Frightening Folklore

The rituals and beliefs that surrounded farming and harvesting crops in ancient times was strange and even frightening.  Scarecrows are now a common fall household decoration as well as a staple in many fields, but they have a very creepy side to them. Some people have even claimed to see scarecrows walking through the fields and peering in their windows at night.  In Polish folklore, there is a creature that looks like a scarecrow called Hastrman that lurks along riverbanks making the sound of a baby crying to lure people to it. It carries a large sack, which it uses to abduct its victims.  The very first scarecrows could have been actual humans who had been sacrificed to their gods for the fertility of the crops in ancient times.  Human sacrifice was a part of farming and harvesting crops in many ancient cultures all around the world. In some cultures, the heads of sacrificed humans were cut off and placed on pikes. Some ancient pagans placed humans i...

When people think of a creature that snatches up little children in the night, they usually think of the boogieman, but there are many boogiewomen in folklore that are just as malevolent and frightening as the boogieman. Here are a few of the boogeywomen found in folklore around the world. The Banshee is one of the more popular boogiewomen. There is folklore of banshees being the spirits of deceased women, but there is also folklore of banshees being elemental spirits, such as a fairy. In some folklore, fairies are considered spirits of the dead. According to folklore, a banshee’s scream is heard before a death in a family. Black Annis or Black Agnes is a boogiewoman who resides in a cave in the English countryside of Leicestershire in the Dane Hills, which has a tunnel connected to Leicestershire castle according to folklore. She has iron talons, blue skin, and only one eye. She preys on little children, which she eats and decorates her cave with their skins. Baba Yaga is...