The Berbalangs are mythical creatures in

Filipino culture The culture of the Philippines is characterized by cultural diversity. Although the multiple ethnic groups of the Philippine archipelago have only recently established a shared Filipino national identity, their cultures were all shaped by the ...

, described as

ghoul A ghoul ( ar, غول, ') is a demon-like being or monstrous humanoid. The concept originated in pre-Islamic Arabian religion, associated with graveyards and the consumption of human flesh. Modern fiction often uses the term to label a cert ...

s who eat human flesh. They feed by digging up corpses from graveyards or by hunting living humans using flight and other supernatural powers. They are associated with the culture of the smaller towns of

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...

. The lore on Berbalangs has similarities with that on

Aswang Aswang is an umbrella term for various shape-shifting evil creatures in Filipino folklore, such as vampires, ghouls, witches, viscera suckers, and werebeasts (usually dogs, cats, pigs). The aswang is the subject of a wide variety of myths, s ...

creatures.

Description

Published information on the subject is based on a single report by Ethelbert Forbes Skertchly, a resident of

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

and an officer in the

British Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

, son of the better known

Sydney Barber Josiah Skertchly Sydney Barber Josiah Skertchly (14 December 1850 – 2 February 1926) was an English and later Australian botanist and geologist. He described and mapped the geology of East Anglia and The Fens, travelled the world exploring geology and other as ...

. E. F. Skertchly discussed the Berbalangs in an article published in 1896 by the Asiatic Society of Bengal. According to that report, based on Skertchly's visit to the island of Cagayan Sulu, now known as

Mapun Mapun, officially the Municipality of Mapun, is a 4th class municipality in the province of Tawi-Tawi, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 30,038 people. It is formerly known as Cagayan de Sulu until 1984, then as ...

Influence of Skertchly's description

The report by E. F. Skertchly is unusual in that he wrote as if he had personally witnessed some of the supernatural powers associated with the Berbalangs. The Scottish writer

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University o ...

introduced the Berbalangs as a plot point in the story "Adventure of the Fair American", included in the book ''The Disentanglers'' (1902). In that book, Lang explicitly cites Skertchley's account of the Berbalangs of Cagayan Sulu. Skertchly's article in the ''Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal'' also attracted the attention of English academic and ghost-story writer

M. R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambrid ...

, who in turn introduced it to Rupert T. Gould ''circa'' 1911. Gould discussed the subject and reproduced Skertchly's account of the Berbalangs in a chapter of his popular book ''Oddities'', first published in 1928. Modern awareness of the Berbalang lore largely derives from Gould's book.

In popular culture

* The Berbalang was included as a monster in the popular fantasy game ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

''. * An episode of

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

show ''

Legacies In law, a legacy is something held and transferred to someone as their inheritance, as by will and testament. Personal effects, family property, marriage property or collective property gained by will of real property. Legacy or legacies may refer ...

'', released in 2021, also references Berbalangs. The Berbalangs introduced in that episode have many similarities to those mentioned in the legend - red necrotic eyes, an insatiable appetite for dead flesh and an ability to interact with the astral plane. They also possess the ability to turn a human into a Berbalang through physical contact. In the episode, the protagonist Hope Mikaelson is bitten by a Berbalang and begins transforming. Her friends use a pearl-bladed dagger imbued with magic to reverse the transformation and bring her back (this method is similar to using a coconut pearl or a kris rubbed with lime juice to repel Berbalangs, as described in the legend).

References

{{authority control Philippine legendary creatures