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Explore myths, traditions and legendary beings grouped under Europe.
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Kalevala
The Kalevala is Finland’s national epic and one of the most important written records of Finnic oral poetry. It presents a world of powerful singers, smiths, spirits, enchanted objects and rival communities, especially t…
Ratatoskr
Ratatoskr is a squirrel-like creature in Norse mythology, known for running up and down the world tree Yggdrasil. According to the surviving medieval poems and prose, Ratatoskr carries hostile messages between the great …
Lugh
Lugh is one of the most prominent figures in Irish mythology. A member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the supernatural people who become associated with Ireland’s pre-Christian divine world, he is celebrated as a warrior, rule…
Kalma
Kalma is a death-related figure or supernatural presence in Finnish mythology and folklore. The name is associated with death, graves, corpses and the smell of decay. In modern summaries of Finnish mythology, Kalma is of…
Regin
Regin is a legendary smith, counsellor and foster father in the Norse story of Sigurd and the dragon Fafnir. He belongs to the heroic tradition surrounding the Völsung family rather than to the group of worshipped Norse …
Irusan
Irusan is a legendary cat associated with Irish folklore and with the tradition of the King of the Cats. He is generally described in later retellings as an unusually large or powerful cat who rules over other cats. Unli…
Lemminkäinen
Lemminkäinen is one of the best-known heroes of Finnish mythology, especially through the Kalevala, the nineteenth-century epic compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Finnish and Karelian oral poetry. He is portrayed as handsome…
Rig
Rígr is a figure in Norse mythology who appears chiefly in Rígsþula (“The Lay of Rígr”), a poem preserved among the poems associated with the Poetic Edda. In the poem, Rígr travels through the human world, fathers or est…
Lir
Lir is a figure of Irish mythology best known as the father of the Children of Lir, the four children transformed into swans in one of Ireland’s most famous tragic legends. He is also associated with the sea through the …
Kipu Tytto
Kipu-Tyttö, also written Kiputyttö or translated as “Pain Girl,” is a little-known figure associated with Finnish folk belief and healing incantations. The name appears to personify pain as a female being, but Kipu-Tyttö…
Rind
Rind, also recorded in Old Norse as Rindr and in Latinised Scandinavian tradition as Rinda, is a little-known female figure associated with Odin and the birth of Váli, the son who avenges the death of Baldr. She belongs …