Every place has its legendary creatures, its cryptids, and misidentified domestic cats. Some of these, like Bigfoot and West Virginia’s Mothman, achieve global renown, while others are barely more than marginalia, decorating the fringes of the public conscience.
The Tarasque
Europe has as many of these as North America but, despite local festivals in their honor, they rarely get much attention. A good example is the Tarasque in France.
The town of Tarascon in Bouches-du-Rhône has a lengthy tale about the Tarasque. It has a modicum of fame, appearing among the slots online with jackpots on the Paddy Power website as a chimaera, a blue lion with goat horns, and a red mane. It’s not competing for Mothman’s throne, though.
The Tarasque may have originated as early as the 12th century but it has a confirmed appearance in a late 13th-century book called the Golden Legend, by Jacobus de Voragine. This is sometimes how cryptids arise, in ancient mentions that can’t be substantiated.
For instance, the Vikings of Greenland made a living selling narwhal tusks as unicorn horns to people throughout Europe. It’s easy to see how falsehoods become fact, especially across oceans.
Loch Ness Monster
The UK isn’t well-known for its legendary creatures. The Loch Ness Monster is arguably the country’s biggest mystery export. Efforts to locate Nessie, believed to be a plesiosaur that somehow survived an asteroid impact and the last 65m years, have been ongoing since an early sighting in 1933.
The Independent reports that the Monster has been identified as a giant newt, an otter, a ghost, an elephant, and seemingly everything in between. Unfortunately, Nessie seems thoroughly debunked today. A 1934 image is a confirmed fake.
Still, she’s good news for the local tourism industry.
Speaking of misidentified domestic cats, Bodmin Moor in Cornwall reportedly has its own Beast – a big cat, possibly a puma or black leopard.
The Surrey Puma and Beast of Sydenham are two other large cats reportedly on the loose in the British countryside. In fact, overgrown but regular animals feature often in UK folklore. The Black Dog of Bungay and the Yorkshire Barguest are both demonic pups.
The Banshee
Across the sea, in Ireland, lies the Sdobhar-chu. This cryptid has something in common with Nessie, namely, that it’s been identified as an otter. The legend tells of a young County Leitrim woman who was killed by a Sdobhar-chu in 1722. Her gravestone still bears the creature’s likeness.
Of course, Ireland’s most famous monster is the Banshee. If the ghost’s wail is heard, a family member is about to die. It’s hard to say whether the Banshee is good or evil, as she’s not thought to cause death herself.
The age of civilization in Britain means thousands of unusual monsters could have walked its lands. These are just a few.
