Showing posts with label England. Show all posts
Showing posts with label England. Show all posts

Friday, 9 August 2013

Grindylow

grindylow or grundylow is a folkloric creature that originated from folktales in the English counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire. The name is thought to be connected to Grendel, a name or term most famously used in Beowulf but also found in many Old English charters where it is seen in connection with meresbogs and lakes.
Grindylows are said to grab little children with their long sinewy arms and drown them if they come too close to the water's edge. Grindylows have been seen as a bogeyman used as a ploy to frighten children away from pools, marshes or ponds where they could drown.



Thursday, 8 August 2013

Boggart

Boggart is one of numerous related terms used in English folklore for either a household spirit or a malevolent genius loci inhabiting fields, marshes or other topographical features. Other names of this group include bugbugbearbogeybogeymanbogle, etc., presumably all derived from (or related to) Old English puca and Welsh bwg with the same meaning (itself a probable loan from the English bug).
The household form causes mischief and things to disappear, milk to sour, and dogs to go lame. The boggarts inhabiting marshes or holes in the ground are often attributed more serious evil doing, such as the abduction of children.