Category Archives: Mysteries

Creatures from beyond part X, The Kraken or Leviathan

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Now is time for the last post of the series called “Creatures From Beyond”, but don’t worry World is full of creatures and I will return to this topic when I have enough footage. But for now this is the last post and it belongs to creature called The Kraken:

Kraken (pron.:/ˈkrkən/ or /ˈkrɑːkən/ or /ˈkrækən/)[1] are legendary sea monsters of giant proportions said to dwell off the coasts of Norway and Greenland.

The legend may have originated from sightings of giant squid that are estimated to grow to 13–15 m (40–50 ft) in length, including the tentacles.These creatures normally live at great depths, but have been sighted at the surface and have reportedly attacked ships.

The sheer size and fearsome appearance attributed to the kraken have made it a common ocean-dwelling monster in various fictional works.

History

The 13th century Old IcelandicsagaÖrvar-Odds saga tells of two massive sea-monsters called Hafgufa (“sea mist”) and Lyngbakr (“heather-back”). The hafgufa is believed to be a reference to the kraken:

Now I will tell you that there are two sea-monsters. One is called the hafgufa (sea-mist), another lyngbakr (heather-back). Whales are the biggest of everything in the world, but the hafgufa is the greatest monster occurring in the water. It is its nature that it swallows both men and ships and whales and everything that it can reach. It is submerged both by day and night together, and when it strikes up its head and nose above the surface, then it stays at least until the turn of the tide. Now, that sound we sailed through? We sailed between its jaws, and its nose and lower jaw were those rocks that appeared to you in the ocean, while the lyngbakr was the island we saw sinking down. However, Ǫgmundur Floki has sent these creatures to you by means of his secret arts for to cause the death of you and all your men. He thought that more men should have gone the same way as those that had already drowned, and he expected that the hafgufa would have swallowed us all. Today I sailed through its mouth because I knew that it had recently surfaced.[5]

After returning from Greenland, the anonymous author of the Old Norwegian scientific work Konungs skuggsjá (circa 1250) described in detail the physical characteristics and feeding behavior of these beasts. The narrator proposed there must only be two in existence, stemming from the observation that the beasts have always been sighted in the same parts of the Greenland Sea, and that each seemed incapable of reproduction, as there was no increase in their numbers.

There is a fish that is still unmentioned, which it is scarcely advisable to speak about on account of its size, because it will seem to most people incredible. There are only a very few who can speak upon it clearly, because it is seldom near land nor appears where it may be seen by fishermen, and I suppose there are not many of this sort of fish in the sea. Most often in our tongue we call it hafgufa. Nor can I conclusively speak about its length in ells, because the times he has shown before men, he has appeared more like land than like a fish. Neither have I heard that one had been caught or found dead; and it seems to me as though there must be no more than two in the oceans, and I deem that each is unable to reproduce itself, for I believe that they are always the same ones. Then too, neither would it do for other fish if the hafgufa were of such a number as other whales, on account of their vastness, and how much subsistence that they need. It is said to be the nature of these fish that when one shall desire to eat, then it stretches up its neck with a great belching, and following this belching comes forth much food, so that all kinds of fish that are near to hand will come to present location, then will gather together, both small and large, believing they shall obtain there food and good eating; but this great fish lets its mouth stand open the while, and the gap is no less wide than that of a great sound or fjord, And nor may the fish avoid running together there in their great numbers. But as soon as its stomach and mouth is full, then it locks together its jaws and has the fish all caught and enclosed, that before greedily came there looking for food.[6]

Carolus Linnaeus classified the kraken as a cephalopod, designating the scientific name Microcosmus marinus in the first edition of his Systema Naturae (1735), a taxonomic classification of living organisms. The creature was excluded from later editions.Linnaeus’s later work, Fauna Suecica (1746) calls the creature singulare monstrum, “a unique monster”, and says of it Habitare fertur in mari Norwegico, ipse non dum animal vidi, “It is said to inhabit the seas of Norway, but I have not seen this animal”.

Kraken were also extensively described by Erik Pontoppidan, bishop of Bergen, in his Det Forste Forsorg paa Norges Naturlige Historie “Natural History of Norway” (Copenhagen, 1752–3).Pontoppidan made several claims regarding kraken, including the notion that the creature was sometimes mistaken for an islandand that the real danger to sailors was not the creature itself but rather the whirlpool left in its wake.However, Pontoppidan also described the destructive potential of the giant beast: “it is said that if [the creature’s arms] were to lay hold of the largest man-of-war, they would pull it down to the bottom”.According to Pontoppidan, Norwegian fishermen often took the risk of trying to fish over kraken, since the catch was so plentiful(hence the saying “You must have fished on Kraken”). Pontoppidan also proposed that a specimen of the monster, “perhaps a young and careless one”, was washed ashore and died at Alstahaug in 1680.By 1755, Pontoppidan’s description of the kraken had been translated into English.

Swedish author Jacob Wallenberg described the kraken in the 1781 work Min son på galejan (“My son on the galley”):

… Kraken, also called the Crab-fish, which is not that huge, for heads and tails counted, he is no larger than our Öland is wide [i.e., less than 16 km] … He stays at the sea floor, constantly surrounded by innumerable small fishes, who serve as his food and are fed by him in return: for his meal, (if I remember correctly what E. Pontoppidan writes,) lasts no longer than three months, and another three are then needed to digest it. His excrements nurture in the following an army of lesser fish, and for this reason, fishermen plumb after his resting place … Gradually, Kraken ascends to the surface, and when he is at ten to twelve fathoms, the boats had better move out of his vicinity, as he will shortly thereafter burst up, like a floating island, spurting water from his dreadful nostrils and making ring waves around him, which can reach many miles. Could one doubt that this is the Leviathan of Job?

Pierre Dénys de Montfort‘s “Poulpe Colossal” attacks a merchant ship (1810)

In 1802, the French malacologistPierre Dénys de Montfort recognized the existence of two kinds of giant octopus in Histoire Naturelle Générale et Particulière des Mollusques, an encyclopedic description of mollusks. Montfort claimed that the first type, the kraken octopus, had been described by Norwegian sailors and American whalers, as well as ancient writers such as Pliny the Elder. The much larger second type, the colossal octopus, was reported to have attacked a sailing vessel from Saint-Malo, off the coast of Angola.

Montfort later dared more sensational claims. He proposed that ten British warships, including the captured French ship of the lineVille de Paris, which had mysteriously disappeared one night in 1782, must have been attacked and sunk by giant octopuses. The British, however, knew—courtesy of a survivor from the Ville de Paris—that the ships had been lost in a hurricane off the coast of Newfoundland in September 1782, resulting in a disgraceful revelation for Montfort.

Appearance and origins

Since the late 18th century, kraken have been depicted in a number of ways, primarily as large octopus-like creatures, and it has often been alleged that Pontoppidan’s kraken might have been based on sailors’ observations of the giant squid. In the earliest descriptions, however, the creatures were more crab-likethan octopus-like, and generally possessed traits that are associated with large whales rather than with giant squid. Some traits of kraken resemble undersea volcanic activity occurring in the Iceland region, including bubbles of water; sudden, dangerous currents; and appearance of new islets.

Etymology

The English word kraken is taken from Norwegian but its origins are otherwise obscure.In Norwegian, Kraken is the definite form of krake, a word designating an unhealthy animal or something twisted (cognate with the English crook and crank).In modern German, Krake (plural and declined singular: Kraken) means octopus, but can also refer to the legendary Kraken.

Legacy

Although fictional and the subject of myth, the legend of the kraken continues to the present day, with numerous references existing in popular culture, including film, literature, television, video games and other miscellaneous examples (e.g. postage stamps, a rollercoaster ride, and a rum product).

In 1830 Alfred Tennyson published the irregular sonnetThe Kraken,which described a massive creature that dwelled at the bottom of the sea:

Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumber’d and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

Pontoppidan’s description influenced Jules Verne‘s depiction of the famous giant squid in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea from 1870.

Source

And now for the first time they have filmed this giant beast in the depths of the ocean:

After decades of searching for the giant squid, scientists have finally found and filmed the legendary creature in its native habitat. Their journey and discovery will be featured Sunday, January 27, at 8/7c in Monster Squid: The Giant Is Real, the two-hour season finale of the Curiosity series.

We recently sat down with Leslie Schwerin, director/producer of Monster Squid: The Giant Is Real for Discovery Channel, to talk about the expedition, the incredible discovery and all things giant squid. Here are the top 10 things we learned about Architeuthis.

#10. We still know very little about the giant squid, including how it hunts.

“There’s a difference of opinion about how they catch their prey,” Leslie Schwerin told us. “Dr. Tsunemi Kubodera, as I understand it, believes that giant squid catch their prey with their tentacles. So they’re going along and they see something yummy, and their tentacles go out and grab it and bring it in. Dr. Steve O’Shea believes the giant squid’s going along and its tentacles are hanging down at 45 degrees. It’ll catch its prey, and then the body will go to it instead of bringing it in.”

VIDEO: The Giant Squid Discoverers

#9. Humans have been aware of the giant squid for centuries.

Although no one has ever seen a giant squid alive in its natural habitat until now, humans have been clued into its existence for centuries, perhaps even longer. Giant squid carcasses will occasionally wash ashore, and there have been sightings of giant squid at the ocean’s surface. The ancient Greeks may have first described the creature in the fourth century B.C. In the first century B.C., Pliny the Elder wrote of an enormous squid in his Natural History. The animal he described had 30-foot-long arms, weighed 700 pounds and had a head “as big as a cask.”

#8. There’s an even larger squid than the giant squid.

The colossal squid, which still has not been seen alive in its natural habitat, is thought to be even larger than the giant squid (although its tentacles are shorter). The largest known colossal squid was hauled to the surface by fishermen off New Zealand in 2007. It weighed around 1,000 pounds.

#7. The giant squid has a sharp beak.

“Giant squid have a big old beak that is supposedly really sharp,” said Leslie Schwerin. Shaped like a parrot’s beak, the giant squid’s beak is incredibly hard and resistant to fractures and bending. It likely uses its beak to dismember and perhaps paraylze its prey, although no one has ever seen a giant squid feeding.

BLOG: Are We in the Midst of a Squid Invasion?

#6. Giant squid battle sperm whales.

“It’s pretty clear that sperm whales eat giant squid, and giant squid don’t go down without a fight,” said Leslie Schwerin. “Scientists, and just anyone walking on the beach seeing a beached sperm whale, will often see these sucker marks and bite marks from a giant squid. If they open up the stomach of a sperm whale, they’ll often see remains of a giant squid – especially the beaks, because the beaks don’t get broken down. Scientists speculate that the battles giant squid and sperm whales engage in are pretty vicious.”

#5. Giant squid regenerate their tentacles.

“The giant squid that we found didn’t have its tentacles,” said Leslie Schwerin. “We don’t know why exactly. It could be that it lost them in a fight with a sperm whale, or they could’ve been hooked on a fisherman’s line, and that severed their tentacles. But the tentacles regenerate.”

Not all squid regenerate their tentacles, but certain deep sea squid like Architeuthis can sacrifice them as a defense mechanism, allowing them to quickly escape to safety.

#4. The giant squid is as long as a whale.

“What’s fascinating about the giant squid is its size,” Leslie Schwerin told us. “It’s just really big. They can get up to maybe 50 or 60 feet long,” which rivals the length of most large whales (other than fin and blue whales). Tentacles make up the lion’s share of their length. Tentacles aside, the giant squid’s body is the length of a large, adult great white shark.

NEWS: Giant Squid: Still a Deep Mystery

#3. The giant squid’s eye is as big as your head.

“Its eyes are supposedly the largest in the animal kingdom,” said Leslie Schwerin. “As big as a basketball perhaps. I mean bigger than my head, which is amazing to think about. And that’s so they can see in the dark. We can’t see down 2,000 feet — it’s all dark to us — but they see things. They see light trickling through, and that’s because their eyes are so big.”

#2. As gigantic as they are, giant squid are really hard to find.

“It’s really hard to find a giant squid in its natural habitat,” said Leslie Schwerin. “They’re really deep. 2,000 to 3,000 feet down. That’s not a hospitable environment for us, so we have to go down in submersibles, which are loud and have lights and scare them away.

“I imagine that it’s probably really hard to find a giant squid because we don’t know how to behave or survive in their environment, so we need all this equipment that’s loud, bright and it all scares them away. I think they’re shy creatures. They’re solitary creatures, so they don’t swim in schools. Even though there may be millions of them, they’re spread out throughout the seas, and it is like a needle in a haystack.”

#1. The giant squid is actually a gentle giant.

“It’s huge. It’s weird-looking. We know that,” said Leslie Schwerin. “And I think people are fascinated with ‘monsters.’ It does fit the description, in a way, of a monster even if it’s a gentle monster. But our imaginations take off and we think it’s this crazy monster of the sea that’ll take down ships and sailors. There were certainly stories about it doing that in the past. It really does excite people, and people love their monsters — especially ones they haven’t seen.”

Source

And here is the video footage:

 

Then I just have to post a video from progressive Metal group called Mastodon, because they have an album called Leviathan and this is a song called “Seabeast”:

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the series and keep on searching. So now it is time to move on to another topics, but in the future there will be more… CREATURES FROM BEYOND!

Creatures from beyond part IX, Mermaids

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Now you think, that I show you some pretty pictures of beautiful mermaids, but you are wrong. If there are mermaids they look pretty hideous and ugly if these reports, videos and pictures are genuine. First some description like always and then sightings, videos, pics and conclusion. Here is the description:

A mermaid is a legendary aquatic creature with the upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish.Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including the Near East, Europe, Africa and Asia. The first stories appeared in ancient Assyria, in which the goddess Atargatis transforms herself into a mermaid out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover. Mermaids are sometimes depicted as perilous creatures associated with floods, storms, shipwrecks, and drowning. In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same tradition) they can be benevolent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.

Mermaids are associated with the Sirens of Greek mythology and with the Sirenia, a biological order which comprises dugongs and manatees. Historical sightings by sailors may have been the result of misunderstood encounters with these aquatic mammals. Christopher Columbus reported seeing mermaids while exploring the Caribbean, and sightings have been reported in the 20th and 21st centuries in Canada, Israel, and Zimbabwe. The US National Ocean Service stated in 2012 that no evidence of mermaids has ever been found.

Mermaids have been a popular subject of art and literature in recent centuries. Danish author Hans Christian Andersen wrote his popular fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” in 1836. They have subsequently been depicted in opera, paintings, books, films, and comics.

Etymology and related terms

The word mermaid is a compound of the Old Englishmere (sea), and maid (a girl or young woman).The equivalent term in Old English was merewif.They are conventionally depicted as beautiful with long flowing hair.They are sometimes equated with the Sirens of Greek mythology (especially the Odyssey), half-bird femme fatales whose enchanting voices drew sailors onto the rocks of their island, shipwrecking them.

Sirenia

Sirenia is an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit rivers, estuaries, coastal marine waters, swamps, and marine wetlands. Sirenians, including manatees and the dugong, have major aquatic adaptations: arms used for steering, a paddle used for propulsion, hind limbs (legs) as two small bones floating deep in the muscle. They appear fat, but are fusiform, hydrodynamic, and highly muscular. Before the mid 19th century, mariners called these animals mermaids.

Sirenomelia

Sirenomelia, also called “mermaid syndrome”, is a rare congenitaldisorder in which a child is born with his or her legs fused together and reduced genitalia. This condition is about as rare as conjoined twins, affecting one out of every 100,000 live births[5] and is usually fatal within a day or two of birth because of kidney and bladder complications. Four survivors were known as of July 2003.

Sightings

In 1493 while sailing off the coast of Hispaniola, Christopher Columbus reported seeing three “female forms” which “rose high out of the sea, but were not as beautiful as they are represented”.The logbook of Blackbeard, an English pirate, records that he instructed his crew on several voyages to steer away from charted waters which he called “enchanted” for fear of merfolk or mermaids, which Blackbeard and members of his crew reported seeing.These sighting were often recounted and shared by sailors and pirates who believed that mermaids were bad luck and would bewitch them into giving up their gold and dragging them to the bottom of the sea. Two sightings were reported in Canada near Vancouver and Victoria—one from sometime between 1870 and 1890, the other from 1967.

During World War II in 1943, Japanese soldiers witnessed several mermaids on the shores of the Kei Islands. They reported seeing creatures swimming in the water—and one sighting on the beach—which had pink skin and spikes along their head. These creatures reportedly were about 150 centimeters tall and had limbs and faces that were similar to that of a human but a mouth like a carp. The locals called them Orang Ikan, which means “fish man” in Malay. Several of these sightings occurred and were reported to Sergeant Taro Horiba, who asked the locals about it and learned that they sometimes got caught in the nets. The locals promised to send word to the Sergeant next time one was caught. Eventually, one of the creatures was found dead on the shore and the Sergeant was allowed to examine it. Being convinced, he returned to Japan and tried to convince scientists to go study them but he was never believed.

In August 2009, after dozens of people reported seeing a mermaid leaping out of the water and doing aerial tricks, the Israeli coastal town of Kiryat Yam offered a $1 million award for proof of the mermaid.In February 2012, work on two reservoirs near Gokwe and Mutare in Zimbabwe stopped when workers refused to continue, stating that mermaids had hounded them away from the sites. It was reported by Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, the water resources minister.

On January 9, 2013, during an episode of Mistero broadcast by Italia 1, images were shown of a purported mermaid’s corpse on a Sri Lankan beach.

mermaid_corpse

Source

Animal Planet has made a documentary about mermaids and founded evidence. They say that all information in the video is faked and it is a hoax, but I still think there is some truth in it so watch it yourself  here:

 

Then we have different kind of “Real” sightings or corpses found after tsunami’s or like that and here is the most realistic of them. Some fishers got mermaid in their net or just another hoax:

 

Then we have corpse found after tsunami:

 

And then we have actual footage under water of “real” mermaid compared to human in mermaid costume swimming:

 

And some more:

 

Then I shed some information from a site, which deals many of these kind of topics:

mermaids

 A very strange case:

During an expedition in the sea of Gouller, at three hours from Australia, a fishing boat that had caught fire was found, this ship belonged to the Company Bennete of Brazil. This ship had left on August 16 Saturday from the Port of Itajai, Brazil and at two hours of sailing it was detected by the navy of Australia. It is impossible that a ship coming from Itajai, Brazil arrives in two hours to Australia.

This is the story that the journalist Merlon Frougers, of the newspaper Australia Daily News, published and only in a couple of hours of having released the publication, surprisingly all the newspapers were bought by a company called CYRSON, which is a company that belongs to the government of the United States.

Along with the debris there were several bodies of the crew members, but surprisingly they found a burned body that didn’t belong to a member of the crew. Apparently, these pictures were taken in the University of Columbia, where scientists are examining the so strange body that apparently belongs to mythology, but surprisingly in the captain’s logbook the following words were recorded: “They have been following us for more than two days, only few of us have seen them”. James Kollen (technician of the ship) spoke to one of those beings and they want us to follow them to a land that nobody knows, they have given us a map we cannot decipher, it is not written in any known language. The creatures are small, they are beautiful, but at the same time they inspire distrust.”

At the end of the recording it is possible to listen the following thing: “We captured one, but I believe that it was a mistake, we could see a wave in the distance, maybe it’s the biggest wave ever sighted. It might be of 200 meters high from our point of view. I have requested help but the radios don’t work, the GSP system is altered, we don’t know where we are, I have requested the immediate evacuation of Marlin 2, but I don’t believe that we could go further. We are surrounded by those creatures and in the distance we can see the enormous wave that comes at us with all its force, as if it were a person. Particularly I don’t believe in myths and legends, but we are terrified and the crew says that in that wave it’s possible to see a person, it is as if the person came out of the wave. We believe that it is at more than 1000 miles N. May God bless us and forgive us for having captured what we all have called Mermaid”

Marlin 2 were found on August 18 Monday by the captain Peter Houner with the ship “JKP-SYD”, he has not given any interview and at the present time he is in the Military Base of Janner, Australia, he has not been seen ever since along with his crew.

The pictures taken of the bodies during the rescue were immediately destroyed entirely by four people who came in a black helicopter without registration, two people came down exclusively to take the mermaid’s body and all the video cameras, photographs and recordings, they took also parts of the map that were floating on the surface.
Who were these people? Why did they hide evidence? Did these creatures exist in fact if so, how many are there at the present time? Why is the government of the United States always involved in this type of discoveries?

Source

Very difficult topic to research, because of amount of information, disinformation and the fact that the mermaids are so common in folklore and fairytales. But do you believe that people would make mermaid corpses, put them lying on the ground, make video of finding them and then put it to YouTube? If so then some people have too much time in their hands :mrgreen:

Stay tuned for more… CREATURES FROM BEYOND!

 

Creatures from beyond part VIII, Giants and Nephilims

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The next myth relates to ancient giants. There is huge amount of data about giants and it’s very hard to tell which information is real and which is fiction, but here it goes. And this is topic which interest me the most so maybe there will be more postings about giants in the future. Here is the start:

The mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. “Giant” is the English word (coined 1297) commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes (Greek “γίγαντες”) of Greek mythology.

In various Indo-European mythologies, gigantic peoples are featured as primeval creatures associated with chaos and the wild nature, and they are frequently in conflict with the gods, be they Olympian, Nartian, Hindu or Norse.

There are also accounts of giants in the Old Testament, most famously Goliath. Attributed to them are extraordinary strength and physical proportions.

Fairy tales such as Jack the Giant Killer have formed our modern perception of giants as stupid and violent monsters, sometimes said to eat humans, especially children (though this is actually a confusion with ogres, which are distinctly cannibalistic). The ogre in Jack and the Beanstalk is often described as a giant. However, in some more recent portrayals, like those of Roald Dahl, some giants are both intelligent and friendly, as in Gulliver’s Travels.

Biblical Old Testament

The Bible (Genesis 6:4-5) tells of giants called Nephilim before and after the Flood:

“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:4-5KJV)

According to the Bible (Genesis 7:23), the Nephilim were destroyed in the Flood; however, further giants are reported after the Flood, including:

The Bible also tells of Gog and Magog, who later entered into European folklore, and of the famous battle between David and the Philistine giant Goliath. The 1st century historian Josephus, and the 1st-2nd century BC Dead Sea Scrolls give Goliath’s height as “four cubits and a span,” approximately 2.00 m or about six feet seven inches.The King James translation of the Bible reports the giant Goliath as “six cubits and a span” in height—about nine feet nine inches tall, (over 2.75 m) (1Samuel 17:4 KJV), but the Septuagint, a Greek Bible, gives Goliath’s height as “four cubits and a span” (~2.00 m).

Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus also described the Amorites as giants in his Antiquities of the Jews, circa 93 AD, indicating that fossil evidence still remained at that time.:”For which reason they removed their camp to Hebron; and when they had taken it, they slew all the inhabitants. There were till then left the race of giants, who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, and terrible to the hearing. The bones of these men are still shown to this very day, unlike to any credible relations of other men.”

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

The Book of Enoch describes “giants” as the offspring of Fallen angels and mortal women in 7:2.

Hinduism

In Hinduism, the giants are called Daityas. The Daityas (दैत्‍य) were the children of Diti and the sage Kashyapa who fought against the gods or Devas because they were jealous of their Deva half-brothers. Since Daityas were a power-seeking race, they sometimes allied with other races having similar ideology namely Danavas and Asuras. Daityas along with Danavas and Asuras are sometimes called Rakshasas, the generic term for a demon in Hindu mythology. Some known Daityas include Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha. The main antagonist of the Hindu epic Ramayana, Ravana, was a Brahmin from his father’s side and a Daitya from his mother’s side. His younger brother Kumbhakarna was said to be as tall as a mountain and was quite good natured.

Native American mythology

According to Paiute oral history, the Si-Te-Cah or Sai’i are a legendary tribe of red-haired cannibalistic giants, the remains of which were allegedly found in 1911 by guano miners in Nevada’s Lovelock Cave. Furthermore, the Paiute creation story tells of “beautiful giants” who once lived between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. After giving birth to a disfigured child, the giants treated the child so poorly that the Great Spirit responded by making the land hot and desolate and allowing enemies to conquer the giants. Only two giants survived: Paiute and his wife, both of whose skin became brown from eternally living in the hot desert.

Adrienne Mayor writes about the Si-Te-Cah in her book, Legends of the First Americans.She suggests that the ‘giant’ interpretation of the skeletons from Lovelock Cave and other dry caves in Nevada was started by entrepreneurs setting up tourist displays and that the skeletons themselves were of normal size. However, about a hundred miles north of Lovelock there are plentiful fossils of mammoths and cave bears, and their large limb bones could easily be thought to be those of giants by an untrained observer. She also discusses the reddish hair, pointing out that hair pigment is not stable after death and that various factors such as temperature, soil, etc. can turn ancient very dark hair rusty red or orange.

Greek mythology

In Greek mythology the gigantes (γίγαντες) were (according to the poet Hesiod) the children of Uranus (mythology) (Ουρανός) and Gaea (Γαία) (spirits of the sky and the earth). They were involved in a conflict with the Olympian gods called the Gigantomachy (Γιγαντομαχία), which was eventually settled when the hero Heracles decided to help the Olympians. The Greeks believed some of them, like Enceladus, to lay buried from that time under the earth and that their tormented quivers resulted in earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Herodotus in Book 1, Chapter 68, describes how the Spartans uncovered in Tegea the body of Orestes which was seven cubits long—around 10 feet. In his book The Comparison of Romulus with TheseusPlutarch describes how the Athenians uncovered the body of Theseus, which was of more than ordinary size. The kneecaps of Ajax were exactly the size of a discus for the boy’s pentathlon, wrote Pausanias. A boy’s discus was about twelve centimeters in diameter, while a normal adult patella is around five centimeters, suggesting Ajax may have been around 14 feet (~4.3 meters) tall.

The Cyclopes, usually children of Gods (Olympians) and nature spirits (nereids, naiads and dryads), are also compared to giants due to their huge size (Polyphemus, son of Poseidon and Thoosa, and nemesis of Odysseus and Jason, comes to mind).

Roman mythology

Several Jupiter-Giant-Columns have been found in Germania Superior. These were crowned with a statue of Jupiter, typically on horseback, defeating or trampling down a Giant, often depicted as a snake. They are restricted to the area of south-western Germany, western Switzerland, French Jura and Alsace.

Norse mythology

In Norse mythology, the Jotun (jötnar in Old Norse, a cognate with ettin) are often opposed to the gods. While often translated as “giants”, most are described as being roughly human sized. Some are portrayed as huge, such as frost giants (hrímþursar), fire giants (eldjötnar), and mountain giants (bergrisar).

The giants are the origin of most of various monsters in Norse mythology (e.g. the Fenrisulfr), and in the eventual battle of Ragnarök the giants will storm Asgard and defeat them in war. Even so, the gods themselves were related to the giants by many marriages, and there are giants such as Ægir, Loki, Mímir and Skaði, who bear little difference in status to them.

Norse mythology also holds that the entire world of men was once created from the flesh of Ymir, a giant of cosmic proportions, which name is considered by some to share a root with the name Yama of Indo-Iranian mythology.

An old Icelandic legend says that two night-prowling giants, a man and a woman, were traversing the fjord near Drangey Island with their cow when they were surprised by the bright rays of daybreak. As a result of exposure to daylight, all three were turned into stone. Drangey represents the cow and Kerling (supposedly the female giant, the name means “Old Hag”) is to the south of it. Karl (the male giant) was to the north of the island, but he disappeared long ago.

A bergrisi appears as a supporter on the coat of arms of Iceland.

Other European mythology

In folklore from all over Europe, giants were believed to have built the remains of previous civilizations. Saxo Grammaticus, for example, argues that giants had to exist, because nothing else would explain the large walls, stone monuments, and statues that we now know were the remains of Roman construction. Similarly, the Old English poemSeafarer speaks of the high stone walls that were the work of giants. Even natural geologic features such as the massive basalt columns of the Giant’s Causeway on the coast of Northern Ireland were attributed to construction by giants. Giants provided the least complicated explanation for such artifacts.

Medieval romances such as Amadis de Gaula feature giants as antagonists, or, rarely, as allies. This is parodied famously in Cervantes’ Don Quixote, when the title character attacks a windmill, believing it to be a giant. This is the source of the phrase tilting at windmills.

Tales of combat with giants were a common feature in the folklore of Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Celtic giants also figure in Breton and Arthurianromances perhaps as a reflection of the Nordic and Slavic mythology that arrived on the boats, and from this source they spread into the heroic tales of Torquato Tasso, Ludovico Ariosto, and their follower Edmund Spenser. In the small Scottish village of Kinloch Rannoch, a local myth to this effect concerns a local hill that apparently resembles the head, shoulders, and torso of a man, and has therefore been termed ‘the sleeping giant’. Apparently the giant will awaken only if a specific musical instrument is played near the hill. Other giants, perhaps descended from earlier Germanic mythology, feature as frequent opponents of Dietrich von Bern in medieval German tales – in later portrayals Dietrich himself and his fellow heroes also became giants.

Many giants in English folklore were noted for their stupidity.A giant who had quarreled with the Mayor of Shrewsbury went to bury the city with dirt; however, he met a shoemaker, carrying shoes to repair, and the shoemaker convinced the giant that he had worn out all the shoes coming from Shrewsbury, and so it was too far to travel.

Other English stories told of how giants threw stones at each other. This was used to explain many great stones on the landscape.

Giants figure in a great many fairy tales and folklore stories, such as Jack the Giant Killer, The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body, Nix Nought Nothing, Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon, Young Ronald, and Paul Bunyan. Ogres and trolls are humanoid creatures, sometimes of gigantic stature, that occur in various sorts of European folklore. An example of another, Slavic, folklore giant is Rübezahl, a kind giant from Wendish folklore who lived in the Giant Mountains (nowadays on the CzechPolish border).

In Kalevala, Antero Vipunen is a giant shaman that possesses mighty spells dating to the creation. Epic hero Väinämöinen sets out to learn these spells from him, but Vipunen is buried underground, and when Väinämöinen digs him out, he is accidentally swallowed by Vipunen. Väinämöinen then forces Vipunen to submit and sing the spells out by hammering his insides. An analysis by Martti Haavio is that Vipunen is not physically large, but his familiar animal (astral form) is a whale. The depiction is not found in the majority of Finnish original stories, and most probably originates from the book’s compiler Elias Lönnrot.

Possible Fossil Evidence

Through the centuries, certain archaeologists have searched for fossil evidence of a race of giants. Alleged evidence includes:

  • The Giant of Castelnau: Estimated at 11 feet, 6 inches tall. Discovered by the anthropologist Georges Vacher de Lapouge at the Bronze Age cemetery of Castelnau-le-Lez, France in the winter of 1890.
  • 1894 press accounts mentioned a discovery of bones of human giants unearthed at a prehistoric cemetery at Montpellier, France. Skulls “28, 31, and 32 inches in circumference” were reported alongside other bones of gigantic proportions which indicated they belonged to a race of men “between 10 and 15 feet in height.” The bones were reportedly sent to the Paris Academy for further study.
  • The remains of the Si-Te-Cah or Sai’i, a legendary tribe of red-haired cannibalistic giants, which were allegedly found in 1911 by guano miners in Nevada’s Lovelock Cave.However, the size and nature of the fossil remains has been disputed by Adrienne Mayor in the book, Fossil Legends of the First Americans.

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There you have some history and mythology about giants and then I gather some evidence of existence of the giants. First a man who has found a giant skull called Ed Conrad:

“There was a time when Conrad regarded the integrity of the scientific establishment as beyond reproach. But after seven years of dealing with paleontologists and archaeologists, he said he has found them to be a devious and untrustworthy bunch whose actions in relation to him have been downright dishonest and deceitful.”

“Conrad believes his discovery has frightened members of the archeological/ paleontological establishment out of their wits. They dread the truth, he says, because they know their cozy little clique will be gone with the eons. No longer will they be able to sup at the trough of Darwinism, enjoying soft jobs with huge salaries.”

100-Million-Years-Old-Giant-Skull-And-Teeth-Found-Embedded-In-Coal

skullcompare

This is the boulder with the human skull protruding that Ed Conrad discovered in 1982, about a year after finding the specimen resembling the anthropoid skull. It was found in the same general area in precisely this position, with the jawbone facing downward. The Smithsonian had admitted that the protrusion does indeed resemble a human skull.

This giant skull, embedded in solid rock, presents several problems for materialists.

“And it may seem harmless to you now that its been exposed. But, did you know that over 500 people obtained their PhD’s by writing their thesis on “the Piltdown Man”? I dare say, no one took back those PhDs after it was exposed, and those people taught hundreds of thousands of people.” Wyatt, Newletter Five

In 1982 Dr. Lyall Watson stated: “The fossils that decorate our family tree are so scarce that there are still more scientists than specimens. The remarkable fact is that all of the physical evidence we have for human evolution can still be placed, with room to spare, inside a single coffin!”

Likewise, a 1994 article in Time Magazine admitted that: “Yet despite more than a century of digging, the fossil record remains maddeningly sparse. With so few clues, even a single bone that doesn’t fit into the picture can upset everything. Virtually every major discovery has put deep cracks in the conventional wisdom and forced scientists to concoct new theories, amid furious debate.”

Prior to more recent developments of techniques for dating by means of radioactive materials, there were fundamentally only two methods of estimating the age of a fossil. The first was the geological level at which the specimen was found.

The second, applying more particularly to human fossils, was the general appearance: whether apish and “primitive,” or essentially like modern man. These two criteria are still largely applied, since the majority of the more ancient remains of early man are completely fossilized and C-14 methods of dating cannot be used.

But it has long been recognized that if the fossil remains of early man are arranged according to their degree of primitiveness, the order will be found to contradict the series arranged on the basis of antiquity as established by the levels at which they are found.”

giantfemur

GIGANTOPITHECUS” & “MEGANTHROPUS”

There is no controversy about these facts; there was a race or group of people found in Australia called “meganthropus” by anthropologists. These people were of very large size–estimated between 7 to 12 feet tall, depending on what source you read.

These people were found with mega tool artifacts, so their humaness is difficult to question. Four jaw fragments and thousands of teeth have been found in China of “gigantopithecus blacki”–named after the discover. Based on the size of the teeth and deep jaws, its size has been estimated at around 10 feet and as tall as 12 feet, 1200 pounds. (Photo:Giant human femur reportedly found in Turkey)

The “problem” is that human fossils are the rarest of all, and generally, only the hardest bones, jaws, teeth and skulls survive. As with most “early man” artistic recreations, a great deal of the individual is surmised.

The question is, is gigantopithecus a man or an ape? I personally have no opinion, but it is clear that very large men did live once. Scientists are of course afraid of being ridiculed and rather than estimate the size of the individuals possessing larger skulls and teeth than “us”, they prefer to use the term robust.

Anthropologists spend quite a bit of time trying to decide what is an ape, what is a man, who they believe descended from who and the like. Now, most consider gigantopithecus an ape,(its more convenient to the theory of evol) but the co-discover at least, and many others still see no difference between the teeth and jaws of Giganto than other so-called ancestors.

As we said, everyone believes that meganthropus with his mega-tools was a “man”. Tools have been found in the same area as giganto as well, but the tendency has been to associate them with other “types’ found at the same location.

There were giants on the earth in those days…

afghan_giant

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>> Huge information archive related to Giants and especially todays deformation like 6 fingers and double rows of teeth

Good videos are made by Steve Quayle:

Steve Quayle is a survivalist, conspiracy theorist, anti-government, pseudo-religious, anarchist, and self proclaimed prophet. He has his own website at stevequayle.com and radio show. He, in the past, has appeared on the Coast-to-Coast AM show, with George Norry on a regular basis.
He is a very intelligent and well spoken, informed individual. He has written a number of books on various subjects, to include Giants, Fallen Angels, and other survivalist-apocalyptic related literature.

Just IMHO, the more you listen to him, the more sense he makes! Psychologically, you’re better off watching football and reading the gossip column. Else beware, you’ll get sucked in to expecting the world to end on a daily basis and raided by the local SWAT team, whilst barricaded in your basement, with guns, ammo, and food supply. 😉

None-the-less, he is a very intriguing, enigmatic, and entertaining. He’ll definitely stretch your imagination to new limitations! 🙂

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Here is one of his videos (8 parts) about Giants and Nephilims:

 

>> Steve Quayle website

Then there is a cave where they have found bones of giants and burned human bones called “The Breitenwinner Cave”:

cave2

What it is:
A Bavarian catacomb located in a cave on the German/Swiss border containing thousands of normal, and not so normal, giant, human bones.  The normal size bones are found burned and brittle in a massive mound of bones, wood, and ash. The giant bones are buried, or arranged in a ritualistic manner.

What it might be:
Is this a massive burial cave for an ancient race of giants? Is it a possible crematorium for the missing prisoners of Stalag 383, a nearby Nazi prisoner of war camp, with a nasty reputation?

OR Is it both?

Source

Latest news related to Giants was this newsarticle about mummified giant finger:

giant_finger

A giant finger was discovered in Egypt in 1988. The finger was almost 16 inches long and is estimated to have been from the hand of a being that would have stood around 16 feet in height.  Swiss archaeologist Gregor Spörri released the photo to the newspaper Bild last year. The picture were taken in 1988 during his private trip to Egypt.

The finger was later stolen. Was it real or a hoax?  There are reputed to be giant human mummies in Egypt that have been hidden by archaeologists. The stolen giant human finger allegedly came from a giant mummy found in graves around Giza pyramids.

What you are looking at is a gigantic, nearly 16 inches long, mummified humanoid finger and the creatures height would hve been over 16.4 feet!  In 1988, Spörri on the last day of a private trip to Egypt, he met an old man from a grave robber dynasty. The meeting was took place in a farm-house in Bir Hooker, 100 kilometers northeast of Cairo.

After paying, $300 Spörri had a look at the grave robber’s treasure which was the skin and bone  wrapped in old rags

Spörri told BILD.de: “It was an oblong package, smelled musty. I was totally flabbergasted when I saw the dark brown giant finger.”

I was allowed to take it in hand and also to take pictures; a bill was put next to it to get a size comparison. “The bent finger was split open and covered with dried mold.” It was surprisingly light maybe a few hundred grams My heart was up to his neck. That was incredible. In size to a matching body should have been about 15 feet tall”

Were there giants in Egypt? The Roman historian Flavius ​​Josephus reported  in 79 AD   in his history of the Jewish War that “There were giants. Much larger and different than normal people. Horrible to look at. Who has not seen with his own eyes, he can ot believe that they have been so enormous. ”  Josephus also says that in the vicinity of Hebron during  the time of Moses that “There were till then left the race of giants, who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, and terrible to the hearing. The bones of these men are still shown to this very day, unlike to any credible relations of other men”

Some think the finger may have belonged to a Gigantopithecus blacki.

Gigantopithecus is an extinct genus of ape that existed from roughly nine million years to as recently as one hundred thousand years ago, in what is now China, India, and Vietnam, placing Gigantopithecus in the same time frame and geographical location as several hominin species.The fossil record suggests that individuals of the species Gigantopithecus blacki were the largest apes that ever lived, standing up to 3 m (9.8 ft), and weighing up to 540 kg (1,200 lb)

A comparison graph of a 1.8-m-tall human male in comparison to Gigantopithecus blacki (left) and G. giganteus (right): This graph is based on orangutan proportions while standing upright.
Gigantopithecus_v_human

The first Gigantopithecus remains described by an anthropologist were found in 1935 by Ralph von Koenigswald in an apothecary shop. Fossilized teeth and bones are often ground into powder and used in some branches of traditional Chinese medicine.[5] Von Koenigswald named the theorized species Gigantopithecus.[6]

Since then, relatively few fossils of Gigantopithecus have been recovered. Aside from the molars recovered in Chinese traditional medicine shops, Liucheng Cave in Liuzhou, China, has produced numerous Gigantopithecus blacki teeth, as well as several jawbones.[3] Other sites yielding significant finds were in Vietnam and India.[2][4] These finds suggest the range of Gigantopithecus was southeast Asia.

In 1955, 47 G. blacki teeth were found among a shipment of ‘dragon bones’ (aka, “oracle bones”) in China. Tracing these teeth to their source resulted in recovery of more teeth and a rather complete large mandible. By 1958, three mandibles and more than 1,300 teeth had been recovered. Gigantopithecus remains have come from sites in Hubei, Guangxi, and Sichuan, from warehouses for Chinese medicinal products, as well as from cave deposits. Not all Chinese remains have been dated to the same time period, and the fossils in Hubei appear to be of a later date than elsewhere in China. The Hubei teeth are also larger.

Characteristics

Gigantopithecus’s method of locomotion is uncertain, as no pelvic or leg bones have been found. The dominant view is that it walked on all fours like modern gorillas and chimpanzees; however, a minority opinion favors bipedal locomotion, most notably championed by the late Grover Krantz, but this assumption is based only on the very few jawbone remains found, all of which are U-shaped and widen towards the rear. This allows room for the windpipe to be within the jaw, allowing the skull to sit squarely upon a fully erect spine as in modern humans, rather than roughly in front of it, as in the other great apes.

The majority view is that the weight of such a large, heavy animal would put enormous stress on the creature’s legs, ankles, and feet if it walked bipedally; while if it walked on all four limbs, like gorillas, its weight would be better distributed over each limb.

Diet

The jaws of Gigantopithecus are deep and very thick. The molars are low-crowned and flat, and exhibit heavy enamel suitable for tough grinding.[8] The premolars are broad and flat and configured similarly to the molars. The canine teeth are neither pointed nor sharp, while the incisors are small, peglike, and closely aligned. The features of teeth and jaws suggested that the animal was adapted to chewing tough, fibrous food by cutting, crushing, and grinding it. Gigantopithecus teeth also have a large number of cavities, similar to those found in giant pandas, whose diet, which includes a large amount of bamboo, may be similar to that of Gigantopithecus.

In addition to bamboo, Gigantopithecus consumed other vegetable foods, as suggested by the analysis of the phytoliths adhering to its teeth. An examination of the microscopic scratches and gritty plant remains embedded in Gigantopithecus teeth suggests they ingested seeds and fruit, as well as bamboo

Gigantopithecus blacki

Gigantopithecus blacki is only known through fossil teeth and mandibles found in cave sites in Southeast Asia. As the name suggests, these are appreciably larger than those of living gorillas, but the exact size and structure of the rest of the body can only be estimated in the absence of additional findings. Dating methods have shown that G. blacki existed for about a million years, going extinct about 100,000 years ago after having been contemporary with (anatomically) modern humans (Homo sapiens) for tens of thousands of years, and co-existing with H. erectus before the appearance of H. sapiens.

Morphology

Based on the fossil evidence, adult male Gigantopithecus blacki are believed to have stood about 3 m (9.8 ft) tall and weighed as much as 540 kg (1,200 lb), making the species two to three times heavier than modern gorillas and nearly five times heavier than the orangutan, its closest living relative. Large males may have had an armspan of over 12 ft (3.6 m). The species was highly sexually dimorphic, with adult females roughly half the weight of males.[4] Due to wide interspecies differences in the relationship between tooth and body size, some argue[citation needed] that it is more likely that Gigantopithecus was much smaller, at roughly 1.8 m (5.9 ft).

The species lived in Asia and probably inhabited bamboo forests, since its fossils are often found alongside those of extinct ancestors of the panda. Most evidence points to Gigantopithecus being a plant-eater.

Its appearance is not known, because of the fragmentary nature of its fossil remains. It possibly resembled modern gorillas, because of its supposedly similar lifestyle. Some scientists, however, think it probably looked more like its closest modern relative, the orangutan. Being so large, Gigantopithecus possibly had few or no enemies when fully grown. However, younger, weak, or injured individuals may have been vulnerable to predation by tigers, pythons, crocodiles, Dinofelis, hyenas, bears, and Homo erectus.

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So much information and so little time. It’s up to you if you want to find more information about Giants. The Net is full of it and the hardest thing is to find the information which could be reliable and backed up with some facts. This information is just brought to wake up your interest towards these Giant beings, which I think once walked on Earth. Or what do you think about for example Russian boxer called Nikolai Valuev, is he a normal person? I think he is a  descendant of a Giant:

Nikolai Sergeyevich Valuev (Russian: Николай Сергеевич Валуев Russian pronunciation: [nʲɪkɐˈlaj sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvʲɪtɕ vɐˈlʊjɪf]; born 21 August 1973) is a retired Russian professional boxer and former two-time WBAheavyweight champion. In his last fight (on 7 November 2009), he lost the title to David Haye as a result of a 12-round majority decision. Three days after the fight, Valuev announced his retirement.

Nikolai Valuev, Jean Francois Bergeron

nikolai_valuev

Then I just have to post a great song called “Penetration” from a band called “Nefilim”:

 

Huh… what a post and remember to stay tuned for more CREATURES FROM BEYOND!

Creatures from beyond part VII, The Loch Ness Monster

nessie

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This is so legendary tale, that I’m going to describe just a little of Nessie and then try to focus on the latest information about it. Here is the description of Nessie:

The Loch Ness Monster is a cryptid, reputedly a large unknown animal that is said to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is similar to other supposed lake monsters in Scotland and elsewhere, though its description varies from one account to the next. Popular interest and belief in the animal’s existence has varied since it was first brought to the world’s attention in 1933. Evidence of its existence is anecdotal, with minimal and much-disputed photographic material and sonar readings.

The most common speculation among believers is that the creature represents a line of long-surviving plesiosaurs.The scientific community regards the Loch Ness Monster as a modern-day myth, and explains sightings as including misidentifications of more mundane objects, outright hoaxes, and wishful thinking.Despite this, it remains one of the most famous examples of cryptozoology. The legendary monster has been affectionately referred to by the nickname Nessie (Scottish Gaelic: Niseag)since the 1950s.

Origins

The term “monster” was reportedly applied for the first time to the creature on 2 May 1933 by Alex Campbell, the water bailiff for Loch Ness and a part-time journalist, in a report in the Inverness Courier.On 4 August 1933, the Courier published as a full news item the assertion of a London man, George Spicer, that a few weeks earlier while motoring around the Loch, he and his wife had seen “the nearest approach to a dragon or pre-historic animal that I have ever seen in my life”, trundling across the road toward the Loch carrying “an animal” in its mouth.Other letters began appearing in the Courier, often anonymously, with claims of land or water sightings, either on the writer’s part or on the parts of family, acquaintances or stories they remembered being told.These stories soon reached the national (and later the international) press, which described a “monster fish”, “sea serpent”, or “dragon”,eventually settling on “Loch Ness Monster”.On 6 December 1933 the first purported photograph of the monster, taken by Hugh Gray, was published in the Daily Express,and shortly after the creature received official notice when the Secretary of State for Scotland ordered the police to prevent any attacks on it.In 1934, interest was further sparked by what is known as The Surgeon’s Photograph. In the same year R. T. Gould published a book,the first of many that describe the author’s personal investigation and collected record of additional reports pre-dating 1933. Other authors have claimed that sightings of the monster go as far back as the 6th century (see below).

History

Saint Columba (6th century)

The earliest report of a monster associated with the vicinity of Loch Ness appears in the Life of St. Columba by Adomnán, written in the 7th century.According to Adomnán, writing about a century after the events he described, the Irish monk Saint Columba was staying in the land of the Picts with his companions when he came across the locals burying a man by the River Ness. They explained that the man had been swimming the river when he was attacked by a “water beast” that had mauled him and dragged him under. They tried to rescue him in a boat, but were able only to drag up his corpse. Hearing this, Columba stunned the Picts by sending his follower Luigne moccu Min to swim across the river. The beast came after him, but Columba made the sign of the cross and commanded: “Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once.”The beast immediately halted as if it had been “pulled back with ropes” and fled in terror, and both Columba’s men and the pagan Picts praised God for the miracle.

The oldest manuscript relating to this story was put online in 2012.Believers in the Loch Ness Monster often point to this story, which takes place on the River Ness rather than the loch itself, as evidence for the creature’s existence as early as the 6th century.However, sceptics question the narrative’s reliability, noting that water-beast stories were extremely common in medieval saints’ Lives; as such, Adomnán’s tale is likely a recycling of a common motif attached to a local landmark.According to the sceptics, Adomnán’s story may be independent of the modern Loch Ness Monster legend entirely, only becoming attached to it in retrospect by believers seeking to bolster their claims.In an article for Cryptozoology, A. C. Thomas notes that even if there were some truth to the story, it could be explained rationally as an encounter with a walrus or similar creature that had swum up the river.R. Binns acknowledges that this account is the most serious of various alleged early sightings of the monster, but argues that all other claims of monster sightings prior to 1933 are highly dubious and do not prove that there was a tradition of the monster before this date.

Spicers (1933)

Modern interest in the monster was sparked by a sighting on 22 July 1933, when George Spicer and his wife saw ‘a most extraordinary form of animal’ cross the road in front of their car.They described the creature as having a large body (about 4 feet (1.2 m) high and 25 feet (7.6 m) long), and long, narrow neck, slightly thicker than an elephant’s trunk and as long as the 10–12-foot (3–4 m) width of the road; the neck had undulations in it. They saw no limbs, possibly because of a dip in the road obscuring the animal’s lower portion.It lurched across the road towards the loch 20 yards (20 m) away, leaving only a trail of broken undergrowth in its wake.

In August 1933 a motorcyclist named Arthur Grant claimed to have nearly hit the creature while approaching Abriachan on the north-eastern shore, at about 1 a.m. on a moonlit night. Grant claimed that he saw a small head attached to a long neck, and that the creature saw him and crossed the road back into the loch. A veterinary student, he described it as a hybrid between a seal and a plesiosaur. Grant said he dismounted and followed it to the loch, but only saw ripples.Some believe this story was intended as a humorous explanation of a motorcycle accident.

Sightings of the monster increased following the building of a road along the loch in early 1933, bringing both workmen and tourists to the formerly isolated area Sporadic land sightings continued until 1963, when film of the creature was shot in the loch from a distance of 4 kilometres. Because of the distance at which it was shot, it has been described as poor quality.

Chief Constable William Fraser (1938)

In 1938, Inverness Shire Chief Constable William Fraser wrote a letter stating that it was beyond doubt the monster existed. His letter expressed concern regarding a hunting party that had arrived armed with a specially-made harpoon gun and were determined to catch the monster “dead or alive”. He believed his power to protect the monster from the hunters was “very doubtful”. The letter was released by the National Archives of Scotland on 27 April 2010.

C. B. Farrel (1943)

In May 1943, C. B. Farrel of the Royal Observer Corps was supposedly distracted from his duties by a Nessie sighting. He claimed to have been about 250 yards (230 m) away from a large-eyed, ‘finned’ creature, which had a 20-to-30-foot (6 to 9 m) long body, and a neck that protruded about 4–5 feet (1.2–1.5 m) out of the water.

Sonar contact (1954)

In December 1954 a strange sonar contact was made by the fishing boat Rival III. The vessel’s crew observed sonar readings of a large object keeping pace with the boat at a depth of 480 feet (146 m). It was detected travelling for half a mile (800 m) in this manner, before contact was lost, but then found again later.Many sonar attempts had been made previously, but most were either inconclusive or negative.

Latest Sightings

Sonar image (2011)

On 24 August 2011, Marcus Atkinson, a local Loch Ness boat skipper, photographed a sonar image of a long 5 ft wide unidentified object which was apparently following his boat for two minutes at a depth of 75 ft. Atkinson ruled out the possibility of any small fish or seal being what he believed to be the Loch Ness Monster. In April 2012, a scientist from the National Oceanography Centre said that this image is a bloom of algae and zooplankton.However, Roland Watson, a cryptozoologist and Loch Ness Monster researcher, has criticized this analysis, stating that the object in the image is very unlikely to be a bloom of algae and zooplankton, since algae needs sunlight to grow, and the waters of Loch Ness are very dark, and nearly devoid of sunlight, 75 feet down.

George Edwards’ photograph (2011)

On 3 August 2012, skipper George Edwards published a photograph he claims to be “The most convincing Nessie photograph ever”, which he claimed to have taken on 2 November 2011. Edwards’ photograph consists in a hump out of the water which, according to him, remained so for five to ten minutes. The Daily Mail reports that Edward had the photograph independently verified by specialists such as a Loch Ness Monster sighting devotee and a group of US military monster experts. Edwards spends 60 hours per week on the loch aboard his boat, Nessie Hunter IV, in which he takes tourists for a ride on the lake, and claims to have searched for the Loch Ness monster for 26 years.Said Edwards, “In my opinion, it probably looks kind of like a manatee, but not a mammal. When people see three humps, they’re probably just seeing three separate monsters.”

>> The Huffington Post article about George Edward’s photograph

However, other researchers of the Loch Ness phenomena have questioned the authenticity of the photograph. A subsequent investigation by Loch Ness researcher, Steve Feltham, suggests that the object in the water is in fact a fibreglass hump used previously in a National Geographic documentary which Edwards had participated in. Researcher Dick Raynor has also questioned Edward’s claims about finding a deeper bottom to Loch Ness, which he refers to as “Edwards Deep”. He also found inconsistencies between Edwards’ claims of the location and conditions of the photograph and the actual location and weather conditions of that day. Additionally, Raynor also stated that Edwards had previously told him he had faked a photograph in 1986, which he had promoted as genuine in the National Geographic documentary.

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Next video is from series “Stuff They don’t want You To Know”:

 

Here’s the Cryptozoologist Fredrick William Holiday who dedicated his life to investigate The Nessie:

Fredrick William Holiday, also known as “Ted Holiday” (1920–1979) was a British journalist, angler, cryptozoologist, and wildlife specialist.

Motivated by the early 1930s media reports, Holiday would dedicate the rest of his life to investigating the Loch Ness monster. In the 1960s, Holiday became a member of the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau. After several hundred hours of watching the Loch, Holiday claims that he reported four unidentified sightings. In his 1968 book, The Great Orm of Loch Ness, Holiday postulated that the creature in the Loch was an invertebrate creature similar in form to the extinct Tullimonstrum gregarium, but vastly larger.

Holiday also claimed that he noticed several unusual coincidences, including camera malfunction during certain Nessie sightings. For example, in August 1968, even though there were several witnesses along the shore, “Nessie” chose to appear in one of the very few places that were obscured from the various cameras. Holiday reported, “The observers were watchful and keen but they had seen nothing. The phenomenon had concealed itself so there was nothing for them to see.”

By 1972, Holiday modified his initial hypothesis that the Loch Ness monster was a literal physical animal. In his second book, The Dragon and the Disc, Holiday postulates that there are certain commonalities between paranormal phenomena and certain reported sightings on the Loch. Holiday also believed that there is a relationship between ancient dragon legends and contemporary UFO phenomena. Though he maintained in the book that he still believed that the monster was an invertebrate animal, there was a paranormal aspect to it reminiscent of ancient Water Horse legends which he could not fully explain.

His final work, The Goblin Universe, was published posthumously and includes an introduction by Colin Wilson.

Source

Here is on of Fredrick’s book called “The great Orm of Loch Ness: A practical inquiry into the nature and habits of watermonsters”:

orm_of_lochness

>> Amazon – The great Orm of Loch Ness: A practical inquiry into the nature and habits of watermonsters

So that’s Nessie… difficult subject to investigate because of hoaxed photographs, videos, computer graphics etc. That’s why I didn’t post them here. You can check them up and make your own conclusions. I think that major part of  The Nessie legend is based on tourism and making money. If you want my wildest guess about it… it could be a hologram to fright people, maybe there is a military base somewhere they want to protect… gotcha 😆  Stay tuned for more CREATURES FROM BEYOND!

Creatures from beyond part VI, The Jersey Devil

Jersey_devil

Next creature is called The Jersey Devil. This hideous monster has several sightings and here is the description:

The Jersey Devil is a legendary creature or cryptid said to inhabit the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey, United States. The creature is often described as a flying biped with hooves, but there are many different variations. The most common description is that of a kangaroo-like creature with the head of a goat, leathery bat-like wings, horns, small arms with clawed hands, cloven hooves and a forked tail. It has been reported to move quickly and often is described as emitting a “blood-curdling scream.”

The Jersey Devil has worked its way into the pop culture of the area, even lending its name to New Jersey’s team in the National Hockey League, and appeared on an early episode of The X-Files.

Origin of the legend

There are many possible origins of the Jersey Devil legend. The earliest legends date back to Native American folklore. The Lenni Lenape tribes called the area around Pine Barrens “Popuessing”, meaning “place of the dragon”.Swedish explorers later named it “Drake Kill”, “drake” being a Swedish word for dragon, and “kil” meaning channel or arm of the sea (river, stream, etc.)

The most accepted origin of the story, as far as New Jerseyans are concerned, started with Mother Leeds and is as follows:

“It was said that Mother Leeds had 12 children and, after finding she was pregnant for the 13th time, stated that this one would be the Devil. In 1735, Mother Leeds was in labor on a stormy night. Gathered around her were her friends. Mother Leeds was supposedly a witch and the child’s father was the Devil himself. The child was born normal, but then changed form. It changed from a normal baby to a creature with hooves, a goat’s head, bat wings and a forked tail. It growled and screamed, then killed the midwife before flying up the chimney. It circled the villages and headed toward the pines. In 1740 a clergy exorcised the demon for 100 years and it wasn’t seen again until 1890.”

“Mother Leeds” has been identified by some as Deborah Leeds.This identification may have gained credence from the fact that Deborah Leeds’ husband, Japhet Leeds, named twelve children in the will he wrote in 1736,which is compatible with the legend of the Jersey Devil being the thirteenth child born by Mother Leeds. Deborah and Japhet Leeds also lived in the Leeds Point section of what is now Atlantic County, New Jersey,which is the area commonly said to be the location of the Jersey Devil story.

Reported encounters

There have been many sightings and occurrences allegedly involving the Jersey Devil.

According to legend, while visiting the Hanover Mill Works to inspect his cannonballs being forged, Commodore Stephen Decatur sighted a flying creature flapping its wings and fired a cannonball directly upon it to no effect.

Joseph Bonaparte, eldest brother of Emperor Napoleon, is also said to have witnessed the Jersey Devil while hunting on his Bordentown estate around hi 1820.[8] In 1840, the devil was blamed for several livestock killings. Similar attacks were reported in 1841, accompanied by tracks and screams.

Claims of a corpse matching the Leeds Devil’s description arose in Greenwich in December 1925. A local farmer shot an unidentified animal as it attempted to steal his chickens. Afterward, he claimed that none of 100 people he showed it to could identify it.On July 27, 1937 an unknown animal “with red eyes” seen by residents of Downingtown, Pennsylvania was compared to the Jersey Devil by a reporter for the Pennsylvania Bulletin.In 1951, a group of Gibbstown, New Jersey boys claimed to have seen a ‘monster’ matching the Devil’s description.and claims of a corpse matching the Jersey Devil’s description arose in 1957. In 1960, tracks and noises heard near Mays Landing were claimed to be from the Jersey Devil.During the same year the merchants around Camden offered a $10,000 reward for the capture of the Jersey Devil, even offering to build a private zoo to house the creature if captured.

Sightings of 1909

During the week of January 16 through 23, 1909, newspapers of the time published hundreds of claimed encounters with the Jersey Devil from all over the state. Among alleged encounters publicized that week were claims the creature “attacked” a trolley car in Haddon Heights and a social club in Camden.Police in Camden and Bristol, Pennsylvania supposedly fired on the creature to no effect.Other reports initially concerned unidentified footprints in the snow, but soon sightings of creatures resembling the Jersey Devil were being reported throughout South Jersey and as far away as Delaware.The widespread newspaper coverage led to a panic throughout the Delaware Valley prompting a number of schools to close and workers to stay home. During this period, it is rumored that the Philadelphia Zoo posted a $10,000 reward for the creature’s capture. The offer prompted a variety of hoaxes, including a kangaroo with artificial wings.

Explanations

Skeptics believe the Jersey Devil to be nothing more than a creative manifestation of the English settlers, Bogeyman stories created and told by bored Pine Barren residents as a form of children’s entertainment, and rumors arising from negative perceptions of the local population (“pineys“). According to Brian Dunning of Skeptoid, folk tales of the Jersey Devil prior to 1909 calling it the “Leeds Devil” may have been created to discredit local politician Daniel Leeds who served as deputy to the colonial governor of New York and New Jersey in the 1700s.Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand wrote that the spread of contemporary pop culture has overtaken traditional Jersey Devil legends.Jeff Brunner of the Humane Society of New Jersey thinks the Sandhill Crane is the basis of the Jersey Devil stories, adding, “There are no photographs, no bones, no hard evidence whatsoever, and worst of all, no explanation of its origins that doesn’t require belief in the supernatural.”Outdoorsman and author Tom Brown, Jr. spent several seasons living in the wilderness of the Pine Barrens. He recounts occasions when terrified hikers mistook him for the Jersey Devil, after he covered his whole body with mud to repel mosquitoes.

One New Jersey group called the “Devil Hunters” refer to themselves as “official researchers of the Jersey Devil”, and devote time to collecting reports, visiting historic sites, and going on nocturnal hunts in the Pine Barrens in order to “find proof that the Jersey Devil does in fact exist.

Source

Here is the History Channel documentary about The Jersey Devil and the sightings:

 

 

Here’s the video where paranormal investigation team has some footage of this creature:

The Jersey Devil Has Been Seen In Southern New Jersey And Eastern Pennsylvania In The Pine Barrens Or Pinelands For Over 300 Years. Even Now Going On To The Current Times Of Today. Yet It Has Never Been Caught On Video, Filmed, Or Even Photographed.

Until This Paranormal Team Caught The First Footage Of The Jersey Devil. It Looks Like The Same Thing People Have Been Claiming To See Since The 1700’s. Watch The Whole Thing. It’s Very Informative And Educational. You Might Get Something Out Of Watching This.

 

 

You can call this another urban legend, but are all these people insane who have seen The Jersey Devil? It’s up to you make up your own conclusions. I just bring these cases for you… and remember there will be more CREATURES FROM BEYOND!