Edward Teach / Tache / Thatch, better known as Blackbeard, is arguably one of the world’s most notorious pirates. Like most other pirate tales, the story of Blackbeard also involves a treasure that...
In Chinese folklore, Shui-mu Niang-niang, or the Old Mother of the Waters, is a legendary spirit guardian of the waters surrounding the city of Sizhou (or Ssu-Chou, according to ETC Werner’s...
Mythologies around the world speak of beings which cannot be defined as good or evil. German folklore mentions a household elemental named kobold . Even though he can be helpful, as a trickster, he...
The legends of world mythology are full of tales about infernal pacts. In the case of such a pact, the individual gives up his or her own soul in exchange for service to the devil or demons. However...
By Matthew Robertson , Epoch Times Chinese legends tell of a kind of infallible sacred sword, forged from meteorite material, that gave its bearer an apparently supernatural advantage over his...
Present day movies show elves as beautiful beings who help people in their times of need. However, the original ancient form of these beings was quite hostile towards humans. Often enough, elves...
The sphinx is a famous icon from ancient Egypt of 5,000 years ago, but a statue of one has been excavated in China dating back more than 1,000 years. The marble sphinx, which has western features, is...
A well-known medieval tale talks about the three living and the three dead. As the story goes, three young men meet three undead walking, talking corpses. The dead tell the living that they must mend...
In ancient times, a dark, hairy, horned beast was said to show up at the door to beat children, and carry them off in his sharp claws. The Krampus could be heard in the night by the sound of his...
In 753 BC, two twins, Romulus and Remus, founded the city of Rome, and Romulus became the ruler of the city and reigned for 39 years. The identity of the two brothers has both historical and...
The famous legends of King Arthur and his round table, among other ancient myths, were stories made up and peddled by enterprising monks at Glastonbury Abbey to make some cash, say researchers. What’...
For a long time, Loki, the Trickster of Norse mythology, has been demonized as a figure of evil. But is he really so? Many mythologies speak about beings that are neither good, nor evil, entities of...
The Bladen Journal reports that a mummified hand found in Castleton, North Yorkshire, England is the only known ‘Hand of Glory’, a grotesque artifact meant to aid thieves in their work during the...
The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated annually by Chinese and Vietnamese communities around the world. As the name of this festival suggests, the day of its celebration falls exactly in the middle of...
Strikingly tall skeletons uncovered in the Ecuador and Peru Amazon region are undergoing examination in Germany, according to a research team headed by British anthropologist Russell Dement. Will...
The Alkonost and the Gamayun are mythological creatures with the body of a bird and the head of a beautiful woman. They derive from Slavic and Old Russian folklore, and are described as mythical...
Gilgamesh is the ancient Sumerian epic, written some 4,000 years ago on cuneiform clay tablets and rediscovered only in the nineteenth century. It is a story that has echoes of the biblical Old...
The Leprechaun is a much-loved and sometimes feared magical creature of Irish folk legend. Short in stature and with a long-beard and pot of gold, leprechauns were once believed to pervade the Irish...
Walter Kayo sat at his desk in the scriptorium, the cold chill of winter half broken by a flickering fire in the hearth. The velum page before him was still not finished, yet already his eyes felt...
The Gutmana Ala, or Gutman’s (Good Man’s) cave in English, is today located in the Sigulda region of the Gauja National Park in Latvia. Apart from Sigulda, this national park extends over several...
By April Holloway | The Epoch Times Despite their pervasiveness throughout the world, with thousands scattered across Britain and Europe alone, stone circles never cease to arouse awe and intrigue in...
Nothing sends a clearer message than an angry punishment handed down from the gods. In belief systems of cultures around the world deities have been disciplining their flocks since time immemorial,...
Bhutan is a small country in South Asia and the home of many sacred sites and monasteries associated with Buddhism. One of these sacred monasteries is called Paro Taktsang or Taktsang Palphug...
Read Part 1 In the ancient legend surrounding the goddess Europa, the Greeks were essentially telling the story of how Phoenicians ended up getting scattered, founding and settling, in the various...