 |
| If you want to share your own monster monday, pop on over here and put your post on the list. |
The Hound of the Baskervilles was the first Sherlock Holmes story I ever heard of, because I watched the 1983 adaptation with Martin Shaw as Sir Henry Baskerville and Ian Richardson as Sherlock Holmes. The idea of a monstrous dog roaming the moor scared me as a child, and even if Holmes solves the mystery of the Baskerville's personal monster, there are many more versions of big black hounds haunting the English countryside, and seeing them is almost always a portent of doom.
Black Shuck is East Anglia's demon dog. He is said to have large, red eyes and a slathering jaw. Teeth that can rip a person to pieces, and yet, it is nearly always the sight of the dog that means death, not it's ghostly bite. Can you imagine riding over the low-lying country in the dead of night before our towns and cities lit the night sky with their polluting glow. Complete blackness, just you, your horse (if you had one), and the sound of the wild night around you. Is it surprising then that our ancestors saw this strange, otherworldly creature, stalking them through the dark hours, heralding ill luck?
In the North, such a creature is called a Barguest/guist and Padfoot. And the Yeth Hound of Devon is supposed to be the spirit of an unbaptised child. They are creatures of pain and fear, and they are a great tale to share around a pub fire on a stormy night ;P.
Black Shuck is East Anglia's demon dog. He is said to have large, red eyes and a slathering jaw. Teeth that can rip a person to pieces, and yet, it is nearly always the sight of the dog that means death, not it's ghostly bite. Can you imagine riding over the low-lying country in the dead of night before our towns and cities lit the night sky with their polluting glow. Complete blackness, just you, your horse (if you had one), and the sound of the wild night around you. Is it surprising then that our ancestors saw this strange, otherworldly creature, stalking them through the dark hours, heralding ill luck?
 |
| I've borrowed this fabulous image from KillerShandy on Deviant Art |
In the North, such a creature is called a Barguest/guist and Padfoot. And the Yeth Hound of Devon is supposed to be the spirit of an unbaptised child. They are creatures of pain and fear, and they are a great tale to share around a pub fire on a stormy night ;P.
Omens of doom come in all shapes and sizes, and from all cultures, do you have a favourite one?
~
We'll send you details of book releases, competitions and other news from our authors, BUT we WON'T spam you, or pass your details on to anyone else.We will also give you 2 FREE ebooks just for signing up.
I've seen a few cryptoid TV shows and on occasion they will do a feature on hounds from Hell. They're interesting to watch. I don't think in the states we have any hounds. Just Big Foot. LOL
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about the rest of Europe and hounds either, maybe they're a Brit phenomenon. We don't get many vampire legends in the UK, we're more ghosts and hounds of hell, we leave most of the vampires to the rest of Europe, so the Channel has affected our supernatural as well as our natural fauna :)
Delete