(no subject)

[nny]

I CALL DOWN THE POWER OF THE INTERNET!

Seriously, guys, I have about ten lessons to plan today, so I don't have time to go through Wikipedia and such. I mean, some things I know, some things are obvious, but it'd be awesome if you could do some of my work for me gimme a hand. :D


What I need are examples of well known monsters and how to kill/repel them. I'm doing gothic writing with the year 8s, and we're going to put together a quick monster slaying guide on the board as part of the work.

*grins*

I'm such a child.

Conflicting ideas or means of dealing with monsters is totally awesome, too.

Comments

[kassie-opia.livejournal.com]

OK, there's vampires and werewolves, which are sort of the obvious (garlic/crosses/holy water/stakes and silver bullets, respectively, I guess). Then Greek mythology's pretty fruitful - you had to fight Medusa by looking in a mirror/shiny shield so she didn't petrify you; you had to cauterise the Hydra's neck once you'd cut its head off so it didn't grow any more; I don't think you could actually kill the Sirens but Odysseus got past them by blocking up his ears... you could try looking up the 12 labours of Heracles if you like, that's pretty much a whole catalogue of monsters and how to kill them. And then there's Koschei The Deathless from Russian mythology, who had his heart hidden in a secret place and to kill him you had to find it and break it...
Any use?

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Yay, awesome! Although I might refer to Davy Jones rather than Koschei, purely for familiarity's sake.

Thank you!

[innerbrat]

Werewolves: Silver; fire; hiding their clothes;

Vampires: garlic; holy water/host wafer; can't cross running water; have to keep their socks paired; need to count rice;

[sandrainthesun.livejournal.com]

How about an example from my hometown: Dragons! Go away for some time if you feed them a virgin and are killed by spears through the mouth thrown by brave knights. *g*

And every Supernatural episode features a monster/ghost/creature and how it's killed.

What else can I think of?
Vampire: garlic, sunlight, stake, holy water, severing the head

Werewolf: silver bullet

Frankenstein's Monster: villager with burning torches and pitchforkes

Zombie: Bullet through the head, "The Batman Soundtrack"-"Dire Straits"-"Sade"-Records (Shaun of the Dead ;)

Medusa: Mirror, sword

Oh, I'm sure you've found it, but wikipedia's Big List of Monsters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Monsters

[kassie-opia.livejournal.com]

oh yeah, fair enough. XD. I have just been researching Koschei lately due to his obvious Time Lord alter ego shenanigans (err...)
Another thing is dragons - there's not a specific way to kill them but mostly they have like one weak spot (or else you can go the St George route and placate them with the power of love, but that's pretty boring) and I'm sure Bellerophon killed the Chimaera in some interesting way, but I don't remember it...

[rowanberries.livejournal.com]

Dinosaurs: Bigger dinosaurs.

Ghosts: Rock salt, burning bones, exorcism, fulfilling unfinished business.

Um...

[fahye.livejournal.com]

Well, you've got the use of iron & rowan branches against the nastier forms of fae. Plus, uh, I don't know, I suppose if you were a wicked kind of person (or hunting a wicked kind of unicorn?) there's the whole luring-with-virgins deal.

Oh, basilisks can be killed Medusa-style (looking at themselves in a mirror) or by hearing the crow of a rooster, or (according to Leonardo da Vinci, who was probably kidding. er. one hopes.) by smelling weasel urine.

[gaffsie.livejournal.com]

Hydra: cut off the heads, scorch the neck brands - this is important! If this step is skipped, two heads will grow out for every head you've decapitated. Also, remember that the hydra's blood is poisonous.

Kappa: (not that famous in Europe, but it's just such a *cute* little monster) If you find yourself in the clutches of this Japanese water sprite, you should bow deep to the gound. The Kappa, being a very polite creature, will have to bow too, thus depleting the water-filled depression on their forehead and being robbed of their magical powers. You could also try to offer the kappa a cucumber, since that's even more tasty than human lifeforce to most kappas.

Trolls: Often quite stupid, so trolls can be outsmarted. Traditionally, trolls are said to turn into stone if confronted with direct sunlight, so if you're accosted by trolls at night, try to stall them. At dawn, they will no longer be a threat.

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

Well, you could always do Discworld logic. Fuzzy blankets for the bogeyman etc! :P

But I'm actually pretty sure Pratchett got the vampires/poppyseeds thing from real stories. They have a thing with counting small items. Apparently vampires have OCD, who knew? And of course you can get away from a vampire just by going into a Home where they aren't invited.

Some forms of wereanimal have a human skin that they shed, which you can find and burn, or the other way round - the wolf is a skin they take off during the day and can be destroyed.

Foxes in disguise as humans - find the tail. Pixies/brownies can be kept at bay with sweet milky tribute! But if you have a possum in your ceiling you pretty much have to crawl around up there with a rifle, I'm afraid.

[apiphile.livejournal.com]

Fortunately for you I have a dictionary of Monsters.

Trufax.

The Bunyip. Australian. No information on how to kill it.
The Basilisk. Killed by mirrors, as their gaze is deadly. Believed to be born when a cockerel lays an egg.
Chimera. Bloody weird animal made up of lots of other animals, in mythology killed by swallowing the red-hot lead spear-tip of some Greek hero or other.
Dragons. Traditionally the western dragon has a vulnerable spot somewhere on its body (ref. Smaug), the Oriental usually has a valuable pearl which represents its lifesource, the theft/destruction of which kills the dragon.
Harpies. Birds with the head and breasts of women. Always permanently on the brink of starvation, but unable to die or be killed.

There are many more. Tell me if you want more details.

Oh, and you mentioned Davy Jones, so - do you want anything on the Kraken? Your pupils will presumably have heard of it since it was featured in Pirates:2.

[apiphile.livejournal.com]

Lead spear, down the throat. *has just checked in the Dictionary of Monsters And Mysterious Beasts*.

A very *useful* book for surprising reasons.

[djcati.livejournal.com]

Martians: country music.

[glowering.livejournal.com]

Anything big enough to stomp a city requires an equal and opposite monster to stomp it. Preferably in South East Asia.

[glowering.livejournal.com]

Also, gold bullets for cybermen. Gold fucks up their breathing.

[winkingstar.livejournal.com]

Everyone's already mentioned everything I know of off the top of my head, including the obscurer ones (Koschei - I adore Russian folktales; and trolls). But this is a supremely awesome idea. :D

Also, you could maybe include a caveat that this is for traditional monsters and ask them to think about books and TV shows that reinvent monsters (what it means to be a monster, as well as how to kill them). I'm specifically thinking of the recent surge in vampire reinventions in Stephenie Meyers' books and TV shows like Buffy and Moonlight. Monsters are something that are always part of a culture and I think it's interesting to see how their mythos is adapted over time.

[ashen_key]

...I may just love you for mentioning bunyips.

[apiphile.livejournal.com]

Dot and the Bunyip may possibly have given me nightmares as a child. *shifty look*

[apiphile.livejournal.com]

Also if no one else mentions I will dig up some stuff on Scandanavian trolls & Russian witches as these = massive part of childhood mythology thanks to my aunt.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I haven't read comments but I imagine that most of the standard ones are covered....

In Greek mythology, at least what we have from Ovid, it's pretty common that monsters require wits rather than pure brute strength to be conquered. Examples include the Sphinx from the Oedipus Saga (had to solve a riddle to pass), the Hydra from -- Hercules, I believe? -- who not only had to be beheaded (all nine heads) but have the wounds cauterised immediately because otherwise every neckstump grew two more heads, and the Cyclops, who Odysseus had to fool with sheep. :D There's also the Minotaur, who was defeated with brute strength but hidden in a maze that Theseus wouldn't have got out of without Ariadne's guiding thread.

These were all critters that had physical advantage on their side -- claws, size, teeth. For "real" animals, the Greeks were fine using strength, as in the Caledonian Boar Hunt, but for mythological creatures it was almost always the thinking man who triumphed. :)

[minkhollow]

Zombies: Remove the head or destroy the brain.

Disc vampires, I think, required beheading and a stake to the heart in order to remain dead for any substantial length of time. Most anything else, they can be reconstituted immediately.

Dragons: AIM FOR THE VOONERABLES!

[skygiants]

This is not really classical monster-killing, but a more recent trope is 'disprove their existence and make them vanish in a puff of logic!'

(I am curious - are you doing actual gothics, like Anne Radcliffe-type?)

[fer-de-lance.livejournal.com]

da Vinci, who was probably kidding. er. one hopes.) by smelling weasel urine

I think Leo may have been thinking of Pliny, who claimed that to "throw the basilisks into the weasels' holes, which are easily known by the foulness of the ground, and the weasels kill them by their stench and die themselves at the same time" (thank you, Encyclopedia of Mythical Creatures!).

Weasel urine = foul stench without having to hunt out a weasel den?

Huzzah for odd bookstore purchases! :D

[fer-de-lance.livejournal.com]

Let's see...
Orpheus conquered Cerberus by playing a lyre. (Non-fatal, and not quite "repelling" either, but overcoming/defeating nonetheless.)

Echidna (a naga-like monster, mother of Cerberus) was killed by Argus who caught her while she was asleep.

Empusa the underworld goddess who appeared to young men as a beautiful woman, ensnared them, and drained their blood, would disappear if her victim insulted her.

Golems created by writing "Emet" (truth) on their foreheads could be destroyed by erasing the first letter, leaving "Met" (death). Those animated by a spell (often written in the creator's blood) or one of the names of God on a parchment placed in the golem's mouth could be deactivated by removing the parchment.

The Stymphalian birds of Ares, protected by brass feathers, beaks, and claws, were driven away by Hercules, who obtained brass castanets from Hephaestus, the noise of which enraged them until they flew away (and he shot several of them as they fled).

In the Middle Ages, throwing a piece of metal over a werewolf's head, or calling its human name, supposedly would make it re-transform.

[divine-miss-j.livejournal.com]

This is late because I have been Away and am consequently behind on eljay. So instead of monster stats that you probably don't need anymore, I shall instead link you to this:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/2/20/