Tradition / Region: English Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Dog, Ghost
The Myth
At the old Newgate Prison in London, there was once said to haunt a terrible creature known as the Black Dog of Newgate.
The story tells that during a time of famine, when hunger and misery gripped the land, a scholar was imprisoned there. He had a reputation as a sorcerer, a man said to have practiced dark arts. The prison conditions were so dreadful that the inmates, driven mad with starvation, killed and ate him.
Not long after this deed, something began to move through the prison in the night.
Prisoners reported seeing a monstrous black dog pacing the corridors and the cells. It appeared suddenly and vanished just as quickly, but its presence filled the place with dread. Those who had taken part in the killing believed the creature was the spirit of the murdered man, returned in a new form to avenge himself.
One by one, the prisoners who had been involved were said to die horribly, as though hunted down by the spectral beast. Fear spread through the prison until the survivors, half-mad with terror, broke out and fled.
But the story says the black dog did not stop there. It followed the escapees wherever they tried to hide, pursuing them until each had paid for the crime.
The tale was later told as a warning about cruelty, sin, and the brutal life within the prison walls. Some even doubted whether the beast was real at all, claiming the only “black dog” in the prison was a dark stone in the dungeon where condemned prisoners sometimes dashed out their brains in despair.
Yet the legend endured, and the image remained of a great black hound stalking the halls of Newgate — a spirit born from murder, hunger, and guilt, returning to claim the lives of those who had done wrong.
Gallery
Sources
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). The Black Dog of Newgate. In Wikipedia, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Dog_of_Newgate
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