In Welsh folklore, the Witches of Caer Lloyw are "maiden hags" skilled in both witchcraft and warfare. They teach combat skills to the Arthurian knight Peredur (the Welsh version of Sir Percival). However, when he discovers that the witches had tormented his relatives, Peredur takes revenge.
Jérôme Lereculey
"I see Queen Mab hath been with you....
She gallops night by night
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love;
O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight,
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees."
- William Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet" Warwick Goble
The werewolves of Ossory (a medieval Irish kingdom) are referenced in many Irish, English, and Norse texts. Their sins caused God to transform them into wolves. However, they were still Christian; a priest was once brought to perform last rites for a dying female werewolf.
"They stole little Bridget
For seven years long;
When she came down again,
Her friends were all gone.
They took her lightly back,
Between the night and morrow,
They thought that she was fast asleep,
But she was dead with sorrow.
They have kept her ever since
Deep within the lake,
On a bed of flag-leaves,
Watching till she wake."
- William Allingham, "The Fairies" Florence Mary Anderson
"In our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else - if you ran very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing."
"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"
- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass" John Tenniel
"I see somebody now!" she exclaimed at last. "But he’s coming very slowly - and what curious attitudes he goes into!" ...
"Not at all," said the King. "He’s an Anglo-Saxon messenger - and those are Anglo-Saxon attitudes. He only does them when he’s happy. His name is Haigha." (He pronounced it so as to rhyme with "mayor.")
- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass" John Tenniel
"Uncle Remus might well have heard of him, for some of El-Ahrairah’s adventures are those of Brer Rabbit. For that matter, Odysseus himself might have borrowed a trick or two from the rabbit hero, for he is very old and was never at a loss for a trick to deceive his enemies."
― Richard Adams, "Watership Down"
"The Vampyre" (1819) by John William Polidori is the progenitor of the romantic vampire archetype in horror literature. Unlike many other vampires, Lord Ruthven can be killed by conventional weapons. However, if moonlight falls on his corpse, Ruthven comes back to life.
"My birthday began with the water birds
And the birds of the winged trees flying my name
Above the farms and the white horses.
And I rose in rainy autumn,
And walked abroad in a shower of all my days."
- Dylan Thomas, "A Poem in October"
"By the craggy hillside,
Through the mosses bare,
They have planted thorn trees
For pleasure, here and there.
Is any man so daring
As dig them up in spite,
He shall find their sharpest thorns
In his bed at night."
- William Allingham, "The Fairies" Cicely Mary Barker
In the Goetia, Shax is a marquis of Hell who commands 30 legions of demons on evil horses. He can be summoned by a sorcerer to rob a person of anything - from money to horses to their own sight and hearing. Shax is also skilled at lying, and can see through other people's lies. Louis Le Breton
According to the Goetia, Buer is a great president of Hell who commands 50 demonic legions. He is linked to the constellation Sagittarius, and teaches natural and moral philosophy, logic, and the qualities and uses of all herbs and plants. Buer can also heal all infirmities and provide sorcerers with quality familiars. Louis Le Breton
"Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
- William Shakespeare, "Julius Caesar" (Act 1, Scene 2)
According to the Goetia, Furfur is a great earl of Hell who commands 26 demonic legions. He is a liar even when bound in a magic circle, and always speaks with a rough voice. Furfur can create love between two people, as well as tempests and thunderstorms, and he teaches secret and divine things. Louis Le Breton
In the Goetia, Gremory is a duke of Hell who commands 26 legions of spirits. Though appearing as a lovely woman, this figure sometimes uses male pronouns. Gremory can make people fall in love and discover hidden treasure. The duke also answers questions about the past, present, and future. Louis Le Breton
"They had not sailed another league,
A league but barely three,
When she espied his cloven foot
And wept most bitterly.
"'Oh hold your tongue, my love,' he cried.
'Why weep you so mournfully?
I said I would show you the lilies growing
On the banks of fair Italy.'"
- "The Daemon Lover" (British Ballad) Charles Vess
"Two yards of loose earth was the sole barrier between us. I said to myself - 'I'll have her in my arms again! If she be cold, I'll think it is this north wind that chills me; and if she be motionless, it is sleep.'"
- Emily Brontë, "Wuthering Heights" Fritz Eichenberg
In the original English ballads, Robin Hood robbed from the rich but he didn't give to the poor - he kept the money. Robin was a folk hero not because he actively helped the poor but just because he harassed the greedy people who the poor wished they could harass. H. M. Brock
"The starry void shuddered and convulsed. And everything was cast out. Everything but me. Alone in the darkness. In [my brother's] eyes, I had seen something of my father. A hunger. I took a moment to clothe my form in flames. And I stepped out of the void... and into the world."
- George O'Connor, "Dionysos" George O'Connor
"A herb most bruised is woman. We must pay
Our store of gold, hoarded for that one day,
To buy us some man's love; and lo, they bring
A master of our flesh! There comes the sting....
And then the jeopardy....
What shall that master be?"
- Euripides, "Medea" Frederick Sandys
