A legendary creature (also called a mythical creature or mythological creature) is a type of fantasy entity, typically a hybrid, that has not been proven and that is described in folklore (including myths and legends), but may be featured in historical accounts before modernity.
In the classical era, monstrous creatures such as the Cyclops and the Minotaur appear in heroic tales for the protagonist to destroy. Other creatures, such as the unicorn, were claimed in accounts of natural history by various scholars of antiquity.[1][2][3]
Some legendary creatures originated in traditional mythology and were believed to be real creatures--for example, dragons, griffins and unicorns. Others are based on real encounters or garbled accounts of travellers' tales, such as the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, a sheeplike animal which supposedly grew tethered to the earth.[4]
- ^ Phillips, Catherine Beatrice (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 581–582.
- ^ Bascom, William (1984). Alan Dundes (ed.). Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Mythology. University of California Press. p. 9. ISBN 9780520051928.
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- ^ Simpson, Jacqueline; Roud, Steve (2000). A Dictionary of English Folklore. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192100191. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
- ^ Large, Mark F.; Braggins, John E. (2004). Tree Ferns. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, Incorporated. p. 360. ISBN 978-0-88192-630-9.