I came across this illustration by Warwick Goble for the fairy tale “Momotaro,” and I remembered this old idea/headcanon I had for the TV series Grimm.

So the backstory in Grimm is that Grimms (who weren’t always called that; they’ve had many names throughout history - the Romans knew them as “Decapitators”) have been fighting Wesen (who I’m pretty sure weren’t always called that in every corner of the world), and these battles formed the basis of many fairy tales. And in addition to being the inspiration behind creatures like ogres, dragons, and trolls, the Wesen also inspired fairy tales with talking animals, like the three bears and Reynard the Fox.

The story of Momotaro is that he traveled with three animal friends and fought a band of Oni who lived on an island, because they would raid the land and terrorize villagers. In the Grimm universe, that would make Momotaro a Grimm, and the three animals and Oni Wesen (though given that they live in Japan, “Yokai” would probably be what they’re called; no idea what a Grimm would be called in Japan, though…).

It’s an idea I’ve had since I watched the show a few years ago; I honestly have no idea what to do with it (I did write another Grimm-related thing recently, but it’s still a rough draft), so it’s just something that’s been in my head for a while.

I wrote the next story for my fanfic “Eve’s Hidden Children.”

It’ll be revised and probably posted by August; I’m thinking of changing the title as well, since the original one is going to become an artifact title pretty soon.

For example, the next story takes place in a completely different part of the world, but still deals with Grimms and Wesen.

In Japanese folklore, the hone-onna, or bone woman, is a yōkai who most often appears as a skeletal woman. The most common legend states that the hone-onna will kill men by holding their hands and drawing out their life force until they wither into skeletons themselves.

Perhaps the most famous story about the hone-onna is the tale of Botan Dōrō, in which a young male traveller meets a beautiful young woman named O-Tsuyu, and immediately falls in love with her. They meet several times to make love, and one night, a curious neighbour peers into the young man’s bedroom, only to see him laying with a skeleton.

Image source.

Monster master list.

Suggest a spook.

Der Wolf und die sieben jungen Geißlen / The Wolf and the seven young goats

Vintage postcard

Expressive antique wooden fox mask, used for kitsune roles in kyogen theater (seen on Cantor arts center)

Nebuchadnezzar, William Blake, between 1795 and 1805

Keith Ward illustrations for The Scandalous Adventures of Reynard the Fox (1945).

Thomas Cole, Expulsion; Moon and Firelight, c. 1828. 

”The following are examples of tales and popular concepts from Mormon folklore:

that Cain, the killer of Abel, is alive and wanders the earth, wearing no clothing but being covered by hair and that apostle David W. Patten encountered him once;[5][6][7] and thatreported sightings of Bigfoot can be explained by this story;[8]”

We know from Grimm canon that Wesen in the past were deified as gods by humanity; the Ataktose Fuse/Bestia Festiva, for example, was the inspiration for the god Dionysus in the Grimm-verse.

It’s something I want to explore a bit more in my fanfic; based on that canon information, we can infer that other kinds of Wesen inspired the other Olympian gods, some possible examples being:

Eros/Cupid--> Cupiditas

Pan--> Ziegevolk

Hecate--> Hexenbiest (and as an aside, the Empousai are confirmed in the series to be wesen, as well)

Then there are stories of demigods/heroes, who could have been either Wesen of their own, or Grimms.

There’s probably a lot more I can think of, but for now that’s about it. 

The Beast of Gevaudan -  werewolf illustration, France ca.1414

Drawcember Cryptid 16 - Beast of Gévaudan

Look upon me, mother. I’m everything you ever feared I would be. You may have attempted to smother me, to keep me down, but that only forced me to do the one thing you couldn’t. Flourish. I will always love you.

Update

After years of being mostly inactive, I’ve decided to use this blog again.

For anyone that remembers the old fanfic I wrote on here, about three years ago, I recently re-uploaded it onto my new Fanfiction.net account (it’s the second story I have on there, right after my Madoka Magica story). I intended for it to be a one-shot, but after some thought (and a rather nice review suggesting how there could be more to the story), I’ve decided to expand on it a bit. Don’t know how long it’ll be, but I hope it’s entertaining for people!

Later chapters will also be posted on here, and my main fanfiction Tumblr.

Witch’s castle, Portland OR

This statue was created by French sculptor Philippe Kaeppelin (1918 - 2011) and stands in Auvers, Haute-Loire, in France. The statue is made of bronze and was erected in 1995. It depicts the famous battle between La Bête du Gevaudan and Marie-Jeanne Valet that took place on August 11th 1765. During the fight, Valet defended herself and her sister by stabbing the fearsome beast in the chest with a spear. While the strike did not kill the creature, it was an incredible act of bravery and Valet was able to save herself and her sister. The two girls escaped alive. Legend has it that  La Bête stood on her hind legs, placing a paw over the wound and rolled into the river nearby - vanishing until her next kill.

I like to think that Diana keeps using her powers to make Kelly float, even when both of them are adults.

Adding on to my last post...

If the Zodiac is indeed meant to portray Wesen coming from another realm, then maybe what’s depicted on it is meant to be literal...

Generally speaking, the Zodiac is just meant to be the constellations in the sky, with the animals floating in space. But what if, in the Grimm-verse, the fresco is actually showing the Wesen falling from the sky???