Deep Dwellers

SUBSURFACE INHABITANTS IN FOLKLORE, MYTH AND LITERATURE The legends, myths and literature of mankind have always been filled with fanciful
or terrifying accounts of underground lands and races, hidden from surface sight.
Rumours of a largely unseen reality, of cavern worlds, hidden tunnel systems
which criss-cross the globe, and the occasional accidental discovery of a large
geode structure within the Earth, have migrated from the realms of folklore and early scientific
speculation into literature—and perhaps back into folklore again.
When reading and studying the available fiction which touches upon the topic of a subterranean
world, many similarities come to light. This is interesting insofar as the various
writers were not necessarily familiar with one another’s works. It is obvious that many of
them drew upon folktales and mythology as well as the latest scientific findings and theories
of the day; indeed, they had a huge matrix of archetypes and forms with which to
work.
Religious traditions have also been a major influence on the development of fiction
about subterranean worlds and inhabitants, and some brave souls have shared accounts of
what they believed to be their own encounters with the denizens that dwell within the
Earth’s crust.
In this work, all of these aspects of underworld studies, and more, will come under careful
examination, but this is not so much an examination of the underworlds as it is of their
inhabitants.
MYTHICAL (ANCIENT RELIGIOUS) ACCOUNTS
1. The East
One of the earliest examples of subterranean stories is to be found in the Gilgamesh
cycle of stories, which some would say is not so much fictitious as it is a distorted account
of ancient events.
Gilgamesh was an actual king who ruled Uruk (also called Unug) about 2600 BC, and
he was supposedly of half-divine origin. Like other heroes of ancient mythic cycles who
were demigods, or semi-divine, Gilgamesh longed for an immortality which he saw as his
birthright, much the same as Heracles of the Greeks. In one tale from his cycle, he
befriends a physically powerful, hairy, subhuman character named Enkidu and teaches
him the customs of humanity. In a later tale, Enkidu, on behalf of his friend and king,
agrees to venture into the underworld of ancient Mesopotamia to search for someone who
has the secret of immortality.
Other Sumerian accounts leave little doubt that the Kur or Ki-Gal (“the Great Below”)
was a place of immense size and great terror. This realm was ruled by the goddess
Ereshkigal and her consort Nergal, a warlike god who had entered her queendom with
plans of conquest—only to be seduced by the enemy, who became his wife. The Ki-Gal
was said to be filled with a wide range of beings, including spirits and the undead, reanimated
bodies of human beings as well as savage guardians called “scorpion men”.
Other residents were described as sexless and robotic “artificial” beings called Galatur
or Gala, who were used by the rulers of the underworld for missions of kidnapping human
beings from the surface world or for other errands. Also present in the underworld were
the Utukku, “eagle-headed” reptilian humanoids who are probably the original Djinn and
Ifrits of the ancient Middle East. The latter beings were usually depicted with wings, representing
their ability to fly when dispatched on the errands of the rulers of the underworld.
Another strange race was the Pazuzu, a canine-faced humanoid monstrosity with
reptilian scales and tail

All of these are motifs which in one form or another have been
found to permeate nearly every ancient underworld tradition and
also have found their way into folklore and literature.
The Asian region, particularly the Indian subcontinent, Tibet,
Nepal, China and Japan, has very similar traditions about subterranean
inhabitants. 
In India, there is still a strong belief in the reality of the
Nagas—a race of “serpent people” or “lizard men” who have
made their homes in two major underground
cities (or civilisations), Bhogavati and Patala.
Bhogavati is believed to be underneath the
Himalayas, and it is said that from there the
Nagas wage war on other human subterraneans
from the subsurface kingdoms of
Agharta and Shambala.
Patala is believed by millions of Hindus to
this day to have an entrance in the Well
of Sheshna in Benares. According to
herpetologist and author Sherman A.
Minton in his book, Venomous Reptiles,
this entrance is very real, having 40
steps which descend into a circular
depression and then terminate at a
closed stone door covered in bas-relief
cobras. In Tibet, there is a major mystical
shrine, also called Patala, which is
said by the people there to sit atop an
ancient cavern and tunnel system which
reaches throughout the Asian continent
and possibly beyond.
The Nagas are believed to have an
affinity with water, and the entrances to their
underground palaces are said to be hidden
often at the bottom of wells, deep lakes and
rivers. They are described as a very
advanced race or species with a highly developed
technology. Among their many devices are “death rays” and
v i m a n a—flying, disc-shaped aerial craft which are described at
length in many ancient Vedic texts including the B h a g a v a d – g i t a
and the Ramayana. The Nagas are also believed to harbour a disdain
for human beings, whom they are said to abduct, torture,
interbreed with and even eat. The interbreeding has supposedly
led to a wide variety of forms, ranging from completely reptilian
to nearly human in appearance. The Naga race is related to another
underworld race: the Hindu demons, or Rakshasas.
The Nagas are also said to possess, as individuals, a “magical
stone” or “third eye” in the middle of their brow. This is known
to students of eastern mysticism as the focal point of one of the
higher chakras (energy channel points) of the human(oid) nervous
system, and is the chakra associated with inner visions, intuition
and other esoteric concepts.
In China, the Lung Wang (Dragon Kings)
closely resemble the Nagas in many
respects. The Lung were said to dwell either
in the “celestial realm”, i.e., the stars and
planets, or beneath the surface of the Earth.
They, too, were said to possess a “magical
pearl” in their forehead—a “mystical” or
divine eye or source of power. Like the
Nagas, some of the entrances to their
palaces or kingdoms could be found
beneath lakes and rivers or behind
waterfalls. Almost always, such
entrances were well hidden from the
intrusive eyes or feet of mortal men
and women. One such entrance to the
Chinese underworld was said to be in
the “Eastern Mountain” of Taishan,
near Qufu province. This entrance to
the Chinese Hell was guarded by savage
demons called Men Shen, often
depicted as warriors wearing fierce,
animalistic masks or faces.
There was also interaction between
the Lords of Hell, as they were known, and
the Dragon Kings. The four Hell Kings,
called Yan Luo or Yen Wang (possibly
derived from the Hindu death god, Yama),
ruled over a vast region consisting of 18
levels or locales. In one tale, a Dragon King is robbed by an
extremely clever and human-like Monkey, who is similar in many
respects to the Hindu Hanuman (who in turn came into conflict
with the Rakshasas of the underworld in the Ramayana). Enkidu
also comes to mind in this tale. The Dragon King calls on the
help of the Yan Luo, who are in turn bested by Monkey as well.
The 18 regions of the Chinese netherworld are bureaucratic,
tedious systems or civilisations and an
apparent mixture of Taoist and Buddhist
ideas, with a strong influence from the
latter.
The Japanese Hell is even more of an
amalgam of different traditions, as it incorporates
Chinese, Hindu and Buddhist characteristics
into an earlier, animistic Shinto
system. Emma-Hoo (perhaps from Yama-
Raja) is the king of Jigoku, an eight-levelled
region of fire and ice. Jigoku is filled with
Oni, or demons, which have the heads of
oxen or horses but humanoid bodies.
Japan also has other cavern-dwellers who
come out upon occasion. The bird-headed
reptilian goblins, the Tengu, dwell in mountainous
regions and mostly come out by
night. They are experts in the use of the
weapons which are in modern times associated
with ninjitsu. According to legend, the

Tengu trained Minamoto Yoshitsune, a famed Samurai swordsman
of the late 12th century, when he was an exiled boy on the
run from his enemies. The Tengu are almost identical in description
to the Utukku of Sumerian myth.
Other beings are the Kappa, a semiaquatic
and totally reptilian-looking
humanoid dwarf, the “ugly girls of
hell” and sundry other shapeshifting
entities who dwell underground or
under houses. The “fox people” are
among the latter, often taking human
form and delighting in abduction and
seduction of mortals.
The underworld of ancient Egypt
has many things in common with its
Mesopotamian counterpart. Called
the Tuat or Duat, it was ruled by the
god of the dead, Osiris, the counterpart
of Sumer’s Nergal. It is the servants
of Osiris, however, who are of
concern here. There was the jackal-headed god Khentimentiu and
also Anubis, both gods of arcane knowledge, embalming and
other sciences. The god of knowledge, Thoth, was also a regular
in the Tuat; he had a humanoid form with the head of a baboon
(but very canine in appearance). All three of these deities bear a
strong resemblance to the Sumerian Pazuzu.
There is also a parallel in the Ushabtiu, originally conceived as
artificial, animated and robotic servants who were very similar to
the Gala, or Galatur, of the Sumerian underworld. Like the Gala,
the Ushabtiu could be dispatched to punish or abduct an
ordinary mortal or even the Pharaoh himself. These beings
were represented in Egyptian burials by small statues of the
same name, mimicking the supernatural servants of Osiris
and hopefully providing a retinue of retainers and slaves for
the deceased.
Another being with familiar characteristics was Ammut,
a blend of crocodile, lion and dog. But possibly the most
feared being to haunt the underworld was the god of chaos
and strife, Set or Seth, who attempted to mount a c o u p
d’état against his brother, Osiris. Set is often considered to
be the Egyptian counterpart of the Judaeo-Christian
personality known as Satan, his appearance both canine and
reptilian with a human form but animalistic head, longsnouted
and/or muzzled. The hugest dragon of the Tuat,
however, was the gigantic serpent Apophis, very similar to
Nidhoggr or Jormungand from the Norse underworlds—a
monstrous serpent which brought fear even to the gods.
2. The West
Moving into Europe and Scandinavia, the mythical subterraneans
became less distant and more immediate, interacting
with the common folk on a much more regular basis.
Scandinavians had their trolls and giants or Jotuns, also
called Etins, who were great granitic beings of immense
physical power and sometimes hairy of form. More mysterious
were the dwarves, a race (or races) of stunted, powerful
craftsmen and weapons-smiths. One race of dwarves
was from Svartalfheim, the Land of the Dark Elves, a cavern
world in its own right. Some of the Svartalf dwarf-kind
lived in Nifleheim, the Land of the Dead. Along with the
savage and man-eating trolls, the dwarves would turn to
stone, into toads or otherwise die if struck by the direct rays
of the Sun. More often than not, the entrances to their
homes were hidden in inaccessible mountainsides and other
remote locations.
The Scandinavian and Germanic peoples also believed in the
Huldre, the “hidden folk”, or Elves. The Huldre domain was a
luminous cavern realm called
Alfheim. From Alfheim they would
venture forth to cajole, abduct or
seduce human beings. Other beings
were the Kobolds, or mine dwarves,
perhaps a variant of the Norse
Svartalf. Another type was the
Tusse, a variant of elf who lived
close to humans, usually beneath or
close to a farmstead.
The primary interest of the Huldre
elf-folk, which could be said to apply
to all the Germanic types, seems to
have been procreation with human
beings for the purpose of
maintaining genetic diversity. Like
the trolls and dwarves, the elves seemed to dislike bright sunlight,
but may have had more tolerance than their troll and dwarf
cousins as they were sometimes seen at dawn, twilight or dusk, or
by day in deeply shadowed valleys or mountain chasms. Huldre
elves in particular are said to have dwelt beneath mounds and hills
which were in closer proximity to human habitations, as trolls did
more rarely. The elves took a regular interest in human affairs—
weddings, births and deaths (bloodlines?), the success of crops
and livestock and so forth—but only for their own selfish

interests. They seemed to be overly concerned with genetic and
biological diversity, and they pilfered livestock, crops and human
genes via theft or cross-species liaison whenever they saw fit to
do so. The elves are generally depicted as extremely fair-haired
and fair-skinned.
Dragons were also said to live deep in the Earth, as recounted in
the Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) saga of Beowulf. The monster
Grendel was a hairy, scaled fiend, a Naga
troll which later British traditions would call
a “goblin” and modern cryptozoologists
would term a “hairy humanoid”. The term
Pazuzu would probably have been just as
appropriate for Grendel. Dragons were the
special guardians of “buried treasure”; that
is, buried knowledge or technology,
much of it often made by the powers of
the subterranean dwarves. The
European dragon had a nastier disposition
than his oriental counterpart, or
perhaps he came into conflict with a
group of people who entertained different
philosophical ideals when it came
to living in fear of man-eating entities;
but whatever the case, like his Eastern
cousins he had a relationship with both
underground caverns and deep bodies
of water.
England, Scotland, Wales and
Ireland have rich traditions of under-earth
dwellers, with many similarities or even
common origins between them. Like the
Norse/Germanic variants, the “fairies”—
goblins, trows, knockers, brownies, leprechauns,
Sidhe (shee), Tylwyth teg (terlooeth teig), and numerous
other categories of humanoid beings—were fair or foul,
malevolent or kind (actually, indifferent), making their homes
almost without exception beneath the ground. Mounds, hills,
ruins, ancient raths and hill-forts, mountains, cliffs and even cities
of great age were said to serve as the rooftops of their palaces.
Like the Nagas and dragons, some had the entrances to their subterranean
homes at the bottom of lakes. To remove all doubt as to
their relationship with Norse hidden-folk and Indian Nagas alike,
they shunned the sunlight and often seemed interested in crossbreeding
their own bloodlines with those of human beings, or
even in crossbreeding their “livestock” or fairy cattle, horses,
hounds and so forth with the surface species which were most
compatible. The goblin-dwarf
Rumpelstiltskin, in his lust to have the
human baby and its genetic bounty, is another
example of this in German folklore.
Of particular interest are the Tuatha de
Danaan of Ireland, the People of the Goddess
Danu, also called the Sidhe. Originally an
aristocratic warrior race of heroic proportion,
they dwindled in size after
retreating underground to become the
Daoine Sidhe (Theena Shee) or diminutive
faeries of Irish folklore. Most of
the “gentry” or aristocratic trooping
faeries are said to be of this type. Like
the Scandinavian elves, they are depicted
as particularly fair of complexion
and hair. According to Lady Wilde in
Ancient Legends of Ireland (Ward &
Downey, London, 1887), “they are categorised
as ‘cave fairies’”. In addition
to their now familiar practice of abduction
of and hybridisation with surface
humans, their name Tuatha (“tribe” or “people”)
de Danaan holds a strong resemblance
to the Egyptian name for the underworld:
the Tuat. It is generally thought that the term
“fairy” or “faerie” has its origin in the earlier French term fay or
the Latin fatae, but the possibility of an older origin, as hinted at
by the Tuat/Tuatha connection, may in fact bear further examination—
for did not the “Pharaohs” believe that they would journey
through the Tuat on the way to their places in eternity?
The hills and glens of Ireland are also said to hide the remnants
of at least three vanquished races: the Firbolgs, the
Fomorians and the Nemedians. All are ancient enemies
of the Tuatha de Danaan and were driven underground
by the latter in the distant past, where they
then dwindled in size (lack of genetic diversity?) at an
even earlier time than did their conquerors. The
Fomors and the Firbolgs are probably the origin-race
of many of the bogeys and pookas (bucas), goblins
and hobgoblins, Scottish trows and other malevolent,
sometimes shapeshifting beings which seem to bear
strong resemblance to the Scandinavian trolls, being
perhaps a smaller variant. The etymological connection
between “trows” and “trolls” is obvious, and
reflects the sequence of both legendary and historical
migrations to the British Isles as well as the wars
between each newcomer group and the thenensconced
one.
Each group of faeries and goblins can be viewed as
the dethroned exiled gods of an earlier defeated
human culture. The question is, what or who were
these “gods” which still exist in the popular imagination
today? Were they symbolic pantheons or archetypes,
or living beings who pre-dated man on this
planet?

Native American cultures have similar beliefs in an extensive,
layered realm of caverns which is hidden beneath their feet. This
murky world is believed to be inhabited by both human and
humanoid beings and by a variety of monsters and demons.
Most tribes or nations have their own traditions of subterranean
“little people”, as well as other motifs
including reptilian or serpent-like humanoid
beings. In addition to this, many tribes
believe that they themselves emerged from a
mythical underworld ages before.
The Mescalero Apache have many of
these beliefs. One of their oldest sacred traditions
states that they came from the
Old Red Fire Land before the Great
Flood. This land is said to have been in
the distant eastern (Atlantic) sea but
was destroyed by a combination of deluge
and volcanic cataclysms. Escaping
through “great caverns” and tunnel systems,
the ancestors of the Apache came
to high mountain lands far to the south,
where they built new cities. A series of
misfortunes there, however, eventually
drove them northward.
This legend is nearly identical to the
origin story as related in the C h i l a m
B i l a a m of the Maya, and brings to
mind both Mayan and Aztec origin myths.
The Aztecs say that they originated in a land
called Aztlan, obviously synonymous with
Atlan or Atlantis, the destruction of which
they also escaped. After this, they ended up
in a cavern world called Chicomoztoc, or the
Seven Cavern Cities of Gold, where they lived for some time
before emerging again into the surface world.
In addition to believing in a vast, nine-layered underworld filled
with strange beings, the chief god of the Maya, called Itzamna
(meaning “iguana house”), was depicted as an anthropomorphic
lizard, snake, cayman or dragon. The underworld dwellers were a
mixture of human, reptilian and other animal characteristics, and
the rain-god Chac was a long-nosed, fanged, humanoid creature
very similar to the Egyptian god Set.
The underworld, called Xibalba, is the location of most of the
action in the Popol Vuh, a priestly epic of the Maya. In the Popol
Vuh, two semi-divine brothers, Hunapuh and Xbalanque, have to
journey into a realm of horrors beneath the earth in order to defeat
those who are the enemies of their father and his family and who
threaten their own ascendancy to power. In Xibalba, they come
into conflict with Zipacna (a crocodile-headed monster), Seven
Macaw (a bird-headed creature), the maker of earthquakes, and
other familiar forms. An interesting event occurs when the
vengeance-seeking brothers devise a way to pick out the 12 lords
of Xibalba from identical “mannikins” or robotic Ushabti-like figures,
so as to destroy the lords of the underworld. The twins
eventually defeat their rivals and take over the rulership themselves,
bringing an end to human sacrifice as part of the deal.
These events preceded and made possible the “modern” epoch of
time.
The Hopi of the southwest desert, descendants of the mysterious
Anasazi people, have an equally strange tradition. They
believe that as a people they migrated from a series of previously
extant “worlds”—usually interpreted as “ages” or “epochs”, but
they also see these as subsequent cavern worlds, each one lower
than the next and each one eventually abandoned and destroyed in
turn. While still in the murky “third world”, the Hopi ancestors
came into contact with the mysterious “ant people”, an ectomorphic
race or species which greatly resembles the Gala of Sumerian
myth, and at some point they also came into conflict with the “serpent
people”. Like other tribes, their underworld
mythos is filled with cataclysms and
floods. At least one of their previous worlds
was said to have been “in the east”.
Combined with the flood element, this legend
is very similar to Apache and Aztec traditions.
The Choctaw (Cha’ta) people of
Mississippi also have a myth of underground
origins. They believe that their
ancestors emerged from the Nanih
Waiya cave mound, a 50-foot-tall natural
geological formation which is hidden
in a swampy forest area, approximately
one-and-a-half miles east of a
better-known artificial mound and
tourist site. The hill has several natural
openings, some of which have been
“sealed up” (the Park Service seems to
have no good explanation for this), and
it is said by the Choctaw to be the
entrance to a vast underground realm.
One legend has it that in ancient times the
Choctaw were invaded by a race of red- and
blond-haired, white-skinned giants who bore
“sharp clubs” (swords?) and axes and wore
an extra, thick skin (chain or leather mail?)
which made them impervious to arrow, spear
and warclub. Add the touch that some of these Nahullo, or giants,
had “horns”, and these white invaders sound suspiciously like
wandering Norsemen. Whatever their origin or identity might
have been, these invaders drove the Choctaw into hiding.
The world beneath the cave mound where the Choctaw hid was
a large series of caverns through which a river or rivers ran (the

Nanih Waiya cave mound sits squarely at the headwaters of the
Pearl River). Some traditions indicate that it went on to connect
to other “worlds” or underground places. Staying underground
for many generations, the Choctaw emerged to wage a form of
guerrilla warfare on their enemies, eventually winning by using
darts coated with a poison made from mushrooms found in the
caverns. Victorious, they emerged again into the sunlit world.
One tradition holds that this emergence of a generation of people
born underground is the basis for the mound origin myth, and
that the Choctaw had in fact arrived centuries
earlier after leaving a “sunken land” which
had foundered in a distant western ocean.
After many wanderings and travails, they
arrived in the southeast where they found the
natural cavern mound which would later
serve as a place of refuge. But other
Choctaw beliefs dispute this, claiming
that not just the Choctaw but the
Muskogee, Cherokee and Chickasaw
peoples emerged from the mound as
well, having all been one people in the
underworld.
Today the Choctaw still believe that a
variety of strange supernatural beings
either inhabit the cave mound or dwell
in the wooded hills that surround it.
One of these is the Shampe, a hair-covered,
manlike giant who has a terrible
odour and stays underground during the
day. The Shampe is a sort of
Sasquatch, but the underworld connection is
there. Also present are the Kawana-kasha
(Kowi Anukasha), also called Bohpoli
(“stone-thrower”), a type of supernatural and
mercurial dwarf living within not just the
woods of Mississippi but within the cave mound itself. Like the
Norse dwarves, they are hoarders of vast knowledge.
The mound is also the home of “giant serpents” and perhaps a
host of other beings. Among the latter is the Nalusa Falaya, or
“long black being”, who is humanoid yet slides on his stomach
“like a snake”. His pointed ears only accentuate his reptilian
appearance.
Another variant is the Nalusa Chito, or “big black being”, who
emerges from underground dens to capture women and children
presumably for supper. This abduction scenario is by now a
familiar one and is very similar to the abduction and changeling
accounts of Celtic and Scandinavian traditions which often
describe abductions for the purposes of maintaining genetic diversity.
The goblin Ho’koklonote’she is a shapeshifting creature
believed to haunt the region, and is very similar to the Pooka or
Buca of the British Isles. So are the Nalusa twins, for that matter.
As has been demonstrated, many similarities
or perhaps identical descriptions exist
for the underworld inhabitants of myth and
folklore.
This underlying cohesion may have resulted
from an “archetypal stew” which long
simmered in the imaginations of men and
women; and as will be demonstrated in
the next section, this has resulted in
some very interesting and imaginative
works of fiction.