10 Unfamiliar Mythical Monsters in Philippine Fiction Philippine folklore is dotted with quite a number of fictional characters. Many of them are monstrous mythical creatures that can scare us to death just by hearing about them from our superstitious lola or lolo, or seeing them in action on the big screen. While we know of aswang, tikbalang, duwende, manananggal, and kapre – there are in fact other mythical monsters that many of us are unfamiliar of. We've listed them below alphabetically. 1. Balbal / Maninilong Balbal (Tigbanua) or Maninilong (Catanauan) is a scavenger vampire that feasts on dead human remains. It is described as having long, sharp claws and impressive sense of smell (many times better than a dog's) used for hunting corpses. …show more content…
Bungisngis Bungisngis (Bataan) is the Philippine version of a humungous Cyclops. It's always laughing or giggling, hence the name. But because of its size and appearance, people are afraid of the Bungisngis. When it laughs, its two pangs show. It's said to be very strong with a strong sense of hearing, but its weakness is slow thinking and stupidity. 5. Danag Danag (Cebu) is another vampire-like creature that was initially good, helping farmers cultivate taro. But soon after, the Danag tasted human blood when a woman accidentally cut her finger. The Danag supposedly sipped a little of the dripping blood and liked it, so it eventually sipped all of the woman's blood and exsanguinated her to death. Since then, the Danag became an evil nemesis for taro farmers. 6. Ekek Ekek is a half-human, half-bird creature like a Manananggal or Wakwak who hunts for human victims at night. The like eating human flesh and blood, and would hover around the villages for vulnerable preys, especially pregnant women. Unlike the Mananggal, the Ekek does not split its body in two, and unlike the Wakwak, the Ekek has a bird's beak for a mouth. The creature got its name allegedly from the eerie sound (ek-ek-ek) it makes. 7. Numputol or …show more content…
The normally haunt secluded places and roads. When you encounter one, you need to stab a roll of reed mat (banig) as if you were stabbing the Pasatsat. When you unroll the mat, all you have is a rotten smell of a decaying corpse – and the ghost is gone. Geez, it's so impractical to carry around a banig. Good luck when you find a Pasatsat and you don't have a banig and a knife with you. 9. Santelmo Santelmo or St. Elmo's Fire is more than a wisp, it's actually a ball of blazing fire that flies around and follows its victim, usually seafarers and sailors. The Santelmo then leads the sailors astray or set their vessel on fire. In other stories, it appears even in mountainous locations chasing after its victims until they succumb or fall off cliffs and die. Santelmo represents the restless soul or souls of those who died. 10.
Ever thought of where monsters come from? Do they just appear in our world, or are they procreated by fellow monsters, maybe, created by humans and their desires. During the renaissance and romantic era, a belief roamed around consisting of the idea that any child not resembling their original procreators was considered deformed, therefore also considered a “monster.” Many factors were considered to affect a child’s resemblance to their progenitors, such as women imagination, and desires, absolutely crossing of the role of paternity in the creation process. Although she succeeds in providing many good examples of women’s imagination being a primal factor in procreation, Marie-Helene Huet, in her essay, “ Introduction To Monstrous Imagination,”
In a world with ghosts, monsters, demons, and ghouls, there is one being that resonates in everyone’s mind. The idea of these creatures can be found in almost every culture on the planet in one form or another. They prey on the weak and they feast on the blood of their victims. They are compared to a fox for being quick and cunning, but also rather seductive in their nature. With their unholy existence one can only describe them as almost demonic. So what is this horrid creature? Well it is none other than the vampire, a creature as old as time itself. Throughout history there have been many different variations of the vampire, each with their own unique abilities. But one cannot help but mention
„h The only way to kill a vampire is to penetrate its heart with a stake.
In the first thesis, the author speaks of the vampire’s body as that which lies in fear, desire anxiety and fantasy. He suggests that it should be killed by driving a stake through its heart that will stick it to the ground. The monster, as it is being referred to be pure culture and symbolizes something and not just itself. The thought of killing the vampires can be related to monster movies we watch where they are killed using the stake but never die. Some of them even claim to be five hundred years!
Asma, Stephen. On Monsters :An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.
Every Greek myth with a hero in it has a monster or monsters that the hero must face at some point in the myth. “MONSTERS,…, were beings of unnatural proportions or parts, usually regarded with terror, as possessing immense strength and ferocity, which they employed for the injury and annoyance of men. […]”(Bullfinch). The monsters in the Greek myths are antagonists to the heroes and represent evil. An example of a Greek myth monster is, “… The Stymphalian Birds
One of the most interesting qualities of Greek mythology is probably the depiction of monsters in the myths. However, these monsters are not all unique. In fact, they all fall into very distinct categories, making them almost the same. Most monsters in Greek mythology look and act in the same ways. Several monsters from these myths look the same in that they have very similar qualities such as being large, snake or human like. However, they are also very alike in that they behave in very similar ways, from guarding something or roaming freely and causing chaos. Generally, the monsters in Greek mythology follow this outline and are depicted in a way to show these qualities.
As intellectual creatures, humans strive to understand the world and most importantly themselves. One of the avenues by which this is done is by means of speculation. As far as humans are concern, they are born, then they grow old and die. Which raise questions such as, what is the purpose of life and what happens after death? To answers these unknowns, humans have created monsters as an avenue of explaining what they presume to be fact. Two of such monsters are zombies and vampires. To analyze these monsters some prominent extracts in vampire and zombie literatures will be considered, such as Dracula, Interview with the Vampire, The Walking dead as well as the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. In the novels from which the aforementioned
His head and upper leg bones had been laid out in a skull and crossbones fashion. Physical anthropologists found that the man died of consumption, or modern day Tuberculosis. This would have caused those infected to grow pale, lose weight, and to waste away. These attributes are often linked to vampires and their victims. The researchers noted that “the vampire’s desire for food forces it to feed off living relatives, who suffer a similar ‘wasting away’” in an article in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. The locals also seemed to have decapitated the suspect to avoid its vengeance from the grave. Many archaeologists who have studied these vampire burials believe that vampires arose from common misunderstandings about diseases (tuberculosis), and from a lack of knowledge about decomposition. The majority of 19th-century American and European people knew about the changes in the human body immediately following death, but they hardly saw what happened in the grave during the following weeks and months. For example, when the gastrointestinal tract begins to decay, it produces a dark fluid that could easily be mistaken for fresh blood during exhumation, creating the vision of
The Monster of your childhood, Missing sleep nights in a row because of this legend. Leaving kids scared also restless of sleep for many days or weeks at a time because of the hears this monster ,ay just takes them while they are sleeping.Who is this monster you may ask? El Cucuy.
Monsters have always been written about in various forms and types. They range from Dracula the vampire to Scylla the water monster to Pennywise the evil clown, each having its own special type of abilities and dreadfulness. Throughout the horror genre, these monsters are highly focused on to make the story or movie as horrific as possible. Usually these can be divided into two categories: the humanistic ones and the supernatural or horrific type. Each of these two groups makes its story better suited to the effect that author wants to achieve. By using a humanistic or horrific monster, the theme and effects on the character and reader differ depending on the type.
Mike Carey once summarized something very profound in one of his novels: “We make our own monsters, then fear them for what they show us about ourselves”. This idea, that perhaps one’s biggest fears are simply reflections of themselves, could be applicable to all aspects of life - more specifically, a certain gothic horror novel that was written years ago. The idea of being reflections of one’s own monsters perhaps was first put into words in Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein. Since the widely-adapted story was written in 1818, there have been constant debates and questions raised about who is protagonist and who is the antagonist in the story, a question Mary Shelley herself may have not been able to answer. Why? The well-educated, put-together scientist Victor Frankenstein and his creature, whose “yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath… (and whose) hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing” are truly mirror images of each other in many instances (Shelley 43). Despite what first impressions may suggest, Frankenstein and his creature are far from polar opposites on the spectrum, and Frankenstein is hardly the usual story of good and evil. Frankenstein and his creature are just as much monsters as one another, and the two share a surprising list of similarities.
Ghost hunts can be conducted however you want, so there isn’t really a set way that everyone does them, but there is a guideline that most people use. The first step is meeting near the location and decide who will work each piece of equipment and divide into teams if necessary. You need to decide who’s doing what and where everyone will be so that you don’t mistake someone else making noise for something paranormal. Next you want to make sure you put yourself in a positive frame of mind. Many experienced groups believe that there are evil spirits in areas such as cemeteries and that saying a prayer or blessing will get rid of them. Many demonologists will say that by doing this in the name of whatever god you worship, you’ll keep any non human spirits at
The most diabolical monsters lurk in the deepest parts of our minds.Depending on the person the monster can spawn from different things. A man whose wife was murdered will not have a monster that looks has six eyes and claws, he will have 2 eyes and a beating heart. A girl who is struggling to pass pre-calculus will not have a ten feet tall monster, her’s will be written in red ink. These bullies
According to Blake and Cooper, “Monsters have always been symbolic creature, generally representing darkness or evil, providing foils for the heroes of myth and legend” (2). Fictional tales have always been popular for a long time. Tales about monsters were normally narrated to children to educate them and dissuade them from dangers. These are supernatural beings that reside in tales. They are unlike floods or serial