Mythical Creatures of Maine: Fantastic Beasts from Legend and Folklore

by Christopher Packard, Dan Kirchoff (Illustrator)

Maine folklore is rich in tales of humans confronted by strange beasts, both wonderful and terrifying. The Abenaki, or “First People” had their tales of Glooskap and Pamola. Other tales came with European settlers; and others sprang up almost out of nothing around the fires of the logging camps. Based on meticulous research into these legends and folk tales, this volume is an encyclopedia, a field guide to the creatures that can be found in Maine and beyond. While the tales are whimsical and fun, they can also be considered serious scholarship.

Genres: Nonfiction, Paranormal, Folklore

200 pages, Hardcover

Published September 1, 2021

About the author

wwww.christopherpackard.com
Christopher Packard is the author of Mythical Creatures of Maine and a full-time high school science teacher at Bangor High School. He is also a trail runner, swordfighter, storyteller, and outdoor adventurer. When not teaching, writing, or wandering in the wilds he can often be found on his small homestead in Hampden, Maine gardening, raising chickens, and spending time with his wife and two sons. Prior to taking up teaching and writing he worked as an ecological restoration technician, field biologist, naturalist, and outdoor educator. He has earned some pieces of paper that say things about degrees in biology and education. But most of his learning has come from his passion for discovery and his drive to bring people together.

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Reviews

[megan donaldson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this. Being a born and raised Mainer I knew some of these and learned some. We have rich culture that comes from the People of the Dawn as well as the other cultures that came to this state. It is an interesting read.

[Deena Aglialoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the background information the appendix of the book and the detail Packard provided for each creature. What I would have loved that would probably have made this book longer than desired would have been some initial first hand accounts or reports from when these creatures allegedly were seen. There are so many that could easily be viewed as typical animals of the modern world that someone just put a funny twist on that makes it too outlandish to even be thought of as a “mythical creature”. The information about the origins that connected to the indigenous tribes and their legends made those creatures “believable”, but some of the others seemed like a simple skunk, squirrel, or bird with a Dr. Seuss sounding names.

[Teal Veyre · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute and fun read that explained the mythological creatures of Maine and the surrounding areas (like NH and Canada). I honeymooned in Maine last year and we'll be going back for our anniversary this summer, so when I saw this book in the 'New' section of my city library, I was interested right away. Maine is a really sentimental place to me.

I liked learning all about the different creatures of folklore. Some come from European settlers, so we see some Irish and French folklore mixed in. Most of it, however, comes from the various Native American tribes of Maine. I loved learning about the Native American folklore and how Native American folklore sometimes combined with European folklore to create twists on different creatures.

I didn't care for the art style in this book. The illustrations were highly stylized, made with a series of tiny lines, rather than any continuous lines. I found the drawings ugly and in an illustrated book, ugly artwork is really going to detract from the overall enjoyment.

I also didn't care for the whole tongue-in-cheek pretending all the creatures were real schtick. I'd much rather see a more serious and scholarly explanation of folklore. Yes, even in an illustrated book. For a good example of what I'm talking about, I'd highly recommend the book Irish Gothic Fairy Stories.

For most of the book, this pretending the creatures were real was just annoying and confusing. I lost track of when something real was being told to me and when the other was being precious. Like the mountain lion thing. Mountain lions...are real...right? I'm pretty sure they are. It was just stuff like that, mixing up real facts with tongue-in-cheek "scientific" descriptions of mythological creatures that I found annoying and confusing.

And there is at least one instance of this preciousness being actively harmful. In the section on Wendigos, the author explains that there is a type of psychosis that is only experienced by the Algonquin people, in which they become depressed and then believe that they have been cursed to become Wendigos. They start to behave as if they are these cannibalistic zombies.

The author says, "The association of the Wendigo with mental illness is undoubtedly an attempt by colonists and scientists alike to understand what is clearly a real occurrence in the area (p. 139)."

Here the author is doing real harm just so that he can be cute. Let me explain: the fact that different cultures and different areas of the world experience mental illness different proves that mental illness is influenced heavily by our culture. Mental illness will present differently depending on how we make meaning.

This is why schizophrenics in non-Western countries often hear encouraging and loving voices and schizophrenics in Western countries often hear angry and threatening voices.

It's also why anorexia didn't appear in China until Western medicine started to heavily influence Chinese doctors.

Mental illness symptoms are an expression of inner pain, using the tools and the symptom pools provided by the culture that we reside in.

For more on this, I highly recommend the book Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche by Ethan Watters.

In Watters' book, it is explained that mental illness is usually a result of trauma and the biomedical model (the idea that mental illness is caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain) has little evidence to back it up. Furthermore, the biomedical model causes irreparable harm to those who end up in the mental health system.

What I find most interesting about Watters' research though is the finding that talk therapy causes more harm and trauma to many groups of people. The idea that therapy and talking it out will help is a very Western idea, and many people do not benefit from it. In fact, talking about the trauma causes them to begin hyper-focusing on it in a way that they otherwise wouldn't have, thus increasing their chances of PTSD. Yet, Western mental health professionals go all over the world, pushing talk therapy on people who have experienced trauma, when what many of them would find most healing is to get back into the swing of everyday life.

It is Eurocentric to push the idea that all people benefit from talk therapy and a Western model of mental health treatment.

So, while the author of this folklore book is tossing out quips about colonizers, he's actually tossing aside information that could combat modern medical colonization: the very important fact that mental illness is rooted in both culture and trauma. This is the single greatest argument against the West continuing the medical colonization of the rest of the world. And Packard tossed it away so that he could be precious.

Overall, the book was a cute and quick read. But the artwork wasn't great, the mixing of fact and myth was confusing, and the culturally significant psychosis of the Algonquin people could have been used to bolster a psycho-social model of mental health treatment and to condemn modern medical colonization, yet the author chose instead a cheeky little "No mental illness here, just Wendigos!' *wink wink*

[Ruth York · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun book. I had purchased a copy a couple years ago to give as a gift. Then low and behold, I became acquainted with the author through a mutual interest. So obviously, I had to purchase my own copy. Christ did extensive research in the stories that make up the various creatures contained within this book. I am very appreciative of the fact that he included myths and legends of the various Native peoples as well as the correct pronunciations.

[Carol Lynch · Rating 5 out of 5]

All Fun, No Fluff

What a wonderful addition to my collection. This is everything a book of its nature should be, well researched and edited, always full of fun. From the content to the physical product itself, it all comes together beautifully.

If you’re debating this book, debate it no longer. Your bookshelves and coffee tables will be happy to have it!

[Caryn Reveling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Interesting. I love myths and legends. We moved here a couple years ago and I was excited to read this book and learn about all the creatures that live in these areas, because you never know when you need to know what's around you.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chris did a good job with this, though I wish a few of the creatures had more in the way of stories to be shared about them.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful read!

[Bonnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slightly amusing, and I'm sure some folks love it. Really not my cup of tea. No fault of the author, everyone has their own likes and dislikes.