107 Fun Facts About Mythical Creatures

Which mythical creature is the national animal of Scotland?

The unicorn is Scotland's national animal: two unicorns held up the Scottish royal arms until 1603, when James VI inherited England's crown and swapped one for the English lion.

A phoenix is a legendary bird that is reborn from what?

The ashes of its predecessor are the famous version, not the oldest: Herodotus has no fire at all, only a phoenix carrying its dead father to Egypt sealed in an egg of myrrh.

Sleipnir, the eight-legged steed of Norse myth, is ridden by which god?

Odin's steed came from a trick: a god took the shape of a mare to lure away a giant builder's stallion, and later gave birth to the grey, eight-legged foal.

The Minotaur of Greek myth lived at the centre of the Labyrinth on which island?

Crete's Labyrinth was built for King Minos by Daedalus, so cunningly, Ovid says, that the architect himself could hardly retrace his steps to the way out.

Cerberus, the multi-headed dog of Greek myth, guards the gates of what place?

The underworld's hound, Hesiod says, fawns on everyone who comes in, wagging his tail, but eats anyone he catches trying to slip back out through the gates.

In Greek myth, anyone who looked at the Gorgon slain by Perseus was turned into what?

The Gorgon's gaze turned anyone who met it to stone; Perseus avoided it by watching her reflection in his polished shield, then used the severed head to petrify his enemies.

The Sasquatch, or Bigfoot, is said to roam the forests of which region in particular?

The Pacific Northwest is its home: 'Sasquatch' comes from a Halkomelem word of British Columbia, and 'Bigfoot' caught on in 1958 when a California newspaper wrote up huge tracks found by loggers.

The Yeti of the Himalayas is better known in Western pop culture by what nickname?

The Abominable Snowman is the Western nickname for the Yeti, coined in 1921 when journalist Henry Newman loosely translated the Sherpa term 'metoh-kangmi' reported by a British Himalayan expedition.

The Loch Ness Monster's 1934 'surgeon's photograph' was a hoax built around what?

A toy submarine carried the sculpted head and neck: the big-game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell staged it as revenge after the 'monster footprints' he had found were exposed as fakes.

Which character leads the hunt for Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel?

Abraham Van Helsing, a Dutch doctor, is called in by his former student John Seward to treat the ailing Lucy, hangs her room with garlic and then rallies the others to hunt the Count.

The Chinese dragon, unlike its fire-breathing European cousin, is traditionally a deity of what?

Chinese dragons are benevolent water spirits that bring rain: the Dragon Kings of the four seas were prayed to for rainfall, and dragon dances were performed to end droughts.

A leprechaun is traditionally depicted as which kind of craftsman, with a hidden pot of gold?

The leprechaun is a solitary fairy shoemaker, traditionally heard tapping away at a single shoe, and before the 20th century he was usually described in a red coat rather than green.

The kraken of Norwegian legend is thought to have been inspired by sightings of what real animal?

Giant squid is the usual suspect, since the classic account by the Danish bishop Erik Pontoppidan in the 1750s gave the kraken a body 'round, flat, and full of arms'.

What is Columbus believed to have actually seen when he reported three 'mermaids' off Hispaniola in 1493?

Manatees are the likeliest explanation for the three 'mermaids' in Columbus's journal, and he was unimpressed, noting that they were not as beautiful as they are painted and had faces like men.

The griffin combines the body of a lion with the head and wings of which bird?

The griffin has an eagle's head and wings on a lion's body; Herodotus and Aristeas placed griffins guarding gold in the far north beyond Scythia against the one-eyed Arimaspians.

The Chimera was a fire-breathing lion with a snake tail and the head of which animal rising from its back?

A goat is what its Greek name means, 'she-goat'; the hero Bellerophon killed the Chimera from the air, riding Pegasus.

For every head cut off the Lernaean Hydra, how many grew back in the best-known versions of the story?

Two heads grew for each one cut off, so Heracles had his nephew Iolaus sear each stump with a burning brand before it could sprout again.

The winged horse Pegasus sprang from the blood of which beheaded monster of Greek myth?

Medusa was pregnant by Poseidon when Perseus cut off her head, and Pegasus sprang from her blood together with his brother Chrysaor.

Pliny the Elder wrote that the basilisk could be killed by the smell of which animal?

Weasel: Pliny wrote that one thrown into the basilisk's burrow killed the monster with its stench, though the weasel died in the struggle too.

According to legend, a cockatrice hatches from a cock's egg incubated by which creatures?

A toad or snake hatches the egg, itself laid by a cock; the cockatrice was scarcely told apart from the basilisk, and travellers were said to carry roosters because a cock's crow could kill it.

The Sphinx of Greek myth killed and ate travellers who could not do what?

Answer her riddle or be eaten was the Sphinx's rule; Oedipus solved it with 'man', who crawls as a baby, walks upright, then leans on a stick, and in most tellings the beaten Sphinx killed herself.

A centaur has the upper body of a human and the lower body of which animal?

Horse below the waist and human above, the centaurs were usually traced to Ixion, a king tricked by Zeus into embracing a cloud shaped like the goddess Hera.

The manticore of Persian legend has a man's face, a lion's body and, in most tellings, the tail of which creature?

Scorpion: the Greek doctor Ctesias, who heard of the beast at the Persian court, said its tail could shoot stings like arrows and glossed its Persian name as 'man-eater'.

Which one-eyed giant did Odysseus blind with a sharpened stake in the Odyssey?

Polyphemus, a Cyclops and son of Poseidon, trapped Odysseus's crew in his cave; Odysseus got him drunk on wine, drove a heated stake into his eye and escaped clinging beneath his sheep.

Buckbeak in the Harry Potter stories is which creature, first imagined by the Italian poet Ariosto in 1516?

Hippogriff: Ariosto bred it from a griffin and a mare for his epic Orlando Furioso, playing on an old saying that used that pairing to mean something impossible.

In Norse myth, which god lost his right hand in the jaws of the wolf Fenrir when the gods bound him?

Týr placed his right hand in Fenrir's mouth as a pledge while the gods bound the wolf with the ribbon Gleipnir; when Fenrir found he could not break free, he bit the hand off.

Jörmungandr, the World Serpent of Norse myth, encircles the earth and does what?

Bites its own tail: the gods threw the serpent into the sea, where it grew until it ringed the whole world, and at Ragnarök Thor is fated to kill it, then die of its venom.

In Scottish folklore, what does a kelpie do to anyone who climbs onto its back?

Pulls them under to drown: the kelpie waits by the bank looking like a tame pony, but a rider who mounts sticks fast to its hide and is carried into the river to be eaten.

Selkies of Northern Isles folklore change from seal to human by doing what?

Shedding their skin lets selkies come ashore in human form, and many tales turn on a man who steals a selkie woman's sealskin, trapping her on land as his wife until she finds it again.

What does the wail of a banshee foretell in Irish folklore?

The death of a family member is what her wail foretells, traditionally only in old Irish families; when several banshees wail together, it is said to be for someone great or holy.

The kappa of Japanese folklore carries water in a dish on its head and is especially fond of what food?

Cucumbers were thrown into rivers to placate kappa, and a low bow was the way to beat one: the polite creature bows back, spills the water from its head-dish and loses its strength.

A kitsune, a shape-shifting spirit of Japanese folklore, takes the form of which animal?

Fox is simply what kitsune means in Japanese; the spirits serve the rice god Inari as messengers, and fried tofu, said to be their favourite food, is why kitsune udon carries their name.

The most famous golem legend involves Rabbi Judah Loew, a 16th-century rabbi of which city?

Prague's Rabbi Judah Loew is said to have made the golem to defend the city's Jews from attack, bringing it to life with holy words placed in its mouth and stilling it by taking them out.

The chupacabra, whose name literally means 'goat-sucker', was first widely reported in 1995 where?

Puerto Rico produced the first chupacabra reports in 1995, when goats and other livestock were found apparently drained of blood; later 'chupacabras' found in Texas proved to be coyotes and dogs with severe mange.

The Mothman was reportedly seen in 1966-67 around Point Pleasant, in which US state?

Point Pleasant, West Virginia, reported the Mothman from November 1966; the sightings ended with the Silver Bridge collapse over the Ohio River in December 1967, which killed 46 people, and John Keel's 1975 book made the link famous.

The jackalope was popularised in the 1930s by taxidermist brothers in which US state?

Wyoming is where the Herrick brothers of Douglas tossed a dead jackrabbit down beside a pair of deer antlers in their taxidermy shop in the 1930s, liked what they saw and mounted the two together.

The wendigo, a cannibal spirit with insatiable hunger, comes from which peoples' folklore?

Algonquian-speaking peoples such as the Ojibwe and Cree tell of the wendigo, whose hunger can never be satisfied because, in some legends, it grows larger with every person it eats.

In one Native American tradition, how does the thunderbird create thunder?

By flapping its wings the thunderbird makes thunder; in many tellings lightning flashes from its eyes, and in some traditions it wages endless war on great serpents.

The swamp-lurking bunyip belongs to the Indigenous folklore of which continent?

Australia's bunyip may have begun with seals that strayed far up inland rivers, and its booming cry may have been the call of the bittern, a marsh bird.

The roc of Middle Eastern legend, from the tales of Sinbad, was said to be large enough to carry off which animal?

Elephants were its prey: Marco Polo wrote that the roc dropped them from a height to smash them before feeding, and the 'roc feather' brought to Kublai Khan was probably a palm frond.

Garuda, Vishnu's mount, appears on the national emblems of Indonesia and which other Southeast Asian country?

Thailand's royal Garuda and Indonesia's Garuda Pancasila both honour the bird that, in Hindu myth, stole the elixir of immortality to free his enslaved mother, then agreed to carry Vishnu.

After Zheng He's 15th-century voyages, the Chinese qilin became identified with which real African animal?

Giraffe: one brought to the Ming court was presented to the emperor as a qilin, and the link has lasted, since kirin is still the Japanese word for the animal.

The nāgas of Hindu and Buddhist myth are semi-divine beings that are half human and half which animal?

Cobra: nāgas can also appear as great hooded serpents, and in Buddhist legend the nāga king Mucalinda spread his hood over the meditating Buddha to shelter him from a week-long storm.

Which country is 'Land of the Thunder Dragon' in Dzongkha and puts the druk on its flag?

Bhutan calls itself Druk Yul, 'Land of the Thunder Dragon', because thunder rolling through its valleys was taken for the voice of dragons; the druk on its flag clutches jewels that stand for wealth.

Peter Stumpp, a German farmer executed in 1589 after a notorious trial, confessed under torture to being which creature?

A werewolf: Stumpp said under torture that a magic belt turned him into a wolf, and his case became one of the most notorious werewolf trials of the age.

Which 1819 story by John Polidori created the charismatic, aristocratic vampire of modern fiction?

The Vampyre introduced Lord Ruthven, a suave nobleman who preys on young women; it came out of the 1816 ghost-story contest that also produced Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

A 2018 DNA survey of Loch Ness found no reptile DNA but abundant DNA from which animal?

Neil Gemmell's 2018 environmental-DNA survey of Loch Ness found no reptile, sturgeon or catfish DNA but a great deal from eels, leading Gemmell to suggest a giant eel as the least implausible explanation for sightings.

The Yeti's English nickname was coined in 1921 during a British reconnaissance expedition to which mountain?

Everest was being scouted in 1921 by a British party under Charles Howard-Bury when it found large tracks high on the mountain; the porters blamed a wild creature, and a journalist's loose translation of their name for it did the rest.

According to his family, what did contractor Ray Wallace use to fake the 1958 footprints that launched the Bigfoot craze?

Carved wooden feet, 16 inches long, were shown off by Ray Wallace's family after he died in 2002; they said he had strapped them on in 1958 and stamped the tracks around his work site as a prank.

In the Völsunga saga, tasting which dragon's blood lets Sigurd understand the language of birds?

Fafnir's heart-blood touched Sigurd's tongue as he roasted the dragon's heart for the smith Regin, and the birds he could suddenly understand warned him that Regin meant to kill him.

In the medieval Golden Legend, which saint rescues a king's daughter from a dragon that demanded human victims?

Saint George: the Golden Legend sets the tale at Silene in Libya, where the town fed the dragon sheep and then its own children, chosen by lot, until the lot fell on the king's daughter.

In the Odyssey, the six-headed Scylla lurks across a narrow strait from which ship-swallowing whirlpool monster?

Charybdis swallowed and spat out the sea three times a day, so Odysseus steered close to Scylla instead and lost six men, one to each of her heads.

Like the Italian word 'strega', the name of Romania's vampire-like strigoi comes from a Latin word meaning what?

Witch is the sense of Latin striga, a word that grew out of strix, the screech owl Romans believed drank the blood of infants; Romanian strigoi and Italian strega both descend from it.

Ancient Greek natural historians believed unicorns really lived in which distant land?

India was home to the one-horned wild ass described around 400 BCE by the Greek writer Ctesias, who added that drinking from its horn protected a person against poison.

What do skeptics say the creature in the 1967 Patterson–Gimlin 'Bigfoot' film really was?

A man in a costume is the skeptics' verdict on the footage, shot at Bluff Creek, California, the same creek where the 1958 'Bigfoot' tracks appeared, which a contractor's family later called his prank.

A life of which saint, a missionary to the Picts, holds the earliest report of a monster near Loch Ness?

Adomnán's Life of St Columba, written around 700, tells how Columba in 565 drove off a 'water beast' in the River Ness by making the sign of the cross; the story is set in the river, not the loch.

The 1924 'Ape Canyon' clash between gold prospectors and 'ape-men' took place near which volcano?

Mount St. Helens: the prospectors said that after they shot one of the creatures by day, 'ape-men' spent the night pelting their cabin with boulders, a tale forest rangers soon dismissed.

Which children's author, once an RAF fighter pilot, introduced gremlins to the wider public in a 1943 book?

Roald Dahl's first children's book was The Gremlins, about the imps that airmen blamed for every unexplained fault in their aircraft. Eleanor Roosevelt read it to her grandchildren.

Which metal is named after the goblins that German miners blamed for spoiling their ore?

Cobalt takes its name from German 'kobold', a household goblin. Harz Mountains miners used the word for arsenic-laced rock that degraded their ore and made them ill.

The creator of which fictional detective publicly championed the Cottingley Fairies photographs as real in 1920?

Sherlock Holmes's creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, was a committed spiritualist who used the pictures in a magazine article. The two cousins admitted decades later that the fairies were cardboard cutouts.

In Greek myth, Hera honoured her slain hundred-eyed watchman Argus by setting his eyes on which bird?

Peacock tail feathers carry the eyes of Argus, the giant Hera posted to guard the nymph Io. Hermes killed him to set her free, earning the title 'Argus-slayer'.

In Japanese folklore, what disaster strikes when the giant catfish Namazu slips its guardian god and thrashes?

Earthquakes follow whenever the god at Kashima lets his guard fall. After the 1855 quake near Edo, 'catfish prints' showing the monster being subdued were printed in great quantity.

The zombie, a corpse revived by a sorcerer called a bokor, comes from the folklore of which Caribbean nation?

Haiti's folklore zombie is a dead body reanimated by magic. The flesh-eating horde arrived with the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, which never uses the word 'zombie' at all.

Which coffee chain's logo shows a twin-tailed mermaid said to come from an old Norse woodcut?

Starbucks put her on its very first logo, bare-chested and with a fully visible double fish tail. A later version covered her with flowing hair.

Anansi, the trickster hero of Akan folktales from Ghana, most often takes the shape of which creature?

Spider is what the name Anansi means in the Akan language. The stories crossed the ocean with the Atlantic slave trade and took root across the Americas.

Which nation's flag shows a red dragon on a green and white field, a banner flown by Henry Tudor in 1485?

Wales waited a long time to make it official: the red dragon, Y Ddraig Goch, was only recognised as the national flag in 1959.

Which Athenian hero killed the Minotaur and escaped the Labyrinth by following a ball of thread?

Theseus owed his escape to Ariadne, the king's daughter, who gave him the thread. In the best-known telling he repaid her by abandoning her on the island of Naxos on the voyage home.

Which Norse god kills the serpent Jörmungandr at Ragnarök, then walks nine paces and falls dead from its venom?

Thor had hooked the serpent once before, on a fishing trip with an ox head for bait. That scene became one of the most popular motifs in Norse art.

Which Norse god fathered the wolf Fenrir, the serpent Jörmungandr and Hel, ruler of the dead?

Loki had all three with the giantess Angrboða. When the gods finally bound him beneath a dripping serpent, his wife Sigyn sat beside him catching the venom in a bowl.

Which monster, a descendant of Cain, dies after the hero Beowulf tears off his arm in the hall of Heorot?

Grendel attacked because he could not bear the singing from the mead hall. Beowulf fought him with neither weapon nor armour, then had to kill the monster's mother as well.

Which dragon sleeps on a hoard of stolen dwarf treasure under the Lonely Mountain in Tolkien's The Hobbit?

Smaug is brought down by a bird: a thrush overhears Bilbo describe a bare patch on the dragon's belly and tells Bard the Bowman, who shoots his last arrow into it.

Which tree-like giants, led by Treebeard, tear down the walls of Isengard in The Lord of the Rings?

Ents were Tolkien's answer to Macbeth: he was disappointed that Shakespeare's Birnam Wood never truly marched, and wanted a story in which the trees would actually go to war.

In C. S. Lewis's Narnia, the first creature Lucy meets is Mr Tumnus, who carries an umbrella and is what?

Faun and umbrella came first: Lewis said the whole story grew from a single picture in his head of one carrying parcels through a snowy wood.

In the Harry Potter books, Fawkes the phoenix is the loyal companion of which Hogwarts wizard?

Albus Dumbledore's phoenix rescues Harry in the Chamber of Secrets, delivering the Sorting Hat and then blinding the Basilisk so that Harry can fight it.

In Charles Perrault's Puss in Boots, the cat tricks which shape-shifting monster into becoming a mouse?

An ogre with a grand castle falls for the cat's flattery, turns into a small mouse and is devoured at once. Puss then claims the castle and its lands for his master.

Which biblical sea monster, described at length in the Book of Job, gave Thomas Hobbes a book title?

Leviathan breathes fire and has impenetrable scales in Job's description. Hobbes made the beast a metaphor for the all-powerful state in his 1651 treatise.

Which Aztec god of wind and learning, linked with the planet Venus, took the form of a feathered serpent?

Quetzalcoatl was the Aztec version of a far older god: a Feathered Serpent was already being worshipped at Teotihuacan some two thousand years ago.

Which winged spirits of Greek myth kept stealing the blind King Phineus's food until the Boreads drove them off?

Harpies take their name from a word meaning 'snatchers', and were often thought to personify storm winds. The Boreads who chased them away were sons of the North Wind.

Which creatures of Greek myth, shown in early art as birds with women's heads, lured passing sailors with song?

Sirens only grew fish tails centuries later: the earliest text to describe one as a 'sea-girl' dates from the 8th century AD. Odysseus heard their song safely by being bound to his mast.

Which man-eating monster snatched six of Odysseus's sailors as his ship steered clear of the whirlpool Charybdis?

Scylla was the lesser evil: Circe advised Odysseus to hug her crag and lose six men sooner than his whole ship. Virgil placed the pair in the Strait of Messina.

Which Greek monster, half woman and half snake and mother of Cerberus, shares her name with a spiny mammal?

Echidna, whose name means 'she-viper', bore many of the most famous monsters of Greek myth with her mate Typhon. Some ancient writers made her the mother of the Sphinx as well.

Which wise centaur of Greek myth tutored Achilles, Jason and the healer Asclepius?

Chiron was immortal but gave that up after an incurable wound, a sacrifice that let Prometheus go free. He is said to have raised young Achilles on the innards of lions and boars.

Which musician of Greek myth tamed the three-headed hound Cerberus simply by playing his lyre?

Orpheus leaves the beast with its 'triple jaws agape' in Virgil's telling. Horace describes the same scene but gives the hound a single head ringed by a hundred snakes.

Which beast with a weapon-proof hide did Heracles kill bare-handed as the first of his twelve labours?

Nemean lion fur turned every arrow aside, so Heracles strangled the animal instead. Even skinning it defeated his knife until he tried the creature's own claws.

Which Greek god killed Python, the serpent guarding Delphi, and took over the oracle there as his own?

Apollo had to purify himself for the killing, and the Pythian Games were founded as his penance. In one version he was just four days old when he shot the serpent with his arrows.

Which treasure, guarded by a never-sleeping dragon in Colchis, did Jason and the Argonauts sail to steal?

The Golden Fleece hung on an oak in a grove sacred to Ares. The princess Medea helped Jason take it from her own father, King Aeëtes.

Which word for sudden, contagious terror comes from the pipe-playing Greek god of woods and fields?

Panic is literally 'of Pan': the Greeks blamed him for the mysterious sounds that sent groundless fear through herds, crowds and travellers in lonely spots.

Which zodiac constellation is the creature that nipped Heracles's foot during his fight with the Hydra?

Cancer is the crab that appeared in the middle of the battle and bit the hero's foot. Heracles killed it, and the goddess Hera, his enemy, placed it among the stars.

In modern werewolf fiction, a bullet made of which metal is the classic way to kill the beast?

Silver became the werewolf's standard weakness on screen with the film The Wolf Man. The idea that a full moon triggers the change also spread widely only in the twentieth century.

In Scandinavian folktales, exposure to what is said to turn a troll into a rocky landmark?

Sunlight explained the scenery: into the 20th century, particular Scandinavian landmarks were pointed out as trolls that had been caught in it.

In European folklore, what name is given to a fairy child secretly left in place of a stolen human baby?

Changeling fears shaped the nursery: parents left open iron scissors or an inverted coat where the child slept, and kept a constant watch, to ward off the swap.

Which horned, hairy companion of Saint Nicholas punishes naughty children with birch rods in Alpine folklore?

Krampus takes to the streets on 5 December, Krampus Night, the evening before the saint's feast day, carrying a bundle of birch branches to swat children with.

The giant Yule Cat, said to eat anyone given no new clothes before Christmas Eve, prowls which country's folklore?

Iceland's farmers used the beast as an incentive: workers who helped finish processing the autumn wool before Christmas were given new clothes, and shirkers were left as its prey.

Which city's harbour has displayed a bronze statue of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid since 1913?

Copenhagen's mermaid has had a rough time on her rock: her head was sawn off and stolen in 1964 and never recovered, so the statue wears a replacement.

Huginn and Muninn, who fly across the world each day gathering news for Odin, are a pair of which birds?

Ravens perch on Odin's shoulders in the Prose Edda, which is why he is called the 'raven-god'. In one poem he frets that the pair may not come back from their daily flight.

Ratatoskr, who scurries up and down the Norse world tree carrying messages, is which kind of animal?

Squirrel scolding may lie behind the myth: one theory links Ratatoskr, whose name means 'drill-tooth', to the alarm calls that European tree squirrels chatter at intruders.

Which real animal did writers from Aristotle onwards claim could live in flames and even put them out?

Salamander bodies were said to be so cold that they put out fire on contact, as Pliny the Elder reported, though in another passage he doubted the tale himself.

Which supernatural beings of Arabian and Islamic lore are said in the Quran to be made from smokeless fire?

Jinn were created from smokeless fire where humans were made from clay, which may be why they are credited with invisibility, transformation and rising into the air.

In ancient Egyptian belief, the crocodile-headed monster Ammit waited to devour which organ of the unworthy dead?

The heart of the dead was weighed against the feather of Ma'at, goddess of truth, while Ammit waited by the scales. She was usually drawn as part crocodile, part lion and part hippopotamus.

The skin-walker, a sorcerer who can turn into an animal, comes from the traditions of which Native American people?

Navajo speakers call it yee naaldlooshii, 'by means of it, it goes on all fours'. The legend is deeply embedded in tradition and rarely discussed with outsiders.

Taniwha, powerful beings said to lurk in deep river pools and caves, belong to the mythology of which people?

Māori tribal groups often had a taniwha of their own, a guardian that warned of approaching enemies through a priest. The word can also be a compliment for a chief.

Slavic folklore's Baba Yaga lives in a hut on chicken legs and flies about the forest in which kitchen tool?

A mortar is her most recognisable ride: she wields the pestle that goes with it and uses a broom to sweep away her tracks behind her.

The Jersey Devil, said to be the cursed thirteenth child of a Mother Leeds, haunts which stretch of forest?

Pine Barrens legend says the baby was born normal, then sprouted wings, a tail and claws and flew away. The creature also gave New Jersey's NHL team its name.

In Polish legend, the dragon of Wawel Hill was killed with decoy animals stuffed with sulfur in which city?

Kraków's legendary founder King Krak sets his two sons on the beast in the oldest telling. A later chronicler gave the credit to a cobbler named Skuba instead.

At Japan's Setsubun festival, families throw roasted soybeans to drive out which horned, club-wielding demons?

Oni are chased out with a shout meaning 'Devils out, fortune in', often aimed at a relative in a mask. Everyone then eats one roasted bean for each year of their life, plus one more for luck.

Ogopogo, a lake monster named after a 1920s English music-hall song, is said to live in which Canadian lake?

Okanagan's monster had an older name: the Syilx people called it N'ha-a-itk, variously translated as 'water-demon', 'water god' or 'sacred creature of the water'.

The skunk ape, a Bigfoot-like creature named for its foul odour, is tied above all to which US state?

Florida lawmakers even took the creature up: a 1977 bill, which failed to pass, would have made it illegal to take, possess, harm or molest 'anthropoids or humanoid animals'.