According to legend, a young man named McGinnis was wandering Oak Island, an island in the Mahone Bay off the coast of Nova Scotia in Canada, in the year 1795 when he came upon an oak tree where an...
A figure from Slavic folklore , Koschei the Deathless (aka Koschei the Immortal) was known for his titular characteristic: his inability to die. What is most interesting about this figure, however,...
Prester John (known also as Presbyter John or John the Elder) was a legendary figure in Europe during the Medieval and Early Modern periods. Europeans living at that time believed that Prester John...
The discovery of 1500-year-old ruins at Tintagel in south-west England made headlines around the world. What appear to the be the walls of a Dark Age palace have been found in the exact place, and...
The Honjo Masamune is a sword that was forged by the renowned Japanese swordsmith, Goro Nyudo Masamune. This samurai sword is one of the most famous swords in Japanese history, and at one point of...
Beowulf is possibly the most famous example of Anglo-Saxon literature. The heroic epic was created between the 8th-11th century and is set in Scandinavia. In the tale, Beowulf helps the king of the...
Driving along the isolated road that runs down the scenic Hook Peninsula in Ireland’s Ancient East, it is easy to spot the mansion that has earned itself the reputation as the most haunted house in...
In 2014, archaeologists solved a long-running mystery through the discovery of a 10th century Viking artifact resembling Thor’s Hammer. Before then, they were only working with a hunch about the 1,...
Read Part One Here Scientists used to work on the assumption that Ireland was completely frozen over during the Ice Age, and therefore uninhabitable, until around 10,000 years ago. This assumption...
Could the answer to one of the world’s greatest mysteries have been under our noses all this time? The legendary lost island of Atlantis. Everyone’s heard of it and everyone’s got an opinion. Was it...
The gothic horror novel, Frankenstein , is one of the most well-known stories in which man tries to play god by attempting to manufacture a living being. A similar story, that of the golem, exists in...
It is perhaps the greatest unsolved mystery of all time: Did the lost city of Atlantis actually exist? And if it did once exist, where was it located before its watery demise? Fortunately, the...
Classical mythology is full of heroes, but Hercules (known to the Greeks as Heracles ) is undoubtedly the most celebrated of them all. Although his heroic life was packed with daring escapades from...
Most people today have heard of Merlin the Magician, as his name has been popularized over the centuries and his story has been dramatized in numerous novels, films, and television programs. The...
Hua Mulan is one of the most legendary women of ancient China. Her heroic actions were first recorded in ancient texts, retold in the famous poem Ballad of Mulan , and later popularized in the 1998...
The trickster god Loki is undoubtedly the most debated figure from Norse mythology to this day. Though he appears to be a scheming, mischievous deity who has no real loyalties, scholars still explore...
Contrary to what is happening today, humans of the past had close relationships to nature and wild animals. These bonds did not concern only utilitarian aspects, but also involved the sphere of the...
Roman mythology designates Aeneas as the founder of the great nation of Rome and ancestor to its peoples. In fact, his story begins long before Rome came into existence. While the Romans lay claim to...
The Nibelungenlied , or "The Song of the Nibelungs", is a Middle High German epic poem first written sometime in the thirteenth century. Though its author is unknown, The Nibelungenlied remains one...
The mythology of spirit doubles can be traced back thousands of years and was present in many cultures of the past, holding a prominent place in ancient legends, stories, artworks, and in books by...
The Lost Dutchman Mine is said to be a rich goldmine located somewhere in the southwestern American state of Arizona. Generally speaking, this mine is claimed to be situated in the Superstition...
Ropes of gold several meters long, Napoleonic coins, Venetian jewelry, diamond belts, emeralds the size of ostrich eggs, and barrels of golden rice…these are just some of the treasures said to have...
In June 1934, two gold prospectors, who had been digging and blasting for gold within the San Pedro Mountains in Wyoming, came across a small cavern buried deep within the thick rock. When the dust...
When Hernán Cortés and his conquistadors entered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1519, they saw magnificent treasures of the ancient civilization. The wonders of pyramids, gold, and silver...
