Monsters and Creatures: Discover Beasts from Lore and Legends
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley October 15, 2018
Author Gabiann Marin
Distributor: Rockpool Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-925017-45-8
Publisher: Rockpool Publishing
Release Date: September 2018
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Monsters and Creatures have dominated the annuls of history, some with relevance, some fictitious and others with a purpose. There are many that have pedigree such as Dracula, created from the pen of Bram Stoker in 1897, who eventually meet with a fitting end.
It is considered that the storyline is directly associated with the legends of Vampires of Eastern Europe, where Vlad the Impaler, known as Dracula, lived in Castle Dracula.
Another popular creature was Frankenstein created by Mary Shelley during a weekend house party in 1818 and placed firmly into horror history when Boris Karloff gave him a face and a real to life character in the hit Movie of the same name, filmed in 1931.
In the same category as the living dead, zombies and mummies have achieved a strange style of fame in modern times, particularly around Halloween. The Hebrew Golem is large silent, clay or earth type human looking giant, who as folklore has it were created by Jewish rabbis to perform menial tasks and add protection to protect the Jewish communities.
The Japanese Nuppeppo is considered as an animated, stinking blob of stinking white flesh that delights in hanging around cemeteries and can aid immortality.
Night Mares and the beautiful, beloved and revered Unicorn, a purportedly mythical beast, with history that goes far back in time, have a complete section to themselves. Marco Polo claimed he encountered a unicorn in his travels in the 11th century, calling it ugly and Genghis Khan also declared he too had seen a unicorn when attempting to invade India. The bible also refers to beast that could be unicorns but many consider were most like to be an extinct type of wild ox.
Night Mares such as the Irish Pooka and the Scottish, The Kelpie, were seen as downright mischievous and evil with the ghost of The Kelpie slayed on the banks of Loch Ness, and now considered as linked with the famous monster of the Loch, The Loch Ness Monster or ‘Nessie’ as it is open referred.
Written by Gabiann Marin, a lover of all things supernatural, she brings the Monsters and the Creatures of legends back into the light, allowing an exploration of their creation, the facts and often fiction, the folkloric and true belief that has kept these creatures alive throughout the ages.
Most ancient cultures had a monster or too in their legends, others as part of their culture, many were stories created for a particular purpose, many developing a following of their own such as the magical Unicorn and the mysterious Mermaid.
The work is well documented adding another dimension to this fascinating subject matter, with some of the documentation recording sightings or discoveries of the existence of these creatures, such as the unicorn in modern times.
Released in time to read up before Halloween, this is the perfect answer to what is behind the legends of Monsters and Creatures which have lived under many a bed, stayed in the dark of closets and have often by default, become firm favourites in the genre of Horror and Mystery we love to frighten ourselves with from time to time.