What's your favorite folklore mythical creature from your home country?

What's your favorite folklore mythical creature from your home country?

From my home country, the Philippines, I've found myself interested in the Manananggal. It's basically a vampire that splits itself in half and grows wings at night to prey on pregnant women's fetuses and sleeping people.

Iara – The Mother of Waters. She's basically a freshwater mermaid-like creature who lures men and children using her beauty and/or her singing and kill them by drowning. Nothing really extraordinary. I just happen to like mermaids. :P

A piece of local folklore from my part of the UK:

The Gytrash

From Wikipedia: "The Gytrash, a legendary black dog known in northern England, was said to haunt lonely roads awaiting travelers. Appearing in the shape of horses, mules, or dogs, the Gytrash haunt solitary ways and lead people astray but they can also be benevolent, guiding lost travelers to the right road. They are usually feared. In some parts of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, the Gytrash was known as the Shagfoal and took the form of a spectral mule or donkey with eyes that glowed like burning coals. In this form, the beast was believed to be purely malevolent."

Interesting.

I come from Bulgaria, an Eastern European country, where we have many folk tales about mythical creatures and etc. However, my all-time favorite one has to be Baba Yaga. She is the Bulgarian equivalent of an evil witch that lives in the forest in a small hut. She is an evil spirit of sorts and she's a cannibal also. She mainly eats children while luring them in her small hut by offering sweets.

When I was a child I was literally super scared of her, but at the same time I've always wanted to find her hut.

Mine must be Pegasus. Such a majestic creature.

One of them.

La llorona

@magian: Didn't know you were from Greece.

@life_without_progress: So... if we live in the US should we be looking at modern cryptids (most of which are just animals that aren't confirmed to exist, nothing actually supernatural about them), native american folklore, or the folklore of whatever our ancestry is?

Mothman, Wendiogs, Flatwoods Monster, Hopkinsville goblins and the Alabama Leprechaun, though that could be a crack head, who got hold of the wrong stuff....who else seen the leprechaun say yeah.

Medusa

Windigo probably

@mylittlefascist: Whatever floats your boat from those.

Indeed I am.

Trolls, Dwarfs and Elves. But the coolest and most unique must Nökken or Draugen.

The Thunderbird of Native American lore.

Kuntilanak, I guess.

@heroup2112: I was going to choose something Native American but then I thought about it and that's not my people at all so I don't feel like it's a choice for me. Are you native?

Die Nixen der Nordsee, which aren't mermaids, because mermaids are Meerjungfrauen or Melusine in the German language and think that Nixen are far superior.

Rakhsh: Rostam's horse which can be considered a super-powered horse.

If not that then Simorgh (maybe Phoenix for you) a good-natured, kind and wise bird known for protecting and growing Rostam's father, Zal.

No, but the OP asked for something from my home country. My home is the US and Native Americans are from the US and I like the legends of the Thunderbird. I could have gone with the legends of my "people" the Celts, but it asked for my home country.

Tah-tah-kle'-ah & The Mothman. I believe both are one in the same type of entity.

I live in the US, and my favorite mythological creature from here would be Bigfoot.

Strigoi. Those things hunted my childhood.

We have so many in Wales! I mean our flag even has a dragon. Interesting fact: IIRC, the shrieks of the red dragon (or as we say Yr Ddraig Goch) are said to be able to cause a woman to miscarry O___O

Dragons.

Yeah!!!

Man there's a crazy long list of cryptids from Native American folklore, most of which are only really known locally.

We have a Skinwalker around here that turns himself into a centaur. Too many unrelated people have seen & even spoken to it for me to be too skeptical.

Also ever heard of The Hidebehind?

Wow, I've never heard of a skinwalker that turns into a centaur, must not be from my area of the country. I've certainly heard of hide behinds though. They were kind of a big thing to be scared of when I was young where I lived. Was always someone challenging you to go into a grave yard and if you did it kids would warn you of the hide behinds. Same if you went walking in the woods alone...a hide behind might getcha. I was only scared of them until I was maybe nine or ten (maybe eleven?) I wasn't very old thouh.

Yep he's known as The Clickety Clack due to, ya know...Horse feet. Those who've seen him say he speaks English & talks like a perfect gentlemen but he's a centaur.

Hmm.

Huh...sounds pretty cool.