Creatures in the Mist: Little People, Wild Men and Spirit Beings around the World, A Study in Comparative Mythology

222 Pages·2007·2.19 MB·English

by  Gary R. Varner

C M
reatures in the ist

C M
reatures in the ist
Little People, Wild Men and
Spirit Beings around the World
A Study in Comparative Mythology
Gary R. Varner
Algora Publishing
New York
© 2007 by Algora Publishing.
All Rights Reserved
www.algora.com
No portion of this book (beyond what is permitted by
Sections 107 or 108 of the United States Copyright Act of 1976)
may be reproduced by any process, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the
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ISBN-13: 978-0-87586-545-4 (trade paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-87586-546-1 (hard cover)
ISBN-13: 978-0-87586-547-8 (ebook)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data —
Varner, Gary R.
Creatures in the mist: little people, wild men and spirit beings around the world : a
study in comparative mythology / Gary R. Varner.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-87586-545-4 (trade paper: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-87586-546-1 (hard
cover: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-87586-547-8 (ebook) 1. Mythology—Comparative
studies. I. Title.
BL312.V27 2007
398.4—dc22
2006102141
Front Cover: © Layne Kennedy/Corbis
Howling Wolf on Mountain Peak © Corbis
Printed in the United States
For Tim and Brenna
Other Books by Gary R. Varner
Essays in Contemporary Paganism, 2000
Sacred Wells: A Study in the History, Meaning, and Mythology of Holy Wells & Waters,
2002
Water of Life — Water of Death: The Folklore & Mythology of Sacred Waters, 2004
Menhirs, Dolmen and Circles of Stone: The Folklore & Magic of Sacred Stone, Algora Publishing,
2004
The Mythic Forest, the Green Man and the Spirit of Nature, Algora Publishing, 2006
Strangely Wrought Creatures of Life & Death: Ancient Symbolism in European and
American Architecture, 2006
The Dark Wind: Witches and the Concept of Evil, 2007
Acknowledgements
This book could not have been written without the people who have been recording
folklore around the world for the last two centuries. Lewis Spence, Alexander Porteous,
Lady Wilde, Anne Ross, James Mooney, Joseph Campbell, Mircea Eliade, John Gregorson
Campbell, Donald A. Mackenzie, Sir James Frazer, H.R. Ellis Davidson, Carl Jung and
Jyoti Sahi are just a few of those scholars, living and dead, that have offered so much to the
study of the rituals and beliefs of human beings around the world and throughout time. I
offer my thanks and gratitude for their work.
Thanks to Dr. Brian Siegel, Anthropologist, Sociology Department at Furman
University, Greenville, South Carolina for permission to quote from his paper “Water
Spirits and Mermaids: The Copperbelt Case.”1 Thanks also to David Catherine, formerly
of the University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa for his assistance in providing materials
on the indigenous traditions of the people of South Africa in regards to water spirits and
water in general.
The line drawing illustrations that appear in this book are in the public domain. The
Wild Man appearing in Chapter 7 is taken from The Sports and Pastimes of the English People
by Joseph Strutt, published 1801. The drawings of the mermaid, the Snake People of Hell
and the illustration on the title page are taken from Adventures of Telemachus, published
by D. Appleton & Company, New York, ca. 1889. The other line drawings are from The
Complete Encyclopedia of Illustration by J. G. Heck, published by Gramercy Books, New York,
1979. This is a reproduction of two of the four volumes of The Iconographic Encyclopaedia of
Science, Literature, and Art published in 1851 by R. Garrigue, New York. The photographs of
the Native American snake petroglyph in Arizona, the antlered-man pub sign in Ashland,
Oregon, the bat carving on the Chester Cathedral in Chester, England, the Harpy that
resides in the British Museum and the photo of Bast were taken by the author.
Gary R. Varner
California
1 A paper given at the Spring 2000 Southeastern Regional Seminar in African Studies
(SERSAS), Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina on April 14 & 15,
2000.