Monstrum Athenaeum Tearing open the cryptid world of werewolves, vampires & zombies.
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If the tales told by the Inuits are true, there exists a secret race of cryptids in Greenland with humanoid bodies and wolf-like legs called the Adlet (or Erqigdlet).
The first recorded stories of the Adlet came from the ethnologist Franz Boas who heard legends of their existence while visiting Cumberland Sound from an Inuit named Pakaq. The story was published in the Journal for American Folklore in 1889.
As the story goes, a women known as Niviarsiang (meaning ‘the girl’) lived with her father Savirqong. Niviarsiang refused to take a human husband and, deciding cross-breading was her best option, married Ijirqang, a dog. Somehow they made it work and bore ten children together.
Five of Niviarsiang’s children were born as dogs and the other five were born with a human body and wolf-like legs. A new dad of ten children, Ijirqang decided his job was done and relied on his father-in-law, Savirqong, to provide for the strange household. Savirqong wasn’t happy with the arrangement and eventually drowned Ijirqang.
In a vengeful rage, Niviarsiang instructed her children to attack Savirqong mutilating his feet and hands. Fearing her father, Niviarsiang sent her children inland where they met and inter-bread with other humans; creating the Adlet.
Adlets who left their homeland traveled across the ocean and, according to legend, become the ancestors of the European races. Those who remained are said to have become cannibalistic warriors and blood drinkers; described as covered with red fur, sharp claws, a pronounced snout and yellow eyes
While the story of the origin of the Adlet should be taken with a grain of salt, their physical description closely resembles the description and drawings of early European werewolves. Thought to hunt in packs, Adlets behave socially similar to wolves with an alpha male in charge of the pack. They are supernaturally strong and have very acute senses, particularly their ability to see in the dark. These cryptids are said to be extremely difficult to kill, though silver, fire and decapitation have been shown to be effective if not fatal.
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