Supernatural Friday: Monsters of the Last Frontier

With the cold weather leaving us for a while (at least where I live), I still wanted to blog about monsters connected to a cold section of the country—Alaska.

The first are tornits. In the beginning, the Inuit and the tornits lived peacefully in villages near each other, sharing common hunting grounds.

The Inuit people often built and used kayaks for hunting. While the tornits were unable to master the building of kayaks, they became aware of the advantages of having and using one. One tale says a young tornit borrowed a young Inuit's kayak without permission and damaged the bottom of it. The young Inuit grew angry and stabbed the tornit in the the neck while he slept and killed him. The rest of the tornits fearing they would be killed by the Inuit fled the country. Since that time, stories of hunters disappearing, later found dead and mangled or never seen again. Apparently, hunters and the tornits no longer peacefully shared common hunting grounds. One thing about these tornits, they sound like Bigfoot.

The next monster of Alaskan myth is the Tizheruk, large, snake-like sea creatures believed to roam Alaska's waters. They are described as having head 7 feet long, a body with a tail ending in a flipper, making them about 12 to 15 feet long. These creatures are claimed to snatch people from docks and piers.

The Tizheruk have some similarities to the Haietlik, or "Lightning Snakes," occasionally associated with the Thunderbird of Southeast Alaska and Pacific Northwest native cultures. Once the Thunderbird spotted a killer whale, it would launch Haietlik as living weapons by throwing them from the skies like lightning.

The Qalupalik is a creature of Inuit legend described as being human-like and having green skin with long hair and very long fingernails. She lives in the sea, hums to entice children to come closer to the water and wears an amautik -- a parka worn by Inuit women to hold a child against the back in a built-in baby pouch just below the hood.

Like the boogeyman legends, parents and elders tell children that if they are disobedient or wander too close to the sea shore, the Qalupalik will come onshore, snatch and stow them in her amautik, before taking them back to the sea with her to raise them as her own children. Some tales say she eats the children, but most I read say she keeps them in a secret place, putting them to sleep so they don’t try to escape. These tales say she feeds off their “energy” to stay young, to keep her shiny green skin lovely, and her wild hair lustrous. As the children age, the Qalupalik grows younger.

Then there’s the bloodthirsty Adlet, bearing resemblance to the werewolf. The Inuit legend tells that the Adlet are a race of people said to have the lower body of dogs and the upper body of humans. Typically, they're believed to be the offspring of an Inuit woman and a dog, thanks to an unnatural mating.

The woman gave birth to 10 children, half of whom were dogs and the other half, Adlet. The family was sent to a remote island because they were so voracious, and their grandfather would hunt for them and provide them with meat. Every day, the dog-husband was supposed to swim from the island to the mainland, where the grandfather was supposed to fill a pair of boots wrapped around the dog's neck with meat. Eventually, the grandfather filled the boots with rocks, drowning the husband.

Fearing for her children's lives, the mother sent them inland, where they spawned more Adlet. The Adlet are typically portrayed as aggressive savages who will attack men when they cross paths.

Although the Adlet legend is based in far north mythology -- a version of the story appears in Greenland too. There the Adlet are called Erqigdlit -- a few researchers have linked it to the European tales of the werewolf.

The last Alaskan beastie is The Keelut is described as an evil earth spirit that takes the form of a black, hairless dog with only hair on its feet. It's not unlike the Black Dogs that haunt Great Britain and other parts of the United States (like in my book, Haunted Virginia: Legends, Myths and True Tales). It tracks travelers at night, attacking, and then killing them. If a trail of dog paw prints are found in the earth and they vanish, the story goes that it is considered a Keelut is nearby.

Supernatural Friday: Brrrr…It’s Cold: Myths and Legends of Winter; Part 2

Part 2 of the winter myths and legends. Enjoy.

Winter has so much interesting legends, myths, monsters, and gods and goddesses. Below is some more than the week before, but still, there are so much more. Like Babe the Blue Ox  was found by the giant, Paul Bunyan, in the snow in winter. These two are part of our American folklore.

There are the yetis, that are all year round, but because they are seen in the snowy Himalayas, we will add them to the winter myths and legends. But they are not the only monsters or beings we think of when it snows or winter’s harsh, cold winds blow.

Our first comes to us by way of the Inuit: Qiqirn. What if you live in the far North and traveling through the snow and ice when suddenly, you see a large, four-legged creature in front of you. It’s hairless, tufts appear on its ears, tail, feet, and around its fearsome muzzle. This creature is none other than the qiqirn. Lucky for you, the qiqirn is considered skittish if confronted, and flees when you shout its name. Lucky, as usually, they are potent hunters and excel at stalking their prey.

The next strange winter creature is a friendly one, via French-Swiss mythology. The barbegazi – from the French barbe-glacée, translating to “frozen beard.” These beings are small humanoid creatures with great beards and oversized feet. They travel around by using their feet as skis to zoom around the mountains. They also use their feet as snowshoes if the conditions call for it. During the warmer months, they burrow in deep tunnels within the mountains and aestivate until winter comes again. Barbegazi generally remain unseen by humans. That doesn’t stop them from liking people and helping them out, however. They help find animals that become lost, particularly sheep that wander from the flock, and they are always on the lookout for avalanches. If one is imminent, the barbegazi lets out a sharp whistle as warning.

Yuki-onna is known by many names, all a variant on “snow girl.” Yuki-onna appear as tall, beautiful women with black hair and blue lips. She either has transparent or pale skin that allows her to blend in with her surroundings, or wears a white kimono that serves the same purpose. The most common legend has yuki-onna being created by a woman perishing during a storm. She floats over the ground and strikes terror in those she encounters with her gaze. She can transform into a cloud of snow, and possesses lethal frost breath she uses on unsuspecting travelers that encounter her during snowstorms. Sometimes she manifests holding a child, and when someone offers to take the child, they are frozen in place. A few legends also have her killing people in their homes, though she must first be invited inside. Yuki-onna need to feed on the life force of the living, and she is sometimes depicted as a snow succubus, of sorts. In an interesting twist, she often spares those who are beautiful, good parents, or loving spouses. She’s big on promises being kept, as well. 

The ijiraq is a shapeshifter-shadow capable of taking any form it desires. Though their natural form is similar to a human’s, only their eyes and mouths are sideways, and their eyes glow a malevolent red. Ijirait will kidnap children and lead people fatally astray. They are only seen out of the corner of your eye, and cannot be seen if you are looking at them directly. They neither inhabit this world, nor are they quite outside of it, existing in two worlds at once. Legend has them as people who went too far north, and became trapped between the world of the living and the dead. The home of the Ijirait is a cursed land, causing even the most skilled of travelers to become lost, creating mirages that cause people to become increasingly turned around and panicked. Even if you survive an encounter with them, you will have no memory of it, as they cause forgetfulness to those they let live. Irjirait are generally considered evil, malicious, and to be avoided at all costs. The ijiraq is sometimes confused with the tariaksuq, another type of shadow-person. Tarriassuq (plural) are half-men, half-caribou monsters that can shift between their forms, and are possessed of malignant will, terrible claws, and shared the shadow people abilities of invisibility and non-detection with the ijiraq. 

Before we end this blog, we'll add a goddess to the mix. Beira is said the goddess of winter in Scottish folklore. Some sources also say she’s the Cailleach, a name which is said to be translated literally into English from Gaelic as ‘veiled one’. Apart from Scottish folklore, this figure is also found in the mythology of Ireland, though she is called by a slightly different name there. Moreover, they claim that a wintry figure is found in the beliefs of the various ancient groups that inhabited the British Isles. 

She may also be considered the mother of gods and goddesses in Scotland. Although a creator goddess, she was the type of deity who ruled through fear. Her subjects would begin to rebel against her reign when spring arrived, though she ruled undisputed during the winter. Those subjects looked forward to the coming of Angus and Bride, the King and Queen of Summer and Plenty.

There are versions of the stories where Beira is said to be an old blue hag with one eye. Her possession of one eye symbolizes her ability to see beyond duality, and into the oneness of all beings. In one version of the tale in which Beira is portrayed as a hag, the Queen of Winter seeks the love of a hero. If the hero accepts her, she would transform into a beautiful young maiden. This transformation symbolized the seeds that lay dormant in the earth during the winter, that sprouted with the arrival of spring. Here, Beira is seen not as an opponent of spring, but as spring itself.

In another version, Beira carries a magic staff that freezes the ground with each tap. At the end of each winter, she threw her staff under the holly and the gorse bush, both believed to be her sacred trees. The goddess transforms into a grey stone, signaling winter has ended.

Beira is also considered a goddess of death and rebirth, and another connection between Beira and the natural world makes her the guardian of animals during the winter, protecting them during the harsh season.

Next time, the polar vortex hits, or a terrible snowstorm, maybe we should make an offering to one of these beings. It couldn't be any worse than winterizing our homes and buying extra blankets, winter outerwear, or a shovel to dig ourselves out. 

Supernatural Friday: The Wendigo Hungers

“Hunger Changes”

by Pamela K. Kinney

Hunger, so much hunger

Never filling,

Cold darkness

Overtaking,

Changing,

Taking over,

No longer human,

Predator, killer, monster—

Wendigo. 

(Poem copyrighted by Pamela K. Kinney--do not take, but share the link instead.)

Though the Wendigo is first written down by writer Algernon Blackwood in his classic terror tale, "The Wendigo", Native Americans have their own stories of the monster.  The Inuit Indians of the region called the creature by various names, including Wendigo, Witigo, Witiko and Wee-Tee-Go but each of them was roughly translated to mean "the evil spirit that devours mankind". Around 1860, a German explorer translated Wendigo to mean "cannibal" among the tribes along the Great Lakes.

The tribes told of a gigantic spirit, over fifteen feet tall. Lore says that it was once human but had been transformed into a creature by the use of magic (or curse?), whenever a human resorts to cannibalism to survive. Descriptions of the creature vary here and there, the Wendigo is said to have glowing eyes, yellowed fangs of length, and long tongues. Most have a sallow, yellowish skin, while others are said to be matted with hair. They are tall and lanky and are driven by a horrible hunger. In years past, such a practice was possible, although still rare, as many of the tribes and settlers in the region were cut off by the bitter snows and ice of the north woods. Unfortunately, eating another person to survive was sometimes resorted to and thus, the legend of the Wendigo was created. 

Of course, some of the descriptions seem to fit the sightings of Bigfoot. And Bigfoot by Native Americans is considered a spirit (except to Northwestern tribes: they considered Sasquatch as a physical being). An appearance to humans is meant to convey some sort of message.

White settlers took the sightings and reports quite seriously. According to the settlers' version of the legend, the Wendigo would be seen as a sort of premonition of  a death in the community. A Wendigo allegedly made a number of appearances near a town called Rosesu in Northern Minnesota from the late 1800's through the 1920's. Each time afterwards, an unexpected death followed and it would not be seen anymore.

One Wendigo hunter was a Cree Indian named Jack Fiddler, who claimed to kill at least 14 of the creatures in his lifetime. The last murder resulted in his imprisonment at the age of 87. In October 1907, Fiddler and his son, Joseph, were tried for the murder of a Cree Indian woman. Both pleaded guilty to the crime. They defended themselves, stating that the woman had been possessed by the spirit of a Wendigo, She’d been on the verge of transforming into one and they killed her before she murdered other members of the tribe. In this day and age, there are tales of Wendigos seen in northern Ontario, near the Cave of the Wendigo, and around the town of Kenora. A creature in that area has been spotted by traders, trackers and trappers for decades. In fact, many who still believe that the Wendigo roams the woods and the prairies of northern Minnesota and Canada.


Whether a Wendigo or more likely Sasquatch, something stalks the woods hit by heavy, cold winters.  Next time, you decided to travel through those forests during that season, think about it seriously. Especially when night comes and a full moon rises above, and you swear you see a shadow move or a flash that maybe from staring eyes, maybe it is not a good idea. Maybe summer is a better time to check out the area.