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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 2:49:38 GMT -5
Silkies or selkies In Scottish mythology, selkies (also spelled silkies, sylkies, selchies) or selkie folk (Scots: selkie fowk) meaning "seal folk" are mythological beings capable of therianthropy, changing from seal to human form by shedding their skin. They are found in folktales and mythology originating from the Northern Isles of Scotland.
The folk-tales frequently revolve around female selkies being coerced into relationships with humans by someone stealing and hiding their sealskin, thus exhibiting the tale motif of the swan maiden type.
There are counterparts in Faroese and Icelandic folklore that speak of seal-women and seal-skin.
W. Traill Dennison insisted "selkie" was the correct term to be applied to these shapeshifters, to be distinguished from the merfolk, and that Samuel Hibbert committed an error in referring to them as "mermen" and "mermaids". However, when other Norse cultures are examined, Icelandic writers also refer to the seal-wives as merfolk (marmennlar).
There also seems to be some conflation between the selkie and finfolk. This confounding only existed in Shetland, claimed Dennison, and that in Orkney the selkie are distinguished from the finfolk, and the selkies' abode undersea is not "Finfolk-a-heem"; this notion, although seconded by Ernest Marwick, has been challenged by Bruford.
There is further confusion with the Norse concept of the Finns as shapeshifters, "Finns" (synonymous with finfolk being the Shetlandic name for dwellers of the sea who could remove their seal-skin and transform into humans according to one native correspondent.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 2:57:04 GMT -5
Cauld-lads
The Cauld Lad is a ghost of murdered stable boy.
Soon afterwards, strange events began to occur in the castle. The kitchen would be tidied at night if left in a mess, or messed up if left tidy. An unseen person would take hot ashes from the fires, and lie on them, leaving an imprint of a body. Chamber pots were emptied on the floor.
After a while, a cook stayed up until midnight to see who was causing the mischief. He saw the ghost of a naked boy, and heard him crying "I'm cauld" ("I'm cold"). The cook and his wife left a warm cloak for the ghost, and the next night they heard, "Here's a cloak and here's a hood, the Cauld Lad of Hylton will do no more good." The ghost disappeared and the strange occurrences ceased, though even now people claim to have heard the ghostly cries of the Cauld Lad.
The behaviour of the ghost suggests a poltergeist. Other versions of the tale describe the Cauld Lad as an elf, barghest or brownie who is under a spell from which he can only be released by being given a gift. His mischief is intended to draw attention to himself in the hope that he will be saved.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 2:59:13 GMT -5
Death-hearses
The death coach is part of the folklore of north western Europe. It is particularly strong in Ireland but is also found in British and American culture. In Irish folklore, it is known as the Cóiste Bodhar, meaning deaf or silent coach, and it is said that the sight or sound of the coach is the harbinger of death. It warns of imminent death to either oneself or to a close relative. In Ireland in particular the Death Coach is seen as a signifier of the inevitability of death, as the belief goes once it has come to Earth it can never return empty. Thus, once the death of an individual has been decided by a greater power, mortals may do nothing to prevent it.
The driver of the Cóiste Bodhar is said to be a headless horseman, called the Dullahan.
The Cóiste Bodhar is mentioned by W. B. Yeats in his collection Folk tales of Ireland.
In Scottish folklore, a death coach is said to be seen at times on the Royal Mile of Edinburgh, where it collects the souls of the dead. Also in Scotland a "hell wain" can supposedly be seen in the night sky.
The Cóiste Bodhar has been portrayed in the film Darby O'Gill and the Little People.
The Cóiste Bodhar also appeared in Strange along with the Banshee who is able to summon the Coach.
The Cóiste Bodhar has also been featured in the Japanese light novel series Durarara!!. It serves as the steed of the Dullahan Celty Sturluson and it can shapeshift into anything ranging from a headless horse to a motorcycle.
At the end of Stephen King's novel Needful Things, the story's antagonist, shop owner Leland (in some printings "Leeland") Gaunt, reveals himself to be a diabolical figure and departs the town of Castle Rock in an automobile that transforms into a death coach emblazoned with the motto Caveat emptor ("May the buyer beware").
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:03:19 GMT -5
Goblin
A goblin is a monstrous creature from European folklore, first attested in stories from the Middle Ages. They are ascribed various and conflicting abilities, temperaments and appearances depending on the story and country of origin. They are almost always small and grotesque, mischievous or outright malicious, and greedy, especially for gold and jewelry. They often have magical abilities similar to a fairy or demon. Similar creatures include brownies, dwarfs, duendes, gnomes, imps, and kobolds.
Alternative spellings include gobblin, gobeline, gobling, goblyn, goblino, and gobbelin
English goblin is first recorded in the 14th century and is probably from unattested Anglo-Norman *gobelin, similar to Old French gobelin, already attested around 1195 in Ambroise of Normandy's Guerre sainte, and to Medieval Latin gobelinus in Orderic Vitalis before 1141, which was the name of a devil or daemon haunting the country around Évreux, Normandy.
It may be related both to German kobold and to Medieval Latin cabalus - or *gobalus, itself from Greek κόβαλος (kobalos), "rogue", "knave", "imp", "goblin". Alternatively, it may be a diminutive or other derivative of the French proper name Gobel, more often Gobeau, diminutive forms Gobelet, Goblin, Goblot, but their signification is probably "somebody who sells tumblers or beakers or cups". Moreover, these proper names are not from Normandy, where the word gobelin, gobelinus first appears in the old documents. German Kobold contains the Germanic root kov- (Middle German Kobe "refuge, cavity", "hollow in a rock", Dial. English cove "hollow in a rock", English "sheltered recess on a coast", Old Norse kofi "hut, shed" ) which means originally a "hollow in the earth". The word is probably related to Dial. Norman gobe "hollow in a cliff", with simple suffix -lin or double suffixation -el-in (cf. Norman surnames Beuzelin, Gosselin, Étancelin, etc.)
The Welsh coblyn, a type of knocker, derives from the Old French gobelin via the English goblin.
The term goblette has been used to refer to female goblins.
European folklore and collected folk stories
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, 1920 From The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, 1920 A redcap is a type of goblin who dyes its hat in human blood in Anglo-Scottish border folklore. Hobgoblins are friendly trickster goblins from English, Scottish, and Pilgrim folklore and literature. The Benevolent Goblin, from Gesta Romanorum (England) The Erlking is a malevolent goblin from German legend. The Trasgu is a Northern Spanish and Northern Portuguese mythological creature of celtic and roman origin. "The Goblin Pony", from The Grey Fairy Book (French fairy tale) "The Goblins at the Bath House" (Estonia), from A Book of Ghosts and Goblins (1969) "The Goblins Turned to Stone" (Dutch fairy tale). King Gobb (Moldovan Gypsy folktale) Mill goblins appear in Norwegian folklore. Goblins are featured in the Danish fairy tales: The Elf Mound, The Goblin and the Grocer, and The Goblin and the Woman. Goblin-like creatures in other cultures A pukwudgie is a type of goblin from Wamponoag folklore as well as Cryptozoology Muki (mythology) (Quechua for a goblin who lives in caves, also for asphyxia) Many Asian lagyt creatures have been likened to, or translated as, goblins. Some examples for these:
Chinese Ghouls and Goblins (England 1928) The Goblin of Adachigahara (Japanese fairy tale) The Goblin Rat, from The Boy Who Drew Cats (Japanese fairy tale) Twenty-Two Goblins (Indian fairy tale) In South Korea, goblins, known as dokkaebi, are important creatures in folklore. They usually appear in children's books.[citation needed] The nursery song 'Mountain Goblin' tells of meeting a goblin and running away to live. In Bangladesh, Santal people believe in gudrobonga which is very similar to goblins. Other Goblins had been identified with creatures from another culture:
Goblins sometimes became identified with jinn in Islamic culture.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:04:37 GMT -5
Hob-headlesses
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:05:03 GMT -5
Bugaboos
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:07:50 GMT -5
kows, or cowes
"The Hedley Kow" is an English fairy tale, concerns a shapeshifting trickster known as the Hedley Kow.
A poor woman finds a pot on the road. She thinks it must have a hole for it to be discarded, but optimistically decides she might find a use for it as a flowerpot. Looking inside she discovers it is full of gold pieces, and decides to drag it home in her shawl. She drags it for a while, but when she looks back, the pot has become a lump of silver. She decides this is better than gold, as it is less likely to be stolen, and goes on. After a time she turns back again, to find the silver has turned into a chunk of iron. She observes this will be easier to sell, and that the penny pieces it will bring would be safer than either gold or silver. She goes on again, and when she turns back a third time, the iron has become a rock. She exclaims how convenient this will be as a doorstop, and happily goes home.
When she reaches her home, the rock transforms again, revealing itself to be the Hedley Kow, a mischievous shapeshifting creature. The creature trots off laughing, leaving the woman staring after it. She proclaims that it was quite a thing to have seen the Hedley Kow for herself, and goes inside to think about her good luck.
The Hedley Kow was a kind of elf noted for its mischievous habits of shapeshifting. Similar creatures include the Brag, also from Northumberland, and the Dutch Kludde and Oschaert. However, the old woman's equanimity in face of the creature's changes distinguishes this tale.
The German fairy tale "Hans in Luck" has a similar sequence in which the character believes that every change is for the better.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:09:43 GMT -5
nickies
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:09:57 GMT -5
nacks
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:10:09 GMT -5
waiths
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:10:20 GMT -5
miffies
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:14:53 GMT -5
Buckies
Bucca (mythological creature)
Bucca is a male sea-spirit in Cornish folklore, a merman, that inhabited mines and coastal communities as a hobgoblin during storms. The mythological creature is a type of water spirit likely related to the Púca from Irish and Welsh folklore and the female mari-morgans, a type of mermaid from Welsh and Breton mythology. Rev W. S. Lach-Szyrma, one 19th-century writer on Cornish antiquities, suggested the Bucca had originally been an ancient pagan deity of the sea such as Irish Nechtan or British Nodens, though his claims are mainly conjecture. Folklore however records votive food offerings made on the beach similar to those made to the subterranean Knockers and may represent some form of continuity with early or pre-Christian Brittonic belief practices.
In 1890, the Cornish folklorist William Bottrell stated that:
In keeping with Bottrell's findings, various folkloric investigations around the same time that Bucca seems to have featured in two forms, Bucca Widn (White Bucca) and Bucca Dhu (Black Bucca). Bucca also seems to associated with the wind, in Penzance it was customary to refer to storms that emanated from a southwesterly direction as "Bucca calling"; sailors and fishermen also believe that Bucca's voice carried on the wind. Bucca was also sometimes described as a tin-mining spirit, which may indicate a wider fertility origin than that of the sea.
Also in the 19th century, there were reports of fishermen venerating Bucca with offerings. These included food offerings, particularly of fish, given to Bucca on beaches. One such beach used for this purpose was the area of Newlyn known formerly as Park an Grouse (in Cornish meaning 'the field of the cross') where a stone cross was allegedly once situated. Similar offerings were recorded on the beaches of Mousehole and Newlyn "Town" (the area now known as Newlyn Cliff).
The Tale of the Sea Bucca describes the Bucca inhabiting Lamorna Cove with the dark brown skin of a conger eel and a tangle of seaweed for hair and given to swimming in the waves, lying in the sea caverns or sitting among the rocks with the birds. He was a very lonely creature who had once been a human prince cursed by a witch, but was very fond of children. He assisted the Lamorna fishermen by driving fish into their nets and crabs into their pots, yet was capable of terrible vengeance and so they avoided him leaving a share of their catch on the beach to placate him.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, folklorists generally interpreted the popular beliefs and practices they found as survivals from or relics of Catholicism, equating such 'survivals' with Paganism. Some also saw the continuation of practices from pre-Christian times. This idea has been discredited in recent years by academic folklorists, although this notion persists in the popular imagination. There is little surprise that the Reverend W. S. Lach-Szyrma should have interpreted Bucca as the "storm god of the old Cornish", equating this figure with the Devil.
As a bucca-boo this spirit was also invoked by parents as a bogeyman figure to frighten children into proper behaviour, especially those who wouldn't stop crying.
In the 19th century a new road was built between Penzance and Land's End and the Tolcarne River (main stream at the outskirts of Newlyn) was bridged; this area was called Bucca's pass.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:20:02 GMT -5
Ghouls
Ghoul is a demon-like being or monsterous humanoid originating in pre-Islamic Arabian religion associated with graveyards and consuming human flesh. In modern fiction, the term has often been used for a certain kind of undead monster.
By extension, the word ghoul is also used in a derogatory sense to refer to a person who delights in the macabre, or whose profession is linked directly to death, such as a gravedigger or graverobber.
Ghoul is from the Arabic meaning, "to seize". In Arabic, the term is also sometimes used to describe a greedy or gluttonous individual.
The term was first used in English literature in 1786, in William Beckford's Orientalist novel Vathek,which describes the ghūl of Arabic folklore. This definition of the ghoul has persisted until modern times, with ghouls appearing in popular culture.
In the Arabic folklore, the ghul is said to dwell in cemeteries and other uninhabited places. A male ghoul is referred to as ghul while the female is called ghulah. A source[who?] identified the Arabic ghoul as a female creature who is sometimes called Mother Ghoul (ʾUmm Ghulah) or a relational term such as Aunt Ghoul. She is portrayed in many tales luring hapless characters, who are usually men, into her home where she can eat them.
Some state[who?] that a ghoul is a desert-dwelling, shapeshifting demon that can assume the guise of an animal, especially a hyena. It lures unwary people into the desert wastes or abandoned places to slay and devour them. The creature also preys on young children, drinks blood, steals coins, and eats the dead, then taking the form of the person most recently eaten. One of the narratives identified a ghoul named Ghul-e Biyaban, a particularly monstrous character believed to be inhabiting the wilderness of Afghanistan and Iran.
It was not until Antoine Galland translated One Thousand and One Nights into French that the western idea of ghoul was introduced into European society. Galland depicted the ghoul as a monstrous creature that dwelled in cemeteries, feasting upon corpses.
Ghouls were also adopted into Iranian folklore.
Although not part of Islamic scriptures, some exegete of the Quran report an account of the origin of Ghouls. According to one report, the shayatin (devils) once had access to the heavens, where they eavesdropped and returned to Earth to pass hidden knowledge to the soothsayers. When Jesus was born, three heavenly spheres were forbidden to them. With the arrival of Muhammad the other four were forbidden. The Marid among the shayatin continued to rise to the heavens, but were burned by the comets. If the comets didn't burn them to death, they were deformed and driven to insanity, they then fell to the deserts and were doomed to roam the earth as Ghouls.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:23:04 GMT -5
sylphs
Sylph (also called sylphid) is a mythological air spirit.[1] The term originates in the 16th-century works of Paracelsus, who describes sylphs as (invisible) beings of the air, his elementals of air.[2]
Since the term sylph itself originates with Paracelsus, there is relatively little pre-Paracelsian legend and mythology that can be confidently associated with it, but a significant number of subsequent literary and occult works have been inspired by the idea. Robert Alfred Vaughan noted that "the wild but poetical fantasies" of Paracelsus had probably exercised a larger influence over his age and the subsequent one than is generally supposed, particularly on the Rosicrucians, but that through the 18th century they had become reduced to "machinery for the playwright" and "opera figurantes with wings of gauze and spangles."[3]
Because of their association with the ballet La Sylphide, where sylphs are identified with fairies and the medieval legends of fairyland, as well as a confusion with other "airy spirits" (e.g., in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream), a slender girl may be referred to as a sylph.
"Sylph" has passed into general language as a term for minor spirits, elementals, or faeries of the air. Fantasy authors will sometimes employ sylphs in their fiction, for example creating giant artistic clouds in the skies with airy wings.[20]
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:23:24 GMT -5
guests
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:23:40 GMT -5
swarths
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:24:23 GMT -5
freiths
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:24:37 GMT -5
freits
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:24:48 GMT -5
gy-carlins
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:25:12 GMT -5
pigmies
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:25:29 GMT -5
chittifaces
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:26:48 GMT -5
nixies
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:27:06 GMT -5
Jinny-burnt-tails
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:27:17 GMT -5
dudmen
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:29:29 GMT -5
Hellhound
A hellhound is a supernatural dog in folklore. A wide variety of ominous or hellish supernatural dogs occur in mythologies around the world. Features that have been attributed to hellhounds include mangled black fur, glowing red eyes, super strength and speed, ghostly or phantom characteristics, and a foul odor. Certain European legends state that if someone stares into a hellhound's eyes three times or more, that person will surely die. In cultures that associate the afterlife with fire, hellhounds may have fire-based abilities and appearance. They are often assigned to guard the entrances to the world of the dead, such as graveyards and burial grounds, or undertake other duties related to the afterlife or the supernatural, such as hunting lost souls or guarding a supernatural treasure. In European legends, seeing a hellhound or hearing it howl may be an omen or even a cause of death. They are said to be the protectors of the supernatural, guarding the secrecy of supernatural creatures, or beings, from the world.
Some supernatural dogs, such as the Welsh Cŵn Annwn, were regarded as benign, but encountering them was still considered a sign of imminent death.
The most famous hellhound is most likely Cerberus from Greek mythology. Hellhounds are also famous for appearing in Northern European mythology and folklore as a part of the Wild Hunt. These hounds are given several different names in local folklore, but they display typical hellhound characteristics. The myth is common across Great Britain, and many names are given to the apparitions: Moddey Dhoo of the Isle of Man, Gwyllgi of Wales. Other ghostly black dogs exist in legend. The earliest mention of these myths are in both Walter Map's De Nugis Curialium (1190) and the Welsh myth cycle of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi (c. tenth to thirteenth century).
In southern Mexico and Central America folklore, the cadejo is a big black dog that haunts travellers who walk late at night on rural roads. The term is also common in American blues music, such as with Robert Johnson's 1937 song, "Hellhound on My Trail".
In Greek mythology the hellhound Cerberus belonged to Hades, the Greek god of the underworld. Cerberus was said to be a massive, three-headed black dog that guarded the entrance to the underworld.
Appalachian Hellhound Described as a very large dark black dog like creature that in some regions has only 3 toes. It is said to hunt the back mountain roads of Kentucky and West Virginia. It is likely this legend stems from earlier Scots Irish and Welsh folklore though some claim to see it still today.[1]
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:31:01 GMT -5
Doppelgänger
A doppelgänger (/ˈdɒpəlɡɛŋər, -ɡæŋər/; German: [ˈdɔpl̩ˌɡɛŋɐ] (About this soundlisten), literally "double-goer") is a non-biologically related look-alike or double of a living person, sometimes portrayed as a ghostly or paranormal phenomenon and usually seen as a harbinger of bad luck. Other traditions and stories equate a doppelgänger with an evil twin. In modern times, the term twin stranger is occasionally used.[1] The word "doppelgänger" is often used in a more general and neutral sense, and in slang, to describe any person who physically resembles another person.
The word doppelgänger is a loanword from the German Doppelgänger, a compound noun formed by combining the two nouns Doppel (double) and Gänger (walker or goer).[2][3] The singular and plural forms are the same in German, but English usually prefers the plural "doppelgängers". The first known use, in the slightly different form Doppeltgänger, occurs in the novel Siebenkäs (1796) by Jean Paul, in which he explains his newly coined word by a footnote – while actually the word Doppelgänger also appears, but with a quite different meaning.[4]
Like all nouns in German, the word is written with an initial capital letter. Doppelgänger and Doppelgaenger are essentially equivalent spellings, and Doppelganger is different and would correspond to a different pronunciation. In English, the word should be written with a lower-case letter (doppelgänger) unless it is the first word of a sentence or part of a title. It is further common to drop the umlaut on the letter "a", writing (and often pronouncing) "doppelganger".
English-speakers have only recently applied this German word to a paranormal concept. Francis Grose's, Provincial Glossary of 1787 used the term fetch instead, defined as the "apparition of a person living." Catherine Crowe's book on paranormal phenomena, The Night-Side of Nature (1848) helped make the German word well-known. However, the concept of alter egos and double spirits has appeared in the folklore, myths, religious concepts, and traditions of many cultures throughout human history.[5]
In Ancient Egyptian mythology, a ka was a tangible "spirit double" having the same memories and feelings as the person to whom the counterpart belongs. The Greek Princess presents an Egyptian view of the Trojan War in which a ka of Helen misleads Paris, helping to stop the war.[citation needed]. This is depicted in Euripides' play Helen. In Norse mythology, a vardøger is a ghostly double who is seen performing the person's actions in advance. In Finnish mythology, this is called having an etiäinen,[6][7][8] "a firstcomer".[9] The doppelgänger is a version of the Ankou, a personification of death, in Breton, Cornish, and Norman folklore.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:31:23 GMT -5
boggleboes
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:31:58 GMT -5
bogies
A bogle, boggle, or bogill is a Northumbrian[1] and Scots term for a ghost or folkloric being,[2] used for a variety of related folkloric creatures including Shellycoats,[3] Barghests,[3] Brags,[3] the Hedley Kow[1][4] and even giants such as those associated with Cobb's Causey[4] (also known as "ettins", "yetuns" or "yotuns" in Northumberland and "Etenes", "Yttins" or "Ytenes" in the South and South West).[4][5] They are reputed to live for the simple purpose of perplexing mankind, rather than seriously harming or serving them.[3]
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:32:31 GMT -5
redmen
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 11, 2020 3:32:50 GMT -5
portunes
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