The Beast of Dean is a folkloric animal said to live, or to have once lived, in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England.[1] Despite several attempts to encounter, capture, or kill the beast in the early 19th century, there is no scientific evidence to support the existence of the Beast of Dean or any similar creature in the Forest of Dean. [1]
History
editFolktales alleging the beast existed in the forest apparently have their origins in the 18th or early 19th century. Farmers from the village of Parkend undertook an expedition to capture and kill the creature in 1802, but found nothing. The animal they were hunting was reported to be a boar large enough to fell trees and hedges. Large numbers of boars in the forest are reported from other 19th century accounts, and "vast droves" of them were apparently allowed into the forest in autumn to forage around this time.[2] Wild boar can still be found in the Forest of Dean to this day,[3] but many 20th and early 21st Century references to the creature are made by "cryptozoologists", who presume the beast to be a real animal that was unknown (or new) to science.[1] In 2007, the science-fiction television series Primeval, re-imagined the Beast of Dean as a living gorgonopsid that arrived in the present day through a wormhole leading to the Permian Period.[4]
References
edit- ^ a b c Nanson, A. (2011). Gloucestershire Folk Tales. United Kingdom: History Press.
- ^ Nicholls, H. G. (1858). The Forest of Dean: an historical and descriptive account. J. Murray.
- ^ Government supports local communities to manage wild boar. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. 19 February 2008
- ^ Flett, Kathryn (11 February 2007). "Saturday night feast of big, big beasts". The Observer. Archived from the original on 19 February 2007.
External links
edit- "Myths & Legends of the Forest of Dean". Visit Dean Wye.
- "If Netflix's The Witcher was set in Gloucestershire these are the monsters he would confront". GloucestershireLive. 22 February 2020.
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