BARGHEST

'Barghest', 'Bargtjest', 'Bo-guest' or 'Bargest' is the name given in the north of England, especially in Yorkshire, to a mythical monstrous black dog with huge teeth and claws. 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.^[1]
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'.

Contents

The Barghest in popular culture

Literature

Film and TV

Role-playing games

Video games

See also

References

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 the novel by Bram Stoker, when arriving at Whitby aboard the ship ''Demeter'', Dracula 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.
Also inspired by this legend, the barghest also appears in the children's book ''The Whitby Witches'' by Robin Jarvis.
The barghest is depicted as a shapeshifting beast in ''Sojourn'', written by R.A. Salvatore. (It should be noted that most of R.A. Salvatore's literary inspiration comes from the pen and paper RPG Dungeons and Dragons)
In Roald Dahl's ''The Witches'', it is mentioned as always being male.
Comic book publisher Barghest Entertainment takes its name from the legendary demon-dog.

Film and TV

The Barghest is the main villain in the children's TV series ''Roger and the Rottentrolls'', which is set in Troller's Gill.
The 1978 made-for-TV movie '' 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:

★ Dungeons and Dragons (''see Barghest (Dungeons & Dragons)'')

★ Exalted

★ World of Darkness

★

★ Shadowrun (''see Barghest - Sixth World Wiki'')

★ BattleTech - as the name of a 'Mech. Incidentally, both Shadowrun and BattleTech are owned by FanPro.

★ Dark Conspiracy

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 based on a white barghest called Absol).

★ Final Fantasy XII

★ Wild Arms 2 as a minor enemy faced inside the prison.

★ Icewind Dale II

See also

★ Black dog (ghost), a list & names of phantom black dogs by locale

★ Wild Hunt

References

1. Jeffrey Shaw, ''Whitby Lore and Legend'', (1923)


★ 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).

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'Barguest' (''Yorkshire'') •
Black Shuck (''East Anglia'')  •
Church Grim (''England'') •
Dip (''Catalonia'') •
Gytrash (''Northern England'') •
Gwyllgi (''Wales'') 
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