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spez @sh.itjust.works

What's the scary folk lore from your culture?

Every culture/region has stories and myths about the things existing there. What are the ones you find the most spooky and/or interesting?

101 comments

  • Nisser, the Danish, or rather Scandinavian, small and cute gods of protection. As far as I know, the nisse can form when an old farmer dies and is buried on their farm. The nisse will then henceforth protect the farm and it's inhabitants.

    Now, while considered fun and cute in modern times, the gårdsnisser (contrary to the more feral and much more dangerous skovnisser/forest nisser) are very gullable with a strong sense of guilt, and they are hotheaded and intractable/stubborn to an unreasonable degree. They will protect you and give good luck if treated well, but will be intolerable if they feel inconvenienced or not properly cared for, to the point where they might directly or indirectly kill everyone on the farm out of spite.

    Sometimes they cause atrocities because of misunderstandings, and when finding out that it was a misunderstanding on their part will cause harm to others to make up to their own farm, such as stealing cattle from neighboring farms to make up for the cows they killed earlier.

    Now, the possibly worst thing you can do is to try and force a nisse to show itself to you. The small creatures accept indirect gifts, but don't like direct contact and have a cursing bite, and will most definitely bite if cornered, such as by a nosy and persistent child. This curse makes one fall sick, loosing health and strenght until one perishes in a matter of months/years. As far as I'm aware, there is no cure for the curse, and regarding the nissers tendency to be fooled or act before thinking, well....

    Having a nisse on your farm can be a great blessing, but one is also constantly in danger of having their whole family killed over a minor misunderstanding or mood swing. So it is heavily recommended not to acquire any farms where a nisse might reside.

  • One thing I could think of from Filipino culture is the manananggal (rough translation: one who removes). It's a sort of humanlike being, but with wings and a very long tongue. At night, its body from the waist up would fly away and leave its lower half behind, then it would hunt for food. It would go on top of pregnant womens' rooftops and using its long tongue it would feed on the fetus. Once the manananggal gets back to its lower half, the fetus would be gone forever.

    In order to get the fetus back, you can prevent the manananggal from returning to its lower half by putting something on the lower half, if you find it (not sure if it was salt or garlic or something else).

    One interesting thing that I'm not sure is quite related, but if you have a miscarriage, people say that 'nakunan ka' (rough translation: you were taken from / x was taken from you). Could be left over from the idea that the manananggal takes fetuses?

  • My grandpa would tell this one:

    There once was a man who lived all by himself way out in the woods. He lived in a small log cabin with just one room, and that room served as his kitchen, dining room, parlor, and his bedroom too. This man owned three great big hunting dogs. One was called You-Know, one was called Eye-Know, and the third was called Cumptico-Calico.

    One winter night the man had run out of food and had to go to bed without supper. Just as he was starting to drift off to sleep, he snapped his eyes open at a noise. He looked around and there in the cabin with him was the curiousest creature that you ever did see. It has two little pointed ears, and two great big red eyes, and it had a great big long tail. The man snatched up his hatchet and swung at the creature, chopping off it's tail. The creature shrieked and fled back out into the wilderness.

    The man cooked and ete the tail for his supper and then went back to bed.

    An hour or so later the man wakes with a start. Way out in the distance he hears something call out, "taily-po! Taily-po! All I want's my taily-po!" The man called out to his dogs, and they came barrelling around the side of the cabin and chased the whatever-it-was far away from the cabin. Only two of the dogs came back.

    Later that night, the man awoke again. Something called out, "taily-po! Taily-po! All I want's my taily-po!", only from nearer than before. The man called out to his dogs again, and the two dogs crashed across the meadow chasing the whatever-it-was even farther away than before. But this time only one dog came back.

    In the deep, dark hours of morning, the man woke again. And from just outside his front door he heard the whatever-it-was demanding again: "Taily-Po! Taily-Po! All I want's my taily-po!" The man called out to his last dog, who chased the whatever-it-was for miles and miles and never came back.

    Just before daylight the man woke once again. He didn't hear anything, but when he looked down at the foot of his bed he could see two little pointed ears. And after a moment two big, red, fiery eyes were looking at him. Slowly the whatever-it-was crept up the foot of his bed until it was right on top of him. And in a low voice it said, "taily-po. Taily-po. All I want's my taily-po."

    The man found his voice and screamed, "I ain't got your taily-po!"

    But the whatever-it-was replied, "yes, you has!" And it jumped on the man and scratched him all to pieces!

    Some say it got its taily-po back; some say it didn't. But when the moon shines bright and the wind blows down the valley, you can sometimes hear a voice cry out, "taily-po!"

  • Here in Northern Italy near Bergamo, we have something called "Gratacornia", an half human-half goat creature, which was used to scare kids. The Gratacornia waits for the kid on top of the stairs in darkness and scratches his hooves with his long horns (Gratacornia is formed merging "Grata"=to scratch and "Cornia"=horns).

  • I live in New Jersey. Most people know it for the sopranos or even just the turnpike, but in the south of the state there’s a huge pine forest called the pine barrens. The Lenape that originally lived in New Jersey spoke of a spirit in the forest known as M’Sing, a deer like creature with leathery wings.

    After New Jersey was colonized, a legend came out of a family that lived in the barrens in the 18th century, the Leeds. Mother Leeds, upon finding out she was pregnant for a 13th time, cursed the child. It is said she gave birth during a terrible storm. When the child was delivered, it transformed into a creature, not unlike what the Lenape described. It quickly took off out of the chimney and disappeared in the forest. Since then, people spot the “Jersey Devil” throughout the state, but especially around the pine barrens. Personally, everything I hear the thing is harmless, but creepy.

  • Here in Australia, it's drop bears, but they're less folklore and just more... difficult to find. Until it's too late, of course.

  • Czarny Roman (Black Roman), a homeless guy from my town, who used to wander the streets in a dark suit and hat (in winter he switched to neon-coloured ski robes). The story goes he used to run a black-market currency exchange in the 80s and was terribly rich, but either a business partner fucked him over or he lost it all at a casino; he went nuts and ended up on the street. A different story says he ran a coffee shop with his ex-wife. Some claim he used to study at the University here or even the Fine Arts Academy. He had a family (they were interviewed at his funeral by the press) who reside in New York and probably only they know the real story. He was strongly against drugs, cigarettes and alcohol; aparently used to discourage kids from smoking. He wilfully gave up social housing and spent many years wandering about and talking to people about art, poetry, music, yoga and death. He claimed he was immortal and once left a note on a napkin which gave a glimpse of his early life. Apparently he was born in 1950 and his mother was murdered by his father. He claimed Warsaw will be hit a with a meteorite and claimed to know the dates of death of passerby's. He never begged for help, even had his own food and was sometimes supported by people he talked to. I've never talked to him myself but he was on a "good morning" basis with lots of people here and seemed to be able to remember them well.

    wiki article in Polish

    some article about him released soon after his demise, also in Polish

    some forum post about him, Polish as well

    a music video with him (around 2:50)

  • My area has a supposed undead creature called Stovepipe. He has a stovepipe stuck in his head and attacks people by train tracks. Apparently he died in a terrible accident and couldn't move on because he was so mad about his death. High schoolers love going looking for him lol. I don't believe he exists, but it's an interesting thing.

101 comments