Tradition: English Mythology
Alternative Names: Boggard, Baggard, Bogle, Buggerd, Boggert
Category: Goblin
The Myth
A boggart is a solitary supernatural being whose appearance varies greatly from place to place. Many are described as squat, hairy, ugly humanoids with uncouth or bestial features, sometimes possessing enormous arms and great physical strength. Others take entirely animal-like forms. The Boggart of Longar Hede in Yorkshire was said to be the size of a calf, covered in long shaggy hair, with enormous saucer-like eyes and a long chain trailing behind it that sounded like baying hounds. The boggart of Hackensall Hall in Lancashire appeared as a huge horse, while another Lancashire boggart called Nut-Nan was said to flit through hazel bushes with a shrill scream. Some could change their form into animals or more frightening creatures, while the Lancashire boggarts were said to have a master called Owd Hob, who appeared as a horned, cloven-hoofed, tailed creature resembling a satyr or devil.
Boggarts could inhabit houses, farms, roads, hills, caves, fields, and other isolated places, becoming spirits closely associated with the places where they lived. Household boggarts were particularly troublesome, disturbing families at night by making noises, banging doors, frightening horses, overturning carts, pulling away bedclothes, or crawling into people’s beds and pressing clammy hands against their faces. One Lancashire tradition warned that a household boggart should never be given a name, because naming it made the creature impossible to reason with and caused it to become uncontrollable and destructive. At Grizlehurst, an old couple claimed that their local boggart had been buried beneath an ash tree together with a cockerel pierced by a stake, yet it continued to cause disturbances. A farmer’s wife later heard doors banging and terrible laughter at night, then saw three blue-burning candles and a creature with red glowing eyes leaping outside the house. The following morning, cloven hoofprints were found around the building.
Boggarts could also be encountered in the countryside, where they sometimes behaved more like troublesome land spirits. In the tale of the Farmer and the Boggart, a squat, hairy, foul-smelling boggart inhabits a farmer’s land and agrees to divide each harvest with him. The boggart first chooses everything growing beneath the ground, so the farmer plants barley and leaves the creature with nothing but roots and stubble. The next year the boggart chooses everything above ground, so the farmer plants potatoes and again defeats him. Enraged by being tricked, the boggart eventually abandons the land. Another version has the two agreeing to harvest a wheat field from opposite sides, but the farmer secretly plants iron rods throughout the boggart’s portion. The creature’s scythe is repeatedly blunted against them, allowing the farmer to harvest almost the entire crop.
Sources
“Boggart.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed October 5, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boggart