Comments on: What Are Black Dogs? http://aftertheblackdog.wordpress.com Careful - you just might find what you're looking for. Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:19:57 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Wendy C http://aftertheblackdog.wordpress.com/whats-a-black-dog/#comment-66 Wendy C Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:26:06 +0000 http://aftertheblackdog.wordpress.com/?page_id=94#comment-66 Emily was definitely hard as nails...the bit about her dying on the horsehair sofa for days and refusing to call the doctor always gets to me. I'm rather fond of Viking explanations for black dogs in the British Isles myself. If I recall correctly, Theo Brown rules that out on account of their presence in Ireland which she appears to believe was outside of the Norsemen's remit, of course we know that isn't the case and those dogs do seem to crop up a bit more regularly around places like Dublin and Wexford which were Viking Settlements (NB. this may be entirely my imagination). Have you done any exploration into theosophical /magical notions of Thought-forms and the like? Dion Fortune has a pretty scary account of creating a werewolf by the power of evil thought and the difficulty in banishing it. Its the sort of things that Yeats (as a Golden Dawn member like Fortune) would have given some thought to. Spooky, but top place in the Black Dog Tales of horror definitely goes to Padre Pio's encounters (http://www.padrepio.catholicwebservices.com/ENGLISH/The_Devil.htm) and when you consider that the Koran also has some harsh words on the subject of the black dog maybe it IS the Hound of Hell after all... What would you do if you saw one?? Emily was definitely hard as nails…the bit about her dying on the horsehair sofa for days and refusing to call the doctor always gets to me. I’m rather fond of Viking explanations for black dogs in the British Isles myself. If I recall correctly, Theo Brown rules that out on account of their presence in Ireland which she appears to believe was outside of the Norsemen’s remit, of course we know that isn’t the case and those dogs do seem to crop up a bit more regularly around places like Dublin and Wexford which were Viking Settlements (NB. this may be entirely my imagination).

Have you done any exploration into theosophical /magical notions of Thought-forms and the like? Dion Fortune has a pretty scary account of creating a werewolf by the power of evil thought and the difficulty in banishing it. Its the sort of things that Yeats (as a Golden Dawn member like Fortune) would have given some thought to. Spooky, but top place in the Black Dog Tales of horror definitely goes to Padre Pio’s encounters (http://www.padrepio.catholicwebservices.com/ENGLISH/The_Devil.htm) and when you consider that the Koran also has some harsh words on the subject of the black dog maybe it IS the Hound of Hell after all…

What would you do if you saw one??

]]> By: aftertheblackdog http://aftertheblackdog.wordpress.com/whats-a-black-dog/#comment-65 aftertheblackdog Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:03:02 +0000 http://aftertheblackdog.wordpress.com/?page_id=94#comment-65 That's definitely possible. It's a little hard to say because there are so many places the legend could have come from -- old tales of Odin, or Hekate, or Cerberus, or any number of other things. It's attractive to think the B.D. tale could have come from the mainland, considering Yorkshire's coastline. But that doesn't change the fact that Emily Bronte, wherever her inspiration came from, is probably cooler than twelve of me put together, just for cauterizing a dog bite herself, haha. That’s definitely possible. It’s a little hard to say because there are so many places the legend could have come from — old tales of Odin, or Hekate, or Cerberus, or any number of other things. It’s attractive to think the B.D. tale could have come from the mainland, considering Yorkshire’s coastline. But that doesn’t change the fact that Emily Bronte, wherever her inspiration came from, is probably cooler than twelve of me put together, just for cauterizing a dog bite herself, haha.

]]> By: Wendy C http://aftertheblackdog.wordpress.com/whats-a-black-dog/#comment-59 Wendy C Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:18:47 +0000 http://aftertheblackdog.wordpress.com/?page_id=94#comment-59 By the way, the Bronte's father the Reverend Patrick Bronte came from County Down, Northern Ireland, so any tales of black dogs which lurk in their novels may well have come from Ireland as much as Yorkshore. However my hunch is the real-life incident in which Emily Bronte was bitten by a potentially rabid dog and calmly cauterized the wound herself by laying a red hot iron across her arm is more than enough to haunt any family's nightmares without recourse to myth or legend.. By the way, the Bronte’s father the Reverend Patrick Bronte came from County Down, Northern Ireland, so any tales of black dogs which lurk in their novels may well have come from Ireland as much as Yorkshore. However my hunch is the real-life incident in which Emily Bronte was bitten by a potentially rabid dog and calmly cauterized the wound herself by laying a red hot iron across her arm is more than enough to haunt any family’s nightmares without recourse to myth or legend..

]]>