The Boggart, Folklore’s Little Prankster

Lancashire, England—There are many iterations of violent cryptids out to harm humanity throughout folklore. You have your dragons, medusas, ogres, and vampires. Sometimes, though, you have some annoying but helpful ones. The Brownie in Scottish mythology is one of them, and so is this post’s topic: the Boggart.

History of the Boggart

In a traditional sense, a Boggart is anything supernatural in nature. This includes ghouls on the moors and spirits in the night. The creature is a short and smelly monster covered in hair, like a miniature bigfoot. Its very presence seems to be of ill-tidings for families. It has the ability to make the household pets run in fear and one’s milk to sour on its own. Imagine Death himself walking by a flower and watching it turn gray and die. That’s like a boggart, but with curdled milk.

The Boggart’s first appearance was in Traditions of Lancashire by John Roby. In it, Roby discusses the Boggart’s nefarious attitude toward a farmer and his family.

Roby writes that the Boggart antagonized the family “with numerous pranks.” The Boggart took the children’s food, threw their drink on the ground, and even scared them at night. Outside of Roby’s research, Boggarts are also known to play many more tricks on people. For instance, they rip the sheets off people while they are sleeping. They also lay their cold hands on them and pinch them.

Even if you and your family are sick of these little fellows, you can’t easily rid yourself of their menace. They typically follow families from place to place.

Conclusion

There seems to be only one way to rid a Boggart. This includes hanging a horseshoe upside down over a doorway to prevent their presence in your home. Nevertheless, though the Boggart has its own folklore, there are some discrepancies as to what the creature is actually. It may just be a spirit or a little gremlin from a dark fantasy film. A hobgoblin? Maybe all of these things!

However, the Boggart does serve a purpose. If it is a bothersome pest in some area, it might just be a protector. Likewise, it offers a convenient excuse for kids to act nicely because the Boggart was a tool of intimidation. That is, children were more apt to act nicer if they knew a little hairy beast was watching. Either way, whether dastardly or helpful, the Boggart is truly a wonderfully strange creature.