Lovers of tall tales will enter a magical world of fairytales and monsters today as they mark World Storytelling Day.
The event, which has its roots in Sweden, is a global celebration of the art of oral storytelling and this year's theme is monsters and dragons.
To help get you in the mood, here are 10 tracks inspired by monsters and dragons.
Monster Mash
Bobby 'Boris' Pickett
Released in 1962, this track was written after Pickett performed a cover of The Diamonds Little Darlin' while imitating Boris Karloff with his band The Cordials. The sound of the coffin opening on the record was created by pulling a nail out of a board.
Demons
Imagine Dragons
Appearing on the band's debut album Night Visions, this track was written by record producer Alex da Kid. The song became the band's second top 10 single, spending 12 weeks in the Billboard Hot 100, and has sold over 3 million copies.
Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites
Skrillex
The lead single from the US electronic producers second EP, this track won Best Dance Recording at the 54th Grammy Awards. It was used in the 2012 film trailer for Spring Breakers and in video games MLB2K12 and Ridge Racer Unbounded.
The Number of the Beast
Iron Maiden
Written by the band's bass player Steve Harris, this track was influenced by the film Damien: Omen II, about a 13-year-old Antichrist. Harris said: "Basically, this song is about a dream. It's not about devil worship."
Ogre Battle
Queen
Appearing on the band's second album Queen II, this track was written by Freddie Mercury and recorded at Trident Studios, London. The song was written in 1972 but the band wanted to perfect it and so decided against recording it for their debut album.
The Monster
Eminem featuring Rihanna
Taken from Eminem's eighth studio album The Marshall Mathers LP 2, this track marks the fourth collaboration between the rapper and Rihanna. The lyrics discuss coming to grips with your inner demons and the negative effects of fame.
St George and the Dragon
Toto
This track appeared on the band's 1979 album Hydra. The album reached number 37 in the US Pop Album charts, however, most of its singles, with the exception of THX1138, failed to make any impact on the Billboard Hot 100.
Running Scared
Roy Orbison
Written by Orbison and Joe Melson, this track is famous for being a song without a chorus. The song's b-side was a hit for Orbison in Australia and became better known in 1975 when a cover by Nazareth achieved international success.
Feed My Frankenstein
Alice Cooper
Released as a single in 1992, this track is taken from Cooper's 19th solo album Hey Stoopid. Guest appearances on the song include Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Nikki Sixx. Cooper also performed the track in the 1992 film Wayne's World.
Roar
Katy Perry
Taken from Perry's fourth album Prism, this track is about self-empowerment and standing up for yourself. It was nominated for Song of the Year and the Best Pop Solo Performance at the 56th Grammy Awards.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article