Gory details is a monthly article dedicated to helping writers improve their writing by looking at some of the "real" places and things that often find their way into horror stories. This month's edition is about Spooky Britain.
The 1993 movie "Leprechaun" is notable for several reasons. It is the first movie that Warwick Davis, the guy who played Willow, starred in that had the word "Leprechaun" in the title. To date, he's made six more. That's a record. It is the first big screen appearance of Jennifer Anniston as the "bratty" daughter. (Hmm) It also represents yet another European mythological creature added to the list of sadistic, people slaying monsters in American culture. The list of coopted creatures is long. Banshees, bugbears, pixies etc. While some of these are well known and very frightening (Smurfs, who are Swedish, scare the hell out of me.) many other creatures from European folklore remain virtually undiscovered and are ripe for use by horror writers. Since there are so many different traditions in Europe, this issue will focus on the hidden spooks of England.
One of the most prevalent baddies of Britain is the black hound. He was actually touched on in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" but is worth another look. Usually said to be haunting grave yards, the black hound is believed to be a portent of death. In Ireland (this is not a joke) the hound is sometimes green. The speculation is that a dog would sometimes be buried along with the deceased to protect them and they inspired the legend. Please note, I couldn't find any archeological reference to buried dogs in England but it's a good story.
Another great, unheralded bad guy from British myth is Raw Head and Bloody Bones. This is one creature; a hobgoblin. Usually used to frighten children the way Americans would use the Boogy Man (who gets his name from the Boogy Pirates of Indonesia) Raw Head and Bloody Bones can be found most anywhere that's sufficiently creepy. Souixie and The Banshees wrote a song about him for their awesome 1988 release "Peepshow." It describes Raw Head as "Reaching from dark cupboard, crouching under stair, lurking in chimney, pond or well." The name is also sometimes given to doctors who experiment without concern for their patient's health.
Another legend, this from Southern England, is The Green Children. The very short version goes like this: A green skinned boy and girl are found front of a wolf's den, blinking in the light. They don't speak the local language and won't eat anything but peas. (Don't ask me why.) The boy dies but the girl grows and describes having come from a world of perpetual twilight. She says that she and her brother found a cave and, by following it, ended up at the wolf's den. It's worth noting that green, in English and Irish folk lore, is usually associated with fairies. (See the green dog above.)
Cornish Knockers; while sounding like a vague, sexual reference, "knockers" are actually another British spook. While they fall under the general category of fairy folk, I've chosen to include them in this list because of where they lived, mines. An 18th century coal or tin mine was a dark, underoxygenated, dangerous place to work. Strange clinkings or skitterings of rocks in the passages of these mines were attributed to the Knockers, fairy miners with thin arms and long noses hard at work on their own lodes. Curiously, Cornish knockers were generally peaceable and would only trouble miners if they were offended. Whistling and making the sign of the cross are two known offenses. Cornish Knockers were also sometimes associated with wells or other fissures in the ground.
Another character who's interesting in a different way is the Black Annis of the Dane Hills in Leicestershire. At first glance she's just another boogyman character. She's one eyed, blue faced, eats kids and all that fun stuff, but her history is more interesting. She is reported to be the remnant of a pagan goddess. This is backed two facts. She's associated with a black cat, long a pagan symbol and she is said to have lived in an oak tree, the last of a great forest, until it was burned down. Oak trees were (and still are) important to many European pagan traditions. You can see a clear remembrance of England's pre-Christian past. This is a good place for a nature vs. man story or a good old ancient creature rises and kills a large number of people in a basically random fashion story.
The last selection, The Wild Hunt, is a very very old story. While no one knows its origin for certain, two of the earliest version involve Odin of Norse Myth and Hecate of Greece. The basic story works like this; a spectral figure leads a group of phantom hounds on an endless hunt, on land or across the sky. You can jump into this story at any point in history. In England, the oldest versions of the story seem to be of the stag, headed Celtic god Cernunnos leading the pack. On the Orkney islands, fairy's and the like are reported to drive cattle or other animals across the sky. The Hunt is sometimes called Herlathing after the legendary king Herla who can't stop riding till a hound given him by a dwarf king leaps to the ground. Newer, Christian versions have the devil searching for unbaptized souls and errant priests tricked into the hunt after telling a dark rider he'd give his soul for a drink. This story has appeared in American culture as well. In 1949 Stan Jones penned a little number covered by Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee and the Blues Brothers among others. It's "Ghost Riders in the Sky."
"Their faces gaunt, their eyes were blurred, and shirts all soaked with sweat.
They're ridin' hard to catch that herd but they ain't caught them yet
They've got to ride forever in that range up in the sky
On horses snortin' fire, as they ride on, hear their cry"
Who knew? Now get out there and write.
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The Gory Details (Gross)
HorrorBetween 2004 and 2008 I wrote a series of "Tips for Writers" for Nocturnal Ooze magazine vaguely about what would happen in real life if you did the things they do in movies but mostly about the gross out. I've always loved them and so have taken...
