European cryptids can be creepy as hell if you look into older, non-disneyfied versions.
They’ve (euro cryptids) have gotten nerfed over the centuries, and the especially nasty ones probably got wiped out during world War II.
Our (American) culture is strongly combative, and our last giant local war was over a century and a half ago or so. The dark things that have crawled forth from our deepest nightmares and waking dreams are far hungrier, crueller, and have had much more time to proliferate than your feeble, mischievous survivors.
Your cryptids crave petty things, like food, stealing names, or the occasional child. Ours crave the end of all things and the souls of the multitudes, to truck is into turning each hand against every other, and ultimately to drag our shattered remnants kicking and screaming into the dark places under the Earth.
Honestly the disneyification fits in pretty well with old european folklore, the gambit for a lot of our mythological creatures was tricking you into thinking they’re your friends and then a whole towns worth of people vanishes. We have some wendigo stuff style too and it tends to follow a similar style of moral lesson about don’t do x or you will turn into the monster or the monster will come get you.
It is what we deserve
Seems like OP is not familiar with fae mythology.
Or basically any European mythology.
Just the sea monsters …
Could you offer what you know?
You can’t trick me into giving you all my knowledge, faerie!!
I wanted to upvote this, but the score was too nice to change it…
not anymore, upvote it to make it nice again
True. Can we get it to 420 since we overshot 69?
Off the absolute top of my head there’s the redcap. Depending on the material it can be depicted as a gnome, goblin, or kobold with a jaunty looking red hat (generally long and pointy like a gnome hat or like Link’s hat in Legend of Zelda).
It keeps the hat red by dying and regularly re-dying it with its victims’ blood.
There’s also a number of depictions of pixies as essentially flying piranha.
But this sort of mythology isn’t some deep secret, it’s everywhere outside of the kid friendly/disney filtered stuff. I’m sure a simple search will net you tons of content.
Shoot, I was just referencing the modern interpretations of fae, but that’s absolutely fascinating! As recompense for unintentionally misleading you, here are a few of my favorite fairy artworks by Arthur Rackham
One of the best jokes I’ve seen is everyone with adhd accidentally answered yes to a fae asking “could I have your attention”
Or the scissor man.
That’s definitely a bad idea to invite them to tea:
- They know you saw them
- They’ve got permission to enter you house
- You are giving them food!!
It sound like a recipe to get your daughter stolen from you, or to have your house falling down on your head, or losing your mind or straight being skinned you and your family.
Carefully go back so they don’t know you saw them.
Do not ever speak to this to anyone, not to your parent, your neighbour, your child not to your SO, not on the internet or your diary and lets hope you don’t speak in your dream.Damn that’s intense.
Brazilians with our cryptids:
Which one is the Brazilian?
The chick, in this context.
The Boto-cor-de-rosa, or river dolphin, is a real animal
But the cryptid of the same name is a river dolphin that is actually a shapeshifting trickster, who will turn himself into an attractive man (often depicted wearing a fancy hat to cover the blowhole atop his head) and seduce and bang women.
I was joking but this was actually very interesting. Thanks!
European Crypitids
How europeans deals with them
The only thing I vividly remember from this movie is the pretty lady just about sitting on Hugh Jackmans face.
I love this movie. It’s probably one of my favorite schlock fantasy movies. The casting was way better than it had any right to be - Hugh Jackman, sure, but Kate Beckinsale? Well, I guess she was fresh off Underworld, so she was still in that headspace. And Richard Roxburgh doing the perfect amount of scene-chewing for the villain… introducing himself properly as Vladislaus Draculea… and the opening scene, shot just like a 1920s Universal monster movie! I legitimately think it’s the closest we’ll ever get to a live action Castlevania. I could go on, but I’ll spare you. Might be time for a rewatch.
The sets, the wardrobe, the direction, the acting. All of it is so good without taking itself too seriously. It’s from the same director of the (good) Mummy movies, so go figure
Nipple tassels?
Waaay classier
And then there’s Norway.
That brings me back memories of when is was ~5 years old and visiting my father’s cabin in the forest, which had a copy of that painting on the wall. He would put hall of the mountain king on full blast and tell troll stories just to scare me from time to time.
Nøkken was scarier though, kept me from going down to lake alone after dark, which I guess was the original intention of that creature.
Fuck yeah Savatage! Rare to see referenced in the wild.
Edit: wait I didn’t click the link, did you mean this 80s metal classic or Edvard Greig’s lol
I’m speaking about nordic folklore, so Edvard Grieg. I’m not sure the metal music could ever scare the same way Grieg’s symphony did back then.
Tbf while it is great peer gynt isn’t that frightening either, reminds me of Looney Tunes.
Savatage fucking rules too though, and I just remembered Rainbow also has a song by that title too which also rules!
When all you can see outside the window is the pitch black forest and the moon over the looming mountains in the valley, and your dad start telling you tales of dangerous troll lurking in the forest, The Hall of Mountain King got a different mood over it. Especially when your father is telling you that as the music is reaching its prestissimo finale the troll in the tale is running towards your house lol.
Especially with pictures like this on the wall
Savatage fucking rules too though, and I just remembered Rainbow also has a song by that title too which also rules!
Any metal band that want to draw inspiration from the nordics outside of norse mythology are bound to stumble upon Grieg and Ibsen so that checks out.
Just heard that song (and band) for the first time, and it’s great!
Hell yeah!
What is the name of that picture if you kbow perhaps?
The Water Sprite (Nøkken in Norwegian) by Theodor Kittelsen
He was one of the most popular artists in Norway due to his illustrations of Norwegian fairy tales and legends.
Some of his other works includes:
Pesta (personification of the black death)
And The Forest Troll
Ngl the Pesta ones are quite spooky.
The skogtrollet is rad though
That’s Tony Tony Chopper. Don’t be scared, he’s a doctor.
Americans with Cryptids:
Someone didn’t play the Witcher
I’m fairly certain, with no proof to back this up I am willing to spend the time gathering, that we aren’t reading enough into the origins of the european cryptids, tho
I guess you’ve never heard of German cryptids… Or Polish cryptids… Oooor Nordic cryptids…
I think Japanese cryptids can fit in either category.
Tbf, the Europeans have some pretty fucked cryptid lore, it’s just that they’re more chaotic neutral and less chaotic vengeance than the American variety. My favorite american cryptid is an old one you don’t hear much of anymore, and was born from Pacific NorthWest loggers: the Hide Behind. Basically, this mf stalks your shit and will always duck behind a tree when you turn to look at it; it’s fast enough to never be seen clearly, but you can just catch glimpses of it if you’re fast/lucky. Eventually, it catches and eats unwitting loggers who let it sneak up on them.
Edit: I also like the deer stories. One of my all time favs was a free text about a deer stumbling up the street very clearly saying “BEEP BEEP BEEP” like a car being unlocked, followed by “Honey, I’m home!” over and over. That was the whole story, just a weird fucking deer stumbling up the street and talking to itself. 10/10 would gladly read again.
I like Not Deer. Weird Birds are in a similar vein. I doubt they’re established well enough to be considered a cryptid, but they’re kinda similar.
Gotta love Not Deer. I know it’s just CWD or similar, but man when you’re alone in the woods and come across one, shit is unnerving
I like that Japanese foot that slams into buildings and demands you wash it
Wait until you learn about Japanese yokai…
America’s got some goofy cryptids too. Like the hugag. A large, moose-like fearsome critter with a big floppy upper lip and no elbows or knees. Unable to lay down or kneel, it can only eat bark from trees around the height of its head, and it can’t lay down to sleep so it leans against trees, sometimes causing the tree to lean.
Can’t forget Squonk. The gross pig thing that is so ugly it cries constantly. It can dissolve itself with its tears at will.
These sound like Gen 1 Pokedex entries
I’m disappointed by our lack of hot cryptids with tits.
Mothman has a hella nice butt tho
This stereotype is just based on Europeans exoticising native American culture
Yeah exactly, the cryptids are kind but they hate colonizers
