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eternalsaturn — Alphabestiary - B
Published: 2011-04-02 16:54:03 +0000 UTC; Views: 2312; Favourites: 44; Downloads: 14
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[link]"Barghest" is one of many names for the various ghostly black dogs said to haunt the British Isles. It was said to appear along darkened roads at night, completely silent except for the clicking of its claws. Though often feared and considered an omen of death, some legends claimed that it would protect lost travelers and guide them home. They were sometimes reported as having the ability to change their shape and to walk through solid objects.
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I love being pedantic by quoting old sources:
"In the adjoining county of Hertford, the same superstition prevails, and the black-dog apparition is still a dreaded bogie. Within the parish of Tring, but about three miles from the town, a poor old woman was, in 1751, drowned for suspected witchcraft. A chimney-sweep, who was the principal perpetrator of this atrocious deed, was hanged and gibbeted near the place where the murder was effected. While the gibbet stood, and long after it disappeared, the spot was haunted by a black dog. The writer was told by the village schoolmaster, who had been ‘abroad’, that he himself had seen this diabolical dog. ‘I was returning home,’ said he, ‘late at night in a gig with the person who was driving. When we came near the spot, where a portion of the gibbet had lately stood, we saw on the bank of the roadside, along which a ditch or narrow brook runs, a flame of fire as large as a man's hat. “What's that?” I exclaimed. “Hush!” said my companion, all in a tremble; and suddenly pulling in his horse, made a dead stop. I then saw an immense black dog lying on the road just in front of our horse, which also appeared trembling with fright. The dog was the strangest looking creature I ever beheld. He was as big as a Newfoundland, but very gaunt, shaggy, with long ears and tail, eyes like balls of fire, and large, long teeth, for he opened his mouth and seemed to grin at us. He looked more like a fiend than a dog, and I trembled as much as my companion. In a few minutes the dog disappeared, seeming to vanish like a shadow, or to sink into the earth, and we drove on over the spot where he had lain.’ The same canine apparition is occasionally still witnessed at the same place or near it."
-- Robert W. Chambers, The Book of Days (1888)
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...Is this like, The Witcher's A-Z, lol. I swear all of these have been mentioned in that game so far, haha.
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Well, really just B, C.
I've heard of E.
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