What's Your Favorite Monster?

Pickens writes "Mankind has always had a fascination with monsters, and mythologies from around the world include stories of strange and terrifying creatures. Examples include the half-bull, half-human Minotaur of Greek myths, the living clay Golem of Jewish traditions, British elves and Chinese dragons. Live Science has an interesting photo essay on their ten favorite monsters that may have a basis in real life. Their rogue's gallery includes the Ogopogo, a mysterious monster in Canada's Lake Okanagan; the Chupacabra, that Latin Americans believe is the unholy result of secret US government experiments in the jungles of Puerto Rico; and the perennial favorite Bigfoot."

Roc

[jonaskoelker]

Llanowar Elves ;)

Article correction:

[ForestGrump]

Number 1 is Bigfoot (also known as Sasquatch).

Contrary to popular belief, Sasquatchians are NOT fictional. Sasquatch is actually the proper term for those who live in the Canadian providence of Saskatchewan.

For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasquatch [wikipedia.org]

rtfm

[desierto]

Jorge Luis Borges wrote a fine manual [amazon.com] on this. (Read This For Monsters!)

Trolls

[teh kurisu]

I read somewhere about the idea that the trolls of Scandinavian folklore had their roots in human interactions with the remnants of the Neanderthals. I quite liked that idea, even if it's almost certainly not true. The troll under the bridge was one of the scariest stories I was told when I was wee. I hated crossing bridges over burns for a long time after that.

There was an interesting fictional documentary programme on a couple of years ago about an archaeologist who was uncovering evidence that dragons had lived alongside the dinosaurs, and survived up until relatively recently. I wish I could remember the name of it.

Bigfoot is pratically unknown ouside the US

[andi75]

Most Europeans have no clue who bigfoot is, yet he's #1 on that list. There was a monster movie called bigfoot a couple of years ago, but it was forgotten quickly. Actually more famous are the pair of short skis with the same name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skiboarding [wikipedia.org]

Also, what about the Yeti?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeti [wikipedia.org]

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Re:Humans

[elrous0]

I used to be a misanthrope myself. Then I worked briefly in college at a convenience store in a shitty part of town. Contrary to what you would expect, you know what it taught me? It taught me that people, by and large, are decent. I expected to have a shitty "Clerks" type experience, but what I got was a more positive view of humanity.

When I overpaid in change, most people would tell me. Most people would help me out when I made a mistake. When someone was looking for directions, people would help them out (even if I couldn't). Shoplifters were very rare. Most people were honest and decent--even in this shitty neighborhood.

Re:Humans

[Backward Z]

"Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous is are the common men, the functionaries willing to believe and to act without asking questions."

-Primo Levy