22 March 2021

Wolpertingers and tatzelwurms


I recently read Sheridan Le Fanu's lesbian vampire novel Carmilla, which introduced me to two new words.
In German folklore, a wolpertinger ... is an animal said to inhabit the alpine forests of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany... It has a body comprising various animal parts—generally wings, antlers, a tail, and fangs, all attached to the body of a small mammal. The most widespread description portrays the Wolpertinger as having the head of a hare, the body of a squirrel, the antlers of a deer, and the wings and occasionally the legs of a pheasant... It resembles other creatures from German folklore, such as the Rasselbock of the Thuringian Forest, the Dilldapp of the Alemannic region, and the Elwedritsche of the Palatinate region, which accounts describe as a chicken-like creature with antlers; additionally the American Jackalope as well as the Swedish Skvader somewhat resemble the wolpertinger. The Austrian counterpart of the wolpertinger is the raurakl.
In Alpine folklore, the Tatzelwurm or Stollenwurm, Stollwurm is a lizard-like creature, often described as having the face of a cat, with a serpent-like body which may be slender or stubby, with four short legs or two forelegs. The alleged creature is sometimes said to be venomous, or to attack with poisonous breath, and to make a high-pitched or hissing sound.

Anecdotes describing encounters with the creature or briefly described lore about them can be found in several areas of Europe, including the Austrian, Bavarian, French, Italian and Swiss Alps. It has several other regional names, including Bergstutz, Springwurm, Praatzelwurm, and in French, arassas

3 comments:

  1. that is a 'winged jackalope'. 'winged' is pronounced as two syllables - win-ged - and that is a hard 'g'.

    I-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Where do the other mythical creatures (griffon, Pegasus, Minotaur, and so on) fit in with the ones listed?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For your perusal -

      https://mythopedia.com/

      And then if you could please report back to the class with your findings.

      Delete

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