As part of the Dartmoor Tors Festival, the DPA put on a Black Dog folklore walk to raise money for Field System gallery in Ashburton. Field System is a vibrant and inclusive community space, where we screened the recent Dartmoor Calling film about activism and also where we had the launch event for our Wild Words magazine. It’s been brilliant to have the support of owners Mark and Milly, and running this walk for them felt like a great way to give back.
With Hannah Durdin from Moorland Guides as our guide, and Comms Officer Helen Bruce from the DPA as our folklorist, we took a group of 21 people on a circular walk to Bowerman’s Nose and Hound Tor. We examined local myths, including that of the Bowerman, Hound Tor, the Weaver of Dean Combe and Lady Howard, in the broader context of other British Black Dog folk tales. Exploring the origins of the church Grim, and the transition from packs of hounds being associated with guiding souls to hunting unbaptised babies, we considered how mythic archetypes have been used to influence behaviour across time.
The relationship between humans and canines traces its roots all the way back to the Upper Paleolithic, or Stone Age. There is some division among scientists as to the exact timing, but it is likely that early domesticated dogs first appeared in Europe around 15,000 years ago. Given the ancient nature of the partnership it is not surprising, therefore, that the folklore of man and canine weaves a complicated and entwined pattern through history. Dogs have been both predators and protectors to man ever since we first began to depict them on our cave walls.
Today, much folklore about dogs remains current and relevant. Numerous books, films and video games draw on canine mythology and authors including JK Rowling, Arthur Conan Doyle and Phillp Pullman have been inspired by tales of Black Dogs and ghostly hounds. There are few countries in Europe, who do not have their own folkloric dogs, and Great Britain has a particularly rich store of lore relating to Black Dog apparitions.
On Dartmoor, Dewer is accompanied by ferocious hounds that help him to hunt his prey, which he delights in chasing off the top of the Dewerstone. The Dark Huntsman is also by followed by monstrous black hounds, as he hunts for babies in remote villages which haven’t yet been baptised, and Lady Howard’s coach, built from the bones of her dead husbands, has a huge black hound that runs on ahead of it. The black hound that haunts Hounds Pool is none other than the ghost of Knowles the weaver, who worked on a Sunday and wouldn’t stop until he was cursed to be in dog form and complete an impossible task.
However, in Somerset, the Girt Dog is a great black hound who wanders the Mendip hills and guides lost travellers back to safety. In Northern England the Gytrash is a legendary beast who haunts dark country lanes, appearing as either a huge black dog, a horse, or even an evil cow with eyes like burning coals. In its hooved forms the Gytrash is seen as purely malevolent, intent on leading travellers astray and inciting terror in any who encounter it. But in its canine form, the Gytrash is sometimes reported to be benevolent, and will accompany travellers while they negotiate dangerous trackways or even guide those who are lost back onto the right path.
On delving deeper into accounts of the many manifestations of the folkloric Black Dog, it begins to become apparent that the creature often displays a dual nature. Even the terrifying Black Shuck if east Anglia is said to occasionally accompany travellers and depart with no ill effects. In the town of Littleport, in Cambridgeshire, the ghostly dog apparition is more kindly and and follows people in order to protect them. Certain roads are said to be haunted by black hounds which died protecting their masters or saving previous passers by from unwholesome fates.
But when did the general shift from Guardian to Ghoul occur? Why do we now, generally, have to dig a little deeper into folklore in order to uncover the more benevolent side to Black Dogs? Some clues may be found if we consider folklore alongside the cultural shifts which occurred around it. By the 1500s, in many villages, notably those of Bungay and Blythburgh in Suffolk, the local Black Dog had undergone the transformation into a Hellhound. While Britain made the shift from having a dominantly Pagan to a dominantly Christian belief system, old superstitions began to be associated with the Devil, although many were also preserved in variant forms. Dartmoor was no exception, and ‘Dewer’ is listed as a local name for the Devil. If we consider the tale of Knowles the weaver, the priest using grave dirt to transform the ghostly man into a dog seems to indicate that this folkloric archetype has become ‘other’ and outside the accepted realms of Christianity.
Whatever variant of Black Dog folklore you encounter, and there’s plenty to hear about on Dartmoor, what is remarkable is the deep and enduring connection that these stories have with the landscape. It only requires a walk up to Hound Tor to meet these dogs from folklore face to face.
Images: Hannah Durdin