• Question: do you think any of the mystcal creatures that are often portrayed in fairytails are real (you know like fairies, elves, unicorns, dragons etc)

    Asked by to Meeks, Pete, Stephen, Steve, Tom on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Stephen Curry

      Stephen Curry answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Hi Tara – not really, though I think that some of the mystical creatures may be inspired or based on real creatures. For example, the dragon may be based on giant lizards that people came across hundreds of years ago (before the species was identified). The komodo dragon is a real creature and is actually called a dragon!

    • Photo: Marieke Navin

      Marieke Navin answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Hey Tara, it was be awesome if they were but I don’t think so 🙁

      However I think there are creatures under the sea that we can’t even imagine.

    • Photo: Steve Roser

      Steve Roser answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Its odd that some things come up again and again in lots of different cultures (like witches and fairies) but no, I can’t think of any mythical creatures that aren’t – well -myths.

    • Photo: Tom Hartley

      Tom Hartley answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      No, but I sometimes wonder whether some of these myths might have there basis in some biological reality. For example, dragons sound rather a lot like dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are thought to have died out many millions of years ago, and would not have been around at the same time as people. But of course some reptiles from that period (such as crocodiles) did survive, and it seems just about conceivable that other more dragon-like creatures did survive to live alongside humans. Or perhaps ancient humans saw dinosaur fossils and tried to make sense of them.

      I am pretty open-minded (some would say credulous) and I can well believe there might be creatures around somewhere on the Earth (or in the past) that we don’t yet know about that might have given rise to the myth of the Yeti, maybe even the Loch Ness Monster. I wouldn’t believe in them until I saw some very convincing evidence, though.

Comments

  • Photo: Tom

    Tom commented on :

    Maybe a remote memory of Neanderthal Man (which did live along side modern humans and even interbred with us) survives in the idea of trolls, or other “human like” mythical “creatures”.