INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world.
These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.
I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.
We’re looking at a legendary cryptid this week, which is such a wild one and one that’s been replicated in a million and one media bits along the ages.
DESCRIPTION:
Yes, this week we’re covering the world-famous Mongolian Death Worm - which as you can imagine from the name is a worm monster from Mongolia, that’s the first descriptive lesson you can have from this one.
The Mongolian Death Worm is described as a bright red, 2-7ft long worm creature around the same length as a small intestine with no noticeable eyes, nose or mouth. They can spew a corrosive slime which can melt human flesh and other substances, and they can also produce a slight electrical discharge to stun their prey.
The Mongolian Death Worm travels underground and can be spotted by the waves of sand that appear on the surface of the desert when it passes and when it does manage to get above ground, it slithers and rolls side to slide like a big snake or, really like a big earthworm, funnily enough.
But how does it eat if it has no mouth? Well some theories are that it does in fact have a mouth, but it will open like an envelope from its entire head - and has hundreds of rows of backwards teeth. It eats anything in its path, for its long hibernation for ten months of the year, only appearing during June and July to feast to its heart's content.
This monster lives in the wilderness of the Gobi desert in Mongolia, the sixth largest desert in the world - however, not a usual desert in the traditional sense. This desert is particularly chilly, and usually has snow on the peaks of the dunes - meaning that actually during the months of June and July, the temperatures only reach a cool 18 degrees in the heat of the day.
Due to its environment, it mostly feasts on camels and humans - and will raise its body above the sands, and inflate itself until it explodes with its foul poison. But when it does attack camels, it lays its eggs in their large intestines - turning the camel a ghastly shade of red whilst it is eaten from the inside out by the young of this monster.
Is there anyway to kill these beasts though? Well, I mean - yeah, it's a 2ft long worm. I don't know what you want me to say here. However, you’d have to avoid that instant-kill poison spray - but you’d generally use the same means as you would to kill a small snake, so use your imagination. But if you don’t manage to kill it, I’d be pretty sure to stay away, as if it’s just injured, it will expel its exoskeleton to make a full recovery like a tailless lizard.
ORIGIN:
Now for etymology, you may be thinking that perhaps this one is a little obvious - it’s from Mongolia, and it brings death and is a worm - but actually, in Mongolia - it’s called a completely different thing. The same monster in Mongolian is Olgoi-Khorkhoi, which translates to intestine worm - again, being a bit obvious, but a lot more interesting than the just Mongolian Death Worm in the literal sense.
The history of this monster goes back at least 1000 years based on the tribes in the Gobi desert, however, much like many other native tribal monsters - this knowledge is not accessible or known to the outside world from these cultures. However, what we do know is from the 1900’s - with Russian scientists allegedly uncovering a dead worm in 1972 and hiding it within a basement of a Russian museum.
However, the zoologist Roy Chapman Andrews was the first western researcher to talk about and write down the truth of the legend. In his 1926 book, On the Trail of Ancient Man, he said;
Then the Premier asked that, if it were possible, I should capture for the Mongolian government a specimen of the allergorhai-horhai…None of those present ever had seen the creature, but they all firmly believed in its existence and described it minutely…The Premier said that, although he had never seen it himself, he knew a man who had and had lived to tell the tale. Then a Cabinet Minister stated that ‘the cousin of his late wife’s sister’ had also seen it.
Also an important note is that Mongolia had been under Soviet control until 1990, so there was very little known about the Mongolian Death Worm in the West. That was until there were famous expeditions in order to find it in 1990, 1992 and 2004 by the famous cryptozoologist Ivan Mackerle, who is one of the leading specialists in the Loch Ness Monster - however, after inventing traps and ways to try and coerce the monster out, but to no avail.
In 2005, the Centre for Fortean Zoology crossed a thousand miles of the Gobi to track and prove the existence of the deathworm, however, they came to the idea that this was probably an unknown type of worm lizard.
However, experts are pretty sure that it’s not actually a real worm based on its environment, as the Gobi Desert is too hot an area for annelids to survive, which are the animal family that worms belong to. Some experts have suggested it might be a skink, but others discredit this as they have legs and scales, where the Mongolian Death Worm is noted to be limbless and smooth.
The idea is that the most probable explanation of this monster is that it’s most likely a type of undiscovered worm-lizard, which do exist within this environment, as they burrow into the sand and does definitely match the MO of our monster.
I will say as well that although this monster does have a ridiculous name and MO that actually, many people in Mongolia do truly believe it exists, and is not even a myth monster I should be discussing. They truly do believe it is a real animal, and because of the numerous stories surrounding them with eyewitness accounts from park rangers, police officers and even a Mongolian prime minister.
CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
Now onto modern media, we have quite a few this week - as I said at the beginning, it's been the inspiration for so many movies and tv series that we’ve got a lot to cover.
For art, as this is a cryptid - there are very few artistic pieces, however as usual, so have a look at some independent artwork such as what I’ve used in the marketing this week.
In movies, we have quite a few like; Mongolian Death Worm, Tremors, Dune, Star Wars, Beetlejuice, Sand Serpents, Men In Black 2 & Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
For TV, we have; Dune, Tremors, Hercules: the legendary journeys, Sliders, Earth 2, Aladdin, Star Wars Rebels, The Outer Limits, Beetlejuice, Ben 10, Teen Titans, Courage the Cowardly Dog, The Flight of Dragons, Fairly Odd Parents, Bounty Hamster, Lost Tapes, Andromeda, Seaquest DSV, What’s New Scooby Doo?, The Mandalorian, Ultraman Tiga, Intruders, Futurama, Spongebob Squarepants, The Legend of Korra, Major Lazer, The Mummy, Pirates of Dark Water, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic & Uchu Sentai Kyuranger.
In video games, we have ones such as; Darksiders, Age of Wonders, Dark Souls 3, Death Worms, Destroy All Humans 2, Bugs!, ARK: Survival Evolved, Black Sigil, Borderlands 2, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Breath of Fire 4, Civilisation: Beyond Earth, Diablo 2 & 3, Dune, Dyna Gear, Final Fantasy 5, 6, 10 & 11, Fallout 4, Gears of War 2, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Halo 5: Guardians, Hollow Knight, The Immortal, Kingdom of Loathing, The Legend of Zelda, Mass Effect, Master of Magic, Lost Land Adventure, Lost Planet, Monster Hunter, World of Warcraft, Xenoblade Chronicles 10, Zombies Ate My Neighbours, Timesplitters, Terraria, Subnautica, Starcraft 2, Splatoon 2, Silent Hill, Scribblenauts, Runescape, Pokemon, Pikmin, Overlord, No Man’s Sky & Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
I will note that there are plenty more video games here with these types of monsters - these are just some of them, I didn’t want to overwhelm you lot.
My book recommendation this week is Cryptozoology A to Z: The Encyclopaedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and other Authentic Mysteries of Nature by Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark, which goes over all cryptids in a great and in depth ways, I really recommend it for all my cryptid fans.
DO I THINK THEY EXISTED?
Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?1408
Honestly, for this one I’m going to say no - because it's a giant sand worm and for me at least - I can only imagine the monsters from Tremors, and with the comical nature of those eating my absolute favourite Kevin Bacon movie, it’s kind of hard to take them seriously.
I will also say that the possibility of them being real is pretty slim, just due to the silly size of them and the idea that these bright red worms are parading about the Gobi desert is pretty ridiculous - but we have heard slightly more ridiculous things on this podcast, we did do a whole 19 minute episode on a flying man who is also a moth.
But what do you think? Did the Mongolian Death Worm roam the desert? Let me know on Twitter!
OUTRO:
I loved this one, definitely love a bit of the cryptids - and they’re just so wild and unusual that they’re just so fun to cover! Also, this one is crazy considering it’s literally just a giant, tooth covered sand worm that lives in a practically unlivable place but it’s certainly a memorable one at that.
Next week, we’re staying in Asia and heading back over to Japan for the legendary Japanese monster, the Tengu. Make sure to keep your swords sheathed to avoid the wrath of this monster this Thursday!
For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.
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But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.