Tag Archives: cryptids

FIVE MYTHICAL CREATURES FROM AMERICAN FOLKLORE

A few years back Balladeer’s Blog examined some of the folklore surrounding some very menacing cryptids from tall tales around the nation. This time around, the creatures being covered are much milder. 

billdadTHE BILLDAD

Habitat: Boundary Lake in Maine

Lore: The Billdad is said to be roughly the size of a badger, beaver or wolverine. It has hind legs and a torso like a kangaroo, a flat, wide tail like a beaver, a head like a bird of prey, and webbed paws. Their tail slapping the water is often compared to the sound of canoe paddles striking the water.

Billdads feed on fish who venture too near the surface of Boundary Lake. Their powerful hind legs propel them from the shore to the spot of their prey, which they strike dead with their flat tail. They devour the fish then use their webbed paws to swim back to shore. Reproducing asexually, these creatures replenish their numbers from humans or animals foolish enough to kill and eat a Billdad, causing them to morph into another Billdad.  Continue reading

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MONSTER RALLY: BEATRICE THE POISON WOMAN

FOR THE OTHER CREATURES IN THIS MONSTER RALLY CLICK HERE 

Rappaccini's Daughter 2BEATRICE RAPPACCINI

First Appearance: Rappaccini’s Daughter (1844)

Cryptid Category: Human-plant hybrid.

Lore: Beatrice Rappaccini, also called the Poison Woman, had been experimented on by her mad scientist father since infancy. Some dark rumors even held that the father – Doctor Giacomo Rappaccini – had spawned her from a seed-pod and that his tales of a wife were lies.

Beatrice was so toxic that she was the only one alive who could come into contact with the monstrous and deadly plants in her father’s courtyard garden. The Poison Woman’s beauty drove men wild, tempting many admirers to brave the dangers of her father’s mutated plant life.

The dark beauty’s flesh was a toxic poison and her breath could kill insects, snakes, rats and small children. Dead creatures made the ideal fertilizer for the creations of Beatrice’s father. It was hinted that Beatrice fed on the vermin killed by her breath, just like Venus Flytraps and other carnivorous plant-life. Continue reading

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