Barghest

Barghest, Bargtjest, Bo-guest, Bargheist, Bargeist, Barguist, 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. 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.

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 Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, the eponymous Dracula disembarks ship at Whitby and 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.

The barghest appears in the children's book The Whitby Witches by Robin Jarvis.

In Roald Dahl's The Witches, the barghest is described as always being male.

Nicole Peeler's "Tempest Rising" series references Dahl's The Witches, and features a Barghest who takes on human or demon dog form.

The barghest is depicted as a shapeshifting beast in Sojourn, written by R.A. Salvatore (see Barghest (Dungeons & Dragons)).

A bridge troll named Danny decides to keep Barghests as pets in the October Daye novels by Seanan McGuire.

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 (see Barghest (Dungeons & Dragons) - this is an "Eberron" D&D novel).

In Theodore Dreiser's 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."

In the Japanese light novel series Magician's Academy, one of the professors has a familiar/maid, Eineus the Varghest- a black dog-demon.

Though the term "barghest" nor any of its variants are explicitly mentioned in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the protagonist, Harry Potter, is told that the apparition of a shaggy, black dog that he keeps seeing throughout the year is a premonition of his imminent death. However, the dog later turns out to be his godfather, Sirius Black, who is an animagus who is able to transform himself into a shaggy, black dog.

Film and television

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: The 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:

• BattleTech - as the name of a 'Mech.
• Dark Conspiracy
• Dungeons and Dragons (see Barghest (Dungeons & Dragons))
• Exalted
• The Witcher
• HARP
• The Lord of the Rings Online
• Perfect World
• Shadowrun (see Barghest - Sixth World Wiki)
• World of Darkness
• Wraith: the Oblivion
• Tunnels & Trolls
• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Trading card games

• Magic: The Gathering

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 named Absol, possibly based on a white barghest)
• Final Fantasy XI
• Final Fantasy XII
• Front Mission 5 - As the name of an anti-terrorism unit.
• Wild Arms 2 as a minor enemy faced inside the prison.
• Icewind Dale II
• Folklore
• Shadow Hearts 2
• Aion: The Tower of Eternity
• The Witcher
• A Tale of Two Kingdoms
• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Music

Barghests appear in:

• The song "Oblivion" by Patrick Wolf, which is about a young man searching for the Barghest. Also, first title of this song was "Barghest", but then Patrick edited it to the "Oblivion".
• The EP "The Barghest O' Whitby" by the Yorkshire-based doom metal band My Dying Bride

See also

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

References

• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Barghest" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 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)