retelling of the troll stories

Was told this story (supposed to be a fuck old slav tale), but dont know whats its called.
>Traveler walking along road
>Meets gypsy women who tells her of a great evil disguised as a child
>Joins up with rest of traveler friends
>Boy come's running from woods
>Traveler freaks out but his friends think he's being mental and let the boy camp with them
>Boy sings song and group falls asleep except for original traveler
>He runs away
>Comes back to see the child eating their corpses

The ghost of Blackbeard still sails the Eastern Seaboard.
There's a bridge from whence people hang near dusk.
There's an abandoned town that collapsed into a burning pit and the main road has steam coming out of the cracks.
The Hessian soldier who rides through the night.
The devil will sometimes pull you over, ask you about your life, then kill you if you lie, no he's not dressed like a cop but as a person in need.
There's a house by the sea near a historical park where a man and his wife to be used to live, but then she and his child died in a car accident, the man returned to the house and remained till he died a few years later. The house went to his father who kept it locked and maintained in honor of his son (his son was his only son and was to be the inheritor of his father's business). today the state has taken the land and since it is technically part of a historical site the local municipality can not demolish the building, nor would they want to as it attracts a few ghost hunters. It this all occured in the late 1800s. You can see a light wandering through the house at night, hear the floor creaking, doors being shut, and a man crying and asking "where is she?".
a local legend was that some kids tried to brake in and they couldn't find anything, but they saw a light in the next room and ran out and went to the police.

pls enjoy these American spooks.

Sometimes at night there's a woman on the bridge outside of town. But she disappears if you turn around or something. Apparently she's waiting for her husband to return from some war but maybe it was just my sister lying to me that she saw her cause I've never heard of anything similar to that story.

>little people with grey skin and a red cap smoking a pipe, they glow in the dark and turn invisible
what is this meme, Kobolds are the same way

Here in Quebec, the most famous would be the Chasse-Galerie. Most of folktales here has the clergy involved somehow but they're known and are still talked to this day.

There's the fantastical story about how jet fuel can melt steel beams. It's a relatively new story (as these things go) but the events that inspired it are well known.

That's awesome, I'm from Ontario and there's all sorts of stories about the fort nearby about ghosts and shit

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennington_Triangle

>Glastenbury

slavic lich

It's interesting how nearly every part of the world has some sort of story of fair folk/little people.

this is going back too far but the world did have little people at some point before we killed them probably

>As he approached the stream, his heart began to thump. Ichabod, whose fears increased with the delay, jerked the reins on the other side, and kicked lustily with the contrary foot: it was all in vain; his steed started, it is true, but it was only to plunge to the opposite side of the road into a thicket of brambles and alder bushes. The schoolmaster now bestowed both whip and heel upon the starveling ribs of old Gunpowder, who dashed forward, snuffling and snorting, but came to a stand just by the bridge, with a suddenness that had nearly sent his rider sprawling over his head. In the dark shadow of the grove, on the margin of the brook, he beheld something huge, misshapen and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveller.

>The hair of the affrighted pedagogue rose upon his head with terror. What was to be done? To turn and fly was now too late; and besides, what chance was there of escaping ghost or goblin, if such it was, which could ride upon the wings of the wind? Summoning up, therefore, a show of courage, he demanded in stammering accents, “Who are you?” He received no reply. He repeated his demand in a still more agitated voice. Still there was no answer. Once more he cudgelled the sides of the inflexible Gunpowder, and, shutting his eyes, broke forth with involuntary fervor into a psalm tune. Just then the shadowy object of alarm put itself in motion, and with a scramble and a bound stood at once in the middle of the road. Though the night was dark and dismal, yet the form of the unknown might now in some degree be ascertained. He appeared to be a horseman of large dimensions, and mounted on a black horse of powerful frame. He made no offer of molestation or sociability, but kept aloof on one side of the road, jogging along on the blind side of old Gunpowder, who had now got over his fright and waywardness.

The Netherlands have a related creature, but it's not completely the same and very unknown because literally no-one knows anything about Dutch myths it seems, which is incredibly sad

But we have the 'Nikker', which is a water-devil of some kind, that was seen as a benevolent spirit, coming out of the water to help people and make people laugh, before disappearing into the sea again while laughing to himself like a madman because of his glee in making people laugh

He also took children and ate the drowned, so he wasn't purely benevolent in all accounts

Mind you, this creature existed before 1600, before black people were well known in the Netherlands, only after being introduced to the English 'nigger', 'nikker' became one of the equivalents of nigger in the Netherlands

Such a fucking shame because it is quite an original fucking monster for us, and I love him to bits, but if I would ever start to go of about 'nikkers' to people, they would immediately assume I'm racist

We further basically only have humans and humanoids, and your basic Germanic elves, dwarfs, godblins and shit, but only our humanoids are actually kind of cool

Oh yeah, flying Dutchman, yadayadayada

That is so comfy

What the fuck? Now I'm curious.

Living in a remote coastal Flip village, there were lots of superstitions. There's one told to kids about going near the sea really late at night. There's a small breakwater near our village. At dusk, victims of drowning go up from the sea and walk around it. Any idiot who goes near gets dragged by them to sea. An extension of this story is that kids who don't go home at the 6 o' clock bell get taken by these ghosts. Our village church still rings its bells for time-keeping and emergencies, see. At 6, all kids go home right away. Everyone's afraid to not do so.

jump the chasm

Welsh myth of Beddgelert is pretty nice.

> "In the 13th century Llewelyn, prince of North Wales, had a palace at Beddgelert. One day he went hunting without Gelert, ‘The Faithful Hound’, who was unaccountably absent.

> On Llewelyn's return the truant, stained and smeared with blood, joyfully sprang to meet his master. The prince alarmed hastened to find his son, and saw the infant's cot empty, the bedclothes and floor covered with blood.

> The frantic father plunged his sword into the hound's side, thinking it had killed his heir. The dog's dying yell was answered by a child's cry.

> Llewelyn searched and discovered his boy unharmed, but nearby lay the body of a mighty wolf which Gelert had slain. The prince filled with remorse is said never to have smiled again. He buried Gelert here".

I know a couple of Serbian folk stories if anyone wants to hear, desu I love slavic folk stories because they are quite often very surreal.

Seeing that my fellow monkeys already showed up, I would also like to contribute:

The Legend of the Pink Dolphin
In June, people in Amazonia celebrate the birthdays of Saints Anthony, John, and Peter. These night-time parties are enhanced by the flames of bonfires, fireworks, and the taste of typical foods and dances. In the background there's always the pleasant sound of accordions.

One of the legends about the boto(dolphin) is that when a young girl meets a young boy at one of the June celebrations, their first experience is attributed to the boto.

The belief is that, on these nights when people are distracted by celebrating, the pink boto appears transformed into a very handsome man. But he is always wearing a hat, because his transformation is not complete since his breathing hole is still at the top of his head.

Like a gentleman, he flirts, enchanting the first pretty, young woman he sees, and takes her down to the river. There she becomes pregnant and then the boto leaves her, turing into boto in next morning.

Fun Fact: the pink dolphin(boto cor-de-rosa) is a real species in the Amazonas river

his skin is not gray, he's specifically described as a nigger child

>tfw even a dolphin is more chad than you

It's amazing some of the shit they have in The Witcher series, what with the Nekkers and Celtic Otherworld. Just goes to show the power of loneliness and autism.

Impostant detail: his hat (a pileus) is what gives him magical powers, much like stories in greco-roman mythology

>tfw no Selkie gf

>nymphs
>Salmacis forced the youth Hermaphroditus into a carnal embrace and, when he sought to get away, fused with him.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

The chasm can not be leapt by mere mortals.

What's autistic about that? But yeah, the nekker, nikker, näck and nix are all variants of the same creature, which probably was invented so kids wouldn't go and drown on their own.

Feels

Very similar to a Roman Catholic folk myth of Southern France
mentalfloss.com/article/91855/st-guinefort-dog-venerated-saint

youtu.be/S_JPdovYj8o?t=50
Romania has this thing going on during new year's eve. Basically you dress up as a bear/old man/gipsy/goat/knight/commander/whatnot and make as much noise as you can. Apparently this comes from pagan tradition and is made to kick evil spirits out of homes.

...

Building 666 at Plattsburgh Air Force Base
Champ

youtube.com/watch?v=5rK3qYkdxUE

In Colombia we have the Caiman boy.

There are stories about giant bodies being pulled out of mounds in western NY.

While I don't live in the area, my family took a vacation to the Pocono Mountains when I was a kid and, in addition to getting to tour some historic sites and decommissioned mines, we also toured a jail in Carbon County, where the guide told us a story that has stuck with me since then. While the story's veracity is obviously dubious, it is a neat little bit of rural American folklore.

>Alexander Campbell, born in Ireland, moves emigrates to North America in the 1860s, where he finds moderate success as a liquor merchant and lodge operator
>Due to his political leanings and activity, he soon attracts the ire of local mine operators, who suspect him of being a secret Mollie Maguire (early advocates of collectivized labor)
>When two area locals are found dead, local politicians and businessmen use their deaths as a convenient was to round up Campbell and three other suspected mollies, toss them in jail, and sentence them to death.
>Campbell remains adamant about his innocence throughout the ordeal.
>When guards come to collect him for execution, he once more attested to his innocence
>The guards remained unconvinced, and so Campbell placed his hand against the cell wall and proclaimed that his innocence would be vindicated--as long as the jail stood, his handprint would remain on the wall as proof of his false conviction
>To this day, despite having been painted over and washed, the handprint remains, a testament to his innocence

Pic related, it's the handprint.

And the only folklore I know based in Colorado, where I live, has to do with the standard "spooky decommissioned train stations/mines/snow huts." There are a couple ghost towns in the mountains, but those aren't so much creepy as they are just desolate and dilapidated. We also get the occasional "unknown critter" sighting, but they tend to just look like mammals with mange or some disease that got them kicked out of their social group and are starving.

Paul Bunyan is pretty big in Michigan.