7 Supernatural Creatures From Old Folk Tales We'll Always Be Fascinated By

Creatures of the supernatural world have a charm and aura that have caught our curiosity for ages. So although we fear their presence in our actual lives, we enjoy them as characters in fictional worlds like novels, movies and TV shows.

How did these creatures develop to get so modern and how have we, as mere mortals, changed their image throughout the years?

1. Angels

Angels have a religious significance as they are said to represent the world between God and man. While their origins come from ancient pagan religions, they had been indoctrinated in the faiths that originated in the Middle East.

There is no clear image of what angels are said to look like. We can credit Renaissance artists for depicting them as beautiful winged men and women, adding to the demure figure of a messenger from heaven.

As enlightened spirits they can take human form, as most western religions consider them to come to the aid of those in need.

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2. Vampires

The idea of vampires has been the same throughout history despite their names and characteristics varying in different cultures. Nocturnal bloodsucking beings were recorded to have existed in Mesopotamia. However, the vampires we know today had more recent origins.

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In Eastern Europe, people dug up graves to discover corpses had not decomposed. The bodies had swollen bellies, open eyes, longer teeth and blood around the mouths. This led many to believe that such undead creatures survived on blood and disappeared back to their graves during the daytime. The stereotypical image of the vampire comes from Bram Stokers novel, Dracula.

Today, of course, thanks to Twilight and the Vampire Diaries, these creatures have had a complete wardrobe change.

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3. Ghosts

The idea of manifestations of dead people, who failed to pass on to the afterlife, has been around for a very long time. Having no fixed form, since they are believed to be invisible or translucent, ghosts appear in common folklore as responsible for events that have no human cause.

While many people refuse to accept their existence, other people believe communicating with them is possible. It has never been proven whether they actually exist, as scientists believe activities said to be caused by ghosts are actually made by electromagnetic waves.

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4. Witches

With Halloween and fairy tales, we believe witches to be crooked old ladies wearing pointed hats and flying high in the sky on broomsticks. However their identity as evil, satanic creatures comes mainly from Christianity and the Bible, where sorcery is considered unholy and against God.

In Roman, Greek and Egyptian texts, sorcerers were revered people who often came to the help of the powerful, with their divine abilities of shape-shifting, visions and creating elixirs.

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As beliefs shifted from paganism to monotheism, the church shaped the misconception of witches being women who practised witchcraft and worshipped a multitude of gods from hell. It encouraged people to hunt down such women and stone them to death for the good of God. Between the 14th and 17th century several women and young girls were killed because of their so called ¡°blasphemous activities¡±.

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The image of witches flying on broomsticks actually represents the Wiccan ritual of night travelling where they astrally projected themselves into the night sky to travel with the deities. People who practice Wiccan rituals today believe the negative reputation given to the idea of witches was only the result of an agenda of hatred spurred on by the early leaders of medieval Christianity.

5. Zombies

It is unknown how the idea of zombies have captivated the modern genre of horror thrillers. However, its introduction to the English language came from Haitian folklore where zombies were believed to be corpses resurrected with sorcery. It has its roots in traditions brought to Haiti by enslaved Africans, and their subsequent experiences in the New World. It was thought that the voodoo deity Baron Samedi would gather them from their grave to bring them to a heavenly afterlife in Africa, unless they had offended him in some way, in which case they would be forever a slave after death, as a zombie. A zombie could also be saved by feeding them salt. A number of scholars have pointed out the significance of the zombie figure as a metaphor for the history of slavery in Haiti.

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Mary Shelley¡¯s Frankenstein spearheaded the fascination of the undead being animated through scientific means in western literature. In 1932, Victor Halperin¡¯s movie White Zombie depicted zombies as mindless, unthinking henchmen under the spell of an evil magician.

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The fairly recent idea of a zombie apocalypse is now a popular theme in modern art.

6. Werewolves

The myth of werewolves goes as far back as medieval times where trials were held for men who were believed to transform into wolves and kill the masses. In reality, these men were actually serial killers, who sometimes indulged in rape and cannibalism. People believed in werewolves much before the advent of Christianity and the belief was strengthened as it was considered a sinful practice along with witchcraft.

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Many historians believed that the story of werewolves could have also been made up to explain the symptoms of rabies, which can be passed on to humans by dogs.

7. Mermaids

Often associated with shipwrecks, storms, waves and huge undercurrents, mermaids have made an appearances in maritime folklore in cultures from around the world. Envisaged as beautiful maidens with the lower body of a fish, they are often said to fall in love with fishermen and sailors while saving them from peril. Mermaids who lure sailors to their deaths are known as sirens.

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The earliest known legend of mermaids came about from an Assyrian goddess who jumped into the ocean to transform into a fish. She was too beautiful to become one, so she remained a human waist up.

Although many people have claimed to have seen mermaids, their existence is still questionable.