It can't all just be a story, right?
Our collective unconscious is just full of creatures that we know aren't real. Mermaids, griffons, giants, witches--they don't exist.
But could they? There must be a reason for all these stories. And once you've lived long enough, you start to believe anything is possible.
u/skudgee asked:
What folklore creature do you think really exists?
Here were some of the answers.
Isn't There A Movie About This?
Megaconda.
It's just a really, REALLY big anaconda, and since those snakes grow continually throughout their lives, I wouldn't be surprised if some have, in the past, gotten over 50 feet or more.
Hoppity Hoppity Hoppity
GiphyMight not be new to most people, but the Jackalope actually does exist... technically.
The Jackalope is a North American legend, a rabbit with antlers. In reality, it's a rabbit suffering from a virus that causes weird growths on its head.
The Prophecy
Most of the ocean things I wouldn't be surprised by. Considering we thought coelacanths were thought to be extinct until relatively recently, I think it makes sense that there's all sorts of crazy shit down there that we might never discover. It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
Also Mothmen, just because I think it's hilarious and too ridiculous to be fake.
A Big Ole Foot
I would not be terribly surprised for us to discover a North American ape or monkey living in the deep woods. But I will be shocked if it is more than two feet tall and fifty pounds. We humans are unbelievably bad at estimating size and distance. Ask any hunter about ground shrinkage and that is on an animal they love and know passionately and spends years staring at. Some one catching a glance of something odd and remembering it huge is not even a little unusual.
Release The Thick Squid
The two I think are most likely:
The Kraken. Giant Squid have been finally been conclusively proven to exist in the last decade or so. It's not beyond belief an even larger variety is out there, or was still extant in the age of sailing.
The other is Bigfoot/Sasquatch. While the most well known sighting/recording has been proven a hoax, the stories of them go back hundreds of years in Native tribes. The description is not that far off from the Gigantopithecus that once really did exist. While it seems unlikely a sustainable breeding population of those could have remained alive this long, it's not *impossible*. We've rediscovered other species thought extinct, and the Pacific Northwest is huge and there are a lot of very remote forests.
I'm a lot more dubious of this one, but these are the two that seem the most plausible to me.
Woods And Waves
Considering the fact that we've recorded massive sea creatures moving faster and deeper than anything we know on sonar, along with the fact that we've explored, what is it, less than 2% of the ocean? We're also finding new sea creatures every single day.
I think it's possible there's some big stuff down there.
Oh, and as someone else mentioned, things in the deep woods. Not many people have gone to where I'm talking about. Even those that go miles into the woods stay on well preserved trails. So how do we know there isn't something miles into nowhere?
But Did It Breathe Fire
According to legend St George the Dragon Slayer earned his moniker by traveling to middle east (Libya), fighting and killing a dragon.
You might assume (and many did) that the story was made up.
But they discovered art in the middle east from the time period showing a knight in full British armor fighting a giant crocodile.
So I think it was all true and the "dragon" was real. The people of Britain just didn't know what a crocodile was.
The Hitch
As a form of a traditional demon, the Baba Yaga, a witch Slavic folklore.
Had an 'imaginary friend' named Baba Witch that lived in my barn when I was little. One time I was playing with it, and got locked in a room with no lock. I screamed for nearly 30 minutes before my mom got me out.
Fast forward a few years, and I had gotten these things called 'Creature Cards' which were like big cards with pictures and facts about animals and monsters and stuff. When I saw the Baba Yaga, it looked almost exactly how I'd imagined Baba Witch.
Fast forward to now, it all kind of clicked for me.
Zzzzzzzuuuuuuuu
All right so in Minnesota there's this Cryptid/lumber jack folklore that exists call the Tea-Kettler. Too put it simply, it's a corgi with cat ears that walks backwards (by choice) and whistles like kettle. All it does is room around forests and whistles but it's suuuuuuuuper shy so if you hear it you're lucky. It's so cute I need it to exist, so the Tea-Kettler.
Chompers
GiphyNYC Sewer Alligators.
In the early 20th century, small crocodiles as pets were apparently a popular thing among kids and when they started to get too big, parents allegedly disposed of them by throwing them down the drains / in to the sewers like dead gold fish. I can totally see them living off the massive sewer rats and growing to be a decent size, and a dark dank muddy environment like the NYC underground seems like a viable habitat for them.
They were also the inspiration for Doc Connors from Spider Man.
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