Tumblr Dives Into European Folklore About Evil Whales (Thread)

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AmyBrown
Feb 26, 2021 3:00 PM EST

Whale, whale, whale, if it isn't another thread viral animal thread... we love those! It all started with a viral tweet from Twitter user Mx. Leah Velleman, in which they brought up the fact that Europeans avoid using the word "bear" in fear of summoning them. Instead, they call them "brown one" or "honey-eater." Pretty interesting right? And we thought we were superstitious!

Turns out, there's an even more wild European theory about evil whales, from Iceland. If this isn't already fascinating to you, we're not quite sure how to help you because, friends, this is about as cool as it gets. Get yourself ready to go deep diving into the depths of the unknown! 

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  • 01
    Font - 3 purplenickel Mx. Leah Velleman @leahvelleman Dec 6 There's a theory that early Europeans started saying "brown one" or "honey- eater" instead of "bear" to avoid summoning them, and similarly my friend has started calling Alexa "the faceless woman" because saying her true name awakens her from her slumber 143 t3 4.9K 25.5K Mx. Leah Velleman 000 @leahvelleman Replying to @leahvelleman English has an avoidance register used in the presence of certain respected animals, which sounds fancy u
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  • 02
    Font - a02 allthingslinguistic There's a theory that early Europeans started saying "brown one" or "honey-eater" instead of "bear" to avoid summoning them, and similarly my friend has started calling Alexa "the faceless woman" because saying her true name awakens her from her slumber English has an avoidance register used in the presence of certain respected animals, which sounds fancy until you realize it's spelling out w-a-l-k and t-r-e-a-t in front of the dog. Mx. Leah Velleman on twitter a-b
    via cthulhu-with-a-fez
  • 03
    Jaw - a-book-of-creatures Iceland does! They are the ilhveli, literally "evil whales", and they live to kill you. They love nothing more than killing and eating humans and sinking their ships. Their greatest enemy is the steypireydur (that's blue whale to you), which is the greatest of the good whales and the protector of sailors. All evil whales are, well, evil. So evil that if you speak their name at sea, they will hear it and home in on you. So instead you use all sorts of euphemisms for thei
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  • 04
    Fin - The raudkembingur (redcomb) is especially cruel and bloodthirsty even by ilhveli standards. If you manage to escape it, it will die of frustration.
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  • 05
    Organism - Good luck escaping the mushveli (mousewhale) though, it has legs! And will clamber onto the beach in pursuit! Or what about death from above? The stökkull (jumper) leaps high into the air and pile-drives boats to pieces.
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  • 06
    Vertebrate - Meanwhile the skeljungur (shellwhale) sits in the path of boats and lets them get wrecked on its shelly hide.. while the sverdhvalur (swordwhale) slices through boats with its dorsal fin.
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  • 07
    Vertebrate - The katthveli (catwhale) is relatively harmless though. It meows. The same can't be said of the lyngbakur (heatherback), a classic island fish that lets sailors get on its back and then dives, taking them to a watery grave. The nauthveli (oxwhale) on the other hand specially targets cattle, attracting them into the sea with its bellow before tearing them apart.
    via cthulhu-with-a-fez

    We feel like the 'katthveli' would be our friend. Just a cat-loving hunch we have. 

  • 08
    Vertebrate - How can you avoid all these murderous whales, like the taumafiskur (bridlefish) here? Any of a number of ways, including getting a steypireydur to help. There are substances, ranging from angelica to sheep dung and chopped fox testicles, that they find abhorrent. And you can distract them with loud noises and barrels. For more, I assure you this link will answer all your questions. https://abookofcreatures.com/category/illhveli/ Ilhveli – A Book of Creatures Posts about Ilhveli writ
    via cthulhu-with-a-fez

    Can't get enough of myths and weird mythical creatures? Great, because neither can we! We even have a gift bag of myths for you to check out! Go ahead, dig in! 

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Iceland myths myth tumblr interesting legend evil whale tumblr thread whales
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