Mysterious Creatures

Volume 1 originally published: Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2001.

From Bigfoot and the Yeti, to the spooky Chupacabra, these monsters live among us . . . or do they?

An examination of the legends and history of strange creatures.

Monsters, ghosts, fantastic beings, and supernatural phenomena of all sorts haunt the folklore and popular culture of Japan. Broadly labeled yokai, these creatures come in infinite shapes and sizes, from tengu mountain goblins and kappa water spirits to shape-shifting foxes and long-tongued ceiling-lickers. Currently popular in anime, manga, film, and computer games, many yokai originated in local legends, folktales, and regional ghost stories. Drawing on years of research in Japan, Michael Dylan Foster unpacks the history and cultural context of yokai, tracing their roots, interpreting their meanings, and introducing people who have hunted them through the ages. In this delightful and accessible narrative, readers will explore the roles played by these mysterious beings within Japanese culture and will also learn of their abundance and variety through detailed entries, some with original illustrations, on more than fifty individual creatures. The Book of Yokai provides a lively excursion into Japanese folklore and its ever-expanding influence on global popular culture. It also invites readers to examine how people create, transmit, and collect folklore, and how they make sense of the mysteries in the world around them. By exploring yokai as a concept, we can better understand broader processes of tradition, innovation, storytelling, and individual and communal creativity. Ê

A comprehensive guide to cryptozoology—the quest to identify animals that have not been officially catalogued by science and to place these unknown animals into their proper zoological categories. In this fascinating two-volume encyclopedia, author George M. Eberhart provides a comprehensive catalog of nearly 1,000 cryptids—unknown animals usually reported through eyewitness accounts and not yet described by science. Cryptids are the stuff of folklore, hoaxes, and genuine scientific breakthroughs. There are 400 now-classified cryptids once considered either extinct or pure fantasy. The cryptozoologist's job is to strip away the myth, misidentification, and mystery—and separate fact from fiction. Mysterious Creatures covers everything from dinosaurs and the emala-ntouka, an elephant-killing dinosaur-like animal of central Africa, to searches for the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, and other cryptozoological hoaxes. Entries about specific animals include the derivation or meaning of each cryptid's name, its scientific name, variant names, a physical description, behavior, description of tracks, habitat, significant sightings, present status, and possible explanations. Illustrations and photographs accompany many entries. The book also includes resources and references for further information.

This fantastic book looks at the history, legend, and 'evidence' behind the world's mysterious creatures! Hear eyewitness accounts and see items that tell the story of Bigfoot and other mysterious creatures.

The bible is indeed a world of the strange and mysterious when it comes to the variety of creatures that are presented in its texts. These often times serve as images of good versus evil, or order versus chaos. Flat and narrowly myopic literal readings of the bible that at times lacks for imagination and creative insight to the bible’s occasional and amazingly metaphorical maze fall far short of what is needed to appreciate the full depth of the biblical world’s imagery. Therefore this work explores the meaning of the bible’s mysterious creatures with an emphasis on three creatures that all appear in the book of the prophet Isaiah: Lucifer (Isa 14:12), Leviathan (Isa 27:1), and Lilith (Isa 34:14). These mysterious creatures of the bible live on and can both inspire and cause fear. It is a marvelous mixed world of biblical metaphor and realism to be found in the likes of Lucifer, Leviathan, Lilith and the rest of the mysterious creatures that make a biblical appearance.

The New Forest is a place of beauty and splendour, but it is also a place of secrets and darkness, where mysterious creatures roam and strange discoveries are made. In this book you will hear true accounts from everyday folk who have seen everything from Bigfoot to big cats, from ghosts to fairies, and everything in between – all in the beautiful and enigmatic surroundings of the New Forest and beyond.