An Illustrated Bestiary of the British Isles

These tales, taken from the spoken word tradition, were passed on either to warn adults of the worst aspects of their fellow man or to guard against the awesome power of nature or as cautionary tales for children to keep them from that which was unsafe. And yet one can't but wonder, did these creatures actually exist, when the natural world ruled supreme? In a time when the country was mostly bog and fen and field and wild wood. Black night would fall and isolated dwellings become surrounded by nocturnal sounds and agency.
Families would have told these tales as they huddled close about the fire, protected from the darkness by the light. And it must have occurred to more than some, as they gazed deep into the flames of their hearth, that there is no smoke, without fire?