|
|
Post by Graveyardbride on Oct 5, 2014 22:17:27 GMT -5
Phantom Black Dogs of the British IslesTales of phantom black dogs abound in Britain with almost every county having its own variant – from Black Shuck of East Anglia to the Padfoot, Barghest and Bogey Beast of Yorkshire. Phantom black dogs have been witnessed too frequently in modern times to dismiss the supernatural beasts as nothing more than folklore and legend, but then real events are what usually inspire folklore and legend.
Numerous theories have been offered to explain the black dog phenomenon and, indeed, the sightings have common traits. In appearance, the phantoms vary from region to region, but it is not uncommon for them to be described as calf-sized with saucer eyes and a shaggy coat. Additionally, these otherworldly hounds are not always black – the one said to haunt the area around Cawthorpe and Haugham in Lincolnshire, is described as white, but it has the usual saucer eyes and is said to be as big as a calf. The Cu Sith, the traditional fairy dog of Scotland, is dark green and shaggy with a long bushy tail and its paws are the width of a man’s hand. Black dogs are more often than not associated with a specific location such as an old track or lane and some of these locations are named for the beasts that haunt them. There are Black Dog place names in Sussex and just south of the Surrey border near Haslesmere is a place called Black Dog Copse. In Crawley, an old path between the high street and West Green is called Black Dog Lane, and in Devonshire, a village named Black Dog lies between Dartmoor and Exmoor.
There have been some attempts at classifying Black Dog sightings. Folklorist Theo Brown divided mysterious black dogs into three types: A, B and C. Type A is a shape-shifting demon dog; B is a black, calf-sized phantom with shaggy fur, and C is a hound that appears at the time of certain ancient festivals in specific parts of Britain. Katherine Briggs, another folklorist, categorizes mysterious black hounds as demon dogs, the spirits of human beings that appear in the form of black dogs, and residual hauntings that include dogs.
In local traditions, black dog sightings are often considered death portents, especially those seen in ancient churchyards in the form of the Church or Kirk Grim (Kirk being the Scottish word for Church), which is believed to represent a folk memory of sacrifice. The black dog that haunts Peel Castle and a nearby graveyard on the Isle of Man, is one such grim, and according to legend, this dog once scared a sentry to death. Other sightings from the south of England have been related to coincidental sudden deaths.
A weather vane in Bungay Market in Suffolk depicts a black dog and flash of lighting, commemorating an event that occurred Sunday August 4, 1577. Between 9 and 10 o’clock that morning, while the parishioners of St. Mary’s Church were at worship, a fearful and violent storm broke out, which caused the sky to darken and the church itself to quake. Suddenly, in the midst of the storm, a huge, black demon dog appeared within the church. Illuminated by flashes of fire, the beast ran about the church, causing much fear and panic. As it passed between two people kneeling in prayer, it touched them and they died instantly. Another man was badly burned and shriveled, but survived.
At approximately the same time, about eight miles south in Blythburgh, a ferocious thunderstorm struck and the evil black dog entered Holy Trinity Church, killing three people and leaving scorch marks on the door which can be seen to this day.
These two examples suggest a phenomenon related to weather conditions, perhaps some form of ball lighting, substantiated by the fact one person was badly burned and the scorch marks on the church house door. Because it has been more than 400 years since these events occurred, it is impossible to ascertain what really happened.
Other phantom dogs aren’t so violent and there are actually stories of people being assisted by these mysterious beasts. For example Augustus Hare in his book In My Solitary Life, recounts a common tale he heard about a man called Johnnie Greenwood of Swancliffe. Greenwood had to ride through a dark span of woods at night to get to his destination and as he entered the woods, he was joined by a black dog that padded along beside him until he reached the clearing on the other side, at which point, the animal disappeared. On his return journey, the black beast joined him again and, as before, vanished as soon as he emerged from the woods. Apparently, some years later, two prisoners condemned to death confessed they had decided to rob and murder Greenwood that night and were hidden in the woods, but the presence of the calf-sized black dog frightened them and they abandoned their plans.
Phantom black dogs haunt ancient lanes, tracks, crossroads, old churchyards and prehistoric sites, many of which are associated with local superstitions and the uncanny. Such locations are said to be liminal places, where the veil between the worlds of the living and dead are believed to be exceptionally thin. Black dogs also haunt ley lines and it has been suggested these beings represent some form of energy or natural phenomena transformed by the mind into an archetype black dog. A great deal of research has been done by earth mystery researchers who suggest that certain geophysical conditions may affect the human mind. These places were recognized by ancient man and this is the reason black dogs (as some form of archetype) appear at locations of ancient sanctity. This same theory has been applied to other unexplained phenomena.
Gallows sites (often located at crossroads) were also common black dog haunts. The demonic animal was sometimes thought to be the spirit of the executed criminal, such as the ghostly black hound said to haunt a gallows site in Tring, Hertfordshire, where in 1751, an old woman was drowned for the practice of witchcraft. A chimney sweep was held responsible, in part, for her death and was hanged and gibbeted near the site of the crime. After the chimney sweep’s execution, a black dog began to haunt the place where the gibbet stood and on one occasion, the apparition was seen by the village schoolmaster. He described the animals as shaggy, as big as a Newfoundland, with long ears and tail, eyes of flaming fire and long teeth. In this encounter, the schoolmaster initially saw a flame which changed into the demon dog. Flames and scorched earth are often associated with such hauntings.
In Scotland particularly, phantom black dogs often guard buried treasure such as the one said to protect treasure concealed beneath a standing stone near Murthley in Perthshire.
In summary, it seems the black dog phenomenon is a complex mixture of folklore, local superstition and actual sightings having roots in the distant past. There are many explanations for modern sightings and a phantom black dog is a powerful archetype, incorporated into modern stories such as The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle.Sources: Britain's Black Dogs; Suffolk History, and Explore Phantom Black Dogs, edited by Bob Trubshaw.
|
|
|
|
Post by Sam on Oct 5, 2014 23:08:23 GMT -5
I never get tired of reading about ghostly black dogs, but I would like to know more about those in the U.S.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kate on Oct 6, 2014 9:54:02 GMT -5
In our old groups, we had some discussions about black dogs in the U.S., but I'd like to know more about them, maybe a listing of where all of them are. I know that there are some in Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia, but there are probably a lot of others.
|
|
|
|
Post by Sam on Dec 26, 2014 3:06:09 GMT -5
A few nights ago, we watched "The Hound of the Baskervilles," the one that was made in 2002, because it has a Christmas scene in it. Folks in Appalachia grow up hearing all kinds of ghost stories and my niece and nephew like anything that's spooky, so they really enjoyed it. Some of the other movie versions are better, but this one is a lot better than the one where Holmes was played by Matt Frewer.
|
|
|
|
Post by jason on Dec 26, 2014 17:53:45 GMT -5
"The Hound of the Baskervilles" starring Matt Frewer was almost as bad as the spoof with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Matt Frewer's Holmes is a dingbat, the hound of hell turned out to be a freaking black German shepherd of normal size, and a lot of the scenes that were shot in Canada didn't look anything like Dartmoor. Then there was Jason London, who played Sir Henry. I've seen better acting in high school plays. Whoever was doing the casting could have gone out and hired the first young man walking along the sidewalk and he would have done a better job than London. Frewer was much better as Holmes in "The Whitechapel Vampire," which was also a much better movie.
|
|
|
|
Post by chris on Jun 2, 2023 15:30:01 GMT -5
There are 3 or 4 different articles about phantom Black Dogs, and this one says they often haunt gallows sites and are thought to the the spirits of executed criminals. I don't understand why a person's spirit would return as Black Dog. I think the Black Dogs are probably demonic beings that are somehow created by the evil of these men who were hanged.
|
|
|
|
Post by snowfairy on Jun 2, 2023 17:46:13 GMT -5
There are 3 or 4 different articles about phantom Black Dogs, and this one says they often haunt gallows sites and are thought to the the spirits of executed criminals. I don't understand why a person's spirit would return as Black Dog. I think the Black Dogs are probably demonic beings that are somehow created by the evil of these men who were hanged. |
|
|
|
Post by Kate on Jun 3, 2023 2:48:49 GMT -5
Some phantom Black Dogs are said to haunt locations on desolate moorland, and criminals were often hanged outside of villages at a crossroads. I've read that phantom Black Dogs predate Christianity, which would mean they aren't "demonic" in the Christian sense. Most of the Black Dog tales depict them as evil, and even before Christians invented the devil, there was good and evil. I think Black Dogs must be some king of evil manifestation, but not necessarily demonic. |
|
|
|
Post by steve on Jun 3, 2023 6:55:42 GMT -5
That's what I've always thought. They aren't the spirits of any one individual, but some sort of manifestation of accumulated evil. You may be right. At a place, like a gallows, where a lot of evil men died, maybe the evil energy expended manifests in something like a black demon dog. |
|
|
|
Post by madeline on Jun 3, 2023 8:21:57 GMT -5
You may be right. At a place, like a gallows, where a lot of evil men died, maybe the evil energy expended manifests in something like a black demon dog. |
|
|
|
Post by Sam on Jun 3, 2023 22:06:54 GMT -5
Most Black Dog apparitions seem to have a connection to some kind of evil. The Hound of the Baskervilles is believed to be based, partly, on the evil Squire Richard Cabell. When we were in England, we went to his tomb, which is located in the churchyard of what used to be Holy Trinity Church in Buckfastleigh, Devon. The church was set on fire by Satanists in 1991, and when we were there, we found partially burned candles and other evidence that either Satanists, witches or teenagers, were still using the burned out shell of the church for some kind of activity. See “Ancient Dartmoor and its Legends.” The old burned out church, which is on a hill above the town, is very spooky, and while we were there, we couldn’t help noticing the silence: there didn’t seem to be any birds singing or the other usual noises you expect in a wooded area. People in the pubs and other places we went in the area told us about recent animal mutilations and they suspected Satanists were responsible. We didn’t say anything because we didn’t want to be argumentative, but usually, what people believe to be mutilations by Satanists or extraterrestrials is just the result of small predators feeding on a carcass. A lot of places that have some evil association are said to be unusually quiet, as though even the birds avoid them. Do you remember if Clapham Wood was unusually quiet? |
|
|
|
Post by madeline on Jun 4, 2023 9:58:01 GMT -5
A lot of places that have some evil association are said to be unusually quiet, as though even the birds avoid them. Do you remember if Clapham Wood was unusually quiet?
At Clapham Wood, we divided into two groups, each led by one of the men who claimed to be experts on the area. There was a lot of talking and maybe some of the others noticed the absence of birdsong but I didn’t. Clapham was something of a disappointment, not only because our two guides didn’t know what they were talking about, but because the area is so small by American standards. In the US, we have woods that go on for miles and miles where it’s easy to get lost, but Clapham Wood is only around a mile in length and less than that wide and even that isn’t all woods because there are a lot of cleared areas within the woods. England doesn’t have forests like we have in the US and it’s hard to understand how a person or animal could just disappear in such a small expanse of woods, but maybe that’s what makes the area so strange. |
|
