Final Stop for the Shapeshifters World Tour - Skinwalkers

Hi! Denise Golinowski here with this month's edition of Myth Perceptions.

The final stop on the Shapeshifters World Tour brings us home from Europe to explore the myth of the Navajo Skinwalker.

Skinwalkers are Navajo witches who have chosen evil instead of healing. It is said Native Americans are reluctant to talk about the skinwalker myth, perhaps for fear of retribution. The information I read revealed that a witch can only become a skinwalker through murdering a family member. The power gained enables them to change shape and use the powers of the animal. The most frequently listed forms are that of coyote, wolf, fox, crow, or owl.

If a person is foolish enough to stare into the eyes of a Skinwalkers they could lose control of their body and will. Skinwalkers seek to frighten, kill, maim, or control others. They have no other desire. They can take most any form they choose and are said to lure people away from safety using the voices and/or appearance of loved ones. Legend says that the only way to kill a skinwalker is with a bullet dipped in white ash or by saying their full name before shooting them.

The majority of articles I discovered on the web repeat the same basic information with little about motivation or intent. The one clear picture is that a skinwalker has no goal except power. The saying "power corrupts" certainly appears to apply; these witches lose or surrender their humanity in pursuit of the power of the skinwalker.

Of all the shapeshifters I've presented and researched for the Shapeshifters World Tour, the skinwalkers are the most disturbing for me. They were certainly a unsettling ending to the tour, but perhaps the cautionary tale contained within their mythos is a useful one. Power is a seductive and destructive mistress.

Well, it's been a winding road, but the Shapeshifters World Tour has reached it's final stop. I hope that it's been entertaining and informative. I know I've learned quite a lot, and I've also "unlearned" a lot of what I'd expected when first setting out on this tour.

The biggest take-away for me is the realization that most of the shapeshifter myths I'd been taught were not about humans shifting into animals, but more often of mythical creatures shifting into humans. What does it say about our ancestors or ourselves that we would think divine or magical creatures would find being human so very attractive? Of course, the intent isn't always benign, but there is a touch of ego in there, don't you think?

I haven't decided where Myth Perceptions is going to be headed next month, so all I can ask is that you come back to check and see. Please feel free to leave me your thoughts about Skinwalkers or about the Shapeshifter World Tour in general. Or just say hello.

NEWS FLASH:  Friday's the day! Collector's Item will be released by The Wild Rose Press for all eformats on May 17th. Yeppers, Release Day is almost upon us and I'm going to be celebrating with a Virtual Release Day Party! Speaking of ego, there will be a lot of tweeting and posting about the world of Collector's Item, but there will also be prizes. Drop by Golinowski's Gambol or Denise Golinowski/Author on fb to find out more.

Denise Golinowski is a reader and writer of fantasy and romance. Collector's Item is being released by The Wild Rose Press in all electronic formats on May 17th, 2013!

Her first enovella, The Festival of the Flowers: The Courtesan and the Scholar is also available  through the Wild Rose Press. You can visit her blog at Golinowski's Gambol.

Swanning About Swan Maidens

Hi! Denise Golinowski here with this month's edition of Myth Perceptions.

Continuing with the Shapeshifters World Tour, I've crossed the channel from Scotland to Eastern Europe to explore the myth of the Swan Maidens.

As with most myths we've explored before, there are a variety of swan maiden myths spread across various cultures from Scandanavia to Germany to Japan. However, the majority of myths about Swan Maidens appear to be European in origin.

Pixabay.com

The Swam Maiden myth usually involves lovely magical women wearing swan skins or robes who regularly descend to quiet, isolated pools to shed their feathers and splash about in the waters. They are discovered by a human intruder, and one is captured when the intruder takes possession of her feather skin/robe. As long as the human male holds the robe, the swan maiden must remain with him in human form. Eventually, someone spills the beans about the whereabouts of the robe or the swan maiden finds it. Once she regains possession of her robe, she flies away abandoning the man as well as any offspring they may have engendered.  Click the link beneath this image to read what I found to be one of the most popular versions of the Swan Maiden myth.

From Europa's Fairy Book

Pixabay.com

The myth is most popularly portrayed by the ballet, Swan Lake with one crucial difference. The  man and maiden in this ballet are truly in love and sacrifice themselves in order to stay together.

I especially enjoyed the variety of swan maiden stories contained on this website - http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/swan.html#contents. 

What I find intriguing about this and some of the other shapeshifting myths is how a magical creature could make themselves so vulnerable as to shed the key to their freedom and then leave it lying around where a covetous human can steal it away from them. I guess when you're a magical creature, you can be as careless as any human, but it seems odd.

If you remove the stupidity factor (sorry, shapeshifters, but I'm calling a spade a spade here), the other fact that captures my imagination is that many of these shapeshifter myths seem to feature beautiful females being captured by human males and forced into marriage/motherhood. Consider selkies, kitsunes, and now swan maidens.

In light of this forced slavery, I am hard-pressed to be upset by the fact that when these females regain possession of their stolen skins, they leave the male without a backward glance. (Okay, there is the issue of their abandonment of their children, but since they are usually magical creatures only temporarily human, the concept of human attachment cannot apply). Heck, I'm surprised the females don't turn on the males in retribution, but perhaps the small, gentle or defenseless animal personas are not pure happenstance, eh? Seals? Swans? Foxes?

What do you think? Heartless Hussies or Escaping Victims?

Well, that's all for this month. Next month will be the final stop on our Shapeshifter World Tour and will bring us back to the Americas with an exploration of Skinwalkers.

Please feel free to leave me your thoughts about some of the questions I've raised or about the Shapeshifter World Tour in general. Or just say hello.

Denise Golinowski is a reader and writer of fantasy and romance. Collector's Item has been released by The Wild Rose Press exclusively on the Kindle and will be available in all electronic formats on May 17th, 2013!

Her first enovella, The Festival of the Flowers: The Courtesan and the Scholar is also available  through the Wild Rose Press. You can visit her blog at Golinowski's Gambol.

Don't Get On This Horse! Kelpies

Hi! Denise Golinowski here with a belated dose of Myth Perceptions.

Continuing with the Shapeshifters World Tour, I've skipped over to Scotland to explore the myth of the Water Horse or Kelpie. My research revealed that Kelpies are not shapeshifters in the truest sense of the word, but I still found them intriguing, so here's the scoop.

Kelpies are water spirits who assume the form of a horse. They are commonly described as black, or green with black mane and tail. Their skin is tough, similar to seal skin, and very sticky. Often they appear to drip water from their mane or have water weeds in their mane and tail. If they take a human form, they are more often male, though occasionally female. But no matter the form, the Kelpie is always dangerous and intent on luring humans to their deaths.

They often appear beside large bodies of water or rivers, standing where they might tempt a weary traveller to climb up onto them. Then, when the rider was stuck like a fly on flypaper, the Kelpie races into the water, slapping the surface with their tail hard with a sound like thunder, carrying their hapless victim into the depths to drown. Then the Kelpie feasts upon the dead, sometimes leaving the liver or heart, though I could find no explanation for the Kelpie's distaste for said parts.

As with most magical shapeshifters, there is a way to trap them. In the Kelpie's case, if you can take possession of their bridle, you can control them. They are magically strong and several stories tell of clans who claimed possession of a Kelpie's bridle. One did well, one did not. Myself, I find it strange to think that a spirit would permit something so obviously man-made to manifest on their physical form or accept the imposition of same upon themselves. However, myths will be myths.

While the Kelpie's equine form is rather distinctive, I mean, green skin or water soaked mane, the human form was a bit less unusual. They could be extremely handsome or beautiful, as the sex may be. However, in human form, seemed they always had a bit of water weed in their hair. Oh, and sometimes they were quite wet, but standing beside water would make that almost understandable.

The most commonly told story involves a Kelpie who tried to lure ten children to their deaths. Nine fell prey to the temptation of riding a huge docile horse, who then drowned them. The tenth child recognized the danger, however the stories disagree on how he escaped. Either he simply refused to ride or he hesitated, moved to stroke the Kelpie's nose. When his hand stuck, he realized his mortal danger and cut off his own hand rather than be drowned.

So, if you're ever walking along the edge of a lake, river, or loch, don't accept rides from strange horses or overtures from men or women with water weeds in their hair.

Guess that's all for this month's stop on the Shapeshifters World Tour. Next month, we'll be off to Eastern Europe to meet the Swan Maidens, lovely ladies who transform in to swans.

NEWS FLASH! Collector's Item is Free on Kindle through March 23rd, 2013.

Denise Golinowski is a reader and writer of fantasy and romance. Collector's Item has been released by The Wild Rose Press exclusively on the Kindle and will be available in all electronic formats on May 17th, 2013!

Her first enovella, The Festival of the Flowers: The Courtesan and the Scholar is also available  through the Wild Rose Press. You can visit her blog at Golinowski's Gambol.

Foxy Ladies - Asian Fox Sprits

Welcome back to Myth Perceptions.

As promised last month, I'm continuing my research into shapeshifters around the world. This month's stop is Asia as I began researching the kitsune, or Japanese fox spirit.

Image from Fox Spirits Website

Kitsune are magical beings who appear as foxes but can also assume human form. These fox spirits are highly intelligent, playful, and have up to nine tails. The more tails, the more intelligent or powerful the kitsune. The fox spirit is a bit of a trickster, reminding me of Coyote of Native American culture. However, I might add that since we are dealing with spirits, their concept of fair may not parallel ours.

Though kitsune also take the form of elderly men, they most often appear in Japanese folklore as a beautiful young woman. She marries a human male who often is unaware of her true form. The least dangerous of motives is pure seduction; the most dangerous is to teach an overbearing or arrogant male a lesson. When her true form is discovered, the kitsune traditionally abandons the human, leaving them a humbler though wiser person. A kitsune is often discovered in a variety of ways – they cast a fox-shaped shadow even in their human form, they possess distinctly fox-like features, they are very afraid of dogs and might turn back into their fox form to escape, and finally all those tails can be hard to hide in human form.

The fox spirit/shapeshifter also appears in Chinese mythology as the huli jing. Their intent is less clearly defined by my research, ranging from seductress to scholar, female and male forms. They seem to be the most benevolent of the Asian fox spirits though the habit of shapeshifting into the form of beautiful women to seduce and/or wed human men continues in Chinese mythology.

Image from Kumiho Wiki

In Korean mythology, these spirits, called kumiho, are far less benevolent and again frequently assume the form of beautiful women. A commonly held belief is that they do this for the most gruesome of reasons—to feast on human flesh, taking a particular interest in human livers. The purpose of consuming human livers was to become human, and the required number appears to be 100, gullible human males the most common unwitting and unwilling donors.

I find it most interesting that all three mythologies share a common thread--fox spirits who transform into lovely women to trick human males.

It gives the term "foxy lady" a whole new spin, don't you agree?

I encourage you to visit the Fox Index, a wonderful website devoted to the Asian Fox Spirit myths. Lots of fantastic links and information for anyone wanting to learn more.

I hope you'll stop by Myth Perceptions next month as I track down another shapeshifter myth - the Celtic kelpies. Should be a wild ride.

Collector's Item has been released by The Wild Rose Press exclusively on the Kindle and will be available in all electronic formats on May 17th!

Denise Golinowski is a reader and writer of fantasy and romance. Her first enovella, The Festival of the Flowers: The Courtesan and the Scholar is also available  through the Wild Rose Press. You can visit her blog at Golinowski's Gambol.

Werewolves and Shapeshifters

The concept of shapeshifters exists in every culture around the world. They take many forms and obey a diverse set of rules depending upon the specific culture. Since my forthcoming book, "Collector's Item," involves shapeshifters, specifically werejaguars, I thought I'd share a little of my discoveries and ruminations upon the dual-natured in a series of posts.

This first post will deal with my perception of the concepts of  "were" and "shapeshifter."

There is the much discussion about difference between shapeshifters and weres of whatever animal (werewolves, werejaguars, werefoxes). To my mind, shapeshifter is a generic, major classification-type term. It describes the shared trait among the dual-natured - the ability to change their shapes. That said, the weres, selkies, kitsune, etc. are all forms of shapeshifters.

Another thing to note is that shapeshifters have two classes--those who are humans shifting to animal form or animals who shift to human form. Animals who shift into human form more often than not do so for malicious reasons, to prey upon humans in some manner. In the majority of myths involving humans changing into animals, the change has a very negative origin--curses, punishment, flight from an angry god, take your pick. In myths or stories where the change is not one-way/permanent, the "descent" into animal form is nearly always viewed as a "bad" thing.

Werewolves are the ultimate of the bad transitions, and what makes werewolves unique among the shapeshifters is their infamous connection to the moon. Of all the shapeshifters I have encountered in my research, only the werewolves are under the curse of the full moon.

It seems the rest of the shapeshifters are in control of their change, deciding  when and where they shift. Sometimes even choosing "what" they change into when they shift. Not surprising, even shapeshifters who can control their changes are not viewed with anything less than a jaundiced eye. Some are considered truly evil, such as the Native American skinwalkers and the Korean kumiho to name a few, using their abilities to prey upon others.

My werejaguars in "Collector's Item" are not your standard weres. Their transformations are not controlled by the moon and, even more unusual, the jaguar side of my weres have their own personalties and thoughts. The human side is in control, but the animal form is self-aware. Sounds a bit schizophrenic, but in my world, shapeshifters carefully nurture their young, helping them to accept their animal sides in a symbiotic lifestyle. However, the human side is ALWAYS the side in control. It's not an easy thing to accept and some do not gain control of their animal sides. Those who fail are called Unadapted and in "today's" world, they are treated with a drug that suppresses their animal selves completely, enabling the Unadapted to live normal human lives.

Next month, I will share tidbits about some of the Asian shapeshifters. Until then, be careful when you're outside on a full moon. That howl you hear may not be the neighbor's dog.

NEWS FLASH! I'm thrilled to announce that "Collector's Item" will be released by The Wild Rose Press on May 17th!

Denise Golinowski is a reader and writer of fantasy and romance. Her first enovella, The Festival of the Flowers: The Courtesan and the Scholar is available now through the Wild Rose Press. Her second enovella, Collector's Item will also be released by The Wild Rose Press May 17, 2013. You can visit her blog at Golinowski's Gambol.