Ten Dark Fairies

Enter Sandman by zumart 

Article by Ty Hulse

During "Once Upon a Time" evil fairies and their ilk stalked the nightmares of humanity. A wicked fairy could haunt people's barns, their bathrooms, and more. Every illness, every misfortune, was blamed on the fairies, and there was a lot of blame to dish out. Hence there are a lot of evil fairy mythology, and these are ten of the darkest, creepiest types of evil fairies there are.

1-Anguana (Italy)
Although the Anguana could be kind, even helpful most of the time they were also some of the most twisted and cruel beings of fairy land and as you'll see some of the most evil fairies in folklore.

Appearing as beautiful women, the Anguana, like so many other fairies had started to warp as the world changed, so that they now appear with a gooses, chicken, or goats foot, or a reptile back, or some other flaw. This flaw, mixed with their jealous nature has made them extremely dangerous at times. In one tale they descended on a town by the light of the full moon and killed all the girls and women, everyone who was or could become beautiful. They scattered their blood and guts about the place as a warning to any who would be happy with their beauty, then they burnt the town to the ground. 


2-Abaasy or Abaahy (Yakuts)
The spirits of the long forgotten dead, those who no longer have any connection with the human world, who dwell in the Kingdom of Darkness and serve Arson Doulai, the a wicked ruler of the dead who seeks to devour souls. He sends the Abassy out into the world to steal people and animals souls for this purpose.. They could take many forms, at times appearing as young boys, though most often as one legged, one eyed, and one armed monsters. In order to travel about they would often ride on two legged, two tailed, two headed dragons.

The Witch and the Infant by MyNameIsSwann

3-Aswang (Philippines)

Werewolf like monsters who appear human in the day but turn into various animals from pigs to bats or dogs at night. They than hunt travelers or pull sleeping people form their beds with their long tentical like tongue which they can reach through a window. 
More than anything else, however, they like the taste of human fetus, and so will do anything they can to kill and tear apart pregnant women. 


4-Hobyah (England)
Wicked fairies who creep into houses to brutally murder families. The Hobyah, will at times carry off

http://falassion.deviantart.com/art/Ryuk-
the-Shinigami-434283653

some of the children in bags in order to have fun torturing and tormenting them.
5-Burber (Mari-El)
The vampire of the Mari-El, the burner can take many forms, though they often appear as shooting stars, birds, women with long hair or men with long beards. 

Burber delight in destroying life, they kiss their victims in order to drain the blood out of their mouths, worse still they can cause someone to fall so in love with them they will pine and die when the burber leaves them. They crawl inside the wombs of people and animals to take the place of the fetus, to appear to be born as a person or animals devious little child. Finally, they devour people's eyes when they think it would be funny to leave someone blind. Perhaps the worst thing they do, however, is possess people so that they become psychotic serial killers, thereby ruining many people's lives all at once. 

One could keep a burber from entering their home by hanging a horseshoe over the door. More importantly, one could kill a burber by shoving it's body in an ash tree, putting a stone from a rooster in its mouth (so that its soul can't escape in the form of a butterfly), then lighting the ash tree on fire.

6-Catkən (Mari-El)
When a person dies alone in the forest their soul can only leave it by killing another person to take their place. To do this they have cloaks which make them invisible, and which cause any nearby humans to become confused so that they'll wander away from their friends in a daze. 

7-Futakuchionna (Japan)
The spirits of wicked stepmothers who let their step children starve to death, and so were possessed by the spirits of those children. The child's ghost manifests as a mouth on the back of the woman's head, which constantly demands to be fed, and if it is not it uses the woman's hair as tentacles to snatch up her food.
In some tales they seem to form communities in the mountains from which they come down to seek relationships with men in order to feed the incredibly hungry spirit which has possessed them. Other times, they are so hungry that they even devour people.

http://ianllanas.deviantart.com/art/Baba-Yaga-113688760

8-Glaistig (Scotland)
The fairies with a werewolf like a curse...

Glaistig were kind and loving fairies, who took care of children, helped shepherds, etc. during the day. At night, however, they turned into vampires, which trained people's blood using their long claws.  In order to get the blood they craved they often used their beauty to lure men to dance with them, covering their goat legs with long flowing dresses. Than after dancing and enjoying the party for a while they would kill the person dancing with them and drink their blood.


9-Housoubaba (Japan)
A ten foot tall, red faced hag who caused small pox because she enjoyed eating the bodies of those who'd died. She almost impossible to catch, because she can fly so fast the wind knocks down anyone near her.

10-Jec Kanta Ot (Khanty)
Spirits of the forest who could appear as skeletons, but which more often remained invisible. The steal people's souls to take to the underground world of the dead. If a man felt morning sickness, aching bones, and similar pains it was a sign that this spirit was trying to take their soul. However the Jec Kanta Ot had to flee when the dawn came so it couldn't always finish it's work.

http://lakehurwitz.deviantart.com/art/Basrang-Lang-Pourk-175713957

Raven's Shire is dedicated to helping writers and artists learn about the strange world of fairy tales, so if you have any questions or need any help understanding the fairy realm, please contact us.