78 Solves & 157 Attempts
Some clues are easier ways in than others. “Japanese heavenly dog”, for example, is unmistakably the tengu. Other clues also describe unusual physical aspects of living creatures. Solvers should be able to quickly realise that each clue describes a specific mythical creature. The puzzle title should also reassure solvers that they are on the right track.
With that theme in mind, solvers looking at the word list might notice that some words seem to share many letters with certain mythical creatures (all the letters in “phoenix” are found in “xenophobia”, for instance). Using the given numbers to extract directly from the given words yields gibberish, anyway. The second given word, “anagrams”, is also pretty much a giveaway as to what these words are.
After figuring out the creature name hidden in each word and removing it, the leftover letters can be rearranged to fill in the blanks in the bottom section. Solvers will also find that the mythical creatures to which the clues refer are contained in the anagrams, exactly once each.
The next step is to index into the blank’s answer, using the number beside the anagram from which the answer was derived. However, the given words are in alphabetical order. This should clue solvers to rearrange the extracted letters in order of the bottom section. This gives the clue phrase TANAKH SEA BEAST, which references yet another mythical creature better known as the LEVIATHAN.
The answers are:
| Clue | Mythical creature clued | Answer of blank in clue | Anagram corresponding to blank’s answer | Mythical creature in anagram | # | Letter from blank’s answer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The sight of her turns onlookers to ___ | MEDUSA | STONE | honeytraps | HARPY | 2 | T |
| It's on Warsaw's coat of ___ | MERMAID | ARMS | anagrams | NAGA | 1 | A |
| This heavenly dog has a long ___ | TENGU | NOSE | misdemeanor | MERMAID | 1 | N |
| A giant ___ came to the aid of this many-headed serpent | HYDRA | CRAB | ambuscader | MEDUSA | 3 | A |
| Charles Wesley's 1739 song about several of this messenger begins: "___, the..." | ANGEL | HARK | shakerlike | SELKIE | 4 | K |
| In Matthew 8:30-32, Jesus allowed these to enter a ___ of pigs | DEMON | HERD | unchartered | CENTAUR | 1 | H |
| Woman with ___ instead of arms | HARPY | WINGS | crowings | ROC | 5 | S |
| Has the lower body of a ___ | CENTAUR | HORSE | tougheners | TENGU | 5 | E |
| Has a serpentine shape, like a feather ___ | NAGA | BOA | xenophobia | PHOENIX | 3 | A |
| Enormous Arabian ___ of prey | ROC | BIRD | braiding | AGNI | 1 | B |
| Vedic entity, name meaning ___, with two kindling sticks for parents | AGNI | FIRE | releafing | ANGEL | 4 | E |
| Avian reborn from the ___es | PHOENIX | ASH | handsome | DEMON | 1 | A |
| The individual who creates this bloodsucker is called its ___ | VAMPIRE | SIRE | hayriders | HYDRA | 1 | S |
| Wearing a sealskin ___ allows them to transform | SELKIE | COAT | comparative | VAMPIRE | 4 | T |
Author’s notes
This puzzle was originally a lot looser as I didn’t make use of the leftover letters in the anagram. But I didn’t really like leaving them unused, and I realised I could get them to form words, and thus this iteration of the puzzle was born.
Getting everything to match was a nightmare, especially since I was also trying to have each blank’s answer be sufficiently sharp and unambiguous. I also abandoned my original idea of ordering the eventual clue phrase according to the loop of the blank’s answer, the mythical creature it clued, and the anagram in which the creature was embedded.
I also deliberately used “tanakh” in the clue phrase to make it harder to eyeball, so solvers would have to solve more of the clues.