barghest

Barghest, Bargtjest, Bo-guest, Bargest or Barguest is the name often given in the north of England, especially in Yorkshire, to a legendary monstrous black dog with huge teeth and claws, though in other cases the name can refer to a ghost or Household elf, especially in Northumberland and Durham (see Cauld Lad of Hylton). One is said to frequent a remote gorge named Troller's Gill. There is also a story of a Barghest entering the city of York occasionally, where, according to legend, it preys on lone travellers in the city's narrow Snickelways. Whitby is also associated with the spectre.^[1] A famous Barghest was said to live near Darlington who was said to take the form of a headless man (who would vanish in flames), a headless lady, a white cat, a dog, rabbit and black dog. Another was said to live in an "uncannie-looking" dale between Darlington and Houghton, near Throstlenest^[2] .

The derivation of the word barghest is disputed. Ghost in the north of England was once pronounced guest, and the name is thought to be burh-ghest: town-ghost. Others explain it as German Berg-geist (mountain spirit), or Bär-geist (bear-spirit), in allusion to its alleged appearance at times as a bear. Another mooted derivation is 'Bier-Geist', the 'spirit of the funeral bier'.

The Barghest in popular culture

Many stories, perhaps most notably The Hound of the Baskervilles, feature ghostly black dogs. See Black dog (ghost) for further details. Dogs specifically named as barghests appear in the following:

Literature

In the novel by Bram Stoker, when arriving at Whitby aboard the ship Demeter, Dracula takes the form of a big and ferocious dark dog. The barghest is part of Whitby folklore, and may well have been Stoker's inspiration.

Also inspired by this legend, the barghest also appears in the children's book The Whitby Witches by Robin Jarvis.

The barghest is depicted as a shapeshifting beast in Sojourn, written by R.A. Salvatore. (It should be noted that most of R.A. Salvatore's literary inspiration comes from the pen and paper RPG Dungeons and Dragons)

In Roald Dahl's The Witches, it is mentioned as always being male.

Comic book publisher Barghest Entertainment takes its name from the legendary demon-dog.

In the novel Forge of the Mindslayers by Tim Waggoner, a Barghest is described as a lupine beast with blue tinged fur, a 'goblin-ish' face, and human hands. It can shapeshift into a goblin.

In Chapter 63 of Theodore Dreiser's classic novel, An American Tragedy, he references the spectre adjectivally, saying, "And at one point it was that a wier-wier, one of the solitary water-birds of this region, uttered its ouphe and barghest cry, flying from somewhere near into some darker recess within the woods. And at this sound it was that Clyde had stirred nervously and then sat up in the car. It was so very different to any bird-cry he had ever heard anywhere."

Steven Erikson's epic fantasy series, the Malazan Book of the Fallen, features a nomadic warrior people called the Barghast. Any possible relation to the mythological canine, aside from the name, is unclear.

Film and TV

The Barghest is the main villain in the children's TV series Roger and the Rottentrolls, which is set in Troller's Ghyll.

The 1978 made-for-TV movie Devil Dog: Hound of Hell features a barghest named Lucky.

In an episode of the BBC drama series Dalziel and Pascoe, a public house situated on the North York Moors which the episode's plot revolves around is named 'The Barguest', and features a large black dog on its sign.

Role-playing games

Barghests feature in:

• A Touch of Evil - Barghest Hound is one of the minions of the vampire.
• BattleTech - as the name of a 'Mech.
• Bortom: Lögnens slöja
• Dark Conspiracy
• Dungeons and Dragons (see Barghest (Dungeons & Dragons))
• Exalted
• HARP
• Shadowrun (see Barghest - Sixth World Wiki)
• The Witcher
• World of Darkness
• Wraith: the Oblivion
• Lusternia

Trading card games

In the Shadowmoor expansion of Magic: The Gathering, one of the creatures is called Hollowborn Barghest.

Video games

Barghests, or creatures similar to it, appear in:

• Lord of the Rings Online
• The Monster Rancher series.
• Fire Emblem
• Chrono Trigger.
• The Pokémon video game series (from the third generation onwards there is a Pokémon based on a white barghest called Absol).
• Final Fantasy XII
• Wild Arms 2 as a minor enemy faced inside the prison.
• Icewind Dale II
• The Witcher
• Folklore
• Shadow Hearts 2
• Aion: The Tower of Eternity

Music

Barghests appear in:

• The song "Oblivion" by Patrick Wolf, which is about a young man searching for the Barghest.
• The song "Barghest vs. Aged.A" by psychedelic rock band of Arrowe Hill

See also

• Black dog (ghost), a list & names of phantom black dogs by locale
• Wild Hunt

References

1. ^ Jeffrey Shaw, Whitby Lore and Legend, (1923)
2. ^ Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders By William Henderson, 1866, page 239.

•  "Barghest". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.  which in turn cites:
  • Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880)
  • Notes and Queries, first series, ii. 51.
  • Joseph Ritson, Fairy Tales (Lond. 1831), p. 58.
  • Lancashire Folklore (1867)
  • Joseph Lucas, Studies in Nidderdale (Pateley Bridge, 1882)