Unipedalism

In fiction and mythology

One major study of mythological unipeds is Teresa Pàroli (2009): "How many are the unipeds' feet? Their tracks in texts and sources", in Analecta Septentrionalia: Beiträge zur nordgermanischen Kultur- und Literaturgeschichte, ed. by Wilhelm Heizmann, Klaus Böldl and Heinrich Beck (Berlin/London/New York: De Gruyter), pp. 281–327.

• In the Saga of Erik the Red, a native of Vinland who is described as being one-legged kills one of Eric's men (his brother). In the children's fiction book They Came on Viking Ships by Jackie French, a uniped is a one-legged Norse mythical creature that lived in the south of Vinland during the time of the expedition of Freydís Eiríksdóttir.
• The sciapod was another mythical one-legged humanoid.
• In Japanese mythology and folklore, some yōkai such as the karakasa-obake and the ippon-datara have one leg.
• In the Narnia book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis, the heroes meet the "Dufflepuds". These are two-legged dwarfs who have been rendered one-legged by their master, a wizard. He did this to force them to use the water from the stream next to their food garden, rather than walking miles to get the water.
• In Brazilian folklore, there is a mythical humanoid uniped called "Saci" who appears in several tales and is associated with dustdevils. Colombian folklore has a female version of this monster, the "Patasola".
• In Mayan mythology, God K and his equivalents are represented with one leg. One of these equivalents is the K'iche' Maya storm deity Huracan, whose name means "one-leg".
• In the Indian epic Mahabharata, there is a mention of a Southern Indian tribe of humans named 'Ekapada' (literally 'one-footed') living, which Sahadeva conquers.
• In Hindu culture, there is a form of the god Shiva known as Ekapada.