Justbec
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Black Dogs
I snagged this from Angus's Yaku site. I give credit to Yankee for the information.
Black Dogs
There are many kinds of supernatural dogs in the folklore of Britain and other European nations. When Sherlock Holmes encountered the Hound of the Baskervilles in the late 19th century, there was every reason for the locals to believe in a family curse carried out by a demonic hound, for such things had been in their folk-belief for centuries. It was not until well into the present century that such legends and superstitions were discarded in rural areas.
Black dogs are by far the most common of the supernatural dogs in northern Europe. They are found in Brittany and Scandinavia as well as Britain.
A black dog is normally the size of a calf, with a shaggy black coat and glowing, sometimes fiery eyes. They are always solitary. Some are dangerous, and some are not: black dogs fall into various categories according to their behavior.
Wandering Black Dogs
Wandering black dogs may be encountered in almost any rural area, normally at night. The dog is usually encountered by a lone traveler or, at the most, a group of two or three. It is heading in the opposite direction to the traveler(s), and is content to ignore and be ignored. However, if anyone should speak to it, try to strike it or take any other action, the dog will use a supernatural power to strike the offender blind, dumb, mad or worse. It can do this simply by stopping and fixing the victim with its fiery eyes, although it does not even need to do this; the effect seems to be spell-like
Fearful Black Dogs
A fearful black dog normally haunts a limited area, and rather than ignoring those who ignore it, the creature will seek to terrify all who enter that area and drive them away. A variant version in the north and east of England is the "Gally-trot," a huge white dog which will only pursue those who run from it.
The fearful black dog does not always exhibit supernatural powers; sometimes it will simply sit or lie across the road, blocking the passage of anyone who comes along. If attacked, it may vanish after a while. Places haunted by fearful black dogs tend to have some evil association -- roadside gibbets and places where witches were burnt, for instance. According to some sources, the dogs are the spirits of those wrongly executed, while others suggest that they are the familiars of burnt witches or the spirits of the executed bandits or witches themselves.
Resident Black Dogs
These creatures are very similar to wandering black dogs, except that they haunt a particular place -- normally a castle, manor house or other large building. They have the habit of appearing at night, making their way to the fire in the great hall, kitchen or guardroom and lying down in front of it. They prefer not to be acknowledged or interfered with in any way, but can react in various ways to an annoyance.
Some merely walk off or disappear and are never seen again. The luck of the house's owners, or of the character who disturbed the dog, often takes a change for the worse at this point, and a character who interferes with a resident black dog may gain the Unluckiness disadvantage as a result.
Some resident black dogs may retaliate magically, in the same way as a wandering black dog. This can be on the spot, or the creature might lead its tormentor outside (or away from the eyes of others) before striking. It may also vanish at this point, perhaps to seek out more peaceful lodgings.
On a few occasions, a resident black dog which is disturbed may flee; if it is followed, it will go to a certain point in the house and disappear, and the place where it disappears will have some significance. There might be a cache of treasure in the floor or walls at that point, or it might be the spot where a prominent member of the family died. Of course, there is no way to tell whether following a fleeing black dog will lead to treasure or attack.
Guardian Black Dogs
Guardian black dogs are the most helpful kind, although those they help often do not realize it at the time. Several stories are told of a lone traveler who is making his way along a lonely road at night, and who suddenly finds a huge black dog walking beside him. Attempts to shoo the dog away are futile, and the creature seems to take no notice of its companion at all. Eventually, it vanishes -- either disappearing into thin air or melting back into the forest. Later; the traveler hears of a small but notorious group of local bandits being caught and hanged; before they die, they tell of seeing a lone traveler whom they thought of attacking, but they changed their minds when they saw the size of his dog.
Another story features a fisherman who was prevented from boarding his boat by a huge black dog. It stood squarely in his way, and growled and snarled when he tried to get by it. The boat left without him, and the dog vanished once it was too late. The news came later that day that the boat was lost in a storm with all hands.
Church Grims
In British and Scandinavian folklore, "grim" is a generic name for a spirit which associates with humanity and human dwellings. The church grim or kirkegrim, as its name suggests, haunts churches and graveyards. In Britain, the church grim normally takes the form of a huge black
dog, and is difficult to tell from the various black dogs described above, except for the fact that it will not leave its designated churchyard. In Scandinavia, the church grim can take other animal forms, with horse, sheep and pig being popular.
The origin of this may lie in the practice of making a foundation-sacrifice when a church it built or a churchyard consecrated. This is one of a number of pagan practices which lasted into the early Christian era throughout northem Europe.
It was justified by the superstition that the first person buried in a new church-yard had the duty of defending it from the Devil and from witches. By burying an animal first, the churchyard's first human occupant was freed from this duty and allowed to go on to the afterlife in peace.
The church grim could also work as a death omen, tolling the church bell at midnight when a prominent member of the local community was near death. According to some stories, the church grim might also be seen at a funeral, looking out of the church tower in its dog form. The officiating priest might be able to judge by its ex-pression and behavior which way the deceased was going in the next world.
Unfortunately, there is no record of what a church grim might be able to do to defend its domain from the Devil and his minions. It could be that its mere presence made the area frightful or otherwise hostile to demonic forces.
Phantom Black Dogs
Stories of phantom black dogs abound in Britain, almost every county has its own variant, from the Black Shuck of East Anglia to the Padfoot and Bogey Beast of Yorkshire. Phantom black dogs have been witnessed too frequently in modern times to parcel the phenomena as pure folklore and legend, but then folklore and legend often has origins in real events. There are various theories to explain the phenomena and they seem to have many common traits from sighting to sighting.
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. Phantom dogs are not always black however, the one that is supposed to haunt the area around Cawthorpe and Haugham in Lincolnshire, is described as white, but still has saucer eyes and is as big as calf. Black dogs are more often than not associated with a specific location such as an old trackway or lane, this is sometimes reflected in the name of the routeway, although not every 'Black Dog Lane' has a tradition of the haunting.
There have been some attempts at classification; the folklorist Theo Brown divided the black dog phenomena into three separate types A, B and C. (A) Being a shape-shifting demon dog; (B) being a dark black dog calf sized with shaggy fur; and (C) a dog that appears in time with certain ancient festivals in specific areas of the country. Katherine Briggs, the renowned folklorist, splits these further into demon dogs, the ghosts of human beings and the ghosts of dogs in their own right.
In local traditions the black dogs sightings are seen as 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 thought to represent a folk memory of a sacrifice. The black dog that used to haunt Peel castle and a nearby graveyard on the Isle of Man, is one such grim, it is said to have scared a sentry to death. Other sightings from the South of England, have been related to coincidental sudden deaths.
Other phantom dogs are more benevolent and stories exist of people being helped from tight spots. 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. Johnnie had to ride through a wood in darkness for a mile to get to where he was going. At the entrance of the wood he was joined by a black dog, it pattered beside him until he emerged from the trees, whereupon it disappeared as quickly as it had arrived.
On his return journey through the wood, the dog joined him again on the dark woodland path, and disappeared mysteriously when he emerged. Apparently, some years later, two prisoners condemned to death confessed that they had decided to rob and murder Johnny that night in the wood, but the presence of the large black dog had stopped them.
Black dogs often seem to haunt ancient lanes, trackways, crossroads, old churchyards and prehistoric sites. Many of these places were associated with local superstitions and the uncanny, they are liminal places, where the veil between worlds was thought to be thin. The haunts of the black dogs are also features said to denote ley lines, it has been suggested that they represent some form of energy or natural phenomena moulded by the mind into an archetype of the black dog. A great deal of work has been done by earth mystery researchers to suggest that certain geophysical conditions may affect the human mind. These places were recognised by ancient man, and that is why black dogs (as some form of archetype) appear at places of ancient sanctity. This same theory has been applied to other unexplained phenomena.
Gallows sites (often crossroads) were also common black dog haunts, the black dog was often seen as the spirit of the executed criminal, such as the dog said to haunt a gallows site in Tring, Hertfordshire: An old woman was drowned for witchcraft at Tring in the year 1751. A chimney sweep was held responsible in part for the killing, and was hanged and gibbeted near to the place of the crime. A black dog came to haunt the place where the gibbet stood, and was seen by the village schoolmaster. He described it as being shaggy, as big as a Newfoundland, with long ears and a tail, eyes of flaming fire and long teeth. It is interesting to note that at first the black dog appeared as a standing flame. Flames and scorched earth being another aspect associated with sightings.
Black dogs are also seen as guardians of treasure, especially in Scotland. A black dog was said to guard treasure buried under a standing stone near Murthley in Perthshire, here we have an account of a black dog at an ancient site and as a guardian of treasure.
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