In Latvian folk accounts lietuvēns is the soul of a person who died by violent or irregular means (murdered, strangled, drowned or hanged) and in some variants the spirit of an unbaptized child. Such a soul is described as cursed to remain in this world for the time it was meant to live. Because it is conceived as a displaced human soul, remedies in the tradition aim at restoring proper rites (for example, finding and burying remains with honors) so the soul can be taken to another world.
Traditionally lietuvēns is described as a labored, wretched child that moves quickly. In some variants it may appear as an ugly, vicious woman reminiscent of a witch; when its exit is blocked it is said in some accounts to turn into a beautiful young woman and remain in the house while the exit stays closed. Victims often perceive only part of the creature during an attack and feel its weight lying on them.
Lietuvēns enters houses through small openings (holes, cracks, keyholes or door slots) and is traditionally said to always leave through the same place where it entered. It rides and strangles sleeping people and domestic animals (horses and cows are frequently mentioned), producing breathlessness, rapid fatigue, sweating, loss of strength and in some cases bringing victims to the verge of death. Folk tradition links lietuvēns to experiences of sleep paralysis and the sensation of being strangled while asleep. It is also reported that lietuvēns tends not to torture animals and people born in the daytime.
Weaknesses
- symbollietuvēns' cross (lietuvēna krusts) — simple pentagram
- symbollietuvēns' double/big cross (two pentagrams / auseklis) — considered the stronger variant
- ritualmove the pinky or big toe of the left foot during an attack
- otheranimals with a cut right ear (avoided by lietuvēns in some accounts)
- substanceoiled (greasy) animal back (makes it hard for lietuvēns to ride)
- otherbeing unable to cross a sealed exit (if hole/keyhole is properly fixed)
Wards
- symbollietuvēns' cross (lietuvēna krusts)
- symbolauseklis (double pentagram / morning star variant)
- ritualplugging the entrance with mottled wood cut with the left hand and brought thick end first at night
- otherattach knife, comb or scythe to an animal's back
- otheroil the animal's back
Mara
The nightmare spirit of Northern European tradition who rides sleeping people at night, causing suffocation, terror, and the sensation of an invisible weight on the chest.
La Llorona
The Weeping Woman of Mexican folklore — the ghost of a mother who drowned her children and now wanders rivers and lakes, weeping for them and taking other children she finds at night.
*Perkʷūnos
*Perkʷūnos is the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European thunder‑god hypothesized by comparative linguistics and mythology. Scholarly reconstructions portray him as a storm or thunder figure associated with fructifying rain and as the combatant who fights a multi‑headed water‑serpent to release life‑giving waters; no direct attestations from the Proto‑Indo‑European period survive and the figure is inferred from later Indo‑European traditions.
*Péh₂usōn (reconstructed)
Péh₂usōn is a hypothetical Proto‑Indo‑European pastoral guardian reconstructed by comparative scholars from parallels in Greek and Vedic traditions. Proposed as a Graeco‑Aryan ancestor‑figure, the reconstruction describes a protector of flocks, roads, and travellers rather than an attested historical cultic personality.
57 Mnemosyne
57 Mnemosyne is a large main-belt asteroid (S-type) discovered in 1859 and named after the Greek Titaness Mnemosyne. It is a non-sentient astronomical body studied for its orbital and rotational properties and has been used in dynamical measurements related to Jupiter.
Abaddon
In Hebrew scripture Abaddon is primarily a noun meaning 'destruction' or a section/condition of the underworld paired with Sheol; in the New Testament Book of Revelation Abaddon is personified as an angelic figure (Greek Apollyon) described as the king of an army of locusts released from the abyss during the apocalypse.
Aban Yasht
The Aban Yasht is a hymn from the Persian tradition that praises Anahita, a goddess associated with water, fertility, and wisdom. It consists of 132 stanzas and is part of the 21 Yashts collection. (Note: - Power tier should be "Primordial" or possibly "Cosmic", given that it's a hymn of great spiritual significance and associated with a goddess. - The article incorrectly states that Anahita is associa)
Abath
No corroborated folkloric entity named "Abath" is documented in the provided sources. The string appears in the supplied material only as a surname/personal name in Aruban/Dutch-Caribbean archival records and as an unrelated taxonomic or encyclopedic hit; no mythic attributes, origin stories, rituals, or apotropaic practices for an entity called Abath are present in the documents reviewed.
Abatur
Abatur is an uthra (celestial emanation) in Mandaeism described as the 'father of the Uthras' and called the Ancient (ʿattīqā). He resides on the boundary between the World of Light and lower regions, functions as a judge who weighs souls (Abatur Muzania), and supplies instructions and materials to the demiurgic uthra Ptahil in accounts from the Diwan (Scroll) of Abatur.
Abatwa (Twa / Batwa)
Abatwa (also recorded as Twa, Batwa, Mutwa; singular forms Barhwa or Murhwa in some transcriptions) are indigenous hunter‑gatherer peoples of the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, historically identified as some of the earliest inhabitants of the area. The available sources treat them as human ethnic groups whose livelihoods, lands, and populations have been severely affected by conservation policies and modern violence.
Abellio
Abellio is a theonym attested in Roman‑period inscriptions from the Comminges area of the Pyrenees and reported as worshipped in the Garonne Valley of ancient Gallia Aquitania. Surviving evidence is limited to a small number of inscriptions; scholars have variously hypothesized solar or arboreal associations and compared the name to forms of Apollo or to Celtic Belenus, but the deity's precise role in local cosmology remains uncertain.
Abraham
Abraham (originally Abram) is the foundational patriarchal ancestor in the Hebrew Bible whose life establishes a covenantal relationship between his family/people and God. He functions as an exemplar of faith, the progenitor of promised descendants, and a narrative anchor for claims of land, blessing, and communal identity in later religious traditions.
Abraun
Abraun is an attested name in German-language plant-legend scholarship (Der abraun, ein beitrag zur pflanzensagenkunde, 1916) and a short database entry (Wikidata) labels it as a spirit from German mythology. Surviving accessible documentation is extremely limited: the principal academic treatment is a 1916 contribution to pflanzensagenkunde (plant-saga studies), but the excerpts available here contain only bibliographic metadata and do not record tales, descriptions, or rituals.
Abtin
Abtin (Persian: آبتین), attested also as Athwya, is a mythic ancestral figure in Iranian tradition described in Avestan and later epic literature as one of a small set of formative human-like figures involved in preparing the corporeal world and as the father of the epic hero-king Fereydun in the Shahnama.
Community Record
- [1]Lietuvēns. Wikipedia: Lietuvēnswiki
- [2]Wikidata: Lietuvēns. Wikidata entry Q4261388wiki