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After my last tutorial, I have been really struggling finding the middle of the spectrum that I have stuck myself in. I have found plenty of interesting tales containing interesting creatures. However, this hasnt helped me really define a choice, making a decision and coming up with evidence to show on my next tutorial. Therefore I have gathered as many of these interesting pieces to share and to define which of them is going to be my final idea and get on with it.

The first of them would be something in Celtic folklore called Caoranach. This is a monstrous female serpent who is said to be the mother of all demons and monsters. She is supposed to have lived in Lough Derg, an Irish lake that is home to the famous Christian pilgrimage site, Station Island, known for a legend in which Jesus revealed to Saint Patrick a cave that was supposed to be an entrance to Hell. Saint Patrick himself is said to have slain (or banished) Caoranach after doing battle with her for two days and two nights in the murky waters of Lough Dergwhich name, incidentally, means Dark Lake, apparently referring to the darkening of the lake as it filled with the defeated Caoranachs blood. (In one version of the story, Saint Patrick was actually swallowed whole by Caoranach, and was forced to escape by puncturing her side with his crosier). What really interests me about this story, however, is its eerie similarity to that of Beowulf. After defeating the monster Grendel, Beowulf proceeds to the lair of Grendels mother (sometimes translated as being the mother of all monsters), which happens to be under a lake. Diving down to an underwater cave, Beowulf slays Grendels mother and returns to his men triumphant. Could these stories have a common source? We may never know.

Abhartach, according to Irish folk tradition, was a cruel and vicious chieftan who persecuted his subjects relentlesslyby some accounts even drinking their blood. Said to be a powerful magician, he reigned as a tyrant until he was finally slain by the chieftan of a neighboring tribe. But, buried in a standing position, he emerged from the grave the next day and began terrorizing his erstwhile subjects anew. He was once again slain by his neighbor, once again buried right-side-up, and once again returned to earth in a days time, until he was finally slain for good, this time buried head-down so that he couldnt return. Interestingly, though the story of Dracula is traditionally thought to arise from the life and atrocities of the 15th Century Transylvanian ruler Vlad Tepes The Impaler, historian Elizabeth Miller points out that the sources available to Bram Stoker at the time of its writing did not chronicle his various misdeeds. Given this fact, and considering that Bram Stoker was an Irishman, some historians speculate that the Abhartach legend is a much more likely source of some elements of the Dracula story.

Serpent People; also known as the Dragon Kings and the Ophidians. This was a race of intelligent serpents with limbs. Their civilization predated that of mankind's by millions of years, during which they had acquired a high degree of metaphysical and technological power, but by Medb's time the vast majority had degenerated both mentally and physically into monsters, the so-called Worms of the Earth. Their leaders consisted of those individuals that had achieved immortality or had used suspended animation to survive into the time of mankind. The Fomraigh exploited the Worms and cooperated with the leaders, but did not trust them because they knew the Ophidians sought to regain their lost hegemony. In the Iron Age they would be considered one of the many different types of Fomraigh.