60 Fun Facts About Monster

Who wrote the 1818 novel that introduced Frankenstein's monster?

Its full title is Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

In the novel, 'Frankenstein' is actually the name of whom?

People often use the name for the monster; strictly it belongs to Victor Frankenstein, its creator.

Which actor's 1931 portrayal fixed the flat-headed, bolt-necked image of Frankenstein's monster?

In the Universal film the character is credited only as 'The Monster'.

Who wrote the 1897 novel Dracula?

Count Dracula became the archetypal vampire of later fiction.

Which real 15th-century prince partly inspired Count Dracula?

Vlad III Dracula ruled Wallachia; Stoker may not even have known his gruesome nickname.

How does Dracula turn other people into vampires?

The bite infects them with what the novel calls a vampiric disease.

A werewolf is a person who transforms into what?

The word comes from Old English for 'man-wolf'; another name is lycanthrope.

In modern films, a werewolf's transformation is usually triggered by what?

The change is also usually passed on by a bite or scratch.

Modern fiction says werewolves are especially vulnerable to weapons made of what?

The silver-bullet idea came from novelists retelling the Beast of Gévaudan story from 1935 on.

A vampire is a creature that survives by feeding on what?

European folklore treats them as undead humans who return to trouble the living.

Which plant is a classic folk protection against vampires?

A branch of wild rose or hawthorn was also thought to harm them.

Suspected vampires' corpses were sometimes pierced with what?

An 18th-century wave of vampire hysteria in Eastern Europe drove the practice.

The word 'zombie' comes from the folklore of which country?

There a bokor sorcerer is said to reanimate a corpse through magic.

The Loch Ness Monster is said to live in a lake in which country?

'Nessie' was brought to worldwide attention in 1933.

Bigfoot is said to roam the forests of which US region in particular?

It is also called Sasquatch, and described as a large hairy ape-like biped.

The famous 1967 Bigfoot film was shot by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin in which state?

It was filmed at Bluff Creek in Northern California.

The Yeti, said to live in the Himalayas, is also known in the West as what?

Folklorists trace it to Sherpa tales and misidentified bears and yaks.

What does the cryptid name 'chupacabra' literally mean in Spanish?

It is blamed for draining the blood of livestock, especially goats.

The first widely publicised Chupacabra sightings came in 1995 from which island?

It is often described there as reptilian, spiny and about the size of a small bear.

Mothman was reportedly seen in 1966-67 around which town?

John Keel's book The Mothman Prophecies linked it to the Silver Bridge collapse.

This cryptid is said to haunt which region of South Jersey and Philadelphia folklore?

Legend calls it the thirteenth child of a 'Mother Leeds'.

The kraken is a giant sea monster from the folklore of which country?

Its legend probably grew from sightings of the giant squid.

The kraken's legend is thought to have originated from sightings of what real animal?

Jules Verne worked a kraken into Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.

In Greek myth, Medusa had what in place of her hair?

A single look at her turned the onlooker to stone.

Which Greek hero cut off Medusa's head?

He gave her head, still able to petrify, to the goddess Athena for her shield.

The Minotaur had the body of a man and the head of what?

It lived at the centre of the Labyrinth on Crete.

Which hero killed the Minotaur, guided by Ariadne's thread?

King Minos had demanded youths from Athens as sacrifices to the beast.

The Cyclopes of Greek myth were giants with how many eyes?

Odysseus famously blinded the Cyclops Polyphemus in the Odyssey.

Which Cyclops did Odysseus blind in the Odyssey?

The Cyclopes there are portrayed as uncivilised cave-dwelling shepherds.

The many-headed Hydra grew how many new heads for each one cut off?

Heracles finally beat it by burning each neck with fire.

Which of his Twelve Labours saw Heracles kill the Hydra?

His nephew Iolaus helped by cauterising the necks.

Cerberus, the multi-headed dog, guards the gates of where?

He is usually shown with three heads and a serpent for a tail.

The Sphinx of Greek myth killed travellers who could not solve what?

She had the head of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird.

Which hero outwitted the Sphinx in Greek drama?

The deadly Greek Sphinx appears in his myth and tragedy.

Grendel is the creature who terrorises the mead-hall in which Old English epic?

The poem also calls him a descendant of the first murderer in the Bible.

Godzilla first appeared in a film from which country, in 1954?

The giant monster, or daikaiju, was directed by Ishiro Honda for Toho.

What awakened and empowered Godzilla in the original story?

He is dubbed the 'King of the Monsters'.

King Kong is famously depicted as a giant version of which animal?

He first appeared in 1933.

Which filmmaker directed the 2005 remake of King Kong?

The original 1933 film was made by RKO Pictures.

The Mummy horror monster is traditionally a reanimated corpse wrapped in what?

The genre grew up in the 19th century during the colonisation of Egypt.

Cthulhu, a giant tentacled cosmic monster, was created by which author?

It first appeared in his 1928 story The Call of Cthulhu.

Cthulhu is usually depicted with a head resembling which animal?

His green form also mixes in dragon-like features.

The Bogeyman is a monster traditionally used to do what?

It takes many shapes across different cultures.

Which blue Sesame Street character is famous for devouring cookies?

His favourite kind is the chocolate chip cookie.

The scientific community generally explains Loch Ness Monster sightings as what?

Wishful thinking and mundane objects are among the listed causes.

Medusa was the only mortal among the three sisters known collectively as what?

Her sisters were Euryale and Stheno.

Cerberus was said to be the offspring of Echidna and which other monster?

He also had snakes protruding from his body.

The Sphinx of Greek tradition combined a woman's head with the body of which animal?

The Egyptian sphinx, by contrast, typically had a male head.

Godzilla has been given which royal nickname?

It was first used in the 1956 American version of the 1954 film.

The Jersey Devil is traditionally said to be the child of a woman known as what?

The creature is usually pictured with wings and cloven hooves.

Grendel is described in his Old English poem as a descendant of which biblical figure?

He is called 'a creature of darkness, exiled from happiness and accursed of God'.

The Chimera had a lion's front, a serpent's tail and which animal's head on its back?

Its very name means 'she-goat' in Ancient Greek, and Homer places the beast in Lycia in Asia Minor.

Which hero was ordered by the king of Lycia to slay the Chimera?

King Iobates expected the monster to kill the hero instead, since it had been devastating the countryside and slaughtering cattle.

In Irish folklore, what does the wailing banshee foretell?

Her name means 'woman of the fairy mound', and many accounts describe her as tiny, between one and four feet tall.

The cannibal spirit called the wendigo comes from the folklore of which group of peoples?

The English word borrows from Cree and Ojibwe, and Algernon Blackwood's 1910 novella The Wendigo popularised the spelling.

The most famous golem legend involves Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel of which city?

Golem legends in Kabbalah go back to at least the 12th century, and the clay figure is often cited as a forerunner of Frankenstein's monster.

Erasing one letter from the Hebrew word for 'truth' on a golem's forehead leaves which word?

Removing the aleph turns emet into met, and in one Polish story the growing golem's collapse crushed the rabbi who erased it.

According to Pliny the Elder, the odour of which animal is the basilisk's weakness?

Scholars suspect the legend grew from accounts of cobras and their natural enemy the mongoose; the name means 'little king' in Greek.

Which whirlpool monster lives across the narrow strait from the six-headed Scylla?

Virgil's Aeneid places the pair in the Strait of Messina, and 'between Scylla and Charybdis' still means choosing between two evils.

According to the Byzantine encyclopedia Suda, how many dog heads did Scylla have on each side?

Later myths gave her an origin as a beautiful nymph transformed into a monster, and the Calabrian town of Scilla is named for her.