This is part of the A-to-Z blog challenge for April. My theme is legends and legendary creatures (both real and fiction). I hope you enjoy following along!
Xana
The xana is found in Spain’s Asturian mythology. She is a creature of extraordinary beauty, believed to live in fountains, rivers, waterfalls or forested regions with pure water. She is usually described as small or slender with long blonde or light brown hair, which she fixes with gold or silver combs woven from sun or moonbeams.
Some xanas promise treasures, offering special water to travelers and rewards of gold or silver to those found worthy through some undefined judgment (the classic hero-adventure tale).
Their hypnotic voices can be heard during spring and summer nights. Those who have a pure soul and hear the song will be filled with a sense of peace and love. Those whose souls are not pure will feel they are being suffocated and may be driven insane:
“The paaain!”
“Make it stop, make it stop…”
Even if you’re a good person though, beware a xana who has a child. Because she will try to switch her baby for that of a human woman, forcing the human to take care of hers.
(so cruel!)
Imagine trying to raise that supernatural baby…
I want one of those xana moonbeam hair combs.
I wonder what other sorts of treasures they keep hidden? What treasure would you want?
Join us tomorrow in another mysterious legend! Don’t forget to click the “Follow” button to be notified of new blog posts!
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(Info credit from: Wikipedia
Art/gifs belongs to their respective owners, not me. I make no profit through this.)
E.E. Rawls Writes 
I’ve never heard of a Xana before! It has bits of other things I’m familiar with, like mermaids / sirens, nymphs, elemental fairies – but the part about swapping children reminds me of changelings.
Gorgeous choice for your first image, btw!
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The changelings are what xanas’ children are called, actually! So you’re right on the mark! I didn’t want to make the post too long, so I left that part out.
Thank you! I couldn’t find who the artist was, but it’s beautiful.
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I like these Xanus. Apart from the baby-swapping thing. I feel like they would be good in a story. Hm. 🙂
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Much story potential, I agree. 🙂
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I would want her jewelry, for sure! I always love the mythologies about beautiful women connected to water. There’s something so archetypal about it. 🙂
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I keep imaging what that comb would look like! Me too, they’ve always fascinated me most. And something about it being connected to water makes it otherworldly, I feel. Yes, it is archetypal, I agree. 🙂 Thanks for reading!
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Oooo! This is cool! I’ve never heard of it before. Another option for X could have been xenobeasts. Have you ever heard of those? They’re really cool.
storitorigrace.blogspot.com
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Xenobeasts? Ooo, I’ve got to go and look them up now! Do you know of a website that talks about them in detail?
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I actually found out about them in a book. It’s called Dracopedia The Bestiary by William O’Connor.
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Cool! I’ll take a look!
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[…] Xana the Mysterious Beauty […]
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