Catalan myths and legends are the traditional myths and

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...

s of the

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

-speaking world, especially

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

itself, passed down for generations as part of that region's

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...

Mythological figures

Among the figures of Catalan mythology are: * Aloja - In Catalan mythology an Aloja, also known as Dona d'aigua, Goja, or Paitida, is a feminine being that lives in places with fresh water. This "water-woman" can turn into water blackbirds. *

Banyoles monster The Banyoles monster is a legendary monster, possibly a dragon, from the Lake of Banyoles in Catalonia. Legend According to the legend, the Banyoles monster lives in the Banyoles Lake in Girona of northern eastern Spain hundreds years of ago. In t ...

* Bubota * Catalan mythology about witches - Catalan tradition distinguished between bruixeria ("witchcraft") based on an explicit compact with the Devil, and fetilleria (deriving from a word related to "fetish", and Old Portuguese feitiço), magic worked through charms and fetishes. The former was considered inherently evil, while the latter might include the working of magical cures. In Catalan popular culture, there are a large number of legends about witches. In the popular imagination, a witch is a woman who, by means of a pact with the Devil, has acquired supernatural power, which she uses for her own benefit and for evil purposes. * Carnestoltes * Cocollona * Comte Arnau * Comte Estruch * Cucafera * Dip - In Catalan myth, Dip is an evil, black, hairy dog, an emissary of the Devil, who sucks people's blood. * Dona d'aigua - (See Aloja) * Donyet *

Dragons A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

**Drac (a dragon, generally male) ** Víbria (specifically female) * Encantaria *Follet * Gambutzí *Goja - (See Aloja) * Fada - HadaTípicas también de zonas orientales del pirineo aragonés *

Home del sac A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. ...

(man of the sack) * Home dels nassos (man of the noses) *

Marraco The Marraco ( ca, Lo Marraco, ) is a dragon or frightening creature in Catalan myth in the city of Lleida. It possessed a mouth wide enough to swallow a human whole according to tales told to frighten children. Etymology There has been ma ...

Martinet The martinet ( OED ''s.v.'' ''martinet'', ''n.''2, "'' N.E.D.'' (1905) gives the pronunciation as (mā·ɹtinėt) /ˈmɑːtɪnɪt/ .") is a punitive device traditionally used in France and other parts of Europe. The word also has other usages, de ...

Minairó A minairó (, plural ''minairons''), also called manairó, menairó, diablorí in Catalonia or zaingorriak in the Basque country, is a tiny mythological being that some people save enclosed within a needle tube in some villages of the Pyrenees. The ...

*El Moro Musa *

Muladona In Catalan mythology, a Muladona or Donamula (''mule-woman'' or ''woman-mule'' in Catalan) is a female mule with a human woman's head. Legend has it that a young woman was cursed by the townspeople for being irreverent and irreligious, and the cur ...

Negret A ''negret'' () in Catalan myths and legends, especially those of Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is al ...

Nitus In Catalan mythology, Nitus are small matter, impossible to describe by their smallness, which fall into a person's ear and go to the brain. They do not kill, but are said to feed like maggots on the memory and create tiredness and forgetfulness. H ...

* Paitida - (See Aloja) * Papu * Peix Nicolau - Peje Nicolao * Pellofa *

Pesanta In Catalan legend and popular culture, the Pesanta () is an enormous dog (or sometimes a cat) that goes into people's houses in the night and puts itself on their chests, making it difficult for them to breathe and causing them the most horrible n ...

* Puigmal *

Tió de Nadal The ''Tió de Nadal'' (; meaning in English "Christmas Log"), also known simply as ''tió'' (firewood log), soca or tronc(a) (trunk), is a character in Catalan mythology relating to a Christmas tradition widespread in Catalonia, Majorca (known a ...

*The

Three Wise Men 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 190 ...

or Tres Reis Mags d'Orient ** Page Gregory ** Page Fumera * Tombatossals * Vella Quaresma * Víbria

Generic figures

those characters that are invoked to induce fear in children for practical purposes, for example to avoid speaking to strangers or leaving home alone, are called ''Espantamainades''. At the anthropological level, sometimes they are manifestations of the fears of the unknown and inexplicable in nature. Some are local representations related to those figures also existing in other cultures, such as witches, goblins, and the

bogeyman The Bogeyman (; also spelled boogeyman, bogyman, bogieman, boogie monster, boogieman, or boogie woogie) is a type of mythic creature used by adults to frighten children into good behavior. Bogeymen have no specific appearance and conceptions var ...

. Others are purely local variations, such as

the peasant and the dips.

References

Catalan mythology {{Europe-myth-stub