podcast

The Lore Scholars podcast discusses how folklore often revolves around monsters preying on weak individuals. They mention various terrifying creatures such as Bigfoot, the Wendigo, the Siren, the Skinwalkers, the Chupacabra, the Kraken, and Karempis. Bigfoot, for example, is described as a tall and strong creature weighing between 500 to 1000 pounds. The Siren, from Greek mythology, uses its beautiful voice to lure and prey on sailors. The podcast also explores how folklore monsters target the weak and defenseless, with examples like the Boogeyman and the Wendigo. They mention real-life cases where the Wendigo was blamed for murder and cannibalism. The Skinwalker, from Navajo culture, is an evil witch capable of shapeshifting and is known for brutal killings and mysterious disappearances. Welcome to the Lore Scholars. Welcome to the Lore Scholars podcast. Your casters today are Ryder, Ahmed, Ian, and Chase. Today on the Lore Scholars podcast, we'll be talking about how most folklore is based around the fact that monsters prey on weak people and how scary most folklore monsters are. There are many deadly mythical creatures in folklore that would be terrifying if you came across them. A few examples of them would be Bigfoot, the Wendigo, the Siren, the Skinwalkers, the Chupacabra, the Kraken, and Karempis. Starting off the podcast today, we have a very famous folklore creature from the Americas. His name is Bigfoot. Bigfoot is a very old folklore in America, starting with North American settlers reporting sightings of it during the late 1800s and into the 1900s, with the occasional finding of footprints. You may be wondering, how is a creature with the name Bigfoot exactly scary, right? Like it has, I mean Bigfoot isn't a very scary name, but its feet do resemble how tall it is, with the creature, some descriptions saying that it is 9 feet, to even some descriptions saying that it is as tall as 10 to 15 feet. Now, with this creature's massive height comes with its strength, we already talked about how tall the creature is, that it's very strong, but now, the question I'm sure you're all thinking, how much does this big ape weigh? Well, some sources state that this creature weighs somewhere between 500 to 1000 pounds. Now as we all know, one of the most common sayings is mass moves mass, so I'm sure that this creature would have no problem absolutely slapping any settlers it comes across, any people lonely in the woods, I mean, honestly, if it's feeling like it needs a snack, it'll look at some dude hunting, it'll be like, dude, I don't really care about that 12-gauge shotgun, I'll eat that, along with you, and your family. Those poor people in the woods, am I right, they're just getting turned into snacks, minced meat, food, but the Bigfoot, its true name, which many people are like, well duh, it gets its name from its big feet, yeah, obviously, its feet, the myth of Bigfoot came from a footprint sighting in the woods that was 24 inches long and 8 inches wide, I mean, so, we gotta be careful when you're walking in the woods at night, people, stay safe. Another example is the siren, in Greek mythology, sirens were unique creatures who generally were depicted as part woman and part bird, being part bird, they had unbelievably beautiful voices which it was said that no other person could resist. They lured and preyed on drunken and weak sailors who would be attracted to their voices and would come over to see what it was all about. Imagine being out at sea, you've been on this voyage for months, more than half of your food is going bad, and then mysteriously you hear beautiful singing from the distance, the sound is controlling your every thought, every move, no matter how hard you fight. That is the power of the siren getting a hold of you. Yeah, Ahmed, so, as you were saying, the sirens really did take advantage of the fact that these poor sailors were all alone at sea for months. Like, imagine being at sea for months at a time, not even seeing or hearing a woman's voice, right? And then out of nowhere, you just see the most beautiful woman with the most beautiful voice and she's telling you to come over and hang out with her in the water. Like, who would say no to that, when you've got a ship full of stinky, nasty, smelly dudes. The survivors of Edmark's learning, these two examples revolve around the way that many different folklores talk about how the monsters prey on people that are weak or alone. Folklore was sometimes created by leaders to keep subjects in their territory safe. So Wendigo singles out people and chooses to go after people alone in the woods or other areas. This folklore was created to make people always travel with a friend whenever they enter woods or go exploring because there's a chance that they could get hurt and not get help if they were alone. As they were saying, the Kraken preyed on merchants that were easy targets and had nothing to defend themselves. Another example of folklore preyed on the weak or young is the Boogeyman, who preyed on young kids at night who were hopeless and unprotected. The Wendigo is also an example of preying on the weak because the Wendigo preyed on people in the woods in the dark that could not see or defend themselves. All these folklore monsters had a common theme among them, which is the preying of the weak and defenseless individuals. A few instances of murder and cannibalism in North America were blamed on the Wendigo. These included a case in Alberta, Canada, where a tree hunter and a trapper named Swift Runner claimed a Wendigo spirit had entered his dreams and told him to eat his family. He was tried for murder, found guilty, and hung for his crimes later that year. Another case occurred in 1907 among the Sandy Lake First Nation community in Northern Ontario. The tribal shaman Jack Fidler and his brother Joseph Fidler were charged with the murder of Joseph's daughter-in-law, whom they had strangled to prevent her from becoming possessed by a Wendigo. After the brothers' arrest, Jack Fidler escaped from the police and strangled himself, and Joseph Fidler died from tuberculosis in prison in 1909. In Navajo culture, Skinwalkers are evil witches with the ability to shapeshift into any animal or human. The Skinwalker legend is not well understood outside the Navajo culture, but what is well known about it by outsiders is enough to inspire scary stories of all varieties. Skinwalkers are known for having brutal killings of their victims and murderers, with sometimes massive traces being left behind, like an example at a Skinwalker ranch where the man's cows were hung from his barn, or in other cases where a simple disappearance of a hunter was blamed on a Skinwalker.