Welcome back to Monster Friday, and today I bring you an interesting Monster: The Jabberwock. This one is interesting because most people think it has some sort of amazing lore behind it or that it dates back to some ancient period. The fact is, it was just a poem written by Lewis Carroll. It first appeared in his 1987 book Through the Looking Glass, and the first part of the poem he written even before that. In the book, Alice basically calls it pretty and says the poem doesn’t really make any sense beyond that; something was killed.
Since then, people have of course expanded on the creature, for example, most agree it is the cousin of dragons, it can fly, lays eggs, you know, with typical dragon-like behavior.
In a strange twist, however, the Jabberwocky has become quite terrifying in its own right. Being the ancestor of dragons, people have given them all sorts of insane powers, from speed to strength. Some variations are said to be able to speak any known language, which includes the ability to talk to other dragons. Of course, they can supposedly also take human form. Not bad for a creature that didn’t exist until Alice went to Wonderland. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
This one is weird for me to write, because I always thought it was common knowledge until this past weekend when discussing it at work, when I was the only one in a group of 6 people that knew this, 3 of whom were college educated. Back in 1818 Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein. In this story, Victor Frankenstein creates a monster out of spare human parts and brings it to life. He is described as being 8 feet tall and having pearly white teeth and lustrous black hair. His skin was yellow and tight to the point it barely concealed the inner workings of his muscles and arteries.
He also does not have a name. They simply referred to it in the abstract by calling it, well, “it” or ” monster” and things like “creature” and “demon,” but it doesn’t truly have a name.
Now I say all that to point this out, calling him Frankenstein isn’t actually wrong. Universal Studios has been doing it for over 100 years now. Hell there is even a movie called The Bride of Frankenstein.
Look she didn’t marry Victor
I think, in all honesty, it is time to admit, we are basically just calling this dude by his last name. His creator’s (dad’s) name is Victor Frankenstein; he never gave him a first name, so we call him by his last name. I just never realized so many people knew there was a book, but didn’t know he didn’t have a name in it. Enjoy monster Friday, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Welcome back to Monster Friday,today’s monster is The Squonk. The Squonk is a strange one, as it is basically the ugliest thing imaginable. It is said to be covered in warts with skin that is way too big for itself. As such it is wrinkly.
Worse,it knows it is ugly so it is constantly crying. The Squonk is said to be nocturnal by nature specifically because it doesn’t want to be seen so much so that it avoids water so it won’t see its own reflection.
Like many such creatures it even has a built in mechanism as to why one has never been captured. This one turns into a puddle of tears when scared or cornered. Which is pretty handy I must admit. This seems pretty implausible to me but there is an entire festival dedicated to it in Johnstown PA in August. They usually have a lot of cool shirts at least. Best wishes,and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Mothman is a very specific monster in that it only exists in one place, during a very specific point in time. In a small place, Point Pleasant, West Virgin,a from around November 1966 until December 1967, there were reports of a humanoid creature known as Mothman. It even has its own Museum.
That is a live YouTube camera, by the way, that shows the giant Mothman statue that is very popular at the Mothman museum. The sightings themselves have been explained by things such as the migration of birds in the area that don’t normally come through there such as sandhil cranes.
As you can see, the sandhill crane is a rather large bird with red/orange eyes, which lines up perfectly with what the Mothman reportedly looks like, a large creature with Red eyes and wings. If you were to see one at night out of season, you could, while scared and surprised, possibly confuse it for being humanoid.
Mothman has appeared in movies such as The Mothman Prophecies and is a staple in the Fallout games, and while I honestly belive there is nothing to this one, it is one of the more fun ones out there. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Chupacabra, of which there is, despite popular belief, more than one, lives across North and South America. The name literal means goat sucker in Spanish and is called this because of how they hunt and kill animals, which would be predominatly farm animals. They do this the same way as vampires, by attacking and sucking the blood of creatures.
A number of them have been supposedly found, but they are always later discovered to be a known animal, usually a coyote with mange or something similar.
That being said, it would be wild of some guy on a blog to say it doesn’t exist. I have clearly not traveled the continents doing research or memorized any sort of animal codex and cross-referenced anything. It does happen to be one of the few cryptids that I do believe has been pretty debunked at this point. Either way, it is a rather interesting one. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Welcome back to Monster Friday, today we will be discussing a popular monster from Japan the Kappa. This water spirit, or Yokai, is a creature of mischief. The Kappa have various legends surrounding them, but they are more intelligent than most other creatures. Their legacy can be traced as far back as the Edo era (starting around 1603) and since then they have been blamed for everything from the disappearance of children to the murder of adults near water. It is thought that they would convince men to get in the water drag them under and eat them.
Their general look is similar to an ape except with fish scales and a turtle shell. While being the size of a 6-10 year old child. The indentation in their held holds water it is believed if it is ever spilled, they lose their magical abilities. Many think you can force them to grant you favors if you can make them spill this water. They also believe you can gain their favor by giving them cucumbers or tossing cucumbers into their water to make them happy. I am not sure why something that feeds on humans would love cucumbers so much but weirder things have happened.
Weirdly, I couldn’t find any sort of Kappa festival. Most of these popular creatures have some sort of formal festival or day attached to them in Japan, but the Kappa doesn’t seem to have any widespread formal holiday. Kappa Matsuri is a festival held in some parts of Tokyo, Ushiku, Komaki, and Misawa according to Wikipedia but it didn’t supply any real information so I don’t consider it very reliable. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Bringing back an old tradition of a monster every Friday, a classic is The Phoenix. Lore for the Phoenix goes back well over 500 years to the Greeks and the Egyptians. It varies from culture to culture tho it always agrees it seems that it is a bird. In one such belief it will love exactly 500 years and build a nest where it will die in flames and from those ashes a new baby bird will be born. That will be the one and only Phoenix to exist at any one time.
Other lore thinks that there can be multiple of them and when they die they are simply reborn from the ashes wherever they may be.
Obviously none of these are true but the Phoenix has become a symbol of rebirth and renewal. Many novels and stores also have them at odds with dragons for some reason that I never truly understood myself. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Once again we are back with Monster Friday, and this time we are going to talk about The Loch Ness Monster, Nessie. Now before we go any further, I should acknowledge scientist have many times debunked Nessie’s very existence in a variety of ways. In fact aside from the Vox article above here is a clip from the Today Show. This isn’t to say I believe these articles simply they exist and can be used to start your debunking search.
The modern Loch Ness Monster story goes back over 80 years to what is known as “the surgeons photo.” It was published on 1934 when a doctor by the name of R. Kenneth Wilson sold a photo to the Daily Mail that became the face of Nessie for decades to come. It is 100% fake, and you can read an excellent article from PBS for all the small details, but essentially a man named Ian Wetherell convinced Dr. Wilson to help take the photograph and sell it as his own, and since he as a respected doctor nobody would really question it.
Surgeons Photo
One fake photo doesn’t prove the creature doesn’t exist however, even Alastair Boyd the man that managed to find everything that proved this photo was a hoax firmly believes in Nessie.
Possibly an Eel or snake
As for what Nessie is, many think of her as a plesiosaur, others as a giant eel or snake. In 2018 scientist conducted DNA surveys of Loch Ness and didn’t find any sign dinosaurs or giant sea creatures. Eels however are still a possibility as several species do live in the loch.
Continuing my weekly monster post, last week I bought you something from close to home with the Trotterhead and this week I want to bring you to the open seas by releasing the Kraken.
The history of the Kraken is well established in lore from Scandinavia sailors, to Clash of the Titans where Zeus himself controlled it. It’s worth noting however that in traditional Greek mythology the Kraken itself does not appear. (Sea monsters do exist just not that one specifically)
Known to resemble a giant octopus or giant squid the power of a kraken is so immense that it easily sinks the biggest ships simply by wrapping its testicles around it and squeezing. Why it does this is also under much debate, some say it is simply a dumb creature that mistakes the boats for food,others that it simply is defending its territory.
Interesting enough the Kraken while believed to have been about a mile long with a body that could be mistaken for a body of land, it is the one mythical creature that not only could be based on a real creature, it was also based on a giant version of 2 real creatures that were thought to not exist for a time that later were proven do in fact exist.
While humans have known about octopuses (yes that is the plural of octopus, despite popular belief octopi is not. I’m as shocked as you) there the Giant Pacific octopus wasn’t really known about then.
The record for one of these is 30 feet and 600 pounds
The chances of one of these taking down a ship is obviously pretty small, though I suppose it might take down a row boat. If you have never seen something like this and it climbed up on your boat it would scare the hell out of you and to have it described to you would be pure nightmare fuel.
The second candidate and far more likely however was a creature discovered within the last decade or so and hunts whales. I am of course speaking of the giant squid.
Unfortunately this one probably didn’t live long
The giant squid is a living monster, fully capable of fighting a sperm whale,and winning. The longest giant squid was about 43 feet, while sperm whales are about 60 feet. With a ship in the 1700 and 1800’s only being about 75 feet at the most for big ones, it’s easy to see why catching sight of one of these rare things would cause the scare it has.
This is part of what makes the Kraken so scary especially back then. It wasn’t really far fetched,most people that lived by the sea probably saw an octopus or squid. They also knew fish further out into the sea were much bigger. So why couldn’t there be a massive monster out in the deep sea waiting to rip a ship apart?
The Kraken is easily one of the scariest monsters in history because it is both easy to see where it came from,and that it wasn’t too far off from the truth. I hope you enjoyed this one,best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Last week I started this new series with Monster Friday Wendigo and this week I wanted to continue with something much lesser known,and from my home state of Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania dutch,who are oddly German, bring us the legend of Trotterhead. (Trotterkopf in German)
Trotterhead is less a creature and more of a spirit but if what it is often debated. Some say it was the spirit of a witch trying to do harm while others say it was actually a spirit sent by a witch for the same reason. Either way you kind of need to upset a witch for this thing to show up and bother you.
As for where this thing would live or what it would eat, obviously one would think they don’t live anywhere but allegedly you could visit 2 of these creatures in Quaker Cemetery on Quaker Church Road in Perryopolis Pennsylvania. I have never been there myself,it’s in western PA and I’m in the North East, but I know the stories of the place. Apparently you disrespect the cemetery they will push you down and do all sorts of scary stuff.
Is this real or just the story of old time religious folk? My guess would be the latter, but they are interesting none the less. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Savior Gaming 