| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|
| God name "War Pinx" | China | God of shoemakers. Usually portrayed as a kindly, respectable old man, he sees to it that the shops under his protection run smoothly. China |
"Web of Life" | Roman | The destiny of an individual from the cradle to the grave. The allusion is to the three Fates who, according to Roman mythology, spin the thread of life, the pattern being the events which are to occur. |
"Welchanos" | Greek | Minor divinity of vegetation and fertility. Greek |
| God name "Well of Wisdom" | Scandinavian | This was the well under the protection of the god Mimir. Odin, by drinking thereof, became the wisest of all beings. Scandinavian |
| Spirit name "Wendigo" | Anishinaabe | A spirit in Anishinaabe mythology. It has also become a stock horror character much like the vampire or werewolf, although these fictional depictions often do not bear much resemblance to the original mythology. |
| God name "Weri Kumbamba" | Gishu / Uganda, East Africa | Creator god. A deity embodied in rocks and specifically invoked before and after cirçúɱcision to ensure the speedy recovery of the patient.... |
"Werwolf" | Europe | Werewolf. A bogie who roams about devouring infants, sometimes under the form of a man, sometimes as a wolf followed by dogs, sometimes as a white dog, sometimes as a black goat, and occasionally invisible. Its skin is bullet-proof, unless the bullet has been blessed in a chapel dedicated to St. Hubert. This superstition was once common to almost all Europe, and still lingers in Brittany, Limousin, Aurergne, Servia, Wallachia, and White Russia. In the fifteenth century a council of theologians, convoked by the Emperor Sigismund, gravely decided that the Werwolf was a reality. |
"Whaitiri" | Maori | A personification of thunder, and the grandmother of Tawhaki and Karihi, who married a mortal chief. She invented the toilet, showed humans how to use it, and returned to the sky, where she still lives. Maori |
| Deities name "Whiro" | Polynesian / Maori | God of death. Regarded as an errant son of the creator deities, RANGINUI and PAPATUANUKU, Whiro stands as the chief antagonist of TANEMAHUTA, the creator god of light. He is, therefore, the personification of darkness and evil. During the time of creation from chaos, Whiro is said to have fought an epic battle against Tanemahuta in the newly formed heavens. He was vanquished and forced to descend into the underworld where he became ruler over the dead and chief among the lesser underworld deities who are responsible for various forms of disease and sickness. In the temporal world the lizard, a symbol of death, embodies him, and various creatures of the night, including the owl and the bat, are earthly representatives from his kingdom, as are such malignant insect pests as the mosquito. This deity is not to be confused with the legendary human voyager and adventurer of the same name whose traditions have, in the past, often been muddled with those of the god.... |
| Demon name "Wihmunga" | Canada | A witch, or a female demon. First Nations |
| God name "Wiidigo" | Ojibwa / Canada | Ice god. A terrible being formed of ice who symbolizes the starvation of Winter. There are said to be many windigos, but they are always referred to in the singular. Cannibalistic, the windigo appears as an ice skeleton and a human being can be turned into one through possession.... |
"Wild Huntsman" | German | The German tradition is that a spectral hunter with dogs frequents the Black Forest to chase the wild animals. The English name is "Herne the Hunter," who was once a keeper in windsor Forest. In Winter time, at midnight, he walks about Herne's Oak, and blasts trees and cattle. He wears horns, and rattles a chain in a "most hideous manner". Another legend is that a certain Jew would not suffer Jesus to drink out of a horse-trough, but pointed to some water in a hoof-print as good enough for "such an enemy of Moses," and that this man is the "Wild Huntsman." Various |
| Spirit name "Will-o'-the-wisps" | Europe | In the mediaeval ages, the will-o'-the-wisps were known as elf lights, for these tiny sprites were supposed to mislead travelers; and popular superstition claimed that the Jack-o'-lanterns were the restless spirits of murderers forced against their will to return to the scene of their crimes. Northern Europe |
| God name "Willow Pattern" | s | The tradition. The mandarin had an only daughter named Li-chi, who fell in love with Chang, a young man who lived in the island home represented at the top of the pattern, and who had been her father's secretary. The father overheard them one day making vows of love under the orange-tree, and sternly forbade the unequal match; but the lovers contrived to elope, lay concealed for a while in the gardener's cottage, and thence made their escape in a boat to the island home of the young lover. The enraged mandarin pursued them with a whip, and would have beaten them to death had not the gods rewarded their fidelity by changing them both into turtle-doves. The picture is called the willow pattern not only because it is a tale of disastrous love, but because the elopement occurred "when the willow begins to shed its leaves." |
"Wintersmith" | Discworld | The personification of Winter. At his core he is the elemental personification of ice. Originally just a shape in the snow, with two violet eyes, he later formed a "snowman" out of all the elements that make a human body. He creates snowflakes and icebergs, and also the patterns of ice on windows. Discworld |
| Spirit name "Wisaaka" | s | A spirit that figures prominently in their storytelling, including the story of the world's creation and is the Ojibwe trickster figure and culture hero. |
| Deity name "Wodan" | Anglo-Saxon | The deity in Anglo-Saxon polytheism corresponding to Norse Odin, both continuations of a Proto-Germanic deity, Wodanaz. Other West Germanic forms of the name include Dutch Wodan, Alemannic Wuodan, and German Wotan. |
| God name "Wong Taisin (the great immortal Wong)" | Chinese | God. Probably an incarnation or avatara of the god HUANG TI (the yellow emperor), he is considered benevolent. Closely åśśociated with a district in Kowloon which is named after him. His cult arrived in Hong Kong in 1915 from Kwangtung in the form of a painting brought by a man and his son. It was installed in a small temple in Wanchai. In 1921 a larger sanctuary was built, from public funds, facing the sea and backed by Lion Rock.... |
Table of Gods
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demons and legendary monsters
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