#WeirdScienceWednesday The Boogeyman 8/11/2021

Welcome to #WeirdScienceWednesday! I am here to talk about the strange and unusual because let’s face it, I am strange and unusual lol Paranormal, aliens, conspiracies, Bigfoot… I am here to bring you some information! Enlighten you… maybe make you a new believer! I have studied all things weird since I was 8 years old. It’s time I shared my knowledge with SOMEONE!

The Boogeyman Legend

One of my favorite horror movies to hit the scene in the 2000’s was the movie Boogeyman that later turned into a franchise of B rated horror flicks. What was it that I loved so much about the original that the sequels seemed to leave high and dry? The legend that came with the monster in the closet! Throughout history, and across the world globally, there is some form of a bedtime story where a monster in the closet or under the bed will come out and drag the children to either monster land or hell itself. Adults have told the stories for generations as a way to keep kids in bed and not roaming around at night. But where exactly did they learn the stories from?

The descriptions vary from story to story but one thing they all share in common is that the boogeyman has sharp claws, talon like fingers, and sharp teeth. All of this imagery invokes the fear in the child that the monster is going to eat them. The word arose in the mid-19th century and most believe it to be another word for the rapid spreading fear of the Devil in Christian mythology. However, the different legends also depict the boogeyman as a demon, witch, or some other type of legendary mythological creature that would ensure fright. Some stories even have the boogeyman depicted with animal parts, horns being one of the favorites along with hooves and tails (since in Devil mythology he has horns, hooves, and a tail).

Where did the story of the boogeyman originate? No one really knows. Many assume that it came from the 1500s when the stories of fairies began to circulate and hobgoblins were being told as tales. One particular form of a hobgoblin is a bogey. However, locality didn’t explain for the massive spread of fear as parents across the globe told children about the evil witch or the horned beast that would drag them to hell for misbehaving or eat them for fun. Sack Man, El Coco, A Cuca, Babau, and Butzemann are just a few examples of the different legends created around a creepy, humanoid type creature that punished children. Each one is from a different area on the globe as well.

However, not all of the boogeyman legends are full of fright and horror. In Indonesia, the Wewe Gambel kidnaps children that are being abused by their parents and refuses to return them until the parent realizes their mistakes and learns to treat the children better. Many other legends tell of how the boogeyman protects the children or takes those that misbehave no matter the age. If you watch modern horror, you might have seen the movie Sandman. A child has a boogeyman invoked to protect her whenever anyone tries to harm her.

In Switzerland, the Böllima or Böögg is a part of their seasonal changes and is recognized as winter/death.

All across the world is this wonderful phenomenon of boogeyman tales and some even lend to other myths and legends like the Jersey Devil of the US. Or Grýla in Iceland that is the mother of the Yule Tide Lads myth.

Tell me, have you ever had an experience with a boogeyman? Or was it all just your imagination?

#WeirdScienceWednesday Black Dog 3/17/2021

The myth of the Black Dog

I am sure most of you have watched the movie Black Dog with Patrick Swayze. In the starting plot of the movie, he lost his trucker’s license and ended up in prison because he “saw the black dog” and crashed his truck into a vehicle that was broken down on the side of the road while falling asleep. He told everyone that the black dog had come for him through hallucination brought on by exhaustion. However, it was common trucker’s mythology that if you saw the black dog, “death was near” and you either wrecked your truck or killed someone. But where exactly did they get the idea for this small tendril of a myth in the movie? From Great Britain, of course!

A larger than normal dog with glowing eyes is what is most commonly reported for the Black Dog. Most commonly seen during electrical storms, at crossroads, places of execution, and ancient pathways, the Black Dog has a lot of ancient ideologies associated with death and is strictly seen at night. This is one reason it is called the death dog.

The legend/folk tale/myth of the black dog is indeterminate in origin. Some speculate Germanic origins and others speculate Celtic origins. Dogs had long been heralded by indigenous people throughout the years in ancient civilizations and on through modern as omens of the death and the visage of the Underworld. In Ancient Egypt, Anubis was the guardian of the Underworld and his effigy that was built by the Egyptians was that of an upright dog. The perpetuated belief of dogs being guardians of the Underworld very similar as to why condors, vultures, and other birds that feast on carrion are revered by indigenous people even today, such as Native American folklore. Dogs were considered to be scavengers. Scavengers helped carry your body off to the afterlife through a circle of life. A vulture feasts on carrion and then flies the soul into the heavens. Dogs dig holes and bury the bones; ashes to ashes, so to speak.

These beliefs evolved throughout time, and of course with religious persecutions of beliefs outside of the patriarchy set by the Roman Catholic Church, polytheistic and paganistic ideologies in folklore were demonized. The Black Dog turned from a guardian of the underworld that helped carry your soul into the afterlife into a scary omen of death. Many tales of the Black Dog mention how viscous the dogs are and to beware them. This can also be a deep seated root in the fear of death that evolved into a myth on its own as well outside of religious contempt. Many people fear death, and a hallucination of the Black Dog- entailing your death to come- could be seen as your own fear of the acceptance of your time to let go.

The Gurt Dog in Somerset and the Black Dog of the Hanging Hills Connecticut are believed to be benevolent apparitions of the Black Dog, whereas most of the time they are sinister or malevolent in nature- typically seen as “hellhounds” and most likely where the mythology of hellhounds originated.

I, myself, have never witnessed a black dog (I have witnessed shadows of the night). Have you ever seen the Black Dog and lived to tell about it?