Pamola- Moose Bird

 I'd say I'm leaving the norm here for this one, but I'm really not. I'm a bit of a mythology lover, so there are times when I'll bring that up. For today, I recently came across a legendary creature that I wanted to tell you about because it's a cross between a moose and a bird, and that's just so interesting to me. 

The information I've found about it's appearance is pretty varied. It's either something with the head of a moose, body of a human, angel wings, and the feet of a bird, which sometimes is more satyr/minotaur like, and sometimes is more moose with hands and eagle legs, or a pegasus type, just a moose with wings, or even just a bird with a moose head. Some stories claim it's just a bird, no moose at all aside from being big enough to carry off a moose. But, apparently part of the thing with the creatures in Native American lore is that creatures can shift to become what they need at the time, so sometimes he may be pretty different than others. 

Also split is the type of creature he is. It's pretty much agreed that it's a protector of mountains, but some think it's more of a protective spirit or a more vengeful one, and some say it's all the mountains in the area or just Katahdin Mountain. 

Pamola is a Native American myth, but specifically Abenaki, Penobscot, and Micmac. Each tribe had slightly different stories though. One source, the Coffee And Creatures blog below, has separate stories from the tribes, and some artwork of what the Pamola might look like. 

The Penobscot apparently had stories of one man snowed in on the mountain being saved by the Pamola after greeting him as a friend and offering to share food, then the Pamola married him off to a daughter. He was returned to the village with the warning to remember that he's already married, but apparently got nagged into marriage to a villager and disappeared the next day. Another story from them says he kidnapped a woman and kept her for a year, then gave her back when she was heavily pregnant with the warning that the child she carried would be able to kill people by pointing and that he'd save them if the boy lived to adulthood. She also  got nagged into marriage and disappeared, along with her son. 

The Micmac apparently considered him an evil night spirit, and the Abeneki considered him something like the thunderbird myths. 

This picture is from the Coffee and Creatures blog and is one of the depictions of the Pamola. Certainly a rather scary one. 

The Maine Green link below has a rather reassuring--to me at least-- version of him as a more protective creature. 

These two are another pair of options for what Pamola might have looked like, from the Atlas Obscura link. 

This, as you can see, is another depiction of the Pamola as described by Leroy Dudley, who climbed the mountain against suggestions. 

The final one I want to leave you with is a bit more adorable than he's been so far, and is something from Etsy, for Cryptid lovers. 

So, now you all know about the Pamola. It's certainly an unusual creature. As with all things, what it is to you depends on how you want to think about it. In some stories, it's protective of it's mountain, and accepts those that respect it. Others, it doesn't like people coming to visit without permission. And in some stories, he's a father with a family. 

Either way, I hope it was interesting and that you had fun learning about him.  If you want to know more, there are sources below or you can look him up yourself. I'll see you again soon with something else interesting. 

Sources:

Appalachian Mountain Club-- Katahdin

Coffee and Creature Blog-- Pamola

Maine Green- Pamola

Atlas Obscura-- Pamola

Native American Language and Culture-- Pamola 

Ancient Pages-- Pomola

Etsy- Pamola Sticker