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Gwrach y Rhibyn – The Hag of the Mist Haunting the Welsh Waters

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In the shadows between ghost, creature and witch, the Welsh Gwarch y Rhibyn has been given many names. Like a Banshee she has been said to be a deadly omen, often called The Hag of the Mist because of her presence in wet areas, or the Hag of the Dribble because of the versions where her mouth is dripping with blood. 

In the old valleys of Wales, where the mists cling low to the rivers and the stones whisper beneath ancient oaks and deserted crossroads, there drifts a figure called The Gwrach y Rhibyn or the Hag of the Mist. She is a monstrous spirit of death and sorrow, an omen said to visit the doomed in the hours before their final breath. 

She is not merely a ghost, but something far older and more primal, a remnant of forgotten gods or cursed fae, whose wails echo through the Welsh night like the cries of the damned. Sometimes mentioned as a witch, vampire or a Welsh Banshee. 

The Legend of the Gwrach y Rhibyn

The Gwrach y Rhibyn appears as a withered crone, her skin corpse-pale and drawn tight over sharp bones. Her tangled hair hangs like seaweed over her sunken eyes, and her blackened teeth glint when she opens her mouth to scream. She sometimes is said to have leathery, bat-like wings that stretch from her arms, and her fingers end in claws long enough to rake through the soul. The sight of her alone is enough to drive men to madness. 

So ugly is she that there is a Welsh saying that goes: Y mae mor salw Gwrach y Rhibyn, meaning: She is as ugly as the Gwrach y Rhibyn. 

She is often heard but seldom seen, for the Gwrach y Rhibyn moves through the mists unseen, brushing past her victims as she follows them along lonely roads or beside dark waters and rivers she is said to linger around. She is often mixed with the legend of the Canwyll Corph, or corpse candles, like will-o-the-wisps orbs of bluish white light seen around graveyards or places where people died. 

The Harbinger of Death

Her arrival is always heralded by the rising of mist—dense, choking vapors that seep across crossroads and riverbanks. It is said she calls out to the living by name, her voice a shrill cry that freezes the blood. She is a death omen and the one seeing her, will either die soon, or someone close to them will. 

“Fy ngŵr! Fy ngŵr!” She wails for a husband soon to die. “Fy mhlentyn bach!” she shrieks for the innocent whose time has come. Sometimes, her cry is that of a man, “Fy ngwraig!” echoing through the blackened air. No matter the form her voice takes, it is always followed by death.

Those who claim to have seen her say she hovers at windows, her wings brushing against the glass as she calls to the doomed inside. Others tell of meeting her at the crossing of streams, where she kneels to wash her hands, not in water but in the memory of blood. 

Read Also: The Banshee: Ireland’s Wailing Spirit of Death

Like the Irish Banshee, the Gwrach y Rhibyn is said to only warn about the death of only those with pure Welsh blood or bloodline. 

Haunting for Blood

Although she is mostly known for just warning people about a near death, she’s not particularly known for taking their lives. 

There is a lore about her enjoying hunting down children though and takes a fair bit of blood from them. Terrified, they come home, pale and sickly. She is even said that she is sometimes feeding on babies blood straight from their crib. 

For a long time, it was said that when a healthy baby grew to be a sickly child, it was the Gwrach y Rhibyn who had been taking their blood. This part of the lore is also why she sometimes is said to have stained black teeth and that her mouth is dripping with blood. Sometimes she is even said to have hollow and long vampiric fangs she drinks the children’s blood with. 

Another lore linking her with the European vampiric myths is that she is said to come back to feed on the same victim again again, causing them to wither away in the end and die. 

Encounter with the Witch at the Cow and Snuffers in Llandaff

There seems to be not too many specific encounters with Gwrach Y Rhibyn that have been written down and preserved, but one of them comes from Wirt Sikes in his book British Goblins from 1880, and perhaps one of the most retold in collections of folktales about the Hag of the Mist:  

The book tells the tale of a respectable farmer that Mr. Sikes met while on a walk close to Cardiff in 1878, who told the author of his encounter on the night of November 14th, 1877 with the terrible Hag of the Dribble. While visiting an old friend in Llandaff, the farmer was sleeping soundly in his bed when he was abruptly awakened “by a terrible screeching and shaking of my window. It was a loud and clear screech, and the shaking of my window was very plain, but it seemed to go by like the wind.” Excited more than frightened, the farmer jumped out of bed, ran over to the window, and flung the thing open. 

Source

“Then I saw the Gwrach Y Rhibyn,” the farmer said, “a horrible old woman with long red hair and a face like chalk, and great teeth like tusks, looking back over her shoulder at me as she went through the air with a long black gown trailing along the ground below her arms, for body I could make out none.” The hag gave out another ungodly shriek while the farmer stared at her, completely dumbfounded by what he was seeing. Then he heard the creature buffeting her wings against another window on a house just below the one he was staying in. And then, she finally vanished from his sight. The farmer stared into the night, and swore that “as I am a living man, sir, I saw her go in at the door of the Cow and Snuffers Inn, and return no more.” He watched the inn’s door for a long time after the incident, but he never saw her come back out before he drifted off into sleep once again.

The next day, the farmer was told that the innkeeper of the Cow and Snuffers, who went by the name of Llewellyn, had passed away during the night. The man had kept the inn for seventy years, and his family for three hundred years before him, at the exact same inn. The farmer, having sworn that all of this was true, left Mr. Sikes with one final thought: “It’s not these new families that the Gwrach Y Rhibyn ever troubles, sir, it’s the old stock” 

The Vampiric Gwrach y Rhibyn in Llyn-y-Guelan-Goch

One of the stories that makes the Gwrach Y Rhibyn more vampiric though is from Bob Curran’s vampire books. Although the research of his books has been under much scrutiny, here it is. It is also worth noting this story doesn’t seem to appear anywhere else except in his book, although it is quite a detailed one. 

In the small hamlet of Llyn-y-Guelan-Goch near Llanfor, villagers lived in fear of an ancient burial ground known for ghost lights and terrible noises after dark. A retired minister, Reverend Elias Pugh, was known locally for his knowledge of witchcraft and spirits, which brought some comfort to the community. One night, an elderly woman named Ann Hughes passed the cemetery and saw a strange stooped figure among the graves. Soon after, she sensed something following her. At a crossroads, the presence revealed itself as a bluish flame that transformed into a hideous hag in a green cloak stained with blood. Ann collapsed and later awoke with a bleeding wound on her wrist, certain the creature had fed on her blood.

In the small hamlet of Llyn-y-Guelan-Goch near Llanfor, villagers lived in fear of an ancient burial ground known for ghost lights and terrible noises after dark. A retired minister, Reverend Elias Pugh, was known locally for his knowledge of witchcraft and spirits, which brought some comfort to the community. One night, an elderly woman named Ann Hughes passed the cemetery and saw a strange stooped figure among the graves. Soon after, she sensed something following her. At a crossroads, the presence revealed itself as a bluish flame that transformed into a hideous hag in a green cloak stained with blood. Ann collapsed and later awoke with a bleeding wound on her wrist, certain the creature had fed on her blood.

Places where the Gwrach Y Rhibyn is said to have haunted in Wales:

St Donats Castle

This ghost heralds a death in the family very much like a banshee – wailing pierces the night air, and scratching is heard at windows. The entity was named as Lady Stradling, murdered by another member of her family. The apparition is also seen, some writing at it resembles an old, haggled woman, while others claim the figure wears high heels and a gown made of fine silk. If this was not enough, the castle is also reported to be home to a large floating eye that glows, a semi-transparent large black cat, and a piano that has a habit of playing itself.

Read the whole story: The Ghosts of St Donat’s Castle – The Wailing Lady and the Watchful Eye

Pennard Castle

This old hag is said to still haunt the ruins here from around the 1850s. Some say that she was conjured up by the fairy folk residing in the area, when the master of the castle cast them out because of their feasts. Or was she the work of the sorcerer who conjured up the castle from thin air? In any case, it was said to be dangerous to sleep in the castle, as those who spent the night woke up mad after seeing her appear in front of them. 

Read the whole story: The Haunted Legends of Pennard Castle

Caerphilly Castle

Once owners of the building, the de Clares family were haunted by a Gwrach-y-rhibyn, warning them about an imminent death in the family. Now they have moved away, the ghost is still seen – drifting towards the castle only to disappear once she enters the ruins. A figure dressed in green also haunts the building.

Read the whole story: The Haunting of Caerphilly Castle – The Lady in Green and the Hag of Death

Beaupre Castle near Cowbridge

Although not so many sources written down about this legend, it is said that the Gwrach-y-rhibyn has been haunting the old castle as well as the surrounding area with local tales dating back to the Victorian times at least.

Read the whole story: The Wailing Spirit of Old Beaupre Castle 

The Origin of the Witch

The little information about her comes from the Ceredigion area, connected to Cors Bochno near Borth. According to T. Gwynn Jones, “Gwrach y Rhibyn” is associated with the Glamorgan area and believed to be a death omen.

Folklorists believe that the Gwrach y Rhibyn may once have been divine once. The word gwrach may have been ancient Celtic, and was perhaps more of a wise and elderly woman, not just the witch or hag the word has become today, mostly with negative connotations.

Interesting though, Bob Curran, writer of vampire books claims that the vampiric element to the witch has been dropped in recent times rather than been added on, as many of the old folkloric had a revamp of in the 19th and 20th century. There is however, a controversy regarding his claims as well as his books. 

The Enduring Legend of The Gwrach y rhibyn

Witches are intimately connected with the eve of the Celtic festival of winter (Noson Calan Gaeaf), during which the gwrachod were said to wander the landscape, strong in the dark. Bonfires were lit, ghoulish faces carved into turnips to scare off evil, including witches.

Read More: Noson Calan Gaeaf and when the spirits roam in Wales

The Gwrach y rhibyn is often fused together with the Cyhyraeth. They have a lot of similarities, but it was the nineteenth-century folklore collectors who fused the two figures.

A leading figure in Welsh mythology, Ceridwen featuring in works by medieval bards, Victorian writers and modern artists. She is regarded as the goddess of rebirth, transformation, and inspiration by modern pagans.

Some whisper that she is a forgotten water spirit, or perhaps a shadow of Dôn, the ancient Welsh goddess of creation and the sky. Dôn has different etymological origins than the Irish Danu; while the latter is perhaps a water goddess (cf. the Danube river and the Vedic Danu), Dôn more likely comes from ghdhonos, meaning “the earth.” In this sense, she can be seen as the Welsh version of “dheghom” from Proto-Indo-European mythology, the primordial Earth Goddess from which all other gods originate.

Others say she is the cursed wife of Afagddu, the misshapen son of Ceridwen, doomed to wander forever as the harbinger of death. But whatever her origin, her purpose remains unchanged. She is the messenger who brings the final warning, the cold breath that precedes the grave.

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References:

Cyhyraeth – Wikipedia

Witch – Gwrach – Welsh Words

Y fad Felen and Gwrach y Rhibyn The Supernatural Female as Carrier of Disease in Medieval Welsh Tradition

Vampires A Field Guide To The Creatures That Stalk The Night [PDF] [6pe6eq38o090] 

folklore and folk stories of wales ───────────────────── marie trevelyan

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The Restless Spirit of The Utburd Child Ghost in Norway

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Searching for its name, the utburd ghost from Norwegian folklore haunts the forests, waters and houses its parents left them to die. For the most part, they remained in folk tales, but sometimes, the stories about the dead children got real life consequences. 

In Norwegian folk belief, there exists a ghost of the children that were unwanted and cast away into the wild or buried in hidden places. They came back to haunt the places they were left or the parents that killed them, often searching for their name. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Norway

There are variations of this type of child ghost in most of the world. In the rest of the Nordic countries, there were also similar lores, although they were named differently. In Norway, this particular ghost is called the utburd.

The Ghost with No Life

The word utburd comes from Old Norse útburðr, meaning “that which is taken outside.” In traditional rural Norway, this term referred to a child who had been abandoned or left to die in the wild because the family could not care for it or because it was born out of wedlock, a deep social stigma at the time.

In the old folk imagination, these children did not pass peacefully into the afterlife. Many were left unbaptized and were buried outside consecrated ground. Because they never received Christian rites, their souls were believed unable to enter heaven or find peace. Instead, they became something darker: a ghost driven by need and grievance. 

The Myling: The Utburd and child ghost is not exclusive to Norway at all, and was a thing throughout Scandinavia, the other nordic countries as well as the rest of the world for that matter. In Swedish it was known as Myling, in Finnish it was liekkiö. “Myling” means Murderling “a murdered small child” and also “small child that murders” from Old Norse myrþa meaning “to murder” with the suffix -ling meaning “small child” in this case. This offers an explanation to the stories of the Myling being murdered and murdering.

What an Utburd Looks and Sounds like

Utburder appear in many forms in folklore. Sometimes they are heard before they are seen, their cries echoing forlornly through forests or fields where they were abandoned. Unlike other ghosts that drift quietly, an utburd’s presence is marked by sound and movement, with weeping, screaming, or whining voices that can send shivers through anyone who hears them. 

Read Also: Móðir mín í kví, kví — The Icelandic Ghost Haunting the Mother

In some tales, their shape is grotesque or unnatural. At times they appear as amorphous masses, larger than a human, or even as strange, hybrid animals. All forms reflect the anguish of a life that was never truly lived and a death that was never properly acknowledged. 

One of the most unsettling aspects of utburd stories is their behaviour toward living people. These spirits will attach themselves to lone travelers, especially at night, and cling to their backs. They demand to be taken to hallowed ground and given a proper burial, forcing the living to carry them.

The longer the journey, the heavier they become, until the burden of carrying them can feel impossible. In some versions of the tales, if the carrier is unable to reach consecrated ground, the spirit’s rage can become fatal. This reflects the belief that the unbaptized dead remain restless and desperate until their needs are met. 

Bånntjern: Båntjern is a forest lake in Nordmarka , Oslo, south of the hill Vettakollen. The name is said to be connected with old stories about utburds, ghosts of unbaptized infants who were put out in the forest to die. In Rogaland, for example, there are two place names that testify to this practice. One place is Utburen in Forsand municipality, the other is Utburen in Gjesdal municipality.

The Utburd at Reheia

There are a lot of folk tales about people encountering the Utburd from all over the country. Often they are going through a forest or some sort of wilderness. Like the story of the Utburd of Reheia that goes something like this. 

On Reheia there has been a storm that has frightened many. Once a man came walking from the west (Vikshåland). He had a bag with fish on his back. He struggled and struggled, but the bag became heavier and heavier. In the end he had to sit down to rest. He had then walked almost the entire heath. When he got up again, the bag was no heavier than usual. As soon as he came across Reheia, the storm had no power over him, you can see.

In many tales, they simply encounter the Utburd, and continue on their way, but sometimes, the story has a happier ending. 

Check out more folk tales about the Utburd ghost

To Overcome an Utburd

Folklore suggests that an utburd’s agony is rooted in denied rites and forgotten identity. To release the spirit from its torment, people often performed a simple ritual: giving the ghost a name and baptizing it through words. A common formula was spoken aloud:

Eg døyper deg på ei von,
anten Kari eller Jon,
i namnet åt Gud fader,
Gud son og Gud den heilage ande. 

Meaning roughly: i baptize you, either Kari or Jon (Both a girl and boy name to cover ground). In the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit. 

This act gave the spirit a human identity and granted it, in symbolic terms, the acceptance it was denied in life. In some stories they also carry them to the cemetery or give them clothes. Once named and acknowledged in a Christian context, the utburd was believed to be able to rest. 

Ola-tjedn: Perhaps an eerie way the utburd made its way into culture, were the lullabies the mother sang to their babies, like in the song, Ola-tjedn. A song that would inspire Fredrick Delius orchestra piece, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring. 

The Ghost Shaped by Law

An interesting aspect of the lore of the Utburd is how it ebbs and flows with the laws regarding children born outside of marriage. Although an ancient type of ghost dating back before the current constitutions, we saw a shift in how it was treated by court in the 1600s-1800s. In Norse times, it may appear that child bearing was accepted under certain conditions, for example poverty or that it was an illegitimate child of servants. In 1987, five skulls of five newborn children were found at “Tviodlo”, an outlying area on Nærbø in Hå municipality where there were originally two wells. C14 dating links this to events around 100-400 AD. Archaeologists have interpreted this as a place where newborn children were buried because they were unwanted, or perhaps even sacrificed to the gods as a powerful force of life..

When the Christian laws were introduced in the 11th century, it was forbidden to send children out and the punishment for it would get increasingly stricter. .

After a shift in rules in the church in 1607 in Denmark-Norway, it was decided that all unborn children would be baptized after the sermon, to separate them from the honorable babies. The priest would also speak about their sin and penance for it at the fountain. Organisations and inheritance kept people born out of wedlock out of society long after they grew up. 

In 1617, it only got stricter. The parents had to confess in public in church and pay a penance to the king. For the woman, it was six riksdaler or the value of two cows. The father had to pay double, and if they couldn’t pay, it was corporal punishment. Before, it was more common that the father was punished, but something shifted, and after the 1650s, the woman was usually the one punished by law and left with a child to feed as well. 

Født i Dølgsmål: The law stated that if the woman had concealed the pregnancy or given birth alone and then reported that the child was stillborn or the child was missing, she was to be judged as if she had intentionally killed the child. Although many only received prison sentences, some were also punished to death. // Image: The painting “The Child Murderer” by Eyolf Soot from 1895. The original title of the painting was “Birth in Concealment”.

When the “Fødsel i dølgsmål” law was introduced, about stillborn children, the burden of evidence was purely on the woman, having to prove that she didn’t kill it. Suspicion would come at the smallest details, like that she didn’t buy baby clothes before it was born, or telling everyone that she was expecting. 

For cases that ended up in court where an alleged utburd ghost was said to have been the instigator and accuser, check out the story of: 

The laws, the culture and circumstances, created a society of women having to rid themselves of children. In this period child murderers were the largest group of people condemned to death in Norway. Their heads were sometimes put on spikes as a warning to others. In the 1700s, around five women were decapitated for it every year. And although they weren’t condemned to death most times in the 1800s, most murders were murdering babies throughout the century. 

The tale of the utburd is not simply about a ghost. It is a reflection of how past societies struggled with poverty, shame, and the moral weight of social norms. In a time when unwed childbirth and infant abandonment were harshly judged, the utburd stories served as cautionary echoes of grief and moral responsibility.

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References:

Folk Tales about the Utburd: https://www2.hf.uio.no/eventyr_og_sagn/index.php?asok=1&hkat=57&kat=0&oid=0&sted=0&sperson=0&iperson=0&tid=10348 

Utburd til besvær

Myling – Wikipedia 

Båntjern – Wikipedia

Utburd – Wikipedia

Kvifor drap dei borna sine?

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The Yara-ma-yha-who: Australia’s Daylight Vampire Beneath the Fig Tree

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Not all vampires rise with the moon and dwell in dark castles. Some wait in the heat of the Australian wilderness. Like the monster Yara-ma-yha-who from Aboriginal folklore, found under the Australian Fig Trees. 

In the mythic landscapes of Aboriginal Australian storytelling a devouring creature lurks from the Dreamtime cosmology. The Yara-ma-yha-who belongs to no crypt, no ruined castle, and no midnight hunt. It dwells instead in branches heavy with leaves.

Read More: Check out all ghostly stories from Australia

According to recorded versions of the legend, particularly those preserved by David Unaipon, the Yara-ma-yha-who is a vampiric being from southeastern Aboriginal traditions, notable not only for its grotesque appearance but for the bizarre, cyclical horror of its feeding.

The Thing in the Tree

The Yara-ma-yha-who is often described as a small, red, frog-like humanoid creature, with an enormous head, a wide toothless mouth, and sucker-like appendages on its hands and feet. Its body is unnatural from the outset, evoking something both childlike, absurd and deeply menacing. 

Its preferred habitat is the fig tree. The weary traveler, escaping heat beneath its branches, unknowingly places themselves directly beneath danger. It drains blood using the suckers on its fingers and toes, attaching itself to the body in a manner more parasitic than predatory. 

Dreamtime: also referred to as the Dreaming or Tjukurrpa, which means “to see and understand the law” in the Arrernte language ,is a fundamental concept in Australian Aboriginal culture that encompasses a worldview connecting the human, physical, and sacred realms. It represents the beliefs, knowledge, and values of Aboriginal peoples, often shared through storytelling, art, dance, and ceremonies. Dreamtime stories convey the Creation myths and the ongoing relationship between the Ancestor Spirits and the land, illustrating how these spirits shaped the world and established connections among people and their environment. // Image: Source

After partially draining its victim, however, the Yara-ma-yha-who does something even stranger. Rather than simply kill, it swallows the person whole. It then drinks water, falls asleep, and later regurgitates the victim. The prey emerges alive, but altered, described as shorter and redder than before. This process repeats over successive encounters until the victim becomes shorter and shorter, eventually transformed into another Yara-ma-yha-who. Some say after the third time. 

It is active during the day, not at night.  According to legend, one possible means of surviving an encounter is to play dead until sunset, exploiting the creature’s daytime habits. 

David Unaipon: David Unaipon (1872-1967) was an Aboriginal Australian preacher, inventor, and writer who has been widely credited as the first Aboriginal published author from Point McLeay Mission in South Australia. During the late 1920s Unaipon was frequently described as among the best-known Aboriginal people in Australia and was often called upon by the Australian government to act as the sole spokesperson for the country’s Indigenous population.

Child Warning and Cultural Function

Like many folkloric beings, the Yara-ma-yha-who likely served practical as well as spiritual purposes. Recorded traditions suggest the story may have been used to warn children against wandering, misbehavior, or resting in dangerous places alone. 

The Collector of Tales: After David Unaipon wrote his book, an alleged misunderstanding developed between the author and his publisher. The result was that Unaipon’s collected folklore was published in 1930 by William Ramsay Smith, a Scottish doctor, who presented Unaipon’s work as his own, almost word for word, in Myths & Legends of the Australian Aboriginals. Unaipon’s original manuscript, Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines, was finally published, three-quarters of a century late, in 2006.

Scholars and commentators have proposed various speculative inspirations for the Yara-ma-yha-who. Could it perhaps have come with Malay settlers telling about the tarsier primate from Southeast Asia? Or is it perhaps a story spinning on the Thylacoleo carnifex, a carnivorous marsupial that dropped onto its prey from the tree tops.

And somewhere, in the oldest corners of story, where sunlight burns and fig branches sway without wind, there remains the possibility that not every red thing in the leaves is fruit.

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References:

Yara-ma-yha-who – Wikipedia

The Child-Eating Bloodsucker of Aboriginal Australian Nightmares

Dreamtime | Religion and Philosophy | Research Starters

David Unaipon – Wikipedia

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The Mandurugo Vampire Bride of Philippine Folklore

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Hidden among human society, the vampiric Mandurugo creature is slowly draining her unassuming husbands of their blood and life to sustain her eternal youth and beauty. 

In Philippine folklore terminology, Mandurugo is distinguished from the broader category of aswang, a general term for malevolent shape-shifters. The name mandurugo itself comes from the root word dugo, which means “blood” in several Philippine languages. A mandurugo is literally “one who deals in blood.”

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The mandurugo is typically described as a woman of striking beauty by day, indistinguishable from any other person in her community. And unlike many vampiric notions, she is not seen as a revenant or a part of the undead, but rather a real life woman or creature with powers.

A Beautiful Woman in the Dark

As mentioned, the mandurugo blends in with the rest of human society and targets mainly young men. She marries time and time again to feed on her husbands.  She feeds on her husband at night, laying in bed next to him as he sleeps. She has a pointed tongue she uses to prick and suck his blood and life. 

She also has the ability to shapeshift into a harpy-like creature with wings and at night she can fly and hunt her prey, something she has in common with another vampiric creature in Filipino mythology we’ll come back to.

Her appetites give rise to fear and mystery. If a man suddenly falls ill without explanation, communities whisper that a mandurugo may have visited him in the night. If livestock weaken or drain perplexingly, people suspect the same hunger at work. 

For protection, some would make a concoction of duhat (Java plum) mixed with ginger, manzanitas bark, yantok, blood and makahiya leaves and used as an offering to the mandurugo, so she wouldn’t harm those in the household.

Folklore and Fear of the Filipino Shapeshifters

The Mandurugo is thought of being a type of Aswang creature, shapeshifting monsters in Filipino myths and legends. These creatures were documented to be some of the most feared in folklore and their motifs were often nothing but causing most harm.  

Asawang: Aswang is an umbrella term for various shape-shifting evil and malevolent creatures in Filipino folklore, such as vampires, ghouls, witches, viscera suckers, and transforming human-beast hybrids. Spanish colonists noted that the aswang was the most feared among the mythical creatures of the Philippines, even in the 16th century.

Most of the stories and legends about the Mandurugo are found in both Tagalog and Bicol lore, specifically around Capiz, Panay Island it seems to have been most prominent.

We have documented tales about the lore from the Spanish from the 16th century and where the lore about the Asawang and Mandurugo were seen and understood through the Christian lense and demonology, that made an impact about how they are seen today. 

It seems that the lore about the Mandrurugo changed drastically. In pre-colonial Philippines the Mandurugo used protective rituals during vulnerable life stages such as childbirth. It is also likely that once, the mandurugo were a type of Kinnara or kinnari, gentle and beautiful winged creatures that resemble slim youths. They have wings same as birds on their backs, some on their buttocks, in oral tradition it is believed that the Kinari will love and serve devotedly any human who has treated it kind and when the human breaks the creature’s heart the kinari turns into a blood sucking monster.

Kinnara: (Sanskrit: किन्नर Kiṃnara) is a creature from Hindu and Buddhist mythology that the monster of Mandurugo could have sprung out from. They are described as part human and part bird, and have a strong association with music and love. Believed to come from the Himalayas, they often watch over the well-being of humans in times of trouble or danger. // Source: Wikimedia

The Manananggal Vampiric Creature Targeting Pregnant Women

As mentioned, the Mandurugo is only one of many vampiric creatures with a bird-like appearance. The manananggal is described as being an older, beautiful woman capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge bat-like wings. 

They are definitely similar and have sometimes been used interchangeably in stories. The main difference being who they are hunting. The Manananggal prey on unsuspecting, sleeping pregnant women in their homes. The myth of the manananggal is widely recognized in the Visayan regions of the Philippines.

The word manananggál is derived from the Tagalog word tanggál, meaning “to remove” or “to separate”, and literally translating to “remover” or “separator”. They also use an elongated proboscis-like tongue to suck fetuses from these pregnant women. They also prefer to eat the heart and the liver and the phlegm of sick people. Folklore also associates the creature with targeting newlyweds, lovers, newborn children, and occasionally grooms who were abandoned before marriage.

Traditional practices for killing a manananggal include applying salt, garlic, ash, or fire to the lower half, thereby preventing the upper torso from reuniting with it. If it fails to recombine before sunrise, the creature is believed to die.

The Girl With Many Lovers

One of the most famous stories about the husband hunting mandurugo vampire, is the Tagalog story of The Girl With Many Lovers. 

A young girl said to have been the most beautiful in the land, married at the age of sixteen. Although she was from an unknown place and an unknown family, her beauty won everyone over. Her husband was young and strong, but something was wrong. Although there were no clear signs of illness or disease, he withered away within a year and died. 

After his death she remarried, but her second husband, and then her third, suffered the same fate. After all the death that kept following her, suspicion around her grew, although nothing could be proved. 

Her fourth husband, having been warned, feigned sleep one night while keeping a knife close at hand. At midnight he felt a presence looming over him and then a prick in his neck. He stuck at the creature with his knife, and heard a screech and the flapping of wings. 

The next day, his bride was found dead near their house with a knife wound in her chest, having been a blood sucking Manurugo the whole time. 

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References:

Mandurugo – Wikipedia

mandurugo | Facts, Information, and Mythology

https://solarspell-dls.sfis.asu.edu/mea/wikipedia/wp/v/Vampire.htm

Bicolano Myths : ASWANG (BIKOLANO MYTHOLOGY)

Mandurugo: A vampire from Filipino folklore

Kinnara – Wikipedia

Manananggal – Wikipedia

https://www.aswangproject.com/creatures-mythical-beings-philippine-folklore-mythology/
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The Aufhocker: The Heavy Vampiric Spirit of Germany

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Feeling like a sudden and invisible burden, the life force of wary travellers were long subjected to the terror of the Aufhocker. A creature between the vampire, werewolf and goblin spirits, the legend of the empty road were long haunted by something heavy. 

Across the old forests of central Europe, travelers once spoke of a terror that stalked lonely paths after dusk. In German folklore this entity is known as the aufhocker, a creature of fear and fatigue. 

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The name aufhocker comes from German words meaning “to squat upon” or “to climb upon.” It is sometimes known as a Huckauf as well. Although the term appears in various regional traditions, the aufhocker’s most chilling aspect is its similarity to vampire lore. This is not the vampire that drinks blood from the neck. It is a predator that feeds on life force through relentless pursuit and physical contact.

A Footstep Followed

In folktales, the creature often appears at night along forest paths, river crossings, and isolated roads. A lone traveler walking home late in the dark might see nothing until a presence is suddenly at their shoulder. The aufhocker does not simply appear in view. It arrives with footsteps that echo the traveler’s own steps, as though it steps into the world by attaching itself to a living person.

Once it has latched on, it stays on the victim’s back. Physical weight, relentless pressure, increasing fear. Some descriptions say the creature physically climbs upon the victim and refuses to move, resting its full weight on the traveler. Others depict it as invisible yet oppressive, like someone riding piggyback only the victim can feel.

The Statue in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony: “Junge, lat die Appels stahn,/ süs packet deck dei Huckup an / Dei Huckup is en starken Wicht,/ hölt mit dei Stehldeifs bös Gericht.” (Boy, stop stealing apples,/ otherwise the thief will catch you,/ the thief is a strong imp,/ who will hold a wicked court against a thief like you.)

The result is the same. The victim becomes exhausted, panicked, and unable to escape. In some stories the victim falls or collapses from fatigue. In others, the pressure fractures resolve and spirit, leaving the person in a state of lasting terror or sickness. The person perched on the wanderer remains seated until the wanderer is released by the oncoming light, a prayer, or the ringing of bells.

The Werewolf Link

But what exactly is the Aufhocker, what does it look like? Some claim it is more like a shapeshifting goblin, a werewolf type of creature. It is also sometimes seen as a gigantic demonic dog. These characteristics are similar to that of the Black Dog in British folklore and the Kludde in Belgian tradition. Sometimes, the creatures are also said to be a black horse, luring people on their backs before throwing them in a swamp or water. 

Prevalent in mid-western Germany, the Rhineland, and adjacent Dutch and Flemish regions, the Aufhocker legend reflects localized beliefs tied to historical werewolf trials from the 16th century, where such back-riding behaviors may have substituted earlier spirit-riding traditions. 

In western Germany, the Aufhocker merges with the werewolf to form the Stüpp, a dangerous monster that leaps at people and has them carry it around until the victim dies of exhaustion. So, could it be more of a werewolf than a vampire adjecent legend then? 

The Vampiric Creature

Other variations of the legend would claim it is much closer to our modern understanding of the vampire. The parallels with vampire tradition become clear when the aufhocker is viewed as a hunter of life rather than a consumer of blood. Where the classical vampire drains the physical body, the aufhocker drains strength, breath, and will. It attaches itself as parasitic shadow. It thrives in darkness rather than daylight. 

Descriptions vary by region, but the theme remains constant. Some variations describe the creature as a shapeshifter or phantom form, while others combine it with local vampire traditions where the undead go out at night to feed and that it appears to travelers as a corpse they approach to examine. When the lonesome traveller is closes enough, it latches onto its prey. 

Other Vampiric Creature from German Folklore:In German folklore, a Nachzehrer, literally a creature that consumes from the afterlife in German, is a type of Wiedergänger (revenant), which was believed to be able to drag the living after it into death, either through malice or through the desire to be closer to its loved ones through various means. A nachzehrer was thought to be able to drain their victim’s life-force remotely. This could involve devouring their own funeral shrouds and clothing – thought to be a very common sign of a nachzehrer. Many would claim that the Aufhocker is some sort of Wiederganger.

Scholars interpret the Aufhocker as a regional variant of broader European back-riding spirits such as the more vampiric Mare for instanve. Although the werewolf stories really took off in the 16th century, there have been tales about the heavy weight of something dragging you down like an Aufhocker since the twelfth century. 

And in some version it is just that, a spirit, bodiless and invisible to the naked eye of the wary traveller. 

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References:

Aufhocker – Wikipedia

http://centre-for-english-traditional-heritage.org/TraditionToday4/TT4_SmithJ_Dobbies.pdf

Der Aufhocker – Arbeitskreis für Vergleichende Mythologie e. V.

Nachzehrer – Wikipedia

Wiedergänger – Wikipedia

Aufhocker – Wikipedia 

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The Tschäggättä: Switzerland’s Masked Monsters of Winter

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Deep in the heart of the Swiss Alps, the enchanting yet eerie Lötschental Valley harbors a chilling tradition that has captivated and terrified generations. Known as the Tschäggättä, these fearsome, fur-clad figures emerge from the shadows of snow-laden forests during the dark, cold months of winter. Combining ancient folklore with theatrical spectacle, the Tschäggättä embody the primal fears and superstitions of a bygone era.

Deep within the isolated Lötschental Valley of the Swiss Alps, amid snow-laden forests and frostbitten villages, lurks a chilling winter tradition few outside of Switzerland have heard of: the Tschäggättä. These grotesque, fur-clad figures prowl the narrow streets during the coldest, darkest months of the year — a living echo of ancient Alpine superstitions and forgotten fears.

The Origins of the Tschäggättä

Though no one can say exactly when the tradition began, written references to the Tschäggättä date back to the 19th century, with local authorities at times attempting to ban the custom due to its rowdy and unsettling nature. Way back, this used to be one of the poorest regions of Switserland. The first written record dates back to 1860, when prior Johann Baptist Gibsten banned the use of masks during carnival.

However, folklore scholars suggest the practice is far older, a survival of pre-Christian beliefs in malevolent winter spirits that roamed the mountains when the sun was weakest. The second theory links the Tschäggättä to the demonic figures that appeared in ecclesiastical Baroque theatre.

In earlier centuries, the Alpine winter was an unforgiving season of darkness, hunger, and death. Isolated valleys like Lötschental often felt cut off from the world, and stories of spirits, witches, and vengeful phantoms were common. The Tschäggättä became a way to personify these fears — and perhaps to ward them off.

Wooden Masks: The oldest Lötschental wooden mask still in existence from 1790-1810. // Source: Lötschental Museum; Deposit Swiss National Museum

The Schurten Thieves

The best-known legend of the origins of the Tschäggättä is the legend of the Schurten thieves from the middle ages. In the shady forests on the opposite side of the valley once resided the legendary Schurten thieves. They were thieves who lived on the shady side of the valley and disguised themselves to plunder farms on the sunny and richer side of the valley. 

Even today, their farmsteads can still be recognised, particularly clearly visible on the Giätrich, in the “Obri Wald” forest opposite the village of Wiler. 

At nightfall, they went on the prowl in wild disguise with masks on. It was said that the Schurten thieves did not accept anyone into their ranks who was not able to jump over the Lonza with a load of a hundred pounds.

The Appearance of the Tschäggättä

Each Tschäggättä is immediately recognizable by its disturbing appearance. The figures wear heavy animal furs, typically from goats or sheep, to shield them from the brutal cold. Most terrifying, however, are the wooden masks they don — hand-carved, each unique from Swiss stone pine, and featuring grotesque, distorted faces with exaggerated noses, glaring eyes, twisted mouths, and long, matted hair.

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Some masks resemble demons or monstrous old men, while others are bestial and almost supernatural in form. The craftsmanship of these masks is a source of local pride, with some families passing them down through generations.

The Ritual and Terror of Carnival Nights

The Tschäggättä emerge during Fasnacht — the Swiss pre-Lenten Carnival season, typically in February. from Candlemas until “Gigiszischtag” (i.e. the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday) with the traditional Lötschental carnival procession in Wiler, on the Saturday after the “feisten Frontag”. As night falls, these masked beings descend from the mountains and roam the villages of Lötschental. Carrying cowbells and sticks, they chase anyone they encounter, especially the young, and revel in causing fright.

Craftsmanship: Today there are masks made for the masses, but some of them have hours and hours of time spent carving, some being passed down in the family. Tschäggättä Masks, traditionnal wooden mask from Lötschental in Switzerland. // Source: photographed by Robbie Conceptuel

Traditionally, the Tschäggättä are adult men of the valley, though the anonymity provided by the masks has allowed even women and children to join the fray. The Tschäggättä will often burst uninvited into homes, overturn furniture, scatter hearth ashes, and steal food — an ancient ritual chaos meant to purge winter’s stagnation and welcome the coming spring.

Symbolism and Folkloric Meaning

The Tschäggättä tradition is thought to serve as a way of confronting and mastering communal fears during the most perilous season. The masks might have once represented the spirits of the dead, ancestral ghosts, or demonic forces banished by light and human defiance.

The Tschäggätä: carnival figures wander through the remote Lötschental in the canton of Valais, Switzerland, for several weeks in February, scaring the population. The costumes consist of masks made of Swiss stone pine, sheep or goat skins and cowbells. // Source

Some folklorists believe the Tschäggättä also embodied social rebellion. In a culture tightly controlled by religious and communal expectations, the anonymity of the mask allowed for a brief, sanctioned breakdown of norms — a time when men could mock the authorities, frighten neighbors, and behave wildly without consequence.

The Tschäggättä Today

While modernization has softened some of its rougher edges, the Tschäggättä remain a vital part of Lötschental’s identity. Each year, the locals still carve the terrifying masks and don the heavy furs, parading through villages in eerie processions. Today, any villager can take part, but historically, the fur-clad revelers were exclusively young, unmarried men who moved alone or in small groups during the day (save Sundays) during Carnival.

Though now mingled with festive Carnival celebrations, the primal eeriness of the Tschäggättä endures — a living link to a time when long winters meant living with darkness, death, and things unseen.

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References:

Tschäggättä Lötschental

Face time: the terrifying Swiss tradition of Tschäggättä – SWI swissinfo.ch

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The Sels-Móri or Ghost of Þorgarður Haunting for Generations

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A family cursed by a ghost called Sels-Móri was said to be haunted for nine generations in 18th and 19th century Iceland. Targeting the women in the family, it is said that it was the ghost that drove them all mad. 

What sticks out from Icelandic ghost stories, was that often, the ghost was not just a shadow or whisper, creaking in the walls or lurking in the corner of the eyes. The Icelandic ghosts were often like flesh and blood and dangerous. Not only could they hurt you, they could follow you and your family, plaguing them with misfortune, and like the ghost story of Sels-Móri or the ghost of Þorgarður, was behind madness that seemed to be passed down in the families. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Iceland

A ghost story spanning over generations as well as travelling over the entire country is the story of Móri of Sel, where the story was said to have started. The story features an Icelandic ghost called a fylgja from 19th century Iceland, that has roots back to the Viking age. And to understand the concept of this rather long family saga, it could be helpful to how the fylgja evolved and operated through time. 

Fylgur/Fylgja: The Old Norse Ghost

There were many different types of ghosts in Norse mythology and that the vikings believed in. One of them was the Fylgjur or Fylgja ghost, or Attending Spirits that we can find traces back in Iceland since the 12th century. These were originally a ghost of a very physical substance that interacted with the real world as if they were a part of it still. 

Read Also: Check out the Irish Fetch ghost, that has a huge resemblance to the norse Fylgja. 

Fylgja attached themselves to people that they haunted. They could also attach themselves to buildings or even entire towns. Many stories also talk about it being a generational haunting where the ghost decides to haunt all of the descendants of the original person it cursed. Most often the female line of the family. Perhaps because of its origin as a female spirit. 

Icelandic Ghosts and Ghouls: An illustration to the Icelandic legend of the Skeleton in Hólar Church (Beinagrindin í Hólakirkju). From Icelandic Legends : Collected by Jón Arnason, illustrated by Jules Worms.

In the Fylgjur stories from the middle ages, the spirits could be a beneficial one, almost like a messenger to help with the person’s path of life, some sort of totem animal or guiding spirit. But when the folklorist of Iceland started collecting old oral tales from farmers in the 17th century, the Fylgjur ghosts had drastically changed from its pagan old norse roots, throughout time, religious belief and superstition. 

One thing that really changed was the Fylgjur’s purpose of haunting the living, and it was rarely to be of any help. Many stories talk about how they were wronged and it caused their death. They then came back to take revenge and were dangerous, even deadly. 

Sels-Móri or Þorgarður

The story starts with a completely different family than the one that ended up being cursed. It starts with the life and death of the ghost itself. There once was a married couple that lived at a farm near the river Elliðá, not too far from Reykjavik. 

The story was compiled by Jón Árnason from stories circulated in the southwest of Iceland). Valgerður Jónsdóttir (1771–1856) and Hólmfríður Þorvaldsdóttir (1812–1876) are also listed as sources. There are at least 18 people by name, and at least 15 are verified historical people.

The farm had a worker named Þorgarðurand it was rumored that the wife had an affair with him. The farmer often had to go out for trivial tasks while Þorgarður was back home alone with her and this got people talking.

One winter night there was a horrible storm when the farmer was out working and tending to his livestock. He didn’t come home the following night and a search party was put together. The next morning they went to look for him and found him dead in the river and it  looked like a murder.

Elliðaá: The salmon river near Reykjavík from ca 1900 where the whole story about the Sels-Móri started.

Þorgarður was immediately suspected of this because of his reputation, and most believe that he actually did it. Even though he denied that he had killed his master, he was sentenced according to what the story says, either death by hanging or paying up with some fines and he should be allowed to redeem his life with a sheep fee. However, he didn’t have the money. 

At that time there lived a man named Jón at Seli in Seltjarnarnes east of Reykjavik, known as a diplomatic statesman with a kind heart. Þorgarður went to Jón and begged him to save his life and get out of the sentence. 

Jón was reluctant to do so at first, but Þorgarður vowed to serve him and his descendants as long as he had the strength and age. Jón, touched by the man’s plight, agreed to help and began to count the ransom on the table that Þorgarður needed to escape hanging.

When Jón counted the money, his wife Guðrún entered the living room and asked what he was doing with all the money. Jón said he was going to save the life of the man. She asked him not to do that foolish thing and swept up all the money in her apron with one hand.

Jón changed his mind and agreed with his wife. When she walked out of the room with the money in her apron she looked at Þorgard and said: “Let each one suffer for his actions.” 

Þorgard answered: “There will be no parting with us here; therefore it is no more than for me to see that my farewell follows you and your family to the ninth point.”

Then Þorgarður went away and was captured by the authorities, either in Iceland or abroad. It is believed that he was hanged in Kópavogur and that after his death, he immediately went back and sought out the Selsjóns as a fylgja ghost. 

The Hauntings for Nine Generations

As he had promised, he followed them wherever they went, especially the wife. Guðrúna was then both despondent and delirious and haunted for the rest of her life. Because this ghost was attached to Sel for a long time, he was called Sels-Móri. 

A Móri is a male ghost in Iceland. When a male is raised from the dead for such a purpose like vengeance, he is not called a ghost, but a Móri. Often the term Fylgja ghost was used interchangeably with the Draug ghost. The female version of this vengeful ghost was called Skotta. Móri means rust brown in Icelandic and the ghosts were named so because of the color of their clothes.

Sel in Seltjarnarnes: Source

The Selsjóns couple had one daughter named Þorgerður that would be the next victim of Sels-Móri’s haunting. She married Halldór Bjarnason, a prominent farmer in Skildinganes. As well as inheriting her parents’ estates, she also inherited Sels-Móri of her family they called ættarfylgja, meaning something like an ancestral ghost.  

They had a son, Bjarni í Sviðholt, and it looks like the Sels-Móri skipped the male descendant of the family and he lived in peace. He was probably one of the members of the legal court whom the law speaker Magnús Ólafsson appointed later to the Alþing of Öxará, 1798.

He had many children and was known to be friendly and a good guy, thinking perhaps that they were free of the haunting. They still knew about the Sels-Móri, and he was in those days often called Sviðholt’s ghost, but very often he was still associated with the name Þorgarður. But the ghost returned to haunt the female descendants. 

Bjarni’s second daughter, whose name was Úríður, married Benedikt Björnsson, a student from Hítardal, who has been a priest in Fagranes for a long time. She was the greatest clairvoyant, but such adversity came upon her that she became half-crazy and sometimes angry with everything and difficult to live with. Although the ghost of Sels-Móri was almost part of life in Icelandic folklore culture, her insanity was too much for her husband.

As a result, she divorced her husband and her sister Ragnheiður took her in who was married with a school teacher at Bessastaðir called Jón Jónsson. The teachers and families of Bessastaðaskóli often lived in or close to the school. Today this is residence of the President of Iceland and has always been important in the history of the nation and has always been the seat of chieftains and high officials.

Read more: Another famous ghost is said to still linger at Bessastaðir. Check out Apollonia Schwartzkopf the Ghost at Bessastadir

Úríður died there after a time of unstable paranoia. She would claim that a viper was stinging her and that another woman called Ingibjörg was stabbing her with a cobbler’s needle. This was believed to refer to a woman who lived with her and her husband before they separated. This woman actually became his second wife after the divorce, so it begs to question what really happened before she was sent to her sister.  

Bessastaðir, Álftanes.// Source

They all believed that their ancestral ghost Sels-Móri who was the one behind her insanity. Úriði is said to have said during her fits of insanity that she should have said: “My sister, it’s better to stab me,”

It looks like her sister, Ragnheiður, was mostly free of the haunting, although the Sels-Móri was blamed when he caused the destruction of a mail boat that was lost in 1817 because her first husband sailed with it. Sels-Móri was also the cause of the late Þórður Bjarnason’s death, in Sviðholt; it is still said that he had haunted the children of Ragnheiður, especially her son, Björn.

Ragnheiðar’s children, Especially Bjarna Rector

It should be mentioned here at the same time that Bjarni Halldórsson in Sviðholt had a sister named Jórunn who seems to have had almost a parallel haunting in addition to her ancestral one. She was very fair and beautiful and a man in Álftanes asked her to marry him. But she thought that he was beneath her and she rejected him. She would however never be rid of him.

He promised he would cling to her and her family, even if he was unable to get to her as a wife. She married one named Eyjólf, and had a baby girl. They hadn’t been together for long when it became apparent that Jórunn had mental issues, which only increased as time went by, and in the end, she went completely insane. This was believed to be because of the curse of the suitor she rejected as well as the curse their family already was struggling with. 

Her daughter Þorgerðr grew up and married Eggert Bjarnason, who was at that time the priest at Snæfoksstaðir (Klausturhólum) in Grímsnes. She then went east with him and they had children together and it seemed to be fine. Perhaps they had escaped the curse by moving away? 

Time passed until Jórunn, Þorgerðr’s mother, died. There was no evidence of that illness in Þorgerði during her mother’s lifetime, as she had never come south since she went east, and it is said that Reverend Eggert was warned not to let her go south and never come beyond Sog or Álfvattan and would not blame her then. 

But when Jórunn á Skógtjörn died, it is said that Þorgerður begged her husband to go south with her to mourn her mother and he finally agreed. They had come south over Hellisheiði, south into Fóelluvötn above Helliskot when the curse hit her. According to the stories she was struck with a a dizzy spell and that she was never the same again. She had inherited Sels-Móri. They also believed that her mother’s ghost and fylgidraugur, had met her daughter there and followed her from then on as long as she lived

Breaking the Generational Curse and Haunting

She didn’t live very long however, and she died shortly after going south. The children of Reverends Eggerts and Þorgerður didn’t fare well with either, and two of their daughters were also said to have gone crazy, as so many of the women in their family line had done before them. 

But Sels-Móri made a promise all those generations ago, and after the ninth generation, the curse was lifted and the family line, if there still is someone around, is said to be finally free from it. 

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References:

Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Sels-Móri eða Þorgarður – Wikiheimild 

(PDF) Icelandic Fylgjur Tales and a Possible Old Norse Context 

Chapter 3 The Fylgjur of Iceland: Attendant Spirits and a Distorted Sense of Guardianship

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Dark Christmas Legends and Traditions from Around the World

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How about having a look about the darker things that Christmas has to offer. It’s not all just ugly sweaters and sweet eggnog. Here are some of the Dark Christmas Legends from around the world, bringing the spooky tales and traditions we are missing during yule times.

When most think of Christmas, they imagine cozy fires, joyful carols, and the warm glow of twinkling lights. But behind the tinsel and cheer, many cultures hold age-old, dark traditions that paint a far grimmer picture of the holiday season. While figures like Santa Claus reward the good, these otherworldly beings ensured the wicked received their due — often in blood-curdling ways. From malevolent monsters to ghostly visitors, here are some of the creepiest Christmas legends that have lingered through centuries.

Krampus — The Christmas Devil (Austria, Germany, Alpine Europe)

Perhaps the most infamous of dark Christmas figures is Krampus, a horned, cloven-hoofed demon who punishes naughty children. While Saint Nicholas rewards the good, Krampus beats, chains, and even abducts the wicked, stuffing them into his sack to drag them to Hell. Traditionally, Krampuslauf (“Krampus Run”) sees locals donning terrifying masks and costumes, chasing people through icy streets.

Read the whole story: The Dark Side of Christmas: The Haunting Legend of Krampus and Krampusnacht 

Frau Perchta — The Belly-Slitter (Austria and Bavaria)

A witch-like figure from Alpine folklore, Frau Perchta rewards industrious children and punishes the lazy or disobedient. If she finds someone idle or disrespectful, legend says she’ll slit open their stomach, remove their entrails, and fill the cavity with straw and stones. Perchta roams during the Twelve Days of Christmas, especially on Twelfth Night.

Read the whole story: The Dark Side of Christmas: The Legend of Frau Perchta

Père Fouettard — The Christmas Butcher (France, Especially Lorraine)

In the Lorraine region of France, Père Fouettard, or “Father Whipper,” is a sinister companion of Saint Nicholas. According to legend, he was a butcher who, in medieval times, lured three lost children into his shop, murdered them, and salted their bodies in a barrel. When Saint Nicholas discovered the crime, he resurrected the children and condemned the butcher to spend eternity as his dark assistant.

Every year, on Saint Nicholas Day (December 6th), Père Fouettard travels with the saint, brandishing a whip or bundle of sticks. While Saint Nicholas rewards good children with sweets, Père Fouettard metes out beatings to the disobedient. Dressed in dark robes with a scraggly beard and soot-covered face, he embodies the vengeful side of the holiday season.

Read the whole story: The Dark Side of Christmas: The Terrifying Legend of Père Fouettard from Lorraine

The Yule Lads — Iceland’s Mischief Makers

In Iceland, thirteen mischievous trolls known as the Yule Lads descend upon villages in the days leading up to Christmas. While modern versions have softened them into pranksters leaving small gifts, old tales painted them as malevolent figures who stole children or terrorized villagers. Their mother, Grýla, a fearsome ogress, is said to snatch up naughty children and boil them alive in a cauldron.

Mari Lwyd — The Gray Mare (Wales)

A haunting tradition sees groups parading through Welsh villages with a horse skull mounted on a pole, draped in white cloth and adorned with ribbons. Known as Mari Lwyd, the eerie figure travels from house to house, challenging residents to a battle of wits in rhyme. Though playful today, its ghostly, skeletal appearance still chills the unwary.

La Befana — The Christmas Witch (Italy)

In Italian folklore, La Befana is an old woman who visits homes on the eve of Epiphany, riding a broomstick. While she leaves sweets for good children, the bad ones may find lumps of coal — or worse. Some versions claim she abducts misbehaving children, spiriting them away into the night.

Read the whole story: The Dark Side of Christmas: La Befana – Italy’s Christmas Witch

The Tomte/Nisse — Mischievous Christmas Spirits (Scandinavia)

While usually benevolent, the Tomte or Nisse of Scandinavian folklore are house spirits who protect farms and families — but they demand respect. During Yule, they must be appeased with offerings of porridge and butter. Forget to leave their meal, or offend them in any way, and they’ll turn vindictive, sabotaging livestock, breaking tools, or even harming inhabitants.

Though charming in appearance, their darker traits reveal how even seemingly kind spirits could turn dangerous in the old folk traditions of the Nordic Yule.

Hans Trapp — The Cannibal Christmas Scarecrow (France)

In the Alsace and Lorraine regions, Hans Trapp is a terrifying Christmas figure. Once a rich, cruel man obsessed with dark magic, he was excommunicated and lived in the forest disguised as a scarecrow. Legend says he would capture and eat children. After being struck down by lightning, his vengeful spirit is said to still stalk misbehaving youngsters at Christmastime.

Read the whole story: The Dark Side of Christmas: Hans Trapp — The Child Eating Scarecrow

Kallikantzaroi — Greek Christmas Goblins

According to Greek legend, from Christmas to Epiphany, the Kallikantzaroi, impish goblins, rise from the underworld to wreak havoc. They sneak into homes at night, spoiling food, breaking things, and causing mayhem. Only warded off by protective charms, blessed fires, or ritualistic practices, these creatures embody the darker, chaotic side of the holiday season.

The Legend of the Christmas Spider (Ukraine)

While less terrifying, Ukraine’s Christmas Spider story has eerie origins. Legend tells of a poor widow whose children decorated their Christmas tree with cobwebs because they couldn’t afford ornaments. On Christmas morning, the webs turned to silver and gold. Though now a symbol of good fortune, it harks back to Europe’s old belief in omens and restless spirits during the Yuletide.

A Season of Shadows

For much of history, Christmas was as much a time for ghost stories and ominous folklore as it was for joy and kindness. Before modern lights pushed back winter’s darkness, people huddled together, sharing chilling tales and respecting ancient, unseen forces. These darker traditions remind us that the festive season was once a precarious time, when spirits roamed and monsters lurked just beyond the snow-covered hills.

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Ukategorisert

The Alp: Night Terrors of German Folklore

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Sitting on your chest, crushing you in your sleep, The Alp of Germanic Folklore was said to be a vampiric entity after people’s life force. But where did this creature come from?

In the dark hours between dusk and dawn, when restless dreams twist and turn through the minds of sleepers, a sinister being from old German folklore is said to descend upon its victims. Known as the Alp, this malevolent supernatural creature doesn’t haunt abandoned castles or misty graveyards — instead, it invades the fragile realm of sleep itself, leaving terror and suffocation in its wake.

Read more: Check out all ghost stories from Germany

A figure of nightmares dating back to medieval Europe, the Alp exists in the shadowy intersection between spirit, demon, and vampire. Sometimes a seductive human, a butterfly, a pig in a magical hat, it has long served as a terrifying explanation for the most intimate of fears: what comes for us when we are most vulnerable, in our beds, under the cover of night.

The Alp And Mare: An Alp is typically male, while the mara and mart appear to be more feminine versions of the same creature. The Alp, in many cases, is considered a demon, but there have been some instances in which the Alp is created from the spirits of recently dead relatives, more akin to a spirit or ghost.

A Creature of the Night

But what was an Alp? There are so many variations of this legend, but mostly it’s a male entity, often the spirit of a recently deceased man. It is also seen in connection to the Germanic Elf, or the otherworldly or underworld creatures. 

It could also be the spirit of a woman who died as a sinner and pregnant. It was also believed that she could create the Alp if she ate something unclean or something that had dwarf spit on it. She could also create an Alp if she did inappropriate gestures during pregnancy or frightened a dog or horse during it. 

Unlike the towering monsters of other myths, the Alp is an insidious tormentor, striking unseen and unfelt until its victim is gripped by an unnatural terror in the midst of sleep. It’s traditionally described as a malevolent spirit or goblin-like being, often invisible, though sometimes appearing in grotesque, human-like forms or even taking on the shape of a cat, dog, snake, or butterfly.

Shapeshifter: The Alp may change into a cat, pig, dog, snake or a small white butterfly and can fly like a bird and ride a horse. The Alp always wears a hat, known as a Tarnkappe which is simply a hat or veil that gives the Alp magic powers and the ability to turn invisible while worn. The hat is visible no matter what shape the Alp takes. An Alp who has lost this hat will offer a great reward for its safe return. The Alp also possesses an “evil eye” whose gaze will inflict illness and misfortune. Removing or damaging this eye also removes the Alp’s malicious intentions.

The Alp’s most feared ability, however, is its power to induce terrifying sleep paralysis — what folklore once called a “nightmare” (the term originally referring not to a bad dream, but to the demon itself).

Victims would wake to find themselves unable to move or cry out, an invisible weight pressing down on their chest as a suffocating dread filled the room. They might hear the Alp’s breath, feel its claw-like fingers at their throat, or see shadowy shapes moving just beyond the edge of reason.

An Appetite for Blood and Breath

The Alp was believed to feed on both the life essence and the blood of its victims, not unlike a vampire. It was said to drink the milk of nursing women and, disturbingly, sometimes the blood from their nipples. Livestock were not safe either — cows found mysteriously drained of milk were often blamed on the Alp’s nocturnal visits.

Another chilling feature of the Alp legend is its association with dreams themselves. The creature was thought to control a sleeper’s dreams, turning them dark and violent, manipulating the victim’s mind as it fed upon their fear.

Nightmare: A haunting depiction of the Alp, a malevolent creature from German folklore, tormenting a sleeping woman in her bed. the German word Alpdruck (literally ‘elf-oppression’) means ‘nightmare’. There is also evidence associating elves with illness, specifically epilepsy. In the early modern period, elves are described in Northern Germany as doing the evil bidding of witches; Martin Luther believed his mother to have been afflicted in this way.

Its favorite targets were said to be those in states of emotional turmoil, the ill, and the vulnerable. It would even sometimes fixate on specific individuals, tormenting them night after night, sometimes also sexually, like a Succubus and Incubus.

Defending Against the Alp

German folklore offered a variety of protective measures against the Alp’s predations. One common method involved placing a broomstick under the pillow, a shoe at the side of the bed with the toes pointing towards the door, or an iron horseshoe hung nearby — symbols meant to confuse or repel the spirit.

It was also believed that calling the Alp by its name could banish it, though given its invisibility and secretive nature, discovering the true identity of an Alp was often impossible.

From Dwarf to Demon: In Teutonic myth and folklore, Alp were considered friendly elf-like beings which lived in the mountains, but eventually turned more negative and malevolent. They were likened more to the moss people or mountain dwelling dwarfs until becoming closer to demonic.

Another curious belief held that binding one’s hair before sleep or keeping the bedroom door slightly ajar would prevent the creature from entering, as the Alp was a creature of rules and compulsions, easily deterred by simple tricks or obstacles.

Echoes in the Modern World

Many modern scholars and folklorists view tales of the Alp as early cultural interpretations of sleep paralysis, a phenomenon still experienced worldwide today. The suffocating weight, inability to move, hallucinated figures, and overwhelming terror described in Alp encounters mirror accounts of sleep paralysis episodes in astonishing detail.

Yet even with the benefit of modern science, the age-old fear persists. There’s something uniquely unsettling about the idea of being helpless within your own home, your own bed — and perhaps that’s why the legend of the Alp continues to cast a long, dark shadow in the collective memory of Europe.

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The Night Horse Zawudschawu: Phantom of the Gruyère Moors

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Luring weary travelers to get on their back, the dark night horse Zawudschawu, is said to prowl the swampy moors of Gruyère Moors. 

In the shadowy heart of Switzerland’s Gruyère region, where dense mist clings to the rolling moors and ancient forests murmur with forgotten names, an unsettling legend endures — that of the Night Horse Zawudschawu. 

Read more: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

There are many monsters said to roam the valleys and mountains. In the town, Sitten in Wallis, there is a three-legged steel seen prancing through the streets in the moonlight. Whispered from generation to generation, the tale speaks of a phantom steed with a coat as black as midnight and a wild, pale mane that shines like frost in the moonlight.

A haunting view of Gruyère Moors and Castle Gruyere, shrouded in mist, home to the legend of the Night Horse Zawudschawu.

Zawudschawu of Gruyère Moors

Zawudschawu is no ordinary apparition. It roams the lonely paths and marshy edges of the Saane River, appearing when fog blankets the land and the air hangs heavy with silence, grazing in the night. Sometimes the horse is described as dark, sometimes with a coat like iridescent milk-white and his wild mane as white as the snow.

It chooses its victims carefully: the weary, the lost, and most often, the elderly traveler making their slow, solitary way home beneath the cover of darkness.

The creature’s trick is subtle. It approaches without sound, its hooves barely disturbing the ground, before kneeling with an eerie grace as if offering mercy — an inviting escape from the cold and treacherous moors. Many, believing the spectral horse to be a gift of fortune, have mounted its back, feeling an odd, unnatural warmth radiating from its body in the chill of the night.

But Zawudschawu is a deceiver.

In one of the most infamous tellings, a drunken man crossing the moors late at night found himself face-to-face with the spectral steed. Grateful for the chance to avoid the long, cold walk home, he climbed onto its back. The horse carried him smoothly through the mist, every stride eerily silent, its breath visible like smoke. Just as the lights of his village flickered in the distance, the creature’s demeanor shifted. Without warning, it veered off the path, galloping straight for the black, rushing waters of the Saane. The last thing the man saw was the glint of malevolent amusement in the creature’s eyes before he was hurled into the freezing depths. And the last thing he heard — an inhuman, mocking laughter, fading into the mist.

Lake Of Gruyère: A serene view of the Lake Of Gruyère surrounded by autumn foliage, evoking the mysterious atmosphere of the Gruyère Moors where the night horse drowns his victims.

The Old Tale of Zawudschawu in Modern Switzerland

Is the Zawudschawu always dangerous? There are plenty of stories about the horse having brought weary and tired people back home as well. 

To this day, elders in the Gruyère countryside warn against night travel across the moors. They speak of Zawudschawu’s lingering presence, of hoofprints found in morning frost where no horse should be, and of chilling laughter carried on the wind. Some believe the horse was once a cursed soul, others say it’s a forest spirit soured by centuries of human trespass.

Whatever the truth, on foggy nights in Gruyère, wise folk stay close to hearth and home — lest the Night Horse Zawudschawu find them in the dark.

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