This page groups mythical creatures by the role they play in their own story. Wikipedia notes that "these monsters thus have the basic function of emphasizing the greatness of the heroes involved." Browsing by domain function lets a visitor compare the narrative job one creature does against another.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingA cover term. "Spirit" is a translator's word: the jinn of Islamic cosmology, for one, are a created and corporeal species rather than disembodied spirits, and the beings collected here belong to unrelated traditions with little in common but the English label. 2 Peoples and Traditions CoveredAlgonquian-speaking nations of the northern woodlands and subarctic - distinct peoples, not one tradition - tell of the being English spells "wendigo". Basil Johnston writes of the Anishinaabe wiindigoo and of the ethics of hunger it carries. 3 Peoples and Traditions CoveredIslamic: the jinn are a created species named in the Qur'an, with the ifrit and the qarin among their kinds - part of Islamic cosmology rather than folklore about ghosts. 2Tradition: Islam Learn More
The Spirit Beings
This group holds spirit beings, the many kinds of non-corporeal or nature-dwelling beings of world folklore, from the guardians of place to the wandering spirits of wild and domestic spaces. They occupy the middle ground between the human and the divine.
The browser will find the spirit figures the atlas gathers here. The entries describe each being's nature and its role in the tradition that tells of it.
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Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn
Amira El-Zein, Syracuse University Press, 2009on the jinn as a created and corporeal order of beingsView the Source 3. The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the Ojibway
Basil Johnston, HarperCollins, 1995The Manitous, on the wiindigooView the Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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