Fantasy Fridays: Creature Feature

In one of my favorite mythical tales, Odysseus and his crew faced extraordinary odds on their journey to their homeland (Ithaca) after defeating the Trojan monarchy and laying waste to Troy. Odysseus and company were captured by Calypso who wanted to marry Odysseus, forced to battle a Cyclops and contend with angry gods, and required to sail their way through the horrors of Scylla and Charybdis.

If you're familiar with the Odyssey, you know Charybdis was a sea monster who sucked unsuspecting ships into the depths of the ocean via a frightfully powerful whirlpool. Across the strait from this sea monster stood Scylla, a beast with many heads who legend says was no kinder to seafarers than Charybdis. Forced to choose between the two, Odysseus chose to face Scylla, and promptly lost six of his men.

Most believe Scylla and Charybdis were mythical beasts cooked up in Homer's mind, but that's not quite true. In reality, such a dangerous passage exists in the Straits of Messina. On one side sits Charybdis, a whirlpool. On the other sits Scylla, a large grouping of dangerous, rocky shoals. Neither are sea monsters, obviously, but it's not hard to see why Homer thought they were.

And Scylla and Charybdis aren't the only monsters ripped from the pages of fantasy that aren't quite as imaginary as we believed! The world is full of mysterious creatures we've been told don't really exist, but actually kind of do.

Here are some of my favorites:

1. Hobbits - Remember when you first realized Hobbits weren't real? If you're like me, you were beyond disappointed. But don't count the hobbits out just yet! Several years ago, researchers discovered the bones of a group of tiny people in a cave in the Indonesian island of Flores. These little people stood three feet tall and had skulls one third the size of a modern person.

Not real hobbits

2. The Kraken - In addition to being an ominous sounding monster to release, the Kraken was pretty terrifying to behold, according to those who wrote about this sea creature. In reality, the Kraken myth didn't quite hold up until a Japanese crew filmed a Colossal Squid not long ago, at which point we learned the Kraken might not be so mythical after all. The Colossal Squid can grow to fifty and sixty feet. They also have wickedly sharp hooks up and down their tentacles. Kinda creepy, right?

3. Dire Wolf - These video game characters are much larger and stronger than their gray wolf counterparts. They're excellent hunters. They're also rather terrifying, but they don't exist. Anymore, that is. Dire wolves were real once upon a time, but they went extinct over 16,000 years ago.

4. Berserkers - According to Norse myth, the Berserkers were skilled warriors who possessed superhuman strength and prowess on the battlefield. They were hard to kill, and some even turned into frightful wolves in the heat of battle. These bad boys were one of the greatest weapons the Norse people possessed. We've always assumed this was just a myth, but turns out we were wrong. Sort of. The Berserkers didn't turn into wolves, but they did take a powerful hallucinogen that made them the lean, mean, crazy fighting machines history remembers.

xoxo,

Ayden