In the oral traditions of the Flemish people, passed down through generations in farmhouses and along lonely paths, lives the Kludde, a shapeshifting spirit of torment and trickery.

This is not a creature of distant myth but a figure rooted in the lived fears and warnings of local communities: a guardian of boundaries between safety and peril, light and shadow, the known path and the treacherous unknown. This is Episode 36: The Kludde.

Sources

https://abookofcreatures.com/2019/06/07/kludde/

(detailed English summary with historical references)

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kludde

(Dutch Wikipedia entry on Flemish folklore)

https://mythlok.com/kludde/

(overview of traits and regional context)

Historical collections referenced in sources above, including 19th-century accounts by Baron of Saint-Genois, Teirlinck’s Le Folklore Flamand, and related volumes like Northern Mythology.

In Belgian culture, the processional giants stand as towering emblems of identity, resilience, and communal memory. Belgium is home to more than 2,000 of these colossal figures, some of the highest concentrations in the world for such a small nation, with Flanders particularly rich in them. Many date back to the late Middle Ages, originally appearing in religious processions to educate and inspire before evolving into proud symbols of civic independence and local heritage. Inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity alongside their French counterparts, they dance through festivals like the Ducasse de Mons and the Ommegang, carried by dedicated bearers and celebrated by entire communities. They are not mere decorations but living vessels of history, blending myth, faith, and folk tradition into spectacles that bind past and present.

This is Episode 35: The Processional Giants of Mons

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducasse_de_Mons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ommegang_of_Brussels

https://historiek.net/silvius-brabo-druon-antigoon/80323/ (Druon Antigoon legend)

Additional heritage documentation from Wallonia-Brussels living heritage resources and historical accounts of the Lumeçon combat.

This is Episode 34: Qalupalik

In the long night of the Arctic, where the sea breathes under thick ice and the wind carries secrets older than memory, the people of the camps knew to listen.

They gathered in the warmth of the Qulliq, its flame flickering against walls of snow and stone. Elders spoke in low voices of the beings that shared the land and water, not as fairy tales for comfort, but as truths woven into survival. Among them was the Qalupalik, the one who waits beneath the ice edge.

Sources

Wikipedia overview (with references to Boas and variations): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qallupilluit

Folktales America retelling and context: https://folktalesamerica.com/Qalupalik-the-sea-creature-that-takes-children/

Inhabit Media / Elisha Kilabuk The Qalupalik (kah-loo-pah-leek) (kah-loo-pah-leek) (kah-loo-pah-leek) book details and descriptions: https://quillandquire.com/review/the-Qalupalik

NFB/Nunavut Animation Lab short film adaptation: Search “Nunavut Animation Lab Qalupalik” on YouTube or nfb.ca

Tell Story site with traditional variations (including Boas-inspired grandmother tale): https://tellstory.net/stories/inuit/folk-tale/the-child-taken-by-the-qallupilluit/

Additional context on cultural role and modern graphic adaptations: References in NightTide Magazine or CM: Canadian Review of Materials for Putuguq & Kublu and the Qalupalik