folklore

In August 2005, a tiny mummified body was found in the ancient Persian village of Makhunik in what is now Iran. The architecture of the city in which it was founds suggests it may have been home to little people.

A team of Estonian scholars believe they have finally discovered the long-lost location of Vlad the Impaler, the 15th century Prince upon which Bram Stoker based his 1897 gothic novel ‘Dracula’.

In ancient Japanese folklore, the Kappa is a water demon that inhabits rivers and lakes and devours disobedient little children. While some believe the legend originated from sightings of the Japanese Giant Salamander, a species still alive today, others maintain that the myth is real and that an unusual set of mummified remains, showing a webbed hand and a foot, is proof that the Kappa exists.

If there is one thing Ireland is known for it’s fairy tales and ghost stories. While tantalizing hints of small, pipe-smoking men and pots of gold are offered at the end of every rainbow, every stately mansion more than 100 years old has a resident ghost or two. I was on a week’s tour around the southeast coast of the Irish Republic and in these garden counties, ghosts and greenery seemed to go together.