English Mythology

Calygreyhound

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Tradition / Region: English Mythology
Alternative names: None known
Category: Cat, Deer

The Myth

The Calygreyhound is a fantastical beast with the head of a wildcat, the body of a deer or antelope, the foreclaws of an eagle, ox hooves, antlers or horns, the hind legs of a lion or ox, and the tail of either a lion or a poodle. In rare depictions, it also possesses eagle’s wings.

Unlike many legendary creatures, the Calygreyhound has no surviving myths or folktales describing its deeds or adventures. It appears exclusively in medieval heraldry, most notably as a heraldic supporter of the de Vere family, Earls of Oxford, during the 15th and 16th centuries. It was traditionally associated with speed and swiftness, and its appearance varied considerably between artistic depictions, suggesting it was an entirely imaginative heraldic creation rather than a creature from popular legend.

Sources

“Calygreyhound.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed July 28, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calygreyhound

Ghost Bear of Old Martin

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Tradition / Region: English Mythology
Alternative names: Old Martin’s Ghost
Category: Bear

The Myth

The Ghost Bear of Old Martin is a legendary apparition associated with the Tower of London. The tale centers on Old Martin, a massive grizzly bear presented to King George III by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1811. Already fully grown when he arrived in England, Old Martin was kept in the Royal Menagerie at the Tower of London, where he became famous for his enormous size and fierce temperament. Despite years in captivity, he never became tame and remained feared even by his keepers.

According to the legend, a Yeoman Warder standing watch at the Tower in 1816 encountered a ghostly bear near the Martin Tower during the night. Believing it to be a real animal, he thrust his bayonet at the apparition. The weapon passed straight through the spectral bear and struck the wooden door behind it, revealing that the creature was no living beast.

The terrifying encounter is said to have so shocked the guard that he died only a few hours later. The apparition thereafter became one of the many ghost stories connected with the Tower of London, and the phantom bear was remembered as the restless spirit of Old Martin.

Old Martin himself was later transferred to the newly established London Zoo after the Royal Menagerie closed, where he died in 1838. More than a century later, his preserved skin and feet were rediscovered in the collections of the Natural History Museum and temporarily returned to the Tower of London for a special exhibition, further reviving interest in the legend of the ghostly bear.

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Old Martin. In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 29, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Martin

Dunnie

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Tradition / Region: English Mythology
Alternative names: –
Category: Horse

The Myth

The Dunnie is a supernatural being from the folklore of Northumberland, particularly associated with Hazlerigg in the parish of Chatton. Although usually described as a small, brownie-like spirit, it is also known for assuming the form of a horse.

In one of its favorite tricks, the Dunnie disguises itself as a horse and waits for an unsuspecting traveler to mount it. As soon as the rider climbs aboard, the creature suddenly disappears, leaving the unfortunate victim stranded in the muddiest part of the road.

The Dunnie is also said to take the appearance of an ordinary plough horse. Farmers who unknowingly lead it into their stables discover that it vanishes without warning, revealing its supernatural nature.

According to local tradition, the Dunnie wanders the crags and valleys of the Cheviot Hills, singing mournful verses about a lost key and hidden wealth. Because of these songs, it is believed to be the ghost of a Border reiver who concealed his stolen treasure among the hills and continues to guard it long after death.

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Dunnie. In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 29, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunnie

Colt Pixie

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Tradition / Region: English Mythology
Alternative names: Colepixie, Colepixy, Collepixie, Collpixie, Colt-pixie, Colt Pixy, Cold Pixie
Category: Horse

The Myth

The Colt Pixie is a mischievous supernatural creature from the folklore of southern England, particularly the New Forest and Dorset. It is regarded as a type of pixie that takes the form of a scruffy, pale horse or pony.

Rather than attacking people directly, the Colt Pixie delights in leading travelers, riders, and livestock astray. Like the mysterious will-o’-the-wisp, it lures its victims away from the correct path, causing them to become lost or confused in the countryside. Because of this trickster nature, it is often associated with the legendary Puck.

The creature became well known in local tradition, giving rise to the expression “as ragged as a colt pixie,” which was used in the New Forest to describe someone or something with a shabby, unkempt appearance.

In the dialect of Dorset, the phrase “to colt-pixy” referred to knocking down the remaining apples after the main harvest, preserving the creature’s name in local rural tradition.

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Colt pixie. In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 29, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_pixie

Habetrot

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Tradition / Region: English Mythology, Scottish Mythology
Alternate Names: Habitrot, Habtrot, Habbitrot
Category: Cave dweller

The Myth

Habetrot is an ancient and mysterious figure tied to spinning, cloth-making, and the hidden world beneath the earth. She is described as an old, deformed woman who lives underground, surrounded by other spinsters like herself—women whose bodies have been twisted and marked by endless years of spinning thread.

These women bear the physical cost of their craft. Some have flattened thumbs, others misshapen feet, and many have long, distorted lips from constantly wetting thread as they worked. Their appearance reflects both dedication and burden—beings shaped by labor to the point of becoming something almost inhuman.

Despite this unsettling form, Habetrot is not malevolent.

In the most well-known tale, she comes to the aid of a young woman who refuses or is unable to spin—an essential skill expected of women. Instead of punishing her, Habetrot secretly spins the yarn for her. When the girl later marries, Habetrot reveals herself (or is revealed) to the husband, showing the consequences of a life spent spinning.

Seeing the deformities of Habetrot and her companions, the husband is horrified and declares that his wife must never spin, sparing her from the same fate. In this way, Habetrot acts as both helper and warning—protecting the girl while embodying the extreme outcome of relentless labor.

Beyond this tale, Habetrot’s name appears in darker beliefs.

In border folklore, there were fears tied to stepping on “unchristened ground,” places where unbaptized or stillborn children were buried. Those who did were said to fall ill with a strange affliction—burning skin, trembling limbs, and difficulty breathing. This condition could not be cured by ordinary means.

The only remedy required an object of great purity and effort: a linen garment made under strict conditions—grown, spun, and crafted through a chain of honest and untouched processes. Crucially, the thread itself had to be spun by Habetrot.

This suggests that her work carried a special, almost sacred quality. Though she lived in darkness and appeared deformed, the products of her labor held protective and healing power.

Habetrot exists at the intersection of hardship and necessity. She is both a relic of relentless work and a quiet guardian who intervenes when needed—never fully kind, never truly cruel, but bound to the rhythms of labor, fate, and tradition.

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Habetrot. In Wikipedia, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habetrot

Reynard

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Tradition / Region: English Mythology
Alternate Names: Reinaert, Renart, Reinhard
Category: Fox

The Myth

In the tales told across the courts and villages of medieval Europe, there lived a fox named Reynard, cleverer than any other creature in the land.

Reynard lived in a world where animals spoke, ruled, and judged one another like humans. Lions sat as kings, bears served as courtiers, wolves acted as lords and rivals. Among them all, Reynard was known for his sharp tongue and sharper mind. He relied not on strength, but on wit, always seeking advantage through cunning schemes.

Again and again he deceived the other animals. He tricked them out of food, wealth, and honor, and when they gathered to punish him, he found ways to twist the truth or invent stories that spared him. His greatest enemy was his uncle, the wolf Isengrim, whom Reynard humiliated many times through trickery and false promises.

Often the animals brought complaints before the king’s court, demanding justice. Reynard was summoned repeatedly to answer for his misdeeds, yet each time he spoke so cleverly that punishment slipped from him. Sometimes he blamed others, sometimes he spun tales of hidden treasures or secret dangers, and sometimes he escaped entirely before judgment could fall.

Though many despised him, others admired his intelligence and daring. His stories spread across many lands, and in each telling he remained the same — a fox who could not be easily caught, living by wit in a world where strength ruled.

Thus Reynard became known throughout Europe as the fox who outwitted kings and beasts alike, a figure of mischief and cunning whose adventures were told wherever people gathered to laugh at the follies of the powerful.

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Reynard the Fox. In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynard_the_Fox.

Gytrash

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Tradition / Region: English Mythology
Alternate Names: Guytrash, Guytresh
Category: Dog, Shapeshifter

The Myth

The Gytrash is a feared spirit of northern England, especially in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is known as a wandering shape-changer that haunts lonely roads, crossroads, and empty country paths where travelers pass after dark.

The Gytrash rarely keeps one form. It most often appears as an animal — commonly a horse, mule, calf, or large dog. When it takes the form of a dog, it is usually described as huge, shaggy, and unnatural, with strange eyes that glow in the dusk. Sometimes it drags chains or moves silently beside the road, watching those who pass.

Travelers who meet the Gytrash do not always meet the same fate. In many tales it is dangerous, leading wanderers astray into marshes, forests, or darkness from which they may never return. Its appearance is often taken as a bad omen, a sign of misfortune or death.

Yet in other stories the spirit is not wholly malevolent. Some say the Gytrash may guide a lost traveler back onto the proper road, escorting them silently through the night until safety is reached before vanishing again.

The spirit became widely known through the stories of the Brontë family. In one famous account, a lone traveler walking at dusk sees what she believes to be a Gytrash: first a spectral horse approaching, then a huge black-and-white dog gliding along the hedge, its presence filling the road with unease.

The Gytrash is remembered as a restless being of the night — neither ghost nor demon nor fairy, but a wandering spirit that moves between shapes, appearing where the road is empty and the darkness is deep.

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Gytrash. In Wikipedia, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gytrash

Black Shuck

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Tradition / Region: English Mythology
Alternate Names: Old Shuck, Shock
Category: Dog

The Myth

Black Shuck is one of the most famous spectral dogs in English tradition, particularly in East Anglia. He is described as a huge black dog, often shaggy, sometimes with blazing eyes, and is generally considered a sign of death or disaster.

Legends claim that Black Shuck haunts lonely roads, churchyards, and coastal paths. Some stories portray him as merely terrifying, while others say he can kill those who encounter him, or foretell the death of someone close to them.

One of the most famous accounts dates to 1577, when the creature was said to have burst into the church at Bungay during a violent storm, killing two worshippers. On the same day, it reportedly appeared at Blythburgh church, killing three more people and leaving scorch marks and claw scratches that locals later claimed were still visible.

In some places, such as Shuck’s Lane in Overstrand, the dog is said to appear frequently. Witnesses sometimes report the smell of brimstone or burned ground where it has passed.

Although usually feared, a few traditions describe a gentler version of Black Shuck who silently accompanies travelers home at night as a guardian spirit rather than a death omen.

The name Shuck likely comes from an old regional word meaning “shaggy”, reflecting the creature’s wild, rough-coated appearance.

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Black Shuck. In Wikipedia, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Shuck

Gabriel Hounds

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Tradition / Region: English Mythology
Alternate Names: Gabriel Ratchets, Gabble Retchets, Sky Yelpers
Category: Dog, Ghost, Death omen

The Myth

The Gabriel Hounds are said to be ghostly dogs that travel across the night sky.

They are rarely seen, but their cries are often heard — high, distant, and mournful, echoing above the land in darkness. Some describe them as dogs with human heads, flying through the air like a spectral hunt. When they pass over a house, it is said to foretell death or misfortune for those who live there.

In some traditions, the hounds are believed to be the restless souls of unbaptised children, wandering between worlds and crying through the night. In others, they belong to a supernatural hunt led by a figure named Gabriel, who is doomed to roam the skies with his dogs as punishment for having hunted on a holy day.

Their voices were sometimes explained by the sound of geese flying overhead at night, whose honking could resemble distant barking. Yet for many, the cries were not natural at all, but a warning from the unseen world.

Thus the Gabriel Hounds were remembered as sky-roaming ghost dogs — heard more often than seen, and feared wherever their eerie yelping was taken as a sign that death was near.

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Black dog (folklore). In Wikipedia, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_dog_(folklore)

Dando’s Dogs

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Tradition / Region: English Mythology
Alternate Names: Devil’s Dandy Dogs
Category: Dog, Ghost

The Myth

In English tradition there is a tale of Dando, a priest who loved hunting more than he loved the duties of his church.

One Sunday, after spending the day hunting instead of attending to sacred matters, he sat with his companions drinking. They gave him ale and wine, but he demanded more and more. At last he swore that if the drink he wanted could not be found on Earth, then it must be fetched from Hell itself.

At that moment a strange huntsman appeared among them. He offered Dando a flask and gave him drink, but then seized part of the priest’s game. Dando, drunk and furious, shouted that he would follow the huntsman even to Hell to recover it.

No sooner had he spoken than the huntsman carried him away, vanishing with him in an instant. Dando’s hounds gave chase, racing after their master, but they could not catch him.

From that time on, people said that Dando was lost, taken into the otherworld by the mysterious hunter. Yet his dogs never stopped searching. On certain mornings, especially early on Sundays, their howling is said to be heard in the distance, still hunting or still seeking their vanished master.

Thus Dando’s Dogs were remembered as ghostly hounds of the Wild Hunt — forever running across the unseen fields, chasing what they can never reach and echoing through the air as a warning against sin and excess.

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Dando’s dogs. In Wikipedia, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dando%27s_dogs