Comments on: Northwoods’ Devil Hog

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:57:27 +0000

Interesting, indeed.
I’d agree it was probably an ill omen. Reminds me in a way of the famous “Black Hound” that walked into a church in England in 1577.

By: raisinsofwrath

raisinsofwrath — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:52:07 +0000

I’ve seen this story several times before with a few variations on the “devilish animal” but they all follow the same basic premise.

That being said, IMO it’s an old tale made up long ago.

By: HOOSIERHUNTER

HOOSIERHUNTER — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:06:45 +0000

There is a scandanavian folk story about the “church grim” which is a spirit that guards the dead and appears sometimes as a pig. It is also supposed to guard graveyards from witches and the devil. Interestingly, they are often mentioned in comparison to the the large black dogs of English fame which are sometimes said to perform the same functions. I know of nothing tying them to a dance, however.

By: Jeremy_Wells

Jeremy_Wells — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:31:48 +0000

This is awesome Loren. Exactly the kind of article I was hoping we would see when you started soliciting ideas about what else the readers wanted to see over here!
We’ve got American folklore, (potentially) culturally interpreted phenomenon, and cryptids/anomalous animals!
Fantastic!

By: BeastInTheLake

BeastInTheLake — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:43:38 +0000

Here in Denmark old tales tell of “Gravsoen” (the grave sow), a large, normally black hog, that haunted cemeteries and portended death to those who met it. However, I don’t know if there were any similar tales in the rest of Scandinavia – a Google search on Norwegian websites brought no hits (judging from the names, the early settlers of Northwood were Norwegians rather than Swedes).