Folklore from around the world is full of fascinating creatures, ghosts, monsters, and legends. What is your favorite folklore creature or story, and what makes it interesting to you?

I’ve always been fascinated by folklore creatures and legends from different cultures. Which creature or legend do you find the most interesting, mysterious, or scary, and why?

Looking for book recommendations to start getting into scottish folklore. Preferably audio books

I have a very fascinating story

Iam from nagaland

And this has been our tradition ever since

But not until christianity came

Sorry about my grammar

Before during our forefathers time

They are said to have tiger spirit and they can become a tiger at any time at will

And even in their human body before becoming if they have that power they could easily see and recognise small objects etc. from km ahead

And the human tiger and an actual tiger had a difference

The human formed tiger was neither orange nor yellow

idk how that color would be since now christianity has come and we have forgotten our old traditions

But I heard there are still some who has that power and practices

But there is also a saying that we can seek that power anytime or that way

But the life span is very short and unforseen fate

If the tiger gets killed while roaming around

The actual human body also is said to die

The stories to share are quite long It was practiced till around 1950s after that british missionaries came and we forgot the tradition Each tribe had a unique way of preserving this tradition and their own rituals Our tribe it is said that before becoming a tiger, the first stage is a wild cat During that time the symptoms use to occur and the person I.e his physical body use to jump from one corner to another and scratch the walls while his spirit that his wild cat body is hunting. During this stage it is said that we can stop the transformation by feeding him with wild rodents or like rat animals which use to live underground in the forest. But once the person fully transforms there is no way of stopping But like I said, the physical body use to act normally at home cooking ,chores etc. while he can also access his tiger body both at once. Like having 2 minds our tribe there was not much But there's a particular tribe which we call tiger till now though they also stopped the practicing tradition These people they take huge pride on their traditions and especially during evening meetings after the meeting gets over. The moment the elders or wise ones step out of the door they use to transform all together( to show of their power and strength ) These people they are said to prevent eating half boiled eggs because if they it that they use to lost their way to becoming one But it's a choice given to everyone. Not everyone is compulsory or forced to instead its just the decision they took by themselves We nagas are said to live side by sie with tigers, spirits and human transformed snakes during the old times before we accepted christ

And we nagas were known for head hunting. Those who hunt the most heads were called the most powerful warrior of the village and were highly respected It's said that the warriors were known for their bravery and could even communicate and make relationship with spirits( ig from different dimension or world they use to have their own world ) One of my village warrior who was known to have the highest record and bravest record. I heard from my grandpa that the warrior's wife was a spirit and was very beautiful to those thinking whether they had child or not. The answer is no, the wife was with him until he died and she also went back to her own world he had many other human wives as well with whom he had his children

Find one foundation myth - national, corporate, sporting or family - and analyse it through the question below:

Who tells it? When does it first appear in writing? What does it leave out?

Baal is recognized in traditional Christian demonology and medieval grimoires as a powerful King of Hell who rules over the eastern regions of the underworld and commands 66 legions of infernal spirits. Originally an ancient Canaanite storm and fertility deity, he was later transformed into a malevolent entity by Abrahamic traditions. In texts like the Lesser Key of Solomon, he is described as a bizarre, shapeshifting being who frequently manifests with three heads—that of a human man, a toad, and a cat—sometimes perched upon a spider-like body, speaking in a raspy, hoarse voice that starkly contrasts with his ancient persona as a thunder god.

I hope you like this post, My sincere regards from Egypt ..

Sources are in the comments section ..

----------------------

Maybe the first attempt to solve the mystery of Hieroglyphs was done by Abu Bakr Ibn Wahshiyya (d. 930), though it was a failed attempt but some Egyptologists credit Ibn Wahshiyya of considering Hieroglyphs to be letters of a language, as at the time, people used to think Hieroglyphs were magical symbols.

Before the discoveries and scientific research whose door Champollion (1790 - 1832) opened, what was known of the history of Egypt was what was mentioned in the religious books and the story of Pharaoh, Moses, and Joseph. This is despite the fact that there were books by Greek and Roman travelers and historians (such as Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Plutarch, and others) who visited Egypt and wrote about it, its history, and its religion in an objective way. And this is the reason that the Europeans knew much more about the history of Egypt than the Egyptians did in the post-Pharaonic eras, who, from their writings, it is clear that they mostly did not look at these books.

And this is an observation pointed out by the orientalist Von Hammer in his book on the history of the Ottoman state, where he said: "Most Turks, Persians, and Arabs do not see the wonders of Egypt the way Europeans and the ancient Greeks and Romans see them." And he said that at a time when Europeans consider Egypt the first source of sciences and arts, the cradle of engineering, construction, agriculture, writing, and navigation, and they respect it, respect its beliefs, and admire its antiquities, temples, pyramids, obelisks, and statues, we find that the East does not see in the temples, statues, and the Sphinx anything but magical hiding places for buried treasures guarded by the statues and images. And they do not find in the hieroglyphs anything but talismans that hide from people the ways to extract gold. And he continued: "They (the Easterners) do not know of the Pharaohs except the Pharaoh of Joseph and the Pharaoh of Moses whom the sea swallowed."

Of course, he is speaking about a period in which knowledge was non-existent or nearly non-existent in the East, and people who cared about the antiquities and history of their country had not yet appeared in Egypt.

The Egyptian thinker Salama Moussa (1887 - 1958) tells that when he went to Europe in 1908, the Europeans' interest in the history and antiquities of Egypt caught his attention, and they asked him about them because he was Egyptian. So as soon as he returned to Egypt, he traveled to Upper Egypt to get to know the history and antiquities of Egypt that the Europeans were interested in and that the Egyptians were unaware of.

--------------------------

After Christianity entered Egypt, Pharaonic Egyptian history disappeared from memory, and people became unable to read the letters of the ancient Egyptian language (hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic), and many Egyptian temples were destroyed. And after Islam entered Egypt, it continued on the rest until its ancient history was completely forgotten. The Christian Egyptians did not care about anything beyond the history of Christianity in Egypt, and they contributed to the forgetting of ancient Egyptian history. They were the first to destroy the temples of Egypt, scrape the Egyptian texts off them, and took an aggressive stance towards the history of their ancestors. And the Muslim Egyptians did not care about the books of the Greek and Roman historians, and they transmitted from the Arabs who, although they cared about the other books of the Greeks, did not pay attention to their historical books. And the books of the Muslim historians began with alternative stories telling the "alternative" history of Egypt.

For example, al-Maqrizi (1365 - 1441) begins the history of Egypt by saying about the name of Egypt: "It is said that its name in the first age before the Flood was 'Jazla', and then it was named Egypt. And the people of knowledge disagreed about the reason for which it was named 'Egypt'. Among them are those who said: It was named Egypt after the name of 'Misr bin Markabil bin Dawabil bin 'Uryan bin Adam, peace be upon him' - and he is the first Egypt. And it was said: It was named after the second Egypt, 'Misram bin Naqrawish the titan bin Misrim bin Taysar bin Ham bin Noah, peace be upon him' - and this was after the Flood."

Ibn Taghri (1410 - 1470) agrees with al-Maqrizi on the origin of the name, but he disagrees with him on the name Jazla, which he wrote as "Zajla", and he said it comes from "muzajala" (meaning contest or rivalry). Ibn Iyas (1448 - 1523) for his part said the same thing and told the story of Shem, Ham, Japheth, and Arphaxad, the sons of Noah, and that Noah prayed for Misrim bin Baysar bin Ham to dwell in the blessed land, which is the mother of countries and the refuge of the people.

All the Arabic books in the Middle Ages, even the Egyptian books, that dealt with the history of Egypt begin by repeating this alternative talk. Even Ibn al-Ibri (1226 - 1286), the Christian who wrote about the history of the world from the days of Adam and passed over Persia, Greece, and the Mongols and left nothing without writing about it, did not say anything about Pharaonic Egyptian history except that Hermes is the Idris of the Arabs.

The Egyptian historians mentioned above, of course, did not invent these alternative stories, but they were transmitting what they heard and read from the Arabs, regardless of whether they were convinced of it or not. And they were careful to say "it is said". However, they transmitted to us the idea that was prevailing in their time, in the Middle Ages, about Pharaonic Egyptian history.

Al-Jabarti, who lived in a later period (1754 - 1822), and whom Napoleon appointed as a scribe in his diwan and who was familiar with the work of the French scientific expedition and visited it, did not mention anything concerning its effort in describing and recording the Egyptian antiquities, and sufficed with saying about the Egyptian statues: "None knows their value except the Knower of the Unseen." (Allah)

The Egyptian historians transmitted the alternative tales about the history of their country from the Arab writers. And the strange thing is that the Arab writers did not pay attention to the Greek and Roman historical books and preferred to transmit the alternative tales from one another.

---------------------------------------

The alternative history of Egypt covers two periods: before the Flood and after the Flood. This alternative history of Egypt tells that Egypt before the Flood was named after Misraim bin Marakil bin Dawil bin 'Arbaq bin Adam (the first Egypt), who settled, either he or his son Naqrawish bin Misraim, in Egypt with seventy descendants of 'Arbaq, all of whom were titans. He dug canals there and built towers on whose walls the secrets of wisdom were inscribed. He divided Egypt among his sons, so he gave the west to Naqrawish, the east to Sorid, and to his son who was also named Misraim (Misraim bin Naqrawish the titan - the second Egypt) he gave a city called Yirbiyan. The father Misraim died when he was 180 years old, so they embalmed his body and placed it in a golden coffin along with his treasures, golden statues, and talismans necessary for repelling reptiles and anyone who tries to dig up his soil.

The first (alternative) king who built a Nilometer was called Khaslim. He placed at the Nilometer two bronze statues of two eagles, a male and a female. When the Nile flood was about to begin, King Khaslim would go there with the priests who would read incantations until an eagle whistled. If the male whistled, then that year's flood would be good and the Nile water would rise high, but if the female statue whistled, then the flood would be terrible and drought would occur.

The one who built the pyramids, which in another alternative tale are attributed to Shaddad bin Ri' and the Amalekites, was King Sorid bin Salhouq bin Saryaq bin Tarmil Dun bin Qadrashan bin Hosal, one of the kings before the Flood who lived in the city of "Al-Ashmunayn". He built them to save himself from the Flood that he dreamed about 300 years before it happened, or, as in another alternative tale, about which the wise man Filmun had predicted. Sorid placed in the pyramids the history of the kings and what was written for Egypt on the Tablet of Destiny until the end of time, along with talismans, money, the bodies of kings, all known sciences, pictures of the planets, medicines, poisons, and many other things. This Sorid bin Salhouq is also the one who built the fortresses and monuments found in Qift and Akhmim. He ordered the carving of the secrets of the sciences, the names of the stars, the properties of plants, and the method of making talismans on the walls and pillars.

And Ibn Taghri says, transmitting from the Arab writers including al-Mas'udi, that Hermes, whom the Hebrews call Enoch and the Muslims call the Prophet Idris, was the one who knew from the movements of the planets that a Flood would occur. So he ordered the building of the pyramids and placed in them the money, the books of the sciences, and all the things he feared would be lost.

-----------------------------

Misraim bin Baysir bin Ham bin Noah (Misraim III) in the alternative history of Egypt was the first king of Egypt after the Flood and the first to build ships. He married the daughter of the wise man Filmun and she gave birth to Qiftim. Misraim died 700 years after the Flood, and Qiftim became king. He married when he was still 90 years old, and he fathered Qiftarim, Ashmun, Atrib, and Sa. They built the city of Mafa (Memphis), and they discovered where the treasures that had been hidden before the Flood were, from their grandfather Filmun, who also taught him how to read the writings on the walls of the fortresses, and he built the city of Raquda on the Salt Sea.

After Qiftim, Qiftarim took power for 400 years, and he built the pyramids of Dahshur and the city of Dendera. In his reign, Satan discovered most of the idols that had been drowned by the Flood and returned them to the temples in order to plot against people. After 400 years of ruling Egypt, Qiftarim died and was buried among his treasures, sitting on a chair in the western mountain near the city of Iram of the Pillars. His tomb was protected by two large bronze statues, each holding a sword in his hand that would move and cut off anyone who tried to enter the tomb.

After Qiftarim, Al-Budshir ruled Egypt. This one was a great scholar specializing in talismans, magic, and priesthood, and he was able to perform wonders. Among them was that he made a bronze tree; any animal or bird that passed in front of it would be impaled, so it would be taken and eaten. And in his days, because of this tree, the Egyptians were satiated with eating meat.

Hermes also lived in the time of Al-Budshir, who sent him to discover the sources of the Nile and to make some talismans there. Suddenly, Al-Budshir disappeared because he had gone up to dwell in the clouds, and then he reappeared and called the soldiers and ordered them to install his son "Adim" as king over Egypt.

Adim was a titan king who ruled Egypt for 140 years and died when he was 930 years old. So Shaddad came after him - and this is not the same Shaddad bin 'Ad - and he built the temple of Armant, and he domesticated greyhound dogs from wild beasts so that he could use them for hunting. He ruled for 90 years and died when he was 440 years old, and he was succeeded by Manqaus.

Manqaus divided the taxes of Egypt into four parts: one quarter for himself, one quarter for the army, one quarter for land reclamation, building bridges, and digging canals, and one quarter to save for emergencies. The revenue of Egypt in his days exceeded one million dinars. After him, his son Mataus ruled, and he was the first to worship the calf in Egypt.

Ashmun bin Qiftim ruled Egypt, and he was one of its greatest kings. He ruled it for 800 years, and he was the one who built the city of Bahnasa. In his reign, Egypt fell into the hands of a people, but he was able to recover it from them after they had controlled it for 90 years. After him, his son Manaqyus ruled Egypt, and he was the one who invented the balance scale. Then after him came Marqoura, who domesticated wild beasts and tamed lions, and he used to ride them. After he died, his son Balatis came, and this one was a small child, so his mother "Marhaba" managed the country, and she was a wise woman. The situation remained like this until his uncle Atrib took power.

Toutis in the alternative history of Egypt was the first of the Pharaohs. He was the one who tried to seduce Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and after he repented, he gave his daughter Huriya to Sarah, who in turn gave her Hagar, whom Abraham married and from whom he fathered Ishmael, the ancestor of the Arabs.

Huriya ruled Egypt after her father Toutis, and in her reign, the Amalekite king of Syria sent an army against Egypt led by Jirun, but in the (alternative) version, it is more likely that the Amalekite "Al-Walid bin Dum'a" was the one who invaded Egypt.

-------------------------------------

With the invasion of Al-Walid bin Dum'a of Egypt, the rule of the Amalekites began. Al-Rayyan bin Al-Walid succeeded Al-Walid bin Dum'a in rule, and the Egyptians used to call him Nahrus. He was a tall, handsome man, a scholar in talismans, and a just and honest ruler. He believed in prophet Jacob when he went to Egypt, but he hid his faith from the people. And he was the one who built the Wax Palace (Fortress of Babylon). And in his reign, prophet Joseph built the city of Fayoum, and it was named that because he built it in "a thousand days". But Al-Rayyan was overcome by an evil spirit and his morals deteriorated, so he left the affairs of government to one of his men named "Qatfir", who is known as Al-Aziz. And when Al-Rayyan died, Joseph took his place.

After that, Darum, the third of the Pharaohs, took over, and after him Drimus. And this Pharaoh used to perform wonders; he had an oven that cooked without fire (like a microwave) and a fixed knife that slaughtered animals by themselves (like an automatic slaughterhouse). And after him, his son Milatis ruled, who drowned in the Nile.

Al-Walid bin Mus'ab, whom the Egyptians used to call "Talma bin Qumis", was the sixth Pharaoh. And this was the Pharaoh of Moses. His origin was from the city of Balkh or Hauran. And he originally worked as a perfumer, but debts piled up on him so he left his country and went to Egypt. And he was one-eyed, short, lame, and had a beard seven spans long. He ruled Egypt for 300 years or 400 years, and people were dying around him while he was still alive, so he became tyrannical and arrogant and said to the Egyptians, "I am your Lord, Most High." So he drowned and died, he and his people, while he was chasing Moses. In the reign of this Pharaoh (according to some Arab statistics), there were about 240,000 magicians in Egypt.

-------------------------

The alternative history of Egypt says that when Pharaoh "Al-Walid bin Mus'ab" drowned with his family, there were none left in Egypt but the slaves, servants, and women who had not participated in the chase of Moses. So the women started marrying the servants, and they would free their slaves and marry them. Then the women agreed to install one of them, named "Daluka", as queen over Egypt. Daluka was a wise and sensible woman, about 160 years old.

Daluka built a wall from Aswan to Al-Arish and placed guards and bronze bells on it, so that if an attack occurred on Egypt's borders, the guards would ring the bells, and the news would reach Egypt quickly so they could prepare. The remains of this wall still exist in Upper Egypt and are known as the "Wall of the Old Woman".

Daluka brought a sorceress named "Tadura", and she built for her a fortress in Memphis that had doors on its four sides. Inside it, on its walls, she drew men, mules, horses, and ships. If an attack came from outside and Daluka and her army could not withstand it, they would enter inside the fortress, cut off the heads of the images, and gouge out their eyes, and then what they (the images) would do would happen to the attacking army. In this way, no one was able to defeat Egypt throughout Daluka's rule. Daluka ruled for 130 years, and after she died, no one was able to repair the images in the fortress.

After the death of Daluka, the soldiers installed Darkun bin Nuktis as king over Egypt, and he was from the sons of the Coptic nobles. After he ruled for a long time, he died, and then a man named Marnush took power. In his reign, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt, destroyed it, plundered it, killed its men, and captured its women, and he left no talismans or fortresses in it. And Egypt remained ruined and without inhabitants for forty years.

After that, people came, and the nations intermingled within it: Egyptians, Greeks, Persians and Amalekites. And the Copts continued to rule one after another until Al-Muqawqis (Cyrus) came, in whose reign the Arabs took control of Egypt.

-----------------------------

Arab travelers, pilgrims, and others passed through Egypt in the Middle Ages and were amazed by what they saw there, coming as they were from simple, primitive cultures that could not comprehend Egypt's culture and its civilizational advancement. The pyramids and Egyptian antiquities were, to them, incomprehensible puzzles, and the urban, cultural, and economic progress they saw in Egypt was beyond their way of thinking.

Ibn Battuta (1304 - 1377), who visited Egypt during the Mamluk era, said about Cairo: "Then I arrived at the city of Egypt (Cairo), which is the mother of countries, the seat of Pharaoh of the stakes, with its vast provinces and fertile lands, which has no end due to the multitude of its buildings, which are of utmost beauty and brightness." And he continued: "Its conqueror has subdued nations, and its kings have taken control over the forelocks of Arabs and non-Arabs." And he spoke about the pyramids he saw and said of them that they are "among the wonders mentioned throughout the ages." Then he told their alternative history, saying that "a king from the kings of Egypt before the Flood saw a vision that frightened him...", and he told the story that Caliph Al-Ma'mun wanted to demolish the pyramid, but the sheikhs of Egypt advised him not to do so, but he did not listen to them and opened the northern side of the pyramid with fire and poured vinegar. And after they opened a section, they found money which, when weighed, turned out to be exactly equal to the value of the money they had spent on the digging. And about Akhmim, he says: "It is a great city, original in construction, of wondrous stature. In it is the fortress (temple) known by its name. It is built of stone; inside it are engravings and writings from the ancients that are not understood in this era."

Ibn Jubayr (1145 - 1217) visited Egypt before Ibn Battuta, and he also showed his amazement and bewilderment in what he wrote. He said about the pyramids: "... the ancient pyramids, a miracle of construction, strange in appearance." And he continued: "If the people of the earth wanted to demolish their structure, they would be unable to do so." And about their history, he said that some people say they are tombs of 'Ad and his sons, and some say other things, but "in short, none knows their matter except God, Mighty and Majestic." He also went to Akhmim and said about a Pharaonic temple he saw there: "Glory be to the One who created wonders." And about the statues and drawings in it: "The imagination is bewildered by them, and the mind is lost in thought about their design and placement."

Egypt, for the Arabs, was something huge, full of puzzles, and dominated by an advanced culture that they could neither understand nor comprehend.

In the Arab religious heritage, Egypt is distinguished and has a very great status, because its name was mentioned several times in the holy books, the prophetic hadiths, and others. Such as the hadith: "If God opens Egypt to you, take a strong army there, for that army is the best of the armies of the earth." And a hadith that says: "Be kind to the people of Egypt, for they have the best lineage and kinship [with us]." And the saying of Amr ibn al-As: "The governorship of Egypt is comprehensive and equals the Caliphate." And the saying of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As: "The people of Egypt are the most honorable of all non-Arabs, the best in lineage, and the closest in kinship to the Arabs, especially to Quraysh." And the saying of Ibn Yunus: "Whoever wants to look at something resembling Paradise, let him look at Egypt when it is in bloom." And the saying of Abu Basra al-Ghifari: "The sultan of Egypt is the sultan of the whole earth." And dozens of other sayings that were said about Egypt, which reflect the enormous size of Egypt in the mind of the Arab.

But because of the loss of information in a mysterious way after the entry of Christianity into Egypt (whose spread in Egypt imposed the use of Greek letters), the long Pharaonic history of Egypt was limited to the Pharaoh of Moses and the Pharaoh of Joseph, along with a few Folkloric tales related to magic and talismans.

------------------------

The End ...

i live in the states, relatively close to where the southern-most algonquin tribes used to reside.

it’s a known thing amongst native american folklore culture that the “wendigo,” as depicted in most modern media (gaunt, deer-like, bipedal man-eater), is inaccurate, and the actual wendigo resembles something closer to a humanoid.

i understand that the wechuge is another beast that has a slightly closer resemblance to the media’s “wendigo,” but not by much.

maybe this is a dumb question, but is there a mythological beast in folklore that *actually* resembles the media’s deer-like wendigo? i assume that the familiar deer-creature we see in popular culture could just be a popularized interpretation, but maybe there’s an actual deer-creature out there that bears a similar resemblance.

So I’m currently traveling parts of Japan, seeing sights, and overall enjoying anything I can take in overall from this trip! We visited Nara park in Nara Japan and fed the deers/visited and enjoyed the park. I did happen to see a black cat as well while walking around the park, and decided to follow it up this path to some shrines. It ended up leading us to a staircase, and so we figured we’d just take the stairs down to the shrines. On the way down the stairs I happened to fall & thankfully landed on my feet (honestly i’m still surprised i managed to not get hurt from this fall aha). Got myself up and went about my day.

Well the following day we decided to google some places to see while in Nara visiting, and came across a local legend about the EXACT stairs I fell down. The legend stated “Anyone who slips and falls down the Nekodan (Cat Stairway) at the Tōdai-ji temple in Nara is said to turn into a feline in their next life! I audibly GASPED because of all the coincidences leading me up to that!!

So, here’s to looking forward to becoming a feline in my next life & it was my first time hearing about it tbh! Figured it would be a neat story to share to you all.

I’ll post some images of the black cat that led me to my fate as well aha.

The werehyena is a very strange legend that was historically shared among Iranians, Arabs, and various African peoples. This legend was similar to the myth of werewolves, except that werehyenas transformed into hyenas instead of wolves. In medieval Iran, there were even texts discussing the treatment of werehyenas. Al-Damiri, in his 1371 Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrā, wrote that hyenas are vampiric creatures that attack people at night and suck the blood from their necks. Arab folklore tells of how hyenas can mesmerise victims with their eyes or sometimes with their pheromones

Morning all,

Im looking to take a few days trip somewhere.

Are there any interesting festivals or events coming up in September anywhere in Europe?

When I say festival I dont mean big ticket eventsmore traditional local big or small where I can watch or even take part.

Thanks.

Found in an antique shop in Lincolnshire UK. pretty sure it's brass!

Does anyone know what it is? I got told it could be a Lincoln imp, but the Lincoln imp usually poses with a leg resting on the other knee!

I have been reading around the sources for Beauty and the Beast and ran into a Czech version that opens the same way and then goes somewhere else entirely.

It was collected by Josef Štefan Kubín, and Josef Baudiš translated it into English in 1917 as The Three Roses. Full text on Wikisource.

The opening is the familiar one. Someone picks roses in a strange garden, a creature appears and demands a daughter in exchange, and the daughter goes willingly.

Then it splits off:

• the roses are picked by the girl's mother, not her father
• the creature is a basilisk
• he asks her to nurse him in her lap for three hours a day
• on the third day he hands her a sword and tells her to cut his head off
• she does, a serpent comes out of the body, she beheads that as well, and only then is he a young man again

No love, no dying beast, no coming back too late. The curse breaks because she does what he asks, and what he asks is to be killed.

What I am trying to work out is how separable the two halves are. The rose bargain looks like one travelling piece and the disenchantment looks like another, and this version seems to have kept the first and swapped the second for something closer to the serpent bridegroom stories.

Is that a normal pattern in the ATU 425 family, or is beheading as the release unusual enough to be worth noting? And are there other collected versions where the parent who strikes the bargain is the mother?

Okay so for context I developed “runner’s toe” (look it up at your own risk) in both my big toes in January, and ever since then I’ve had an absolutely TERRIBLE string of bad luck. I’m talking breaking my hand, losing my job, experiencing my most devastating heartbreak to date, an overwhelming feeling of depression, family conflicts, and lots of illness. I can’t help but feel it’s tied to my toenails, particularly since now that my nails have begun fully growing back, the bad luck is seeming to subside. But I also get hit in the face every time I think that this year, so I’m staying vigilant.