MONSTERS
A compilation of valencian folklore
WHAT IS A MONSTER?
The word monster comes from the Latin word monstrum. This word is related with another Latin word: moneo. This means advice or warn. The original meaning of the word monstrum was supernatural phenomenon, but its meaning changed and ended by being applied to people, creatures or things.
If we look for a definition, we will find that a monster is a mythical, fabulous and imaginary creature which is extraordinary, alien and abnormal. A really common trait of these well know characters are malformations such as having multiple limbs (three heads) or combining different kinds of beings (half fish half woman). Sometimes they can change forms, for example the werewolf. They usually are evil, terrifying, savage and malevolent beings (Murgatroyd, 2013).
HOW ARE MONSTERS CREATED
Many proposals have been done in relation to the question “Where do the monsters come from?”. Some people say it is just about errors of perception or exaggerations and tall tales. Others belief that monsters do have existed due to the fact that there are things like incredibly tall or extraordinarily small men, babies that have born just with one eye, etc. Another theory says that the ancients saw the bones of big ancient animals such as dinosaurs, mammoth or big sea-creatures and thought that they were giants and other monsters (Murgatroyd, 2013).
There are monsters that look like humans but they are not. These type of monsters are aliens, vampire or werewolf. There are also some monsters who are partially evil partially good, for example Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Haugen, 2016).
Monsters are also related with the cultures that produce them. If we think about the Norwegian culture, we can easily think about folklore, about magic, about nature. Their culture is inside them and all Norwegian people know about it. Trolls and Vikings are alive in Norway. No matter where you look, they will be there. In books, at schools, in life. Their culture is inside of every Norwegian, inside of every Norse heart. And their monsters are a well-known part of it.
NORWEGIAN MOST FAMOUS MONSTERS
HULDRE:
She is a beautiful creature who has long blond hair and always wears a crown made of flowers. The only trait that differentiate her from humans is that she has the tail of a cow, which is the reason that most of the men flee when they see her.
The legend says that she seduces young unmarried men and take them into the mountains. She does not let them go unless they marry her. But unfortunately, if a man marries her, she turns into an ugly woman and she gains the strength of ten or more men. She also loses her tail (Egalitaria, n.d.).
NØKKEN:
The Nøkken is a dangerous and scary creature from the folklore of Norway. You can find him in rivers, lakes and ponds with water lilies. He takes people when they try to catch the flowers from the water. He can change his shape and take diverse forms depending on his victims. He commonly appears as a beautiful white horse who lets young children climb him before he jumps into the water and drown them. He has also been seeing as a wooden boat, a tree stump or a floating log. He can even become invisible according to some stories (Jodie, 2013).
TROLLS:
The trolls are creatures from Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. They live in small family units, normally in rocks, mountains or caves. They are rarely helpful to human beings.
Many tales describe trolls as strong, extremely old, slow, man-eaters who change into stone when the sun shine. But other stories say that trolls look like human, but live apart from the other human beings. The trolls are nature beings, they belong to the forest (Wikipedia).
MONSTERS
CHANGING COUNTRIES
VALENCIA,
SPAIN
Valencian Community is one of the most visited places from Spain. It is located on the middle-east side of the country. Well-known cities such as Valencia or Alicante are located in this Community. It is famous for our traditional meal “paella”.
Valencian culture, just as Norwegian one, is so rich. We have many folklore stories and traditions, normally related with the fire. Our most famous festivity is called “Fallas”. It consists on the elaboration on giant monuments made of wood. Nowadays. These monuments have a critical social background, but their traditional meaning was the purification.
Another Valencian tradition is Els Correfocs (the fire runners). In this tradition, people get dressed as demons and walks around the city with sticks that throw fire and sparks.
As you see, the culture and traditions of Valencia are really strong but, there is a tradition that is getting lost. This tradition is the oral folklore stories.
WHAT DO VALENCIAN PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THEIR MONSTERS
If you asked anyone in the Valencian Community fifty years ago, all they would know about our typical monsters and folklore creatures. But this is getting lost. Children are not afraid of our typical monsters anymore. In order to discover a bit more about what do Valencian people know about our monsters, I did a survey to find some answers.
SURVEY
This survey was done by people among 15 and 55 years old. There was no gender differentiation.
In the survey I asked about the background of the relatives by doing the questions: Are your parents from the Valencian Community? And your grandparents?
The answer to this question showed that the 84.62% of the people had at least one of their parents from Valencia and the 76.92% of the people had at least one of their grandparents from Valencia.
I also asked if their relatives told them stories. The 69.23% of the people said that their parents and relatives told them stories when they were children. They mentioned the man with a bag, the milky girl, the coco, the old ladies from the red band and some other stories.
The next questions were about the Valencian monsters and they had to say if they know them or not. The results to these questions were that almost everybody knew the most famous monsters such as dragons, witches, fairies, giants or dwarfs; but few people knew about our traditional monsters such as cuca fera, mussa or banyeta.
When I asked where they learn about the monsters, the majority of them said that their relatives told them the story or that they read about them in a fairy tale; but there was also people that had never heard about the monsters mentioned before.
The last question in my survey was: Would you like to know more things about our traditional folklore characters? A 92.3% of them said that they would.
Observing these results on the survey, I concluded that Valencian people have forgot a big part of their traditional monsters, but they would like to rekindle the flame of their folklore and discover more things about them.
HERE YOU HAVE THE PDF FILE WITH THE HOLE SURVEY
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Egalitaria (n.d.). Huldra – Mythical Creatures Guide. Accessed on 3th December at www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/m/page/Huldra
Gisbert, F. (n.d). Tipografía La Moderna: Revista de lectura y debate para picar entre horas. Accessed on 5th December 2016 at www.tipografiamoderna.com/cultura/el-nostre-espantacriatures/
Gisbert, F & Miquel, D. (2013). La Maria no té por. Andana Editorial.
Gisbert, F. (2014). La Maria no té por: vista per Francesc Gisbert. Accessed on 5th December 2016 at http://pagina66.com/not/97674/-la-maria-no-te-por-vista-per-francesc-gisbert
Haugen, Torgeir. “Monsters and taboo”. Course Myths, fairy tales and legends. Oslo and
Akershus university college of applied sciences. Friday 14th of October, 2016.
Jodie (2013). Believe in fairy stories: Norwegian folklore, the nokken. Accessed on 3th December at
http://believeinfairystories.blogspot.no/2013/03/norwegian-folklore-nkken.html
Murgatroyd, P. (2013). Mythical monsters in classical literature. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Parrilla, S (n.d). La Maria no té por. Accessed on 4th December 2016 at http://lamarianotepor.blogspot.no/
Various authors (n.d.). Wikipedia. Accessed on 3th December 2016 at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:History/Troll