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Author
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Comment
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EyeGrit
Registered User
(8/5/06 7:26 am)
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Leeching type fairytale characers?
Hi.
I'm new and this is my first post.
I'm wondering about what kind of fairytale characters are like psychic leeches - I would say vampiric, but not with the whole dracula thing. More like creatures that sap a person's vitality, strength, etc. without all of the vampire trappings.
Are there such things? And where might I try looking them up?
Googling vampire just gives a lot of the stuff I'm not looking for.
TIA
A. M. Eckard
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Writerpatrick
Registered User
(8/5/06 4:22 pm)
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Re: Leeching type fairytale characers?
The Leane Sidhe comes to mind.
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(8/5/06 7:16 pm)
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Re: Leeching type fairytale characers?
You might want to look into the Katie Crackernuts fairy tale, in which I believe a prince is spirited away to the fairy realm every night, where he dances 'til dawn, and spends all his days exhausted, ill, and zombie-like.
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EyeGrit
Registered User
(8/6/06 6:37 am)
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Re: Leeching type fairytale characers?
OK. Thanks.
That gives me more leads than I've had so far. :)
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Meg Fox
Registered User
(8/6/06 7:15 pm)
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Re: Leeching type fairytale characers?
In Chinese tales, the fox fairy is a common character often portrayed as a shape shifter. In early myth, the spirit often took the shape of a seductive woman intent upon draining the life force from men in order to extend her own life.
Later, the author Pu Songling included many fox fairy characters in his work "Liaozhai zhiyi" (Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio) This site explains it pretty well. Look at the story of "Lianxiang."
takaoclub.com/foxmyths/ch..._myths.htm
From what I understand, the difference between the earlier fox fairies and those of Pu Songling is his undercurrents of the fox/woman's spiritual evolution. His characters are also portrayed as heroines. You can read more about that here in a clip of a work by by Daniel Hsieh of Purdue University.
(Fox’s Progress: The Ascension of Fox Fairies in Liaozhai zhiyi)
www.aasianst.org/absts/19.../c-toc.htm
Scroll down to session # 96.
HTH! Best,
Meg Fox
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korin
Unregistered User
(8/7/06 10:39 pm)
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leeching
On the Isle of Man, the Leanan Sidhe was depicted as a blood-sucking vampire. In Ireland, she was believed to be an inspiration to poets. Those who had her as their muse live brilliant but short lives. The Chinese fox-spirits have a Japanese equivalent in the kitsune, which are often depicted in Japanese anime stories. The Japanese stories about these creatures are somewhat ambivalent in their attitude towards them -- in older folklore they are often portrayed as malevolent and parasitical, whereas in later stories they are portrayed with more sympathy -- for example, the exemplary wife who turns out to be a fox spirit and is torn apart by dogs who smell the scent of a fox. There are also the stories of the incubus and succubus, male and female demons who have physical intimacy with sleeping humans, from which they draw their energy. Humans who have been visited by incubi/succubi (the word incubus is believed to derive from the latin word incubare, meaning to lie upon or in) awaken exhausted. Playing a similar role is Lillith, who in Jewish apocryphal lore was depicted as Adam's first wife before the birth of Eve, who was exiled by God for refusing to submit to Adam (specifically in the marital bed).
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EyeGrit
Registered User
(8/12/06 6:39 am)
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Re: Leeching type fairytale characers?
Thanks.
These are more what I had in mind.
Fox, huh? No connection, is there?
And Korin. That is very helpful, too.
Edited by: EyeGrit at: 8/12/06 6:39 am
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Meg Fox
Registered User
(8/22/06 4:41 am)
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Re: Leeching type fairytale characers?
LOL! Well, I'm not a fox fairy, but my last name sparked my interest in fox symbolism in Chinese art and folklore when I got involved with some groups helping/adopting children living in Chinese orphanages (Welfare Institutions). I went with a friend to China to help bring home her baby daughter, and wrote a fairy tale with a benevolent fox fairy as a present.
Best,
Meg
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