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From Christelle Papin, Secondary School and College "La Germinière", Le Mans, France

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From Christelle Papin, Secondary School and College "La Germinière", Le Mans, France

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La Velue (translated as "The Hairy")

« La Velue » is a specific tale from my county, La Sarthe, situated in the North West of France and  internationally well known for its motor race, the « 24h du Mans ». I, myself, discovered this tale when doing this preparation task !

According to the tale, in the fourteenth century, on the banks of the river Huisne (located in the French County Sarthe), lived a monster which bore the desolation in the solitary farms of the country, venturing even, in the black nights of winter, in the streets of the little town La Ferté-Bernard. This monster had been baptized by the terrified people of the name of La Velue ...

La Velue, according to tradition, had escaped the Deluge, without having been collected in the Ark. Since then, she has devoted her time in doing evil around her. The Velue was the size of a beautiful ox. The head was that of a fantastic snake. The body was shaped like a huge egg. It was covered with long green hairs in the middle of which emerged sharp points whose sting was deadly. She had four broad legs similar to those of the turtles. His tail was especially scary and was that of a big snake. With one blow of it, La Velue killed men and animals.
Irascible, she vomited flames harmful to the harvest. At night, she ravaged the sheepfolds, devouring all the animals she met. Farmers sometimes pursued her in large numbers. To escape their blows, the Velue took refuge in the waters of Huisne. Unfortunately for the peasants, the very entrance of the Velue into the waters of Huisne was the cause of an immediate flood, which ruined the harvests, and brought scarcity and hunger into all houses.
When La Velue came to La Ferte-Bernard, she devoured preferably children and women.
It is during one of those excursions through the sleeping city that the beast, it is said, died.
She had managed to seize an adorable young girl and was going to devour her after having torn, lacerated and dragged her to the bottom of Huisne, under an old bridge of another town:  Yvré-l'Evêque.
The girl's fiancé, listening only to his courage, armed himself with a sword and, endowed with extraordinary strength, succeeded in slicing the tail of La Velue. This was the only weak point of the terrible beast, for there were no quills. She broke up on the spot.
Other people assert that she survived, and very badly, mutilated, sick, waited the night to return to the waters of the Huisne, go up the course and finally reach the waters of the Chéronne (another little river), near Tuffé. It is said that the animal has become suspicious: we no longer see it, it hides from men. Besides, who would dare go for a walk at night near the ponds, between Yvré and Tuffé, especially at the time of the floods of the river ...?

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The Peluda, Shaggy Beast or La Velue is a supposed dragon or mythical beast that terrorized La Ferté-Bernard, France, in medieval times. It is said to have come from and lived near the Huisne river near the town. Despite the French origins, its more recognized name is Occitan -or any latine origin- for "hairy". Depending on the account, it had either an ox-sized porcupine-like body or a mess of green hair-like projections hanging from its body that were actually stinger-tipped tentacles which could erect into quills. Its name is derived from this shaggy appearance. Consistently, it was said to have these poisonous stingers that it could also shoot off its body, a snake's scaly neck, head, and tail, large, tortoise-like feet, and a green color.

The lore proposed that the beast was denied access to Noah's Ark, yet survived the biblical flood by seeking refuge in a cave near theHuisne River. After many years, it returned to rampage across the countryside, wilting crops with its breath and devouring both livestock and humans. It was finally defeated after it killed a man's fiancée. He tracked it down and cut off its tail. This was the only vulnerable point on the beast, and it died immediately.

The Peluda was said to be capable of the following feats, which vary between tales:

Searing breath that could wither crops.

Firing off its quills like arrows.

Invulnerability except for its tail.

Creating floods by stepping into rivers.

A single strike from its tail was lethal to a full grown man.

Breathing out fire as a typical dragon.

Spitting out a powerful stream of water or acid.

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The Peluda, Shaggy Beast or La Velue is a supposed dragon or mythical beast that terrorized La Ferté-Bernard, France, in medieval times. It is said to have come from and lived near the Huisne river near the town. Despite the French origins, its more recognized name is Occitan -or any latine origin- for "hairy".

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La Velue, second picture : a sculpture situated at Tuffé

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La Velue, first picture : a very local ...and international myth

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Here is a really beautiful short video about Jenny Greenteeth.

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Duckweed is one of Britain’s most common small water plants. It forms a smooth green mat that covers bodies of still water. When covering the entire surface duckweed can make the water appear solid,  children sometimes try to walk on it. In  parts of the north-west of England children were scared away from such areas by the myth of Jenny Green-teeth.  A pond elf or monster whose presence was indicated by duckweed; she was said to lure children into ponds and drown them.

She’s a figure of English folklore, a river hag similar to the Grindylow ,  who will pull children or the elderly into the water and drown them. She has green skin, long hair and razor-sharp teeth. She’s similar to the Slavic Rusalka or Australia’s Bunyip, and is considered a memory of sacrificial practices.

A similar figure in Jamaican folklore is called the River Mumma (River Mother) who lives at the fountainhead of large rivers in Jamaica sitting on top of a rock, combing her long black hair with a gold comb.

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Matsya Avatar

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Matsya Avatar in English From KidRhymes(1) (online-video-cutter.com).mp4

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Matsya Avatar (Fish)

Matsya (an incarnation of the diety Lord Vishnu) is the first avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu in the form of a fish. In Hinduism, the rainbow fish was as large as a whale.

Lord Vishnu is the god of preservation. Whenever the earth was in danger and when evil threatened to overpower good, Lord Vishnu descended from the heaven to incarnate on the earth. There are ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu. The first Avatar, which means incarnation, is called Matsya Avatar which means the form of a fish.

One day, when Brahma (the great lord) was sleeping, a demon stole the holy Vedas (book) from under Brahma’s head. He then ran and then hid it under the depths of the ocean. Brahma had to read the book to create the universe. Since he was unable to do so now, he was disturbed and approached Vishnu, who took the form of a fish and dived into the ocean to get back the Vedas from the terrible demon. There was a fierce fight between Vishnu and the demon. Finally, Vishnu killed the demon and then saved the Vedas, which was returned back to Brahma, who could then carry on and create the universe.

By,
Bina Raja
Mayflower Primary School, Leicester

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Grindylow

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Grindylows are water demons  that were first mentioned in British folktales in the county of Yorkshire. Parents would tell their children stories of Grindylows to prevent them from getting in the cold water in the area. Grindylows  supposedly had long fingers that would drag children into the deep water.

Grindylows appear in the Harry Potter books and films where they live in the lake near Hogwarts. They are described as sickly green creatures with sharp little horns, green teeth, and long spindly fingers.

They also appear in "The Scar" by China Mieville where, in addition to drowning anyone within their grip, this race seeks out active war and annihilation of the human race!

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Grindylows from Harry Potter

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I would like to start my contribution by sharing the English Version of a famous poem by Heinrich Heine. It describes the eponymous female as a sort of siren who, sitting on the cliff above the Rhine and combing her golden hair, unwittingly distracted shipmen with her beauty and song, causing them to crash on the rocks:

The Loreley

I cannot determine the meaning

Of sorrow that fills my breast:

A fable of old, through it streaming,

Allows my mind no rest.

The air is cool in the gloaming

And gently flows the Rhine.

The crest of the mountain is gleaming

In fading rays of sunshine.

The loveliest maiden is sitting

Up there, so wondrously fair;

Her golden jewelry is glist'ning;

She combs her golden hair.

She combs with a gilded comb, preening,

And sings a song, passing time.

It has a most wondrous, appealing

And pow'rful melodic rhyme.

The boatman aboard his small skiff, -

Enraptured with a wild ache,

Has no eye for the jagged cliff, -

His thoughts on the heights fear forsake.

I think that the waves will devour

Both boat and man, by and by,

And that, with her dulcet-voiced power

Was done by the Loreley.

The Loreley is a 433 feet high slate cliff in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage near the town of St. Goarshausen.  The Rhine, at the Loreley, is up to 82 feet deep and only 371 feet wide. Because this area is so deep and narrow, it is one of the most dangerous places in the World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley. Ships, crossing each other here and all along the section between Oberwesel and St. Goarshausen, are directed by light signals, called “Wahrschau”.

The name of this cliff comes from the old German words lureln, Rhine dialect for "murmuring", and the Celtic term ley "rock". The translation of the name would therefore be: "murmur rock" or "murmuring rock". The heavy currents, and a small waterfall in the area created a murmuring sound, and this combined with the special echo the rock produces to act as a sort of amplifier, giving the rock its name. The murmuring is hard to hear today owing to the urbanization of the area.

The rock and the murmur it creates have inspired various tales. An old legend envisioned dwarfs living in caves in the rock. In 1801, Clemens Brentano composed his ballad Zu Bacharach am Rheine telling the story of an enchanting female associated with the rock. In the poem, the beautiful Lore Lay, betrayed by her sweetheart, is accused of bewitching men and causing their death. Rather than sentence her to death, the bishop consigns her to a nunnery. On the way thereto, accompanied by three knights, she comes to the Loreley rock. She asks permission to climb it and view the Rhine once again. She does so and thinking that she sees her love in the Rhine, falls to her death; the rock still retained an echo of her name afterwards. Heinrich Heine seized on and adapted Brentano's theme in the poem above.

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Asrai

In English folklore an asrai is a type of aquatic fairy that lives in seas and lakes. They are similar to mermaids and nixies. They live for hundreds of years.

The asrai is known to be exceptionally beautiful and gentle. They are sometimes described as timid and shy. Some tales describe the asrai as having green hair and a fishtail or webbed feet. Some say that they are between two and four feet tall whilst others say they are tall and lithe.

They will come up to the surface of the water once every hundred years to bathe in the moonlight which they use to help them to grow. They return to their homes before sunrise because if they are exposed to sunlight they will waste away and not survive.

Tales from Cheshire and Shropshire tell of a fisherman who captured an asrai, and despite its cries, was determined to bring it to land. As he tied up the asrai, he touched the asrai's cold wet hands and was left with a permanent mark. He covered the asrai with wet weeds, and it continued to protest, its voice getting fainter and fainter. By the time the fisherman reached the shore the asrai had melted away leaving nothing but a puddle of water in the boat.