Happy February! If you were here last February, you may remember that I participated in Jenelle Schmidt’s Fantasy Month…and it’s back!
If you’re here, I’m going to guess you love fantasy as much as I do, so be sure to hop over and see the other Fantasy Month blog posts, or hop over to Instagram to see some bookstagram posts on the theme. I’ll be participating as I can (though I missed a couple days already because I’ve been sick), and if you want to participate, check out the Insta prompts here:
You can find more information on Jenelle’s Instagram or on her blog, linked above.
And now, back to the fantasy goodness and today’s topic: my favorite underrated fantasy creatures!
Skoffin
First on my list is one I learned about last year when Janeen Ippolito’s If Wishes were Curses came out…the skoffin! (There is an accent over that i.)
Anyway, what is a skoffin, you ask? It is an Icelandic creature that’s a cross between a cat and an arctic fox. And its gaze will kill you immediately.
Of course there’s more to it than that, but it’s leading to the development of some interesting future projects for me. Hubs and I went to Iceland for our honeymoon, and I just can’t get over the location and the lore. This is just one more example of something I can’t wait to use in my own writing.
Do you know any books, besides the one I mentioned above, that have a skoffin? I’d love to hear about it!
Selkies
I kind of love selkie lore. But for those of you unfamiliar with this one, they are seal creatures that can come on land by shedding their seal skin and take on the form of a person, usually a maiden. Selkies can be captured by a person in possession of their seal skin, which prevents them from returning to the sea.
Selkies had an episode in Lost Girl, but I have to admit I haven’t seen much beyond that episode (though I know it’s not a clean watch, for those of you concerned about content). Seanan McGuire has a selkie in her October Daye series, and I believe Jenelle Schmidt is working on a selkie story as well, but do you have any that you love?
Djinn and Genies
I’m a little partial to this one, of course (check out my This Curse series, book 1 out now and book 2 on its way!). I love genies and djinn in fiction, and they’re not super common. As I mentioned above, Janeen Ippolito also has a series of genies (urban fantasy) with other creatures, and Rachel Caine’s Weather Wardens books also involves djinn (caution: Weather Wardens are NOT clean fiction). I am also partial to I Dream of Jeannie. 😉
Do you know and love other genie books?
Concluding thoughts
These are three of my top underrated fantasy creatures, but there are so many others out there. I also love kitsune and am working on some fox shifter urban fantasy that expands kitsune lore to a worldwide scale, but we are starting to see more kitsune in publication. And of course I love more typical fantasy creatures, like werewolves/shifters, fae, and mermaids, but they get plenty of attention. 😉
But now I’d love to hear from you. What kinds of fantasy creatures do you wish you saw more of in fiction? What are they like? Where did you learn about them? Let’s chat in the comments!
Selina J. Eckert 
Loved reading this!
The Secret of Roan Innish is honestly the only thing I can think of that had selkies in it. And I don’t even remember if it really did, or if everyone just THOUGHT one of the characters was a selkie? It’s been a long time. I remember liking the movie, though. I should rewatch it sometime soon.
I loved Janeen’s “If Wishes Were Curses” and “Wish You Weren’t Here” so much! I haven’t read many stories with djinn, though I know I’ve encountered them a few times in various stories… none of them are coming easily to mind, though. Mostly Aladdin-esque sorts of stories, I believe.
I’d love to see more gryphons and phoenixes in stories. And selkies, for sure. Enfields, Leshys, and Qilin are a couple of others I’m pretty sure I’ve never encountered (unless Ents count as Leshys), but they are super cool and I’d read a book with any of them in it in a heartbeat.
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Ooo, those are all some interesting other ones. I think I read a series with a phoenix at least once before, but definitely another underrated creature! I’m not quite sure what Enfields, Leshys, or Qilin are, but definitely will need to look them up! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
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Absolutely YES to more selkies. Skoffins would be cool too, though I don’t remember ever hearing about them before. They sound cute and deadly — an excellent combination.
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Right? I wish I’d heard about skoffins sooner! Janeen Ippolito’s book has a half-skoffin, which was when I learned about them. So interesting!
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