In this article, let’s discuss on some of the most popular yet scary mythical creatures from folklore and mythological tales. They also have a place in modern fiction and fantasy stories as well. Fantasy authors love to use these fantasy characters in their novels. Their fiction story writing is incomplete without having some of the most popular mythical creatures. The beauty lies in the writing skills on how the author puts life to these mysterious creatures in his/her novel.
Any fantasy, fiction book lover or any person who loves watching fantasy movies must definitely have a fascination over the mythical creatures. These mysterious and legendary beasts from folklore and fiction have god like supernatural powers which are amazing yet scary at the same time we fall in love in those characters. We can’t get enough of them in movies even though we utterly despise some of them.
The origins of these marvelous creatures have often varied and disputed but they have played a significant role in writer’s creation of novels and movies throughout the world. We don’t know whether they really exist in physical form in present day world, but people love these fantasy creatures and portray them in movies, pictures and novels. Some of these creatures are symbol of peace, goodness and happiness and some are ferocious, evil, cruel and blood thirsty beasts. Each cultural history around the globe has its own set of legends and mythological creature which are mysterious and amazing in their own ways.
#1 Mythical Creatures – Dragons
The first in our list are the dragons which are the most popular mythical creatures mentioned in folklore and stories. They represent mystical power, appearance, superiority and opportunity. It’s a matter of pride for someone who own’s a dragon. It is said, they originated from Europe, Africa, East Asia. Different cultures represent them in different ways. In western culture, they are basically said to be four legged reptiles and capable of flying and breathing fire from their noses.
Whereas, the eastern cultures they represent powerful four legged serpents with high level of intelligence and wit. People now encounter them in theater and movies, television serials. Lot of movies have depicted the dragon and their prowess efficiently.
For example – The movies Aragon, Lord of the rings, the hobbit and the famous television series Game of Thrones showed dragons as pivotal characters.
#2 Mythical Creatures- Mermaids
Mermaids are the gorgeous, stunning and legendary aquatic creatures. They consist of heads and upper part of a woman and lower body of a fish. It’s a common creature from folklore around the world. Old civilizations, movies, stories, urban legends depicted them in various ways. Mermaids mostly create the misfortunes in the ocean such as shipwrecks and ship drowning.
They lure the sailors in rocky sea and the sailors drive their boats and ships towards their beauty leading disaster. There are also male kind of these creatures known as merman who too are responsible for sinking ships, fierce storms and drowning people. There have been stories about sightings of mermaid around the world but lack of proof dismisses those claims.
Many movies depicted them well- The Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides.
#3 Vampires
Vampire are the demonic beasts/animals that has a distinct place in folklore as well as modern fiction novels. They exists for over thousand years and they live by feeding on people’s blood. They are one of the most popular mystical ancient creatures of Greek mythology and we see them often in horror and paranormal romance movies.
The movie ‘The Twilight Saga‘ is all about the love story of vampire and a human.
#4 Griffin
The legendary mythical creature with the head, front legs and wings of an eagle and body, hind legs and tails that of a lion. The combination of the king of bird and the king of the beast is the griffin. Griffin is a powerful and beautiful creature. It is the protector of a kingdom, The story goes during the Persian rule, griffin protected people from evil and slander. Griffins are represented in Persia and ancient Egypt during 4th century BC. In medieval age, griffin became a symbol of divine power.
#5 Mythical Creature- Centaur
The Greek mythological Centaurs are beautiful creatures and are known for their intelligence and loyalty. Centaur is a hybrid version of human head and human body and lower body that of a horse. They are strong warriors experts in marshal arts. Many fiction stories and movies have centaurs mentioned.
The movies such as The Chronicles of Narnia, Percy Jackson and the lightning thief have centaur as one of the central characters.
#6 Cyclopes
Cyclopes are scary looking giant one-eyed monsters from folklore and modern fiction. They are from ancient Greek and they lived without the fear of God.
#7 Typhon
One of the most dreadful mythical creatures of Greek mythology. Typhon is a giant serpent consisting the characteristic feature of both monster as well as God. He is often considered as ‘Father of all Monsters” and such was his ginormous size, it is said his head could touch the stars if he stood upright. Typhon has hundreds of snakes in his hands instead of fingers. He also had hundred of snake heads and some are dragon heads and lower body was that of tails that were hissing constantly. His wings had the ability to hide the sun and he could flash fire from his eyes.
#8 Banshee
They exist in Irish folklore. Banshees are female spirits/fairy woman and represented omen of death. They heralds the death of family member by their screams. They are terrifying creatures and they sang melancholy and haunting songs, showing their love and concern for the deceased member of a family.
#9 Sphinx
Sphinx is mythical creature of Egypt with the wing of bird and flanks of lion and head of a human. It is also a mysterious being and they are well represented in the myth of Oedipus. They are represented in architectural structures in royal tombs. They were first mentioned in 9500 BC.
#10 Unicorn
Unicorns are amazing creatures. They are legendary ancient creatures from Asia. Unicorns represent purity and truth. They are often mentioned in folklore and the holy Bible has also mention of unicorn.
#11 Mystery Creature- Minotaur
Minotaur is one of the dreaded characters of Greek mythology. Long time ago, the wife of powerful king Minos gave birth to a strange monster who is half bull and half human. The story goes the wife was in love with a bull and their love blossomed into a monster named Minotaur, bull headed monster. Minotaur needs to feed on humans for living . The king was very upset and wanted to kill Minotaur but doing this would anger the Gods. Thus the king Minos has to send young people as human tribute to Minotaur.
The king built a labyrinth, a dangerous maze with the help of Daedalus, the great architect of Athens to keep the Minotaur hidden from the outside world. Daedalus built the maze in such a way that anyone if enters there without a map would never be able to make his/her way out. They kept Minotaur in the labyrinth and he used to wait for his food. One day, brave Theseus, son of king Aegis son of Athens decided to end this cruel ritual of human tribute to Minotaur and promised his father that he would visit the kingdom of Minos and would and kill Minotaur. The courageous and heroic Theseus eventually killed Minotaur and managed to escape through the dark mysterious maze putting an end to the evil Minotaur.
#12 Leprechaun
Leprachaun is a mythical creature of Irish folklore- a tiny old supernatural fairy. The leprachauns are small beard-men wearing leather apron and a hat. They are shoe makers, cobblers and love cracking practical jokes. They live a solitary life in remote places. Legend says they hid a pot of gold and never reveal its whereabouts. If they are made captives, they trick their captors and vanishes suddenly.
#13 Chimera
This Greek mythological terrifying creature has lion’s head breathing fire, goat’s body and a serpent tail. Chimera is the offspring of Typhoes, a monster and his partner,Echidna who was half snake and half woman. In scientific term, it is used to define an organism that has two or more genotypes. Some also believe that the Mount Chimera in Turkey is a personification of Chimera, an old mountain which used to be on fire. It is used as a metaphor now a days and often used to describe something that is confusing and consisting of many elements.
#14 Kraken
The mythical Kraken also makes our list of terrifying mythical creatures. This monster was mentioned by Swedish king Sverre of Norway in 1180. The description of this sea monster in folklore varies but commonly it is referred to as a squid that has the potential to devour entire crews of a ship and the ability to sink it in a moment. Some says, this mythical dangerous creature still exists today.
#15 Basilisk
Some argue over the origin of this ferocious beast. Some says it is of Italian and some says Greek folklore. If looks could kill someone, Basilisk is the perfect example. Just like Medusa, a stare from Basilisk, a breed of snake and rooster can kill people by a single stare.
#16 Werewolf
Werewolf is one of the most popular mythical creature. It is so common in every folklore and exist in multiple cultures that it’s origin in unknown. Turning human into beast with different supernatural power to serve a specific purpose. We often see them in horror movies and countless television serials.
#17 Golem
This creature made from clay from Jewish folklore is a magical robot who can act both as a savior and destroyer of people depending on the order of its master.
#18 Dybbuk
Dybbuk is an evil spirit, a dislocated soul of a dead body who has taken over a host body to accomplish its goal. This origins from Jewish folklore and indeed one of the spine chilling creatures existed in mythological tales.
#19 Hydra
A multi headed serpent of Greek mythology. The specialty of this monster is cutting one head gives growth to two heads and thus making it an almost invincible beast. Hydra had an immortal head in the middle and Hercules managed to kill it.
#20 Ogre
In folklore and fairy tales , Ogres are giant legendary monsters feeding on human beings especially children. We read about ogres in stories and fiction books and movies viz- Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel( witch as the ogre).
#21 Undine
Undine(Ondine), an European Mythological water nymph becomes a human when falling in love with a man. But she would die if he is unfaithful to her. Swiss author Paracelsus first mentioned undine in his writing as the spirits who inhabit the element of water.
#22 Kelpie
Belongs to celtic folklore as water kelpie, shape shifting aquatic spirit. They reside and haunt rivers and water bodies in the form of horse. They can also take the form of human from their original outlook ie. black horse.
#23 Dullanhan
One of the strange mythological creature from Irish mythology. They are headless riders and heralds of death. They usually travel in a black horse. Dullanhan is embodiment of Celtic God Crom Dubh.
#24 Bunyip
Bunyip is a legendary monster from Australian Aboriginal mythology. It lived in swampy areas and river sides, creeks and rive beds in the interior lands. The amphibian beast had a bull shaped body and sometimes of a hippopotamus and round head and long neck. The description of this ferocious beast differs in different cultures. The bull like roars of this beast sent shivers to the residents nearby the swampy lands.
The Bunyip has become part of European folklore and they are featured in many classic Australian children’s book.
For e.g- The Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek by Jenny Wagner. An Indian movie, ‘Chander Pahar’ featured the bunyip .
#25 Big Foot/ Sasquatch
Ape like legendary creature from North American folklore living in the wilds. They leave their foot impressions while walking. However, many modern scientists reject the theory of the existence of this creature as they are seen as a combination of folklore and misidentification.
#26 Bogeyman
Bogeyman is the mythical creature that adults use to scare children and change them into good behavior. Bogeyman has no specific appearance and they are used to punish misbehaved children.
#27 Pontianak
Pontianak is the female carnivorous ghost and vampire mentioned in Indonesian and Malaysian folklore.
#28 Loch Ness Monsters
This mythical sea creature from Scottish folklore resided in Loch Ness in Scottish islands. They are long necked and many humps protruding from the water.
This Loch Ness Monster is in the fantasy movie ‘The Water horse of the deep‘ and the friendly bond between the sea monster and a kid.
#29 Beasts of Bodmin Moor
The beasts of Bodmin Moor is from British Folklore are the black wild cats that dwells in Cornell, England. These wild phantom,panther like creature became popular when reports of dead livestock surfaced on the region. Scientists refute the claim as the environment is not congenial for the wild cats to exist in that specific region.
#30 Water Spirit
The supernatural force or being present in the water mentioned in many folklore and cultures. It existed in many cultures – Greek, German, Celtic, African, Mesoamerican, Japanese, Roman, Slavic, Oceanic and Thai cultures as well.
#31 Crocotta
Crocotta is a mythical dog wolf from Ethiopia or India, ferocious beasts and enemy of dogs and humans. The combination between dog and wolf or combination lion and hyena gives rise to Crocotta.
It is mentioned in Susanna Clark’s ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell‘.
#32 Satyrs and Fauns
Satyrs are a male nature spirit with ears and tail of a horse from Greek mythology. They are represented as humans during the course of history since Renaissance. Satyrs began to acquire goat like characteristics with the horns and tails of a goats. These mythical creatures are known as Fauns, native nature spirits by Romans.
We saw them in movies like ‘In Percy Jackson and the lightning thief,’ satyr Grover is the loyal protector of the protagonist Percy, the son of river God Poseidon.
#33 Fenrir
One of the mythical creatures is the legendary wolf mentioned in Norse Mythology. He was the son of the god Loki and Angerboda, the giantess.
#34 Gnome
The mythical creature Gnome is a diminutive spirit from Europe The author Paracelsus first introduced them in 16th century and later many authors adopted them in modern fantasy literature. They are shriveled little old men that lives in the interior earth and guards the treasure.
#35 Abaia
In Melanesian mythology, Abaia is a giant mythical legendary eel that resides deep down in the water bed of fresh water lakes of Fiji and Solomon islands. Legend says it is the protector of all creatures of lake and thus if any one trying to harm the fish in the lake, Abaia would create huge rain storm and flood the areas and drown those who tried to cause the harm.
#36 Sea-lion
A legendary sea creature having the head and upper body of a lion but webbed forelimbs and tail of a fish. Sea lion often represent the ancient symbol of sea and naval powers.
#37 Ika Roa
Ika-Roa is the gigantic fish, the Mother Goddess that gave birth of all stars in the Milky way as per Maori mythology. It is basically the other name of Milky way. This mythical creature is also known as Mangoroa( Long shark).
#38 Sirens
Sirens fall in the category of mermaids and more of an evil stunning sea creature luring the sailors by the sirens and sounds they produce in the middle of ocean and create havoc for the ship and the crew members.
#39 Manticore
Manticore is a legendary beast from Persian folklore from Central Asia and also said to be sighted in the jungles of India and Indonesia. This is as dangerous as Chimera. Manticore is a man eating beast has a human head and body of lion and tail of poisonous spines. It has the ability to devour its whole prey at once leaving no bones with multiple rows of teeth. Some modern myth says it has also wings.
However, there are many more mythical creatures from different cultures and folklore as the above list does not cover the holistic list. Let me know who is your favorite and let me know the ones I missed.
