Blood ham

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The blood ham (sometimes also called Bluatschink , Bluetschinke or Plutschinke ) is a demonic water spirit . The term is probably derived from "blood" and "ham" (thigh, foot), which means that the blood ham would be the "blood foot".

It is only known in Tyrol and some smaller localities and is described as follows: The upper body resembles a coal-black, shaggy bear, but the legs, albeit very strong, are human and bare. In addition, his legs are blood red, he should literally be dripping with blood. It is precisely because of its habit of eating people that this demon is feared. He should first suck the blood out of his victims and then eat them. Allegedly he is only supposed to stay in and around water, although in South Tyrol the belief is widespread that he lies in wait for children in bean and poppy seed fields in order to devour them.

Trivia

Blood hams also populate Walter Moers ' zamonia as a rowdy and intellectually poor form of existence .

literature

  • Leander Petzoldt : Small lexicon of demons and elementals. 3. Edition. Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-49451-X , pages 44-45.
  • Johann Nepomuk Ritter von Alpenburg: Myths and sagas of Tyrol. With an introductory foreword by Ludwig Bechstein . Unchanged reprint of the edition by Meyer u. Zeller, Zurich 1857. Niederwalluf near Wiesbaden 1971, pages 58–60.
  • Ingo Schneider: The blood ham. Materials on an unexplained form of the Tyrolean and Carinthian folk tradition. In: Leander Petzoldt and Siegfried de Rachewiltz (eds.): The demon and his image, reports and presentations of the third and fourth symposium on folk tale. Brunnenburg / South Tyrol 1986/87. (= Contributions to European Ethnology and Folklore, Series B: Conference Reports and Materials; Volume 2.) Frankfurt am Main u. a. 1989, ISBN 3-631-40609-6 , pp. 65-83.