What Is This?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on October 7th, 2012
What do you think this represents? Some kind of Northern cryptid? Folkloric creature? Have you heard of any names associated with an upright humanoid with a reindeer head?
It does not look like the Horned God, Cernunnos, which has a decidedly human head with antlers:
The appearance is not similar to the evil dark Yuletide Krampus, either, even though it is more animal-like with two horns that are definitely too small:
How about the Windigo/Wendigo? While most traditional representations of Windigo seem to look like eastern Canadian Sasquatch, there is a body of Wendigo art that appear to be angry upright elk:
Of course, sometimes an upright caribou, I suppose, is just a standing Christmas reindeer.
I had to ask, do you know of a cryptid name for this critter?
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The Horned God is actually sometimes depicted with a more stag head than human head, some see his form as changing seasonally, but he is by no means a cryptid.
I am sure i have read about a deer headed creature in mythology, but off the top of my head i can not think of where. I will flip through some mythology books tomorrow and see what i can find.
As for an actual cryptid there was the stories of the Deer Man, but i thought those were just hoaxes.
Curiosystis Christmasus Ornamentatis.
I say “totem” and leave it at that. It certainly isn’t a One-Eyed, One-Horned Flying Purple People Eater…
Rudi Sasquatch the Black-Nosed Reindeer…
I don’t know what it is or what it may be called, but I like it in a weird way.
It may most closely resemble the Peryton, although it is usually depicted as also possessing wings. My notes on it have it being ancient Greek in origin, but Wikipedia claims that it is a much more recent creation found in fantasy and role-playing literature (which, admittedly, is where I first encountered it). Wikipedia also has it being quadrupedal, but I recall seeing depictions of a more humanoid or at least bipedal appearance. In Dungeons & Dragons, it casts a human shadow, which might explain the confusion.
Abominable Doe-man.