

Seeing a doppelganger was considered a bad omen. Doppelgangerĭoppelgangers are the legendary creatures that were told to be the double spirits of people.Īlthough they looked exactly the same with the person in question, doppelgangers were not the twins of those people.Īccording to the belief, doppelgangers had no reflections in the mirror or cast shadows. In the old times, people were warned about not to pick a comb if they found one as it might have belonged to a banshee. He actually fell victim to their conspiracy eventually. Image Credit: Īccording to the myth, King James I of Scotland met one of these wailing women who told him that he would be killed by Earl of Atholl and his co-conspirators. They also had red eyes because they wept all the time.

BansheeĪ banshee is a female spirit from Irish folklore believed to be the harbinger of death.īanshees, known as “crying/wailing women”, heralded the death of a person, a relative in most of the stories.īanshees looked like young women combing their hair with a silver or golden comb or sometimes old women. The boy came to wrestle with Amarok daily and become so strong that he beat three bears and earned respect from his people.Īlthough its origin is also linked to shunka warakin, hyaenodon and waheela, the myth of Amarok was most likely based on stories about direwolves told by ancient Eskimo people.

Knocking the boy down with its tail, Amarok broke some bones in his body and told the boy that he could not move before because of those bones. One of the few legends regarding Amarok suggests that a boy who was unable to move and disliked by his people prayed for the god of strength and Amarok came to his aid. Amarok the WolfĪmarok, also known as Amaroq, is a giant wolf in Inuit mythology which was believed to kill people hunting alone. Image Credit: ĭespite its harmless appearance, this beast could kill creatures much larger than itself by stabbing them with its horn and then devour them.Īccording to the belief, only a true witch could render Al-mi’raj harmless ensuring others to come close and carry the beast away. Al-mi’raj is a mythical creature in Islamic mythology which is basically a hare (rabbit) with a single horn on its forehead much like a unicorn.Īl-mi’raj lived on a mysterious island named Jezîrat al-Tennyn within Indian Ocean. The third creature in our list of mythical creatures hails from the East. Wearing red clothes, bracelets or necklaces is said to provide protection against Acheri. It is believed to lure some children back to its home in some cases. Although it is a revenge spirit, it does not target specific individuals and very rarely adult people. Wandering around mountainsides, Acheri comes down at night to spread death especially among children by making them sick.Ĭasting its shadow is enough for acheri to make children sick. According to the belief, Acheri is a ghost of a young girl that died a terrible death either by being murdered or by being left to die after being abused. She is often depicted with a comb in her hair, leading to an Irish superstition that finding a comb on the ground is considered bad luck.Acheri is a mythical creature in Native American folklore which is believed to be a revenge spirit. According to other accounts, on the other hand, it is an older woman with stringy gray hair, rotten teeth, and fiery red eyes. In most cases, the Banshee is a woman with long, red hair and ashen skin. The physical descriptions of the Banshees vary somewhat. The Banshees were Celtic death messengers, and although it is unknown precisely when stories of the Banshee first were told, they can be traced back as far as the early eighth century. The Irish do not believe the Banshee causes death but merely warns of it. Brooke - Public Domainįrom Irish folklore, we learn that whenever you heard the thin scream of the Banshee, you knew death was around the corner. "Bunworth Banshee", från Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland av Thomas Crofton Croker (1825). In Ireland, these frightening beings were known as the Banshees. Throughout history and across cultures, stories and myths of beings forewarn human death.
