Legends of the Hidden Horde

Lance Martin
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Science Fiction
  • Updated Semiweekly

Legends of the Hidden Horde is a biweekly podcast that dives deep into the shadows of folklore, cryptids, and enigmatic creatures from around the world. Hosted by Lance Martin, each episode delivers a chilling, atmospheric tale grounded in real legends, eyewitness accounts, and cultural lore, brought to life through immersive, creative storytelling. Imagine slipping into the mist-shrouded swamps of the Bridgewater Triangle where Pukwudgie tricksters lurk, or facing the skinless Boo Hag that steals skins to walk among us at night. Or encountering storm-riding Blue Men of the Minch who challenge sailors with deadly rhymes, or river monsters like Borinkus haunting blackwater bends. These aren’t dusty retellings, they’re vivid, cinematic journeys that blend the eerie beauty of myth with the haunting possibility that something truly waits in the unknown. Creative folklore with bite: Episodes weave historical context, eyewitness reports, and imaginative twists into gripping narratives. Expect rich sensory details, cultural depth, and explorations of origins, societal impacts, and “what if they’re real?” implications(ethical, existential, and ecological). Short and immersive: All episodes clock in at 15 minutes or less—perfect for late-night listens, commutes, or quick escapes into the strange. Two new episodes drop weekly, building your horde of hidden legends steadily. Tone: Dark, mysterious, and wondrous. It channels classic horror podcast vibes and fireside ghost stories with modern production. Think vivid narration, subtle sound design cues, and a respectful nod to source cultures while amplifying the uncanny. The podcast spans global traditions and local terrors: - The Blue Men of Minch → Storm kelpies of Scotland’s treacherous straits. - Borinkus (St. John’s River Monster) → Florida’s elusive river beast. - The Tikbalang → Horse-headed trickster of Philippine forests. - The Boo Hag → Skin-stealing nightmare of Gullah lore. - The Pukwudgie → Mischievous swamp dwellers of New England. - The Piasa Bird, Jenny Greenteeth, Lac Wood Screecher, and more—from Native American rock art horrors to English bog witches. If you love podcasts like Lore, Monsters Among Us, or The Midnight Library but want tighter, more cinematic bites, or if cryptid shows like Sasquatch Chronicles appeal but you crave global folklore with creative flair, Legends of the Hidden Horde delivers. It transforms ancient whispers and modern sightings into stories that linger, making you scan the treeline, check the water’s edge, or wonder what’s really out there in the dark. Keep your eyes open. You never know what might be lurking in the shadows.

  1. 1d ago

    Episode 53: Dobhar-chú

    Glenade does not announce itself. It lies in a long green trough in north County Leitrim, pinched between the Arroo mountains and the Dartry range, with Benbulben’s bare forehead watching from the Sligo side. The lough is small by tourist maps. A mile of dark water. Half a mile across. Pike and perch and eel in the weed. White-clawed crayfish in the stones. Cars take the Bundoran road and never look down. The people of the glen always looked down In the National Folklore Collection, the school copybooks of the 1930s, when children still wrote what the old people would actually say, the teacher at Ahanlish set down a sentence that still feels like a nail in a door: The one legend that is known to all the children as well as the older people of the glen, and firmly believed, is that of the Dobhar Cú. Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobhar-ch%C3%BA https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4602723/4598437/4626430 https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4602749/4600955/4634687 https://www.sligoheritage.com/archdabharchu.htm https://www.leitrimobserver.ie/news/features/334274/the-tale-of-leitrim-s-own-loch-ness-monster-the-dobhar-chu.html https://hollywoodentertainmentnews.com/paranormal-news/the-dobhar-chao-trailing-irelands-mysterious-master-otter-part-1-glenade-lake-and-a-gravestone-shukernature/ https://folklorethursday.com/folktales/this-irish-cryptid-casts-otters-in-a-whole-new-light/ https://www.historicmysteries.com/myths-legends/dobhar-chu/38817/ https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/irish-mythical-monster-dobhar-chu https://www.tonyoneill.org/2017/04/12/glenade-lake-and-the-legend-of-the-dobhar-chu/ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dobharch%C3%BA Patrick Tohall’s 1948 paper, “The Dobhar-Chú Tombstones of Glenade, Co. Leitrim,” Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, is the core description of the Congbháil slab.

    Episode 53: Dobhar-chú

  2. 5d ago

    Episode 52: Mapinguari

    The canopy in the western Amazon does not open. It closes over you the way a hand closes over a mouth. Light arrives late and leaves early. The air is thick enough to taste. Somewhere above, spider monkeys move and the whole green ceiling shifts, then stills. Hunters who work this country, Karitiana, Mura, Apurinã, and the river people who came later with tapir knives and tin cups, learn a rule that needs no school: If the birds go quiet, you are no longer walking toward something. Something is walking toward you. They have many names for what walks. In the language Portuguese borrowed and never quite returned, the name is Mapinguari. Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapinguari https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303742210_Realidade_ciencia_e_fantasia_nas_controversias_sobre_o_Mapinguari_no_sudoeste_amazonico https://thehorrorcollection.com/mapinguari-prehistoric-beast-amazon/ https://occult-world.com/mapinguari/ https://www.portalsaofrancisco.com.br/folclore/mapinguari https://oldfolklore.com/the-mapinguari-of-the-deep-amazon/ https://pueblosindigenas.es/leyendas/mapinguari/ https://colecionadordesacis.com.br/2022/06/03/monstrum-mapinguari-e-a-preguica-gigante/ https://skeptoid.com/episodes/888 https://revistaamazonia.com.br/tradicao-oral-amazonica-preserva-o-mito-do-mapinguari-como-um-gigante-peludo-que-atua-como-guardiao-punitivo-da-floresta/ https://caofidencial.com/mapinguari-folclore-brasileiro/ https://cryptidarchives.fandom.com/wiki/Mapinguari

    Episode 52: Mapinguari

  3. Sep 9

    Episode 51: Mokèlé-mbèmbé

    There are places on this Earth where the water does not hurry. This is where we heading in Episode 51. In the northern Congo Basin the rivers thicken into swamp. They lose their banks. They forget which way is downstream. Blackwater slides under a roof of trees so dense the sun arrives already tired. The air tastes of peat and iron. At the sharp bends, the current has chewed caves into the clay, and the caves hold their breath. People who live with those rivers have always known that something lives in the pause between current and stillness. Not a tourist’s monster. Not a poster dinosaur. A presence with a job. They call it, Mokèlé-mbèmbé. One who stops the flow of rivers. Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokele-mbembe https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokélé-mbembé https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tele https://abookofcreatures.com/category/republic-of-the-congo/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/tetrapod-zoology/misreading-the-mokele-mbembe-the-mokele-mbembe-part-1/ https://www.iflscience.com/mokele-mbembe-the-living-dinosaurs-people-thought-lived-in-the-congo-70121 https://www.livescience.com/38871-mokele-mbembe.html https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16306902 https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-congos-dinosaur-of-discord/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/congo-basin-mokele-mbembe-deforestation https://skeptoid.com/episodes/727 https://www.encyclopediaofinvisibility.com/entries/mokele-mbembe https://mythlok.com/mokele-mbembe/ https://www.discoveryuk.com/mysteries/the-legend-of-mokele-mbembe-africas-hidden-dinosaur/ https://www.geo.fr/animaux/mystere-du-mokele-mbembe-dragon-monstre-mythique-du-centre-de-afrique-loch-ness-cryptozoologie-216027 https://www.anomalist.com/reports/mokele.html https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/a-french-missionarys-eighteenth-century-account-of-mokele-mbembe Mackal’s book, if you want the primary expedition text: Roy P. Mackal, A Living Dinosaur? In Search of Mokele-Mbembe (Brill, 1987). For the skeptical historical reading: Daniel Loxton and Donald R. Prothero, Abominable Science!

    Episode 51: Mokèlé-mbèmbé

  4. Sep 2

    Episode 50: Nuckelavee

    Well, we hit a milestone tonight.  Episode 50. For Fifty nights we’ve opened the door and let the old stories walk back into the light. These are not just monsters. They are the living remains of oral histories, voices carried across generations, across oceans, across the thin places where people once tried to name what frightened them, what protected them, and what they could never fully understand. Our quiet work has always been the same: to keep those voices from fading, to hold the details carefully, and to listen for the lessons still buried inside the dread. And we could not have done any of it without you. Thank you for following the tracks. Thank you for sitting with the strange and the terrible. Thank you for helping these legends survive a little longer in a world that too often forgets how to listen. Tonight, for the fiftieth time, we walk into the dark together. On the black shores of Orkney, something skinless is waiting. Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuckelavee https://folklorescotland.com/nuckelavee/ https://web.archive.org/web/20191220012807/http://www.orkneyjar.com/folklore/nuckle.htm https://godsandmonsters.info/nuckelavee/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Mither https://web.archive.org/web/20230514013844/http://www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/kelpburning.htm https://archive.org/stream/scottishantiqua05unkngoog/scottishantiqua05unkngoog_djvu.txt

    Episode 50: Nuckelavee

  5. Sep 1

    Episode 49: Adar Llwch Gwin

    In episode 49 we walk into the dark folds of the old Welsh hills, where mist clings to the bracken like a second skin and the wind carries the salt of distant seas, Here in these hills there once lived a truth that the bards never quite dared to soften. This is the tale of the Adar Llwch Gwin, the Birds of the Dust of Wine, creatures whose wings once darkened the sky above the Island of Britain, and whose obedience became the sharpest blade in any warrior’s hand. We speak of them with care.  These stories belong first to the Welsh tradition, to the cyfarwyddyd, the storytelling lore, of a people whose language and memory have endured through centuries of change.  The Adar Llwch Gwin are not ours to claim or reshape; they are part of a living cultural inheritance. We approach them as guests at an old fire, listening rather than inventing, and we leave the deeper meanings where they have always rested: with those who still speak the language that named them. Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adar_Llwch_Gwin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drudwas_ap_Tryffin https://godsandmonsters.info/adar-llwch-gwin/ https://nightbringer.se/nightbringer/lair_adar.html https://nightbringer.se/the-legend-of-king-arthur/arthurian-characters/a-persons-in-the-arthurian-legends/adar-llwch-gwin/ Primary manuscript traditions referenced include the Welsh Triads / Trioedd Ynys Prydein, Culhwch and Olwen, and the later prose account of The Death of Drudwas preserved in manuscripts such as Mostyn MS. 146.

    Episode 49: Adar Llwch Gwin

  6. Aug 28

    Episode 48: Skinwalker (Yee Naaldlooshii)

    In episode 48 we climb into the high desert of the Four Corners, where the night wind carries the scent of sage and distant rain that never quite arrives, the stories are not told lightly. The Diné people have long known that some knowledge is best left unspoken. Among the most carefully guarded is the teaching of the Yee naaldlooshii, those who go on all fours by means of it. This is not a creature that was born of the wild. It is a human who chose to step outside the circle of Hózhó, the beauty and balance that holds the world together.  What follows is a telling shaped from traditional patterns of encounter stories, the careful ethnographic records of those who listened with respect, and the quiet edge cases that surface when the same truth is carried by many mouths across generations. It is offered with the understanding that these matters remain living, sensitive, and largely private within Navajo communities. Speaking of them at all is an act that requires care. Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin-walker https://www.legendsofamerica.com/navajo-skinwalkers/ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yee_naaldlooshii https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/strange-creatures/skinwalker.htm https://skepticalinquirer.org/newsletter/skinwalkers/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinwalker_Ranch https://allthatsinteresting.com/skinwalker https://peabody.harvard.edu/publication/navaho-witchcraft (Clyde Kluckhohn, Navaho Witchcraft, 1944) https://archive.org/details/somekindofpowern0000brad (Margaret K. Brady, Some Kind of Power: Navajo Children’s Skinwalker Narratives) These sources include ethnographic material, traditional summaries, and careful discussion of cultural context. They are offered so the reader may continue with respect and discernment.

    Episode 48: Skinwalker (Yee Naaldlooshii)

  7. Aug 25

    Episode 47 - Mishipeshu

    This is an original, atmospheric retelling inspired by Anishinaabe oral traditions, historical accounts, and pictographs. These stories belong to living Indigenous cultures. They are often shared only in winter, when the waters are locked in ice and the spirit is said to sleep. What follows is offered with humility as creative narrative grounded in recorded folklore, not as a substitute for the words of knowledge keepers. Tobacco, respect for water, and proper protocol remain the true offerings. The wind off Gichigami never truly dies. Even on still nights it moves across the black water like breath from something vast and patient, waiting below the surface. The Anishinaabe have always known this. The lake is not empty. It is a mouth. They call the one who lives in that mouth  Mishipeshu, the Great Lynx, the Underwater Panther. Some elders say the name should not be spoken lightly in the warm months. Others say the spirit already knows when it is being discussed. The stories differ. That is the nature of living tradition. Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_panther https://miidashgeget.wordpress.com/2019/02/24/great-lynx-the-thunder-and-the-mortals/ https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mishipeshu https://thewalrus.ca/coming-face-to-face-with-the-underwater-panther/ https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-americas/mishipizheu-0015625 https://greatlakes.guide/ideas/meet-mishipeshu-the-underwater-panther-in-lake-superior

    Episode 47 - Mishipeshu

  8. Aug 20

    Episode 46: Ciguapa

    In Episode 47 we step into the high folds of the Cordillera Central, where the mountains of El Cibao hold their secrets close and the night does not merely fall. It gathers . Mist rises from the rivers like the breath of something sleeping beneath the stone. Cedars and pines stand in dark ranks. The air carries the scent of wet earth, crushed fern, and something older, something that does not belong to any map drawn after 1492. Travelers who still walk these ridges after dusk speak of a sound that is not wind and not bird: a soft, rising howl, or a chirp like a partridge calling from a place no partridge should be. Some say it is only the mountain answering itself. Others know better. They call her the Ciguapa. Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciguapa https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciguapa https://factschology.com/mmm-podcast-articles/origin-ciguapa-dominican-republic https://hoy.com.do/el-pais/origenes-del-mito-de-la-ciguapa_850138.html https://www.artisticord.com/2014/02/la-ciguapa-leyenda-dominicana.html https://www.artisticord.com/2014/12/la-ciguapa-francisco-javier-angulo.html https://mipais.jmarcano.com/socio-cultural/religion-mitos/mitos/ciguapa/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciguayos https://read.dukeupress.edu/small-axe/article-abstract/20/3%20(51)/100/33456/La-ciguapa-y-el-ciguapeo-Dominican-Myth-Metaphor

    Episode 46: Ciguapa
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About

Legends of the Hidden Horde is a biweekly podcast that dives deep into the shadows of folklore, cryptids, and enigmatic creatures from around the world. Hosted by Lance Martin, each episode delivers a chilling, atmospheric tale grounded in real legends, eyewitness accounts, and cultural lore, brought to life through immersive, creative storytelling. Imagine slipping into the mist-shrouded swamps of the Bridgewater Triangle where Pukwudgie tricksters lurk, or facing the skinless Boo Hag that steals skins to walk among us at night. Or encountering storm-riding Blue Men of the Minch who challenge sailors with deadly rhymes, or river monsters like Borinkus haunting blackwater bends. These aren’t dusty retellings, they’re vivid, cinematic journeys that blend the eerie beauty of myth with the haunting possibility that something truly waits in the unknown. Creative folklore with bite: Episodes weave historical context, eyewitness reports, and imaginative twists into gripping narratives. Expect rich sensory details, cultural depth, and explorations of origins, societal impacts, and “what if they’re real?” implications(ethical, existential, and ecological). Short and immersive: All episodes clock in at 15 minutes or less—perfect for late-night listens, commutes, or quick escapes into the strange. Two new episodes drop weekly, building your horde of hidden legends steadily. Tone: Dark, mysterious, and wondrous. It channels classic horror podcast vibes and fireside ghost stories with modern production. Think vivid narration, subtle sound design cues, and a respectful nod to source cultures while amplifying the uncanny. The podcast spans global traditions and local terrors: - The Blue Men of Minch → Storm kelpies of Scotland’s treacherous straits. - Borinkus (St. John’s River Monster) → Florida’s elusive river beast. - The Tikbalang → Horse-headed trickster of Philippine forests. - The Boo Hag → Skin-stealing nightmare of Gullah lore. - The Pukwudgie → Mischievous swamp dwellers of New England. - The Piasa Bird, Jenny Greenteeth, Lac Wood Screecher, and more—from Native American rock art horrors to English bog witches. If you love podcasts like Lore, Monsters Among Us, or The Midnight Library but want tighter, more cinematic bites, or if cryptid shows like Sasquatch Chronicles appeal but you crave global folklore with creative flair, Legends of the Hidden Horde delivers. It transforms ancient whispers and modern sightings into stories that linger, making you scan the treeline, check the water’s edge, or wonder what’s really out there in the dark. Keep your eyes open. You never know what might be lurking in the shadows.

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