Bisclaveret's wife steals his clothing and traps him in wolf form because she has a lover. Gwydion was transformed into a stag, sow and wolf, and Gilfaethwy into a hind, boar and she-wolf. Loki, the god of chaos and mischief, was particularly fond of shapeshifting and could take any shape that he wanted, even mothering a few monsters while he was in a female shape! Aphrodite had pity on him and transformed the stone to a living woman. This makes an example for a voluntary shapeshifting becoming an imprisoning metamorphosis. [4] Other tales include kelpies who emerge from lochs and rivers in the disguise of a horse or woman in order to ensnare and kill weary travelers. Zeus turned Io, a beautiful nymph, into a heifer, to hide her from his jealous wife, Hera, and Apollo mourned the loss of his lover, Hyacinth, by turning him into a gorgeous flower. Other terms for shapeshifters include metamorph, the Navajo skin-walker, mimic, and therianthrope. Even Shapeshifting, the trait which unifies them, is sometimes more of a curse than an actual magical ability. Shapeshifting may also include symbolic significance, like the Beast's transformation in Beauty and the Beast indicates Belle's ability to accept him despite his appearance.[28]. [8], In the Lokasenna, Odin and Loki taunt each other with having taken the form of females and nursing offspring to which they had given birth. Variation of Transcendent Physiology. Metis, however, was already pregnant. In romantic fairytales, shapeshifting is a burden upon powerless characters, who have usually been tricked or cursed by a more powerful magical being. In JRR Tolkein’s The Hobbit, a character named Beorn turns into a bear; in CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia a character named Eustace Scrubb turns into a dragon; in TH Whites’ The Sword in the Stone both Merlin and the young king Arthur take various animal forms; and in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, a group of witches and wizards known as animagi are animal to turn into various animals. In trickster folklore, shapeshifting is the characters’ only magical ability, but they combines so much cunning with their shapeshifting abilities that they are still a powerful force. When a form is taken on involuntarily, the thematic effect can be one of confinement and restraint; the person is bound to the new form. In the Korean Transformation of the Kumiho, a kumiho, a fox with magical powers, transformed itself into an image of the bride, only being detected when her clothing is removed. The Navajo people and many surrounding tribes have a tradition about “skinwalkers,” a group of witches who are able to change into coyotes, wolf, fox, owl, or crow. This eventually leads to a form in which the character (or characters) can reveal the truth to someone able to stop the villain. This creature inspired a number of early horror films, and today it has claimed a role in popular culture’s more romantic supernatural novels, like Twilight and True Blood. In The White and the Black Bride and The Three Little Men in the Wood, the murdered – drowned – true bride reappears as a white duck. She also possessed a cloak of falcon feathers that allowed her to transform into a falcon, which Loki borrowed on occasion. Tatar folklore includes Yuxa, a hundred-year-old snake that can transform itself into a beautiful young woman, and seeks to marry men in order to have children. The Volsunga saga contains many shapeshifting characters. A dragon is a legendary creature. Zeus, the leader of the gods, used his talent at Shapeshifting for a nefarious purpose; he had a reputation for mistreating beautiful women, so he used Shapeshifting as a way to disguise himself when he approached a new victim. [32] This obstacle chase is literally found worldwide, in many variants in every region. Not all fairies could shapeshift, and some were limited to changing their size, as with the spriggans, and others to a few forms and other fairies might have only the appearance of shapeshifting, through their power, called "glamour," to create illusions. Naturally, its hard to pin down a Shapeshifter’s appearance. The hit movies Beauty and the Beast, Swan Princess, and Shrek have all used this theme. Captain Slag/Darkwater is an undead space-faring robot pirate with two personalities, Slag's head having been grafted onto Darkwater's corpse and activating a curse that summons a … Japanese, Chinese, and Korean legends are all crisscrossed with the pawprints of Shapeshifters that transform from foxes into beautiful maidens. [35] Tam Lin, once seized by Janet, was transformed by the faeries to keep Janet from taking him, but as he had advised her, she did not let go, and so freed him. [4], Witches could turn into hares and in that form steal milk and butter.[5]. Ryuko – dragon fox Samurai Fox Jiko – grand fox In Shinto religion, Fox is a messenger of the god Inari, who is the protector of rice, agriculture, and fertility. Seemingly all of the Greek and Roman gods were Shapeshifters, although some of them enjoyed changing their form more than others. [23], Shapeshifting may be used as a plot device, such as when Puss in Boots in the fairy tales tricks the ogre into becoming a mouse to be eaten. Such stories surrounding these creatures are usually romantic tragedies. Both of these creatures attempted to lure humans into the water, where they frequently drowned. The gods themselves can appear in fox shape. In other tales, the woman appealed to other gods to protect her from rape, and was transformed (Daphne into laurel, Cornix into a crow). This unique ability is believed to be handed down in some old creole families, and is usually associated with witch-doctors and practitioners of African magic. Proteus, a sea god, became famous for his ability to flicker from one form to another to another when enemies pursued him. James F. Sennett, "Worthy of a Better God" p. 243 Gregory Bassham ed. She became pregnant, and he was reborn in a new form, as Taliesin. In The Brown Bear of Norway, The Golden Crab, The Enchanted Snake and some variants of The Frog Princess, burning the skin is a catastrophe, putting the transformed bride or bridegroom in danger. Again, these characters are almost always up to no good. If a female at midnight stretches the membrane which envelopes the foal when it is brought forth, between four sticks and creeps through it, naked, she will bear children without pain; but all the boys will be shamans, and all the girls Maras. Shamans believed that, by entering a ritual state, they could send their spirit out of their body, in the shape of an animal, to roam around the world, while warriors known as “beserkers” believed that they could take the shape of a wolf or bear in battle by wearing the animal’s skin. The most common such shapeshifter is the huli jing, a fox spirit which usually appears as a beautiful young woman; most are dangerous, but some feature as the heroines of love stories. The hero or heroine must marry, as promised, and the monstrous form is removed by the wedding. A similar effect is found in Child ballad 34, Kemp Owyne, where the hero can transform a dragon back into a maiden by kissing her three times. [1], Ghosts sometimes appear in animal form. Madame White Snake is one such legend; a snake falls in love with a man, and the story recounts the trials that she and her husband faced. In fairy tales, such transformations are usually temporary, but they commonly appear as the resolution of myths (as in many of the Metamorphoses) or produce origin myths. In many cases, imposed forms are punitive in nature. In Slavic Mythology, one of the main gods Veles was a shapeshifting god of animals, magic and the underworld. 226–7 Gregory Bassham ed. [6] Another such creature is the Scottish selkie, which needs its sealskin to regain its form. In one tale, Chonguita the Monkey Wife,[16] a woman is turned into a monkey, only becoming human again if she can marry a handsome man. While the brother refrains from the first two, which threaten to turn them into tigers and wolves, he is too thirsty at the third, which turns him into a deer. These characters are usually evil, using their beauty to seduce and kill men, but occasionally one of the beauties will turn out to be an innocent romantic. Examples of this are in fairy tales. In Kerala, there was a legend about the Odiyan clan ,who in Kerala folklore are men believed to possess shapeshifting abilities and can assume animal forms.Odiyans are said to have inhabited the Malabar region of Kerala before the widespread use of electricity. [3] But others, such as the Hedley Kow, could change to many forms, and both human and supernatural wizards were capable of both such changes, and inflicting them on others. In other variants, the pursued may transform various objects into obstacles, as in the fairy tale "The Master Maid", where the Master Maid transforms a wooden comb into a forest, a lump of salt into a mountain, and a flask of water into a sea. How would someone know who is a shapeshifter? Less commonly, ill-advised wishes can transform a person after birth. As the story goes they both soar into the heavens, and lived together for eternity. Each year, they had a child. Hans My Hedgehog was born when his father wished for a child, even a hedgehog. In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shapeshifting is the ability to physically transform through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or having inherited the ability. The ability to physically transform through an inherent ability, divine intervention or generic tendencies, "Metamorph" redirects here. In trickster folklore, shapeshifting is the characters’ only magical ability, but they combines so much cunning with their shapeshifting abilities that they are still a powerful force. In Scandinavia, there existed, for example, the famous race of she-werewolves known with a name of Maras, women who took on the appearance of the night looking for huge half-human and half-wolf monsters. [citation needed] In the Hyndluljóð, Freyja transformed her protégé Óttar into a boar to conceal him. Also, talismans (called "anting-anting" or "birtud" in the local dialect), can give their owners the ability to shapeshift. There is, however, more to the word "Nahuel" - it can also signify "a man who by sorcery has been transformed into a puma" (or jaguar). Nereus told Heracles where to find the Apples of the Hesperides for the same reason. The pursued may finally succeed in escape or the pursuer in capturing. In many cultures, evil magicians could transform into animal shapes and thus skulk about.
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