Fire
Fire denotes the primary element that quickens and destroys alike, the sun's heat and lightning's stroke, and burns as zeal, passion and the tended hearth.
Our paraphrase of what the sources say it carries.
At a glance
- Type
- Image
- Group
- Creation and Cosmos / Fire — Light and Darkness
- Borne by
- 5 figures (2 are this, 3 carry it)
- Traditions
- Japanese folklore (2)Chilean folklore (1)European folklore (general) (1)Islamic mythology (1)
- Same group
- Dusk
Figures that bear it
A model judged each figure against its own description, one term at a time. Is: the figure is a kind of this thing. Bears: it carries the thing or is marked by it. What a figure does is filed under motifs and powers. Open "why" for the sentence the judgement rests on.
- Cherufe is Chilean folklore
why
The Cherufe, a fearsome creature of Chilean mythology, is a being of pure magma and fire that dwells within the depths of active volcanoes.
- Ifrit is Islamic mythology
why
Originating from Islamic culture, Ifrits are powerful, winged creatures made of smokeless fire.
- Kasha bears Japanese folklore
why
Its approach is marked by an ominous rattling sound, often accompanied by a surge of spectral fire that illuminates the night sky.
- Kludde bears European folklore (general)
why
The figure sits within a broader Northern European pattern of shapeshifting black-dog bogies that guard roads and waterways, comparable to English black-dog legends and Dutch bogeyman figures, though the surviving record for Kludde specifically is thin: a set of recurring motifs — chains, blue fire, the mounting and weighing-down, the shift between animal forms — preserved mainly in regional folklore collections and encyclopedia entries rather than in any extended narrative literature with named individual episodes.
- Yamata no Orochi bears Japanese folklore
why
This formidable beast is typically depicted as having eight heads and eight tails, each head representing a different elemental force: fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, ice, venom, and spirit.