- You have to wonder who came up with some of these stories.
Happy Folklore Day everybody! August 22 is a day for celebrating and remembering folklore and folk tales everywhere.
And let us tell you, those tales are worth remembering. There’s plenty of fascinating folklore around the globe, yet the stories often tell of creatures that can be equally delightful and terrifying.
In honor of Folklore Day, here are 7 folk tales and creatures of folklore from all around the planet.
7. Huggin’ Molly — Alabama
If you’re visiting Abbeville, Alabama, be careful if you’re out and about after dark. You just might run into Huggin’ Molly.
You’ll know her when you see her. After all, it’s kind of hard to miss a 7-foot-tall woman who’s as rotund as a bale of hay.
This female specter is generally dressed in all black, with a long, sweeping skirt that trails behind her. If you do see her, start running.
But you’d better run fast because Huggin’ Molly is surprisingly nimble on her feet. If she manages to catch you, she will envelop you in the biggest Mama Bear hug you’ve gotten in your life.
And then she’ll scream in your ear.
Frankly, Huggin’ Molly seems pretty harmless on the grand scale of folklore creatures. But hey, we bet the story’s scary enough to keep Abbeville children from wandering outside after sunset.
6. Forest’s Cover — Finland
If Finland has anything, it’s a lot of forests. With nothing but trees for miles and miles, it can be easy to get lost in the Nordic wilderness.
But sometimes, you might become completely unable to find your way around, even if you know you should be within sight of your home. That means you’ve stumbled into the Forest’s Cover — the land of the various gremlins and goblins that supposedly lurk in Finland’s woods.
The Forest’s Cover is often described as an upside-down mirror image of the real world. It looks similar but it’s off just enough that you just can’t find your way home.
Fortunately, the topsy-turvy nature of the place is also the key to escaping from it. A person trapped in Forest’s Cover can try getting out by turning their coat inside out, putting their shoes on the wrong feet, or bending down and looking at everything through their legs.
Pardon us, but this kind of sounds like a story a husband made up after binging on vodka all night and having to explain why he came home in the morning with his clothes all messed up.
5. Nuckelavee — Scotland
The nuckelavee is a kind of sea demon or devil from Scotland. Nobody knows what it looks like under the waves, but if it ventures on land, it’s one of the most disturbing things ever imagined.
This monstrosity looks like a man riding a horse, but the rider has no legs — his torso grows directly out of the “horse’s.” His arms reach all the way down to the ground and his enormous head lolls from side to side.
The horse part isn’t much prettier. It has a giant gaping mouth that exudes a toxic stench and a single giant, blood-red eye.
Yet, the most terrifying thing is that the thing is entirely skinless. Its bloody, bulging muscles look like someone had just flayed the monster alive.
The nuckelavee spreads plague and disease wherever it goes. If it comes after you, the only escape is to dive into a lake or river, since the ocean-born abomination hates fresh water.
4. Kapo’s Flying Vagina — Hawaii
In Hawaiian folklore, Kapo is the goddess of fertility and sorcery. She also has another defining trait — her vagina is detachable.
Kapo can use her disembodied lady parts to great effect, too. One story tells of the goddess Pele, Kapo’s sister, who was trying to escape from the amorous male fertility god, Kamapua’a.
Noticing her sister’s plight, Kapo yanked off her vagina and sent it flying past Kamapua’a. He clearly liked what he saw, because the god left Pele alone and went running after Kapo’s hoo-ha.
When the flying vagina finally landed, it impacted the ground with such force that it left behind a crater known today as Kohelepelepe. Despite all this, Kapo isn’t exactly a fan of female anatomy — any sorceress trying to summon her should cover her crotch or face the goddess’ fury.
3. Constant Apocalypse — Aztecs
According to the ancient Aztecs, we currently live in the fifth world. The gods destroyed the four preceding ones, sometimes for extremely petty reasons.
The god Tezcatlipoca had jaguars eat everyone in the first world because the people didn’t show him enough respect. In the second world, he turned all humans into monkeys — and then Quetzalcoatl wiped them out with a hurricane because he didn’t like monkeys.
During the third world, Tezcatlipoca stole the god Tlaloc’s wife. Upset, Tlaloc got annoyed by the humans asking him for rain, so sent a rain of fire to shut them up.
In the fourth world, Tezcatlipoca killed water goddess Chalchiuhtlicue in a fit of jealousy, which caused a huge flood to wipe off all life. And that’s why Aztecs committed human sacrifice — they figured the flowing blood would keep Tezcatlipoca happy.
Man, Tezcatlipoca sounds like kind of a jerk.
2. Vampire Watermelons — Balkans
Dracula hails from Transylvania in modern Romania, but he’s not the only vampire in the area. Apparently, even watermelons can turn vampiric.
Romanian folk tales state that if you leave a watermelon uneaten for 10 days, it’ll turn into a vampire. The transformed fruit roll around by themselves and make a strange rumbling noise.
They will come after people, but they’re still fruit so they can’t exactly do a whole heck of a lot. Maybe that’s why the Romanians aren’t particularly afraid of this kind of vampire.
Sure, a rogue watermelon charging you will give you a jolt. But what is it going to do? Angrily bump against your leg while vibrating slightly?
1. ‘I Am Only S***’ Woman — Inuit
The Inuit have a lot of… Unusual folk stories, such as the Man-Whose-Penis-Reaches-His-Knees. But perhaps the strangest is that of the I-Am-Only-S*** woman.
According to the story, the woman was menstruating so nobody would give her any food — for some reason. Sitting hungry by the seaside, she spotted a whale out in the water.
So, logically, she began calling out to the whale, yelling “I am only s***!” The whale came swimming toward the shore, probably to check out what was wrong with this woman.
Apparently, the whale picked up too much speed, because it ended up beaching itself on the shore. Then the whale died. The end.
No, the story doesn’t say whether the hungry woman ate the whale. It does state, though, that this is why someone stating “I am only s***” is speaking holy words.
We’ll take their word for it.