In Mexico and the Southwestern U.S.  parents warn their children not to misbehave or wander off because La Llorona (Spanish for crying woman) will mistake them for her own children and snatch them up. 

One version of the story tells of a young woman who wants to attract the man of her dreams but can’t because she has children. To solve her problem she drowns her children.  After she goes to these extreme lengths the man rejects her anyway. Horrified by what she has done, La Llorona kills herself. She spends the rest of eternity searching the river for her kids.

People tell many variations of the story. In one, the man is the children’s father who leaves La Llorona for a rich woman. In a rage La Llorona kills his children. She immediately regrets her actions and kills herself.

In the version told in Honduras, the children drown when the woman is doing laundry and not paying attention to her kids. While this is horrible and a fear shared by many parents, it’s perhaps a little less romantic.

The draug of Norse folklore is, perhaps, one of the most intractable monsters in the whole history of folklore. This creature has superhuman strength and reeks with the stench of the decay. He can rise from the grave as a wisp of smoke and transform into a:

• Seal
• Flayed bull
• Gray horse without ears or a tail and a broken spine
• Cat

Not only can the draug transform, he can also super-size and crush his victim. A special twist to the powers of the draug is that he is invisible to everyone except his future victims. So if you see him, you’re in big trouble.

If all this wasn’t enough, the draug can also drive animals mad, change the weather, and see the future. And he has the ability to enter the dream world and destroy his victims from inside their heads.

The draug kills his victims by crushing them when he is in his super-sized form. This is especially effective when he assumes the shape of a cat. As a cat he sits on the chest of the sleeping victim and grows heavier until the victim suffocates.

Killing a draug is a complicated process. A hero who is pure of heart must wrestle the creature with his bare hands. When the draug is down, the hero must decapitate him with the draug’s own weapon. Once decapitated, a wooden stake goes through the heart then the whole thing body and head must be burned until nothing is left but ash. If any of these steps aren’t followed exactly the draug comes back to life.

In order to avoid the creation of the troublesome draug in the first place, the Norse
bury the dead with a pair of open iron scissors on their chest. (hmmm) Straws or twigs are hidden in their clothes and the big toes are tied together. As an added precaution needles are driven through the soles of the feet to keep the dead from being able to walk.

Once the body is prepared, the coffin is lifted and lowered in three different directions to confuse the draug’s sense of direction.

A special corpse door is built in the tomb. As the body is carried in (feet first) the mourners gather around the door so the corpse won’t know where he’s going. The door is then bricked up for safety.

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No one has won the “Guess Kate’s Background Contest.” You can find out all about it here

 

According to Romanian folklore the Earth is a disc. Humans live on one side and the other side is a mirror image of our world populated by the Blajini. The Blajini (gentle ones) are small creatures with heads like rats who don’t understand the ways of human beings. They live peacefully in paradise on the other side of the disc. They once lived alongside humans but somehow when Moses parted the Red Sea they ended up on the wrong side of the returning water.

Throughout the year, the Blajini fast, which frees up resources for humans. Each Spring, to thank the Blajini, Romanians throw red Easter egg shells into streams. The egg shells are carried on the current through the Apa Sambetei (World Ocean) to the river along which the Blajini’s live. When the Blajini see the red egg shells they know it’s time for their annual feast.