Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.
Don’t forget to click the link to see what everyone else has to say on this week’s subject. It’s at the end of my post.
What is the best-known cryptid in your area? Or your favourite one? (A cryptid is an animal whose existence is disputed or unverified by science, known only through folklore and anecdotal evidence like eyewitness accounts )
Black dogs feature in a lot of the folklore of Dartmoor. Usually depicted as harbingers of doom. There is said to be a ghostly pack of these beasts, led by the Devil himself, that roams Dartmoor in search of those unlucky enough to be out on the moor of a night.
And, if you’ve ever been on Dartmoor after dark, or when a sudden mist comes down, you could understand where that idea comes from.
The moorland landscape, so benign on a sunny summer’s day, becomes another, more primaeval, place.
The folk tales were probably the inspiration for the Sherlock Holmes story, The Hound of the Baskervilles, as a lot of the plot and backstory echoes the legend.
For more, this is just one of the articles that you can find about the subject.
‘The spectre pack which hunts over Dartmoor is called the “wish hounds” and the black “master” who follows the chase is no doubt the same who has left his mark on Wistman’s Wood’ – The Quarterly Review 1832.
What do you think about this week’s subject?
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I’ll be back with another post on Thursday, see you then. Meanwhile, have a great week.
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Stevie Turner
Having been to the Dartmoor area I can well imagine the devil and that ghostly black dog wandering about. Spooky!
Richard Dee
I’ve spent nights camping on the moor, but I’ve never caught sight of it.
P.J. MacLayne
Did you go to look for the hounds, or do people camp there on a regular basis?
Richard Dee
It’s one of the few places in the UK where you can wild camp in wilderness without having to seek permission. Hounds were not part of the plan.
Kelly Williams
One of the best legends! Recently there was a documentary on the black dog, which I watched on Tubi. Still something compelling to these stories.
Richard Dee
I think its a race memory from primeval days, a realisation that mans best friend might have a shady past.