Should the name of a mythological creature be capitalized?
The name of the mythological creature in my novel is "manananggal". When I'm referring to it, should I capitalize what it is?
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Mythological creatures, or creatures you've invented, don't need to be capitalised, just like real-life animals. There's no grammatical difference between "a dog", "an orc", "a dragon" and "a manananggal".
To cite a famous example,
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. (J.R.R Tolkien, The Hobbit, chapter 1 - An Unexpected Party)
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Yes, if it's the Grinch
A unique creature, which is the Manananggal (effectively THAT creature's name), should be capitalized.
No, if it's a fairy
Even if your creature is rare, if you are likely to ever refer to it as a manananggal (a member of a group or species), then don't capitalize it.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40408. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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