Laelaps

The Death of Procris c1500

Piero di Cosimo

The attractive dog on the right is a talented canine from Greek myth named Laelaps. To the great misfortune and dismay of his prey, Laelaps never failed to catch his quarry. Amazingly, in spite of his abilities, Laelaps had a number of owners including Zeus, the god of sky and thunder, and later King Minos, the son of Zeus and Europa. It seems his hunting prowess made him eminently giftable. King Minos understood Laelap's giftabilty, and presented him as a reward for the speedy cure of an uncomfortably bizarre medical condition "gifted" by his wife. It seems Zeus's wife was so angry at her wandering husband, she cursed him to ejaculate scorpions and spiders eager to eat the genitals of Minos's sleeping partners. That woman had one nasty imagination. 

      

Very nasty!

The desperate King Minos asked Procris of Athens to cure his problem. On succeeding, he prized her with Laelaps, an infallible javelin, and possibly a bronze giant named Talos. Procris's husband was impressed by Laelaps, eventually taking him along to hunt the uncatchable Teumessian fox. 

The Teumessian Fox and Laelaps

Artist: Polylerus

Unfortuanately, Procris's husband didn't consider the paradox of a dog that always caught it's prey, and a fox that could never be caught. As a consequence, the hunt went on indefinitely until Zeus, maddened by the contradictary nature of the pursuit, turned them both to stone and sent them to the stars. 

 

Laelaps can now be found in the sky posing as the constellation Canis Major. I hope he's happy. 

Axehandle Hound

Another American "fearsome critter" of the Splinter Cat variety is the Axehandle Hound. I should explain that fearsome critter is a collective term for mythological beasties created by early lumberjacks to frighten and confuse yahoos like you and me. This particular critter is allegedly found in the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Axehandle Hound looks like a dog with a distinctly axelike shape. The head is the blade, the body the handle, and the whole bundle is made mobile by four stubby little legs. Those stubby little legs propel the hound from lumber camp to lumber camp in pursuit of food. You may be wondering what such a critter eats. It eats AXE HANDLES naturally. All the Axehandle Hound eats is axe handles. It wanders from one lumber camp to another in search of neglected axe handles. Though the Axehandle Hound is called a fearsome critter, I don't find it very fearsome myself. I think it's kind of cute. It does have a strange diet though!

  

Jorge Luis Borges included the Axehandle Hound in his Book of Imaginary Beings. You can find it on Amazon HERE.

If you would like to experience the woods firsthand, somewhere in Minnesota there's a campground called Ax-Handle Hound. According to Wikipedia, it's on Little Fork River near the Voyageurs National Park. Lindens Grove is very near by. If you ever go, keep a close eye on your axe handles.

 

Black Shuck

Walking alone down a dark road, you notice a strange black dog staring at you. It stands very still, with huge eyes glinting red in the moonlight, seeming to choose you for some unknown purpose. Should you run, or should you stand quietly and hope it moves on. Suddenly, the dog turns and races away though the woods leaving you relieved, but fightened. There was something about that dog that didn't seem real. Perhaps what you saw was the ominous Black Shuck of British legend.

Black Shuck is a spectral dog said to haunt the Norfolk, Essex and Suffolk coast of England. Its eyes, sometimes glowing red, and sometimes green, are its most striking feature. They seen to bore a hole straight through the witnesses heart. The beast's size can vary as well. I suspect the greater the victims fear, the larger Black Shuck appears. Does it feed and grow on terror? 

Black Shuck has been the source of fear for a very long time. His name may mean demon, from the Anglo-Saxon word scucca, or possibly shaggy from the equally old word shucky. Alternately, he could be a historical memory of Odin's dog of war, Shukir. 

He usually brings tidings of ill, but not always. At times he seems content to merely terrify his quarry by dramatically floating in mist, or even appearing headless before his quaking watcher. 

Do you see the scorched scratch marks in this church door? Legend has it those scratches were caused by Black Shuck during a fierce thunder storm at a village named Blythburgh in Suffolk. In the year 1577, Shuck burst through the church entry, ran up the nave, and left a man and boy dead in his wake. As you can see, the scratch marks are still there for all the world to consider. They are called, by the way, the Devil's fingerprints.

On the same day, a second encounter with Black Shuck occurred in the nearby town of Bungay. Once again, Shuck burst through the church door, ran up and down the nave and killed two people by wringing their necks. 

    

You shouldn't be surprised if Black Shuck sounds familiar. A very similar spectral dog is featured in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Sherlock Holmes finds an entirely logical solution to the hound's existence. Logic is always reassuring. So if you meet as large black dog with glowing eyes, remember there is a logical answer to everything. Or is there?