We went on heroic journeys together. And it’s part of where I learned to spin a good tale.” American folklore is an oral tradition, making it hard to pin down definitive myths.

I became hooked on monsters while exploring the exotic novel creatures, such as pangolins, dodos and walruses encountered by early modern Europeans, for my Ph.D. thesis.

Monsters often manifest our deepest and darkest fears. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, a cultural theorist known for interpreting the meanings of monsters, has written widely on the ways we ascribe meaning ...