Official Mod's Contest - 'Fairy tales and Mythical Characters'

I am from America, and I chose the legend of Pocahontas



Pocahontas was a Native American woman. She was a daughter of Chief Powhatan, who ruled an area encompassing almost all of the neighboring tribes in the Tidewater region of Virginia.

In 1607, when the English colonists arrived in Virginia and began building settlements, one of the leading colonists, John Smith, was captured by a group of Powhatan hunters and brought to one of the chief villages of the Powhatan Empire. According to Smith, he was laid across a stone and was about to be executed when Pocahontas threw herself across his body to save him.

In 1608, Pocahontas is said to have saved Smith a second time. Smith and some other colonists were invited to visit Chief Powhatan on friendly terms. They were treated kindly and traded with the Indians, but missed the tide and had to spend the night. That night, Pocahontas came to Smith's hut and told him that her father was planning to send men with food who would kill them when they put down their weapons to eat. She had been told not to inform them, but she begged the Englishmen to leave. Being forewarned, the English kept their weapons ready by them even while eating, and no attack came.

Last edited by Vanity83 (11-29-2008 10:31)

I am from England and my favourite fairy tale when I was little was Snow White - I even had a Snow White an the Seven Dwarfs cake for my 7th Birthday! So I decided to base my Bimbo on Snow White  herself who was very beautiful but her evil stepmother tried to poison her with an apple - fortunately she had made friends with 7 dwarfs of very different personalities who helped her!

I'm from Germany and I live very close to the rock where the legend of Loreley takes place.
Loreley, a beautiful young maiden, committed suicide because of an unfaithful lover. She jumped from the steep rock into the Rhine River, thus killing herself. She then became a siren, luring shipmen to their fates with her hypnotizing voice. The echoing heard today is said to be Loreley. It is said that she sits/sat on the cliff, combing her long blonde hair with a golden comb while luring the ships to crash agains the rocks.

So this is my take of her:

The White Lady from the Castle

        Once upon a time a woman with two children was living in the castle. Her husband was killed in a war. She wanted to get married again but the children made it impossible. That is why she killed them and immured in the castle. For that act she was punished and has been still serving the sentence. As the legend says every year, on the eve of All Saints Day, it is possible to meet the White Lady in an old chapel at midnight. A ghost of a woman in white shroud can be seen kneeling on the steps of the altar. The priest- skeleton starts saying the mass. There are also two skeleton altar boys. During the mass the White Lady prays and goes to confession. She mentions all her sins and asks for absolution. The priest replies that the time has not come yet- not in this year. The candles extinguish suddenly and the whole apparition disappears. Only in the castle halls and in the surroundings one can hear cries and quiet footsteps.

La Befana Italian Legend
















La Befana is a character in Italian folklore who delivers presents to children throughout Italy, similar to Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus. The character may have originated in Rome, then spread as a tradition to peninsular Italy.

A popular belief is that her name derives from the festival of Epiphany, but there is evidence to suggest that Befana is descended from the Sabine/Roman goddess named Strina. In the book Vestiges of Ancient Manners and Customs, Discoverable in Modern Italy and Sicily, by Rev. John J. Blunt (John Murray, 1823) the author says:

"This Befana appears to be heir at law of a certain heathen goddess called Strenia, who presided over the new-year's gifts, 'Strenae,' from which, indeed, she derived her name. (D. Augustin. de Civit. Dei, lib. iv. c. 16.) Her presents were of the same description as those of the Beffana—figs, dates, and honey. (Ov. Fast. i. 185.) Moreover her solemnities were vigorously opposed by the early Christians on account of their noisy, riotous, and licentious character" (Vide Rosini, ed. Dempster. lib. i. c.13, de Dea Strenia}. – page 120

In popular folklore Befana visits all the children of Italy on the eve of 6 January to fill their socks with candy and presents if they are good or a lump of coal or dark candy if they are bad. Being a good housekeeper, many say she will sweep the floor before she leaves. The child's family typically leaves a small glass of wine and a plate with a few morsels of food, often regional or local, for the Befana.

She is usually portrayed as an old lady riding a broomstick through the air wearing a black shawl and is covered in soot because she enters the children's houses through the chimney. She is often smiling and carries a bag or hamper filled with candy, gifts, or both.

Last edited by rosettina (11-29-2008 16:20)

Mermaind from Warsow;) POLAND

Last edited by pearline (11-29-2008 16:41)

"As meigas" from Galicia (Spain)
The Meigas are a beneficent and wise witch who is capable of shape-shifting and an important character from Galicia's Celtic folklore. The Meigas live with animals (usually cats) and they can fly.
Meigas can be good or evil, ugly or stunningly beautiful but they always wears poor black clothes, black laces booties and black hat.



The popular Galician expression, """"Eu non creo nas meigas, pero habelas hainas""" TRAD - "I don’t believe in witches, but they exist", is said to encapsulate the balance in the Galician character between practicality, incredulity and mysticism.

http://img61.imageshack.us/my.php?image=beztytuuqi6.png
Queen Bona from Poland.
The legend says that one day she came to a little village and suddenly her horses started running. Everybody paniced. Only one man bravely tried to catch a coach. Queen in order to thank him, decided to give him a gift. But Bona was very shrewd and said that she would give him a land but he would get olny part which he would plowed. Witty country man furrowed just a circle, what meant(?) that the ground inside was now also his. That makes queen furious and she left the country side with unpleasant memories.
http://img61.imageshack.us/my.php?image … 517yt6.jpg

Last edited by girafka14 (11-29-2008 21:58)

From America- The legend of Paul Bunyan. As a female.






Per Wikipedia:
Bunyan's birth was strange, as are the births of many mythic heroes, as it took 3 storks to carry the infant (ordinarily, one stork could carry several babies and drop them off at their parents' home). When he was old enough to clap and laugh, the vibration broke every window in the house. When he was 7 months old he sawed the legs off of his parents bed in the middle of the night. Paul and Babe the Blue Ox, his companion, dug the Grand Canyon when he dragged his axe behind him, and created Mount Hood by piling rocks on top of their campfire to put it out.

He is a classic American "big man" who was popular in 19th century America. Further, the Bunyan myths sprang from lumber camp tales, sometimes bawdy ones, to put it mildly. In one such tale, extreme cold forced bears to look for food; one wandered into a lumber camp. It chased the lumberjacks up a tree on which they had a ladder. To keep the bear from climbing after them (despite the fact that bears do not need ladders to climb trees), they kicked down the ladder. This saved them from the bear, but trapped them in the tree. To escape, the lumberjacks urinated in unison and created a frozen pole, which they slid down. Such tall tales, though later watered down, were attributed to a single character, Bunyan, and became the stories known today. He later would invent shaving cream.

Babe the Blue Ox, Bunyan's companion, was a massive creature with exceptional strength. [1] Most imagery of Bunyan shows Babe the Blue Ox as being of proportionate size (meaning massive compared to everything else). Babe the Blue Ox became a regular part of the Bunyan stories because oxen were the preferred domestic animal (over horses or donkeys) for logging during the turn of the century, noted their ability to haul heavy loads in teams in areas of uneven footing.

Olympias-Macedonia, Greece
-was an Epirote princess, the fourth wife of King Philip II of Macedon and mother of Alexander the Great;
-was a devout member of the orgiastic snake-worshiping cult of Dionysus, and probably slept with snakes;
-as a child she was called Polyxena and then, at marriage, Myrtale;
My bimbo as Olympias
Angelina Jolie, who played Olympias in "Alexander"
A wax figure of Angelina Jolie as Olympias.

Last edited by evabikini2 (12-02-2008 13:56)

Hi, I am from Romania.
Ielele are feminine mythical creatures. Ielele appear sometimes with bodies, other times only as immaterial spirits. They are young and beautiful, voluptuous immortals, their frenzy causing delirium to the watchers, and  they hounded their victims into the middle of their dance, until they died in a furor of madness or torment. They come in group and they mostly appear at night, under the moonlight, as dancing "Horas"(circles), in seclusive areas like glades, the tops of certain trees, ponds, river sides or abandoned fireplaces, dancing naked, with their breast almost covered by their disheveled long hair, with bells to their ankles, and carrying candles.

They resort to revenge only when they are provoked, seen while they dance or heared while they sing. Terrible punishments are inflicted upon the ones who refuse their invitation to dance. The one who randomly hears their songs becomes instantly mute.



Ielele are also kown as being good and charming lovers, and they are also called Dragaica and Sanziene.

Last edited by daraluka (11-29-2008 21:33)

I'm from the USA so I made my bimbo into Bigfoot!

Wikipedia wrote:

Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is an alleged ape-like creature purportedly inhabiting forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid. Many believers in its existence contend that the same or similar creatures are found around the world under different regional names, most prominently the Yeti of the Himalayas.

Last edited by Hollywould (11-30-2008 01:56)

  Well since my family id from Greece an we probably have the most for mythical characters I had to go with a Greek one.
Hard because every one seemed to do so.
So I found one no one had yet its still from my home town!
I bring you....................
MEDUSA

Medusa in Myth
Medusa was a terrible monster who had laid waste to the country. She was once a beautiful maiden whose hair was her chief glory, but as she dared to vie in beauty with Athena, the goddess deprived her of her charms and changed her beautiful ringlets into hissing serpents. She became a cruel monster of so frightening an aspect that no living thing could behold her without being turned into stone. All around the cavern where she dwelt might be seen the stony figures of men and animals which had chanced to catch a glimpse of her and had been petrified with the sight. Perseus, favored by Athena and Hermes, the former of whom lent him her shield and the latter his winged shoes, approached Medusa while she slept, and taking care not to look directly at her, but guided by her image reflected in the bright shield which he bore, he cut off her head and gave it to Athena, who fixed it in the middle of her Aegis.
from Bulfinch's Mythology

Many later images of Medusa thwart our expectations of what she should look like. From the previous story, we are led to believe that she was a creature so hideous in appearance that her very glance could petrify the viewer. However, in works such as the Medusa Rondanini, Medusa has the face of a beautiful woman. It is only her expression of deep sorrow - and the intertwined snakes around her head - that hint that this is a representation of the monster of myth and legend. This manner of depiction reveals that Medusa was originally a lovely woman - it was her tragedy that she was foolish enough to compare herself to a goddess.

Note: Interesting Fact: While Medusa is usually considered to be ugly, one myth states that it was her great beauty that paralyzed all observers.
p.s. its the closest to snake hair i could find lol!

Last edited by PrincessAsia (11-30-2008 02:32)