There's a few particularly potent themes and motifs that I wanted to address separately from the video logs that I found in the research article and field notes.
The article mentioned Beowulf, Grendel, and Grendel's mother. Now, this introduces an interesting angle to the nature of these folk figures I hadn't considered before. Grendel and Grendel;s mother were thought of as types of water demons, considering they actually lived below a waterfall.
But more than that, both Grendel and his mother were cannibals. They didn't just target humankind for access to favors or labor, but literally to consume them. But then, when considering all the myths talking about sacrifices for water demons, what else would those sacrifices be for, if not for consumption?
This man in the woods, who I've heard mentioned in my interviews as being seen near bodies of water, sounds pretty close in terms of behavior and physical attributes. The interviews I've had so far haven't mentioned "whip-like appendages", but the man in the woods is said to have abnormally long arms.
These are actually very characteristic of water demons, especially the nicors, necks, etc mentioned in the article. Jenny Greenteeth is another example of a neck that evolved into a sort of boogeyman, and as the story goes, she has those long, skinny arms used to drag in victims.
Otherwise, I'm going to be looking into Smith's Mills and Dr. Frederick Braumuller. This might give me more of a lead as to how I can find more of the project's research, and hopefully be able to compare regional folk figures and their purpose in times of stress and disaster.
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