The Fiery Turkey of Kampa

 The Fiery Turkey of Kampa

By Cole Herrold

When people think of the Czech Republic and the Fortean they often think of the Golem of Prague. Which to be fair is perhaps one of the most important stories to come from the region due to the cultural importance of the figure. Yet the Czech Republic is a place full of history and legends. In fact, the capital Prague is perhaps one of the most haunted places on earth. The area has countless legends from vampires to werewolves and colossal begging skeletons to River Spirits and sprites. There are several books dedicated to the subject yet perhaps the masterwork of cataloging all the paranormal entities in the city is Prague Full of Ghosts by Miloslav Svandrlik in which he cataloged 140 unique entities claimed to reside in the city. All of these apparitions and entities are interesting but of them, all one stands out due to the comical appearance of the entity. This bizarre entity is known as the Fiery Turkey of Kampa. While stories of this bizarre bird were recorded albeit rarely in sources I first came to find out about it through an unlikely source namely a reprinted book of Hellboy Artist and Creator Mike Mignola’s Sketch Book which appeared in the back of the Hellboy The Troll Witch and Others graphic novel. I instantly became drawn in by the design of the creature and had to find out more. Unfortunately, Prague Full of Ghosts by Svandrlik which Mignola cites as the book which he got the story from is out of print and decently expensive for someone with a limited paycheck. PDFs are rare yet screenshots and some of the illustrations have made their way online. It's from this as well as other online sources that recounted the tale that I was able to get the full story.

The story of the ghost begins in an old mill on Kampa Island which is located in Prague’s Malá Strana district. It was getting close to Easter and the miller was a huge fan of eating roast turkey on holidays it was here that the man to prepare for the day acquired three turkeys for the sole purpose of raising them and fattening them for a bountiful Easter feast. The man was certainly salivating at the thought of the glorious banquet and it was well known that even without a holiday the man loved the taste of turkey. Now the day was approaching closer, and the man grew more impatient as the last time he had a nice drumstick or piece of breast meat was on Christmas. This maddening craving finally reached a crescendo on Good Friday. Now Good Friday is a day that practicing Christians are told to refrain from consuming meat of any kind as on this day Jesus allegedly offered up his flesh as a sacrifice for all of humanity so long as you believe. This proved however to be too much for the miller who proceeded to kill one of the turkeys secretly. The man while the rest of his family were preoccupied with other Good Friday traditions proceeded to cook the bird and then took the feast to his mill where he ate the whole bird in secrecy. The man completely full and seemingly content was sitting on the floor when suddenly he felt an incredible pain in his chest and stomach. The man proceeded to run out the door where he stumbled and fell to the ground dead. When his body was found it was discovered that his gallbladder burst and people joked that this was because of the gall it would take for someone to violate fasting on Good Friday. The fact that he died in such a mysterious way on the day associated with the death of Jesus led many to believe that there was indeed some mysterious force that was at work. The miller's family simply cleaned up the turkey bones from the mill and never spoke about it again. Those of a less religious mindset felt that the man’s gallbladder bursting so suddenly was unlikely and that he probably just choked on a bone. After the holiday the family buried the miller and that was seemingly the end of the story until the next Good Friday came about.

On the next Good Friday, the town was surprised to hear and see at the mill a strange sight of the supernatural. There running around and making countless gobbles was a large turkey that was engulfed in flames. The entity was noticeably angry and would chase people around the area seemingly protecting the mill. The entity also had a physical effect to its nearby surroundings for as it moved it left burning footprints. For fear of what would happen to buildings and people, there were then several attempts to remove the turkey. Many tried to grab the bird but whoever tried only got burned in the process, but the bird was seemingly physical in form. The citizens then tried to get dogs to chase the bird away but the bird in turn ended up attacking the dogs causing them to turn and run with their tails between their legs. These attempts to capture the bird then were upgraded as men tried to snare and cage the entity however the ropes the bird would become entangled with would singe away. Seeing that this was fruitless and that it was just making the bird angrier some townsfolk sent for members of the military to come and try to shoot the bird dead. Several snipers showed up and they proceeded to take shots at the bird however again there was no noticeable effect and that they refused to get closer to the animal for fear that their gunpowder would ignite and explode.

Mike Mignola's take on the Fiery Turkey as well as some of the other ghosts of Prague

Realizing that conventional methods would not work the frightened towns folk proceeded to get the local priest to see what he could do. The priest seeing the flaming bird decided that he would attempt to exorcise the creature. The priest tried every incantation in the book and rang bells all in the attempt of making the apparition leave yet none worked. The flaming apparition however would soon disappear on its own. For as Good Friday ended the apparition suddenly disappeared. The priest and the people soon realized just what this being truly was. It would seem that this angry fiery bird was the condemned and transmogrified form of the miller. Its appearance is both evidence of his afterlife fate and also a warning for anyone else willing to break the holy laws. The ghost turkey would make its appearances over and over for years and would occasionally be heard gobbling on days other than Good Friday. Reports of this entity according to the article by Magic Bohemia seemingly started to die down after the Vatican II reform which occurred in 1965 which they noted changed many of the rules and laws regarding fasting and rituals with holidays. The turkey of Kampa, however, is still a focal point for many of the Prague Ghost Walks and many still claim that while full-on manifestations of the bird are nonexistent the gobbling of the bird can still be heard coming from the mill.

Fiery Ghost Turkeys are not the usual types of entities one thinks about when it comes to the Fortean but this just shows how incredible the Fortean truly is and that it knows no bounds. While this story is truly based on Christian mythology and serves as a warning for those wishing to break its dogmatic practices there are elements of this case that could point to it being an authentic encounter. In Fortean circles, ghost birds are incredibly common many of these apparitions are similar to Banshees as they are reported to warn or cause the deaths of those who encounter them. Yet less supernaturally significant ghost birds are also reported such as the Highgate Ghost Chicken or the Ghost Chickens of Chicken Alley, Wisconsin, or the Ghost Goose of Yorkshire that ghost hunter Elliott O’Donnell described. So, ghost birds are not unheard of in the Fortean and therefore something like the ghost turkey of Kampa is not unique in that way.

Something I else feels need to be brought up is the fact that this apparition while heavily believed to be the ghost of the miller could also be the ghost of the turkey killed on Good Friday. This animal was killed on a “holy” day and could be because of this damned to wander the earth or could even seek revenge on the community or the millers family. Obviously the overly supernatural qualities of this apparition kind of point against this it is still a possibility. Perhaps the roasting could have caused it to garner some supernatural fire in the same way that the Highgate Chicken ghost is constantly reported to be shivering and cold due to how it was stuffed with snow in its legend. The preparation used on the remains could explain the form it takes this could be why cremation is supposed to release ghosts and stop them from manifesting there may be some sort of link. An eerie thought too, is that perhaps the miller’s death was caused by the ghost of this bird as a form of revenge either granted by some higher power or through some supernatural rage of its own. Of course, all of this is mere speculation but it's something that in each telling of the story that never seems brought up and that most of the focus or identity is pointed to the miller. 

Another more direct similarity to the fiery turkey and other Fortean cases is the story. Transmogrified ghosts are surprisingly common. In plenty of older ghost books and in myths and beliefs from around the world once a person dies depending on the quality of their character they can become either through some religious damnation or through a curse or preset condition an animal ghost with strange abilities. There are two entities that I can think of that are extremely similar to the Fiery Turkey. The Roaring Bull of Bagbury is a large malicious and angry spectral bull from Bagbury, England. This apparition was in life a farmer who was exceedingly cruel and down right evil in life (the details however are sketchy as to just what he did) yet after he died the ghost would enter the farmhouse in its colossal bull form and stampede and throw objects around with its horns and kick furniture. Things got so bad that 12 parsons were called who led the bull to Hyssington Church where in they were able to shrink the bull through prayers to fit inside a snuff box. They then sent this box to the Red Sea for 1,000 years. Alternatively, there also was the spirit of a blind leper that was extensively covered in the works of Elliott O’Donnell. This leper who was killed by a tiger later would come back as a ghostly white tiger who had the ability to spread leprosy to whomever he scratched or bit. The ghost sought revenge for its death as the blind leper’s fate could have been prevented but more on this case in the very near future. The point of these other accounts was merely to demonstrate that similar ghosts to what the Fiery Turkey is have occurred at least in legends and Fortean literature.

The question we have to ask ourselves as well is that does our dogma cause phenomena to fluctuate. With the Fiery Turkey it is claimed that sightings and manifestations were rampant until the rules regarding meat consumption and fasting were changed. Is this an example of some sort of spell in action as many of these traditions and rituals could be something akin to that and by changing this all phenomena associated or bound by this are either released or forced to change behavior or simply obliterated from existence. One has to wonder such things if this is not some sort of parable or folk tale. There over the years have been countless cases of animal ghosts or strange supernatural entities that suddenly vanish or as some of the witnesses to hauntings claim to apparitions seem to fade over time. Some ghosts seem almost physical when first sighted then as the years go they turn into that grey or white or see-through apparition that is so associated with the phenomenon and then suddenly the ghost is seemingly gone with only maybe noises left. Some associate this with the stone tape hypothesis and that ghosts reflect the home conditions or environments in which they are reported. Yet it seems that now these less defined more ethereal ghosts are more common than the bizarre cavalcade of entities reported from the 1500s-1800s. It makes me wonder just what happened. Yet Im certain we may never find the answer and the same goes for the truth about the Fiery Turkey.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Transmogrified Human Spirit

Location: Kampa Island, Prague, Czech Republic

Works Cited:

Hellboy The Troll Witch and Others By Mike Mignola, Richard Corben, and P. Craig Russell

Prague Full of Ghosts By Miloslav Svandrlik

“The flaming turkey of Kampa” Magic Bohemia. November 17, 2016. https://magicbohemia.com/the-flaming-turkey-of-kampa/. Accessed February 22, 2023.

“Free Ghost Tour Of Prague’s Famous Mala Strana District” The Creative Adventurer. September 24, 2020. https://thecreativeadventurer.com/free-ghost-tour-of-pragues-famous-mala-strana-district/. Accessed February 22, 2023

“The Fiery Turkey” Prague Stay. https://prague-stay.com/lifestyle/review/176-prague-legends-myths-and-ghosts/177-haunted-prague-and-czech-legends/852-the-fiery-turkey. Accessed February 22, 2023. 

Brentford Griffin

 Brentford Griffin

By Cole Herrold

In the annals of Cryptozoology and Fortean studies in general, there are creatures that appear to of been ripped straight from the pages of classical mythology. There are countless cases, many of which I had covered in the past, from Blackwood, New Jersey’s Pigtaur and Centaur, to the Tangipahoa River Cyclops and, of course, the countless reports of more human-looking Goatmen, which are mirror images of their faun, satyr, and Pan mythic counterparts that seem to indicate if these reports are accurate that there may be more to our myths than just tales to explain natural phenomenon or simply to entertain a group when things like film or Dungeons and Dragons were not around. It is interesting to note that a lot of these beings are reported not in the country from which their tales originated but instead in areas with little to no real direct connection with these legends. Of all of these entities from the Mythic Menagerie, there is one in particular that had for a time captured the attention of a nation and remains one of the most interesting cases in Fortean history simply from the fact that this heraldic beast is one of according to legends the noblest albeit aggressive flying freaks ever written about since the early epic poems and playwright days.

In the middle of 1984, 28-year-old telephone technician Kevin Chippendale had left his home on Brooke Road South and was strolling along Braemar Road. Upon this walk, Chippendale, out of boredom or complete adoration of the current state of weather, proceeded to look up into the sky but upon doing so, he was greeted not just with the marshmallow mists commonly referred to as clouds but also a strange dark form that was beating its way through the azure sky. He could tell that whatever this dark form was, it seemed to be some sort of animal flying some hundreds of feet up in the air and was coming from an area known as the gasworks and was just about to pass a group of tall apartments which coincidentally was known as the Green Dragon Towers. Chippendale, as he strained to make out just what the creature exactly was, could soon tell that this being was far from the traditional fauna said to inhabit, at least to his knowledge, the United Kingdom. The creature was about the size of a large dog, yet an exact height and length were difficult to the distance the creature was seen, and he said there was a likelihood the creature was larger. He noticed that this creature could not have simply been a bird because while he noted large feathery wings flapping in the wind, the overall morphology was off as they appeared to come from the shoulder area and that the way the creature flew was almost as if it was in slow motion. Chippendale could soon see why there was a noticeable displacement of the wings, for dangling below the body of the creature were four legs that appeared to end in features similar to paws. As Chippendale followed up the creature's neck, he noted that the creature had a strange head similar to a birds in most respect, except that there was no noticeable beak but instead a kind of muzzle that had some sort of strange nose at the end. The creature's skin also was not what he expected either as he watched, for there were no feathers on the body itself but what appeared to be a smooth texture to it that made the creature look aerodynamic in flight. Kevin could not make out any further details from this creature but did feel that he had seen the creature’s eyes as well as a kind of tail.

Chippendale was completely flabbergasted at just this strange flying anomaly and had no clear indication as to just what it was that he saw, but he remained quiet about his sighting for fear of being labeled “unbalanced” and moved on with his life until several months later in February of 1985 he was out walking, and upon looking up again into the sky near the Green Dragon Towers he saw the same creature flying again. This time Chippendale, however, had an inkling as to just what the creature could be. During both of these walks, Chippendale passed a pub known as the Griffin Brewery and, upon thinking about the design of the creature on the sign, felt that this creature was fairly close, if not identical, to a Griffin. He would say the following "The first time was last summer when I saw something flying low across the ground in the gaswork. At first, I thought it might be a plane, but it was too low and made no noise. I was intrigued to know what it was and, as I walked past the Griffin pub, realized it looked like the animal on the sign. I saw it again a couple weeks later in exactly the same place". Chippendale realizing he was not crazy due to his second sighting, felt comfortable enough to open up about his encounters but even then, only to his close family and friends, yet as time went on, he would be put into the center of the storm of reports that would flood and engage the area throughout this time period.

Word soon spread about Chippendale’s sighting even with the discreteness of who he told, and it was then that a short time later, one of Chippendale's coworkers, a woman by the name of Angela Keyhoe, would go to him and also claim that she too had seen the strange creature. Angela claimed that she had seen a large, winged animal perched on top of the gasworks, a colossal utility tank that has served as a Brentwood landmark. She had seen the creature while seated on the top floor of a No. 65 double-decker bus, and apparently, she was not alone as others seated allegedly also had seen the flying freak of nature. Angela could not withhold her excitement after her encounter and as she began to tell several local arts center workers about what she and those on the bus had witnessed.

Also, during this time, a psychologist by the name of John Olssen came forward and said that he too encountered a strange flying creature. He encountered what he described as a colossal bird-like creature while out jogging along the Thames River in the early morning hours. It was from this that many felt that the creature was living on one of the many islands that darted the river, Thames. And John Baroldi of the Waterman's Art Center would come forward with several firsthand accounts from people who told him that they too had seen the creature. One of these sightings involved a woman who came from a nearby park along the street of the Art Center who he noticed was in a terrified state. When he asked her what was troubling her, she said that she had seen a large dark-colored bird in the park that scared her so bad she couldn't stop shaking during the sighting.

During this time, the press had picked up the stories, and for several months recounting of the sightings would be told along with several artistic renditions throughout the millennia of just what the creature was supposed to look like. During this time, the interest of the Griffin even led to a Griffin Spotting Club that searched the area of the sightings for any evidence of the creature as well as attempted to catalog any further sightings of the creature. During that time, only one sighting came forward, and there was barely any detail or information on that encounter.

Robert Rankin, the towns poet in residence at the Waterman’s Art Center and writer, took great interest in the Griffin, writing about it in the May 1985 edition of the Magonia Newsletter. He also started to organize a UFO symposium upon which he discussed the Griffin and stated that reports of the creature could be traced back to at least pre World War II. Yet he did say all of the sources that mention the creature was ambiguous at best.

After 1985 sightings of the Griffin completely disappeared, and it remained a strange little chapter in the colossal book of Fortean subjects. Until in 1995 when Robert Rankin came forward attempting to claim that the Brentford Griffin was a hoax perpetrated by himself and several other friends of his and members of the Waterman's Art Center. For many, this killed the idea of a Griffin in Brentford, and so history became legend, legend became myth, and the creature stayed in the shadows of lore for a time. The creature, in fact, was practically forgotten about until a man by the name of Martin Collins wrote a letter which later appeared in an issue of  Fortean Times (specifically issue 110 from May 1998) He wrote: “I first encountered the story of the Brentford Griffins while I was at St John’s School in the 1950s (note: some thirty years before the first sightings!). St John’s in those days sat in the shadow of Brentford’s football ground, Griffin Park. Inquiring why there were so many griffin references in Brentford, I was told that it was due to the family of griffins that lived on Brentford Eyot, an island in the Thames.

The story of how they got there was that the first Griffin was brought to Brentford by King Charles II as a gift for his mistress, Nell Gwynn, who had a house in the Butts at Brentford. One day the Griffin was playing on the banks of the River Brent, which flows past the Butts, and fell in. The hapless creature was washed down the Brent into the Thames, finally being washed up on Brentford Eyot. As it was assumed to have been killed, it was left alone and was able to live on the Eyot for many years – griffins having a lifespan of centuries.

Then Sir Joseph Banks brought back a griffin from a Pacific island where he had been with Captain Cook. This Griffin was originally housed in the Pagoda in Kew Gardens, which is on the opposite bank of the Thames from Brentford Eyot, where it found a mate awaiting it.

There was soon a whole colony of griffins, and they spread out from the Eyot all over the town of Brentford, where they can still be seen to this day if you look closely enough.

This story has stayed with me…it is a nice bit of Brentford mythology.”

With this letter, the story of the Griffin was much like another mythical bird, the Phoenix reborn from the ashes of the alleged hoax, and many speculate now that there might have been some truth to the legend and hoax after all. Even Rankin though his testimony needs to be taken with a grain of salt, to say the least, wrote about other Griffins or Griffin like creatures in the area that appeared in his Magonia article:

This is the Magonia Article in its Entirety

 “Throughout history, the gryphon has been a symbol evocative of power and majesty. As an emblem, it is employed by nearly 200 companies in the UK alone, from the Midland Bank to Fuller's Brewery. Jung once stated that "it is a subconscious symbol of such encompassment that it is unlikely to be the product of mere myth; we are dealing with something born from folk memory." Although a seemingly impossible hybrid of eagle and lion, there now appears little doubt that the gryphon is a Jiving reality. Up until a few months ago, zoologists would have ridiculed the possibility of such a chimera, but the recent spate of sightings coupled with the gryphon skeleton currently on exhibit seems to have added the flesh of reality to the bones of myth. "I went along suspecting hoax," stated Attenborough, "but came away convinced. This discovery has set the zoological world upon its heels."

Reports of gryphons crop up with startling regularity throughout the pages of history. Dr. Johnson records one he saw at Brentford's Bull Fayre: " ••• it was somewhat smaller than I had expected, but the proprietor assured me that it was 'yet young'... it had the body of a lion cub and the neck, head, and forelegs of an eagle ... curiously formed wings issued from its shoulders." Johnson was in no doubt that the beast lived "and was not the product of the gypsies' craft ."No further mention of is made of the gryphon in his writings, and one is left to wonder what became of it. Possibly it was the same live specimen my father saw at Olympia before the war. He was informed that it was several hundred years old and was shown old showman's posters as proof. From the substantial body of information, I have on my own files alone, I am inclined to place the Brentford Gryphon alongside the Yeti and the Loch Ness Monster 'as yet unsolved'. The local sightings have been too widely reported to require further mention here, and I have no cause to doubt the testimony of the witnesses I have interviewed. Having been scrupulous in discounting sightings which might be misinterpretations of natural phenomena, we are still left with statements such as "unlike any living creature I have seen •.. ", "rising from the Thames on outspread wings. •• ", " the front half looked like an eagle, I saw a long tail and claws like a cat." London Weekend Television's 'spoof send-up' on 15th March fell flat on its face, with Cockney 'personality' Danny Baker openly admitting before an audience of several million that the witnesses he had interviewed were genuine. Such unprecedented honesty on his part seemed more than at odds with LWT's obvious intention to send the whole thing up. Since the television coverage, Brentford has found itself playing reluctant host to all manner of fringe elements. Andy Collins of 'Green S tone' notoriety arrived hotfoot, with ghetto-blaster, Instamatic, and the usual bevy of nubile lady acolytes. Viewpoint Aquarius stated that it was a 'genetic mutation' escaped from a government establishment, and the Chiswick Wildlife Trust offered the considered opinion that it was noth1ng more than a four-legged vulture blown off course! In fact, Speculation on all sides led to such an astonishing plethora of 'logical explanations' (the logic of which defies all explanation) that one is left to consider the indisputable fact that it is a gryphin pure and simple - a species of animal as yet unstudied and therefore considered non-existent. One can certainly discount John Rimmer's recent ' authoritative article,' which suggests that it is Brentford's old friend, the giant feral Tom, making yet another of its unwelcome nocturnal appearances. Mr. Rimmer would do well to explain how the famous 5-foot pussy manages to grow upwards of 8-foot, sprout wings and fly across the Thames. I note with growing alarm the plan of some local stalwarts to instigate a gryphon hunt one night in the near future. I hear talk of a flotilla of small boats, tracker dogs, powerful searchlights, steel nets, and tranquilizing darts. The plucky Brentonians would do well to exercise extreme caution, as the beast is notorious for its ferocity and love of human flesh. It is my feeling that the matter should be placed in the hands of the experts. But I am sure also that it will require private backing, as the local council has shown its customary reticence in raising the necessary funds, even for so worthy a cause. Whatever the eventual outcome, I cannot contain the thrill that rises at the prospect of a successful capture. Such would be a rare achievement indeed. I look forward with great interest to future developments. Magonia welcomes any correspondence on this interesting subject and is eager to contact anyone who has had a personal experience with a gryphon or any other form of creature previously believed to be mythical”.

Skeptically speaking, there are many ways to interpret this case. Robert Rankin, one of perhaps three main players in the saga of the Brentford Griffin and the one who wrote the most about the case, was a comedic fantasy writer best known for eleven books known as the Brentford Trilogy, which deal with all sorts of paranormal and supernatural events that affected Brentford. It is known that Robert Rankin, who focused heavily on publicizing the Griffin, came forward in 1995 and said that most if not all of the reports of the Griffin were perpetrated by him as a kind of joke. So taking just that report at face value, most if not all the information on the Griffin straight out, is a hoax. The reason for this hoax was said to be that Robert Rankin and several other locals had planned to hold a Festival in the Waterman's Art center on July 13, 1985. Yet this date would coincide with Live AID, which was taking place at Wembley Stadium, and to raise awareness of their event, they concocted the story about the Griffin being seen around the arts center with all of the witnesses being involved in Rankin's joke and Rankin then proceeded to write a historical background of the creature. Now, this would seem to be the final nail in the coffin for the Griffin, except that in 1985 during these sightings, Andrew Collins investigated and interviewed as many eyewitnesses as he could and felt that they were indeed truthful. He ended up publishing his findings in a 42-page pamphlet entitled The Brentford Griffin: The Truth Behind the Tales. So, it’s possible that at least the initial encounter with the Griffin was based on an actual sighting.

Another possibility is that at least with Chippendale's sightings, if they are not a part of Rankin's acclaimed joke that perhaps he predisposed the image of the Griffin on a natural bird or plane or kite having passed by the Griffin Brewery, which also is near the Griffin Stadium where Brentford's football team play and also that two Griffin's are on Brentford's coat of arms so perhaps he had Griffins on the brain and affitted the description to something mundane. Or even possibly hallucinated the creature due to all the surrounding Griffin influence but this seems less likely compared to being either interconnected with a hoax or having seen a real creature since a lot of Chippendale’s description while Griffin like is not 100% how a griffin is supposed to look and if one were to generate a hoax why wouldn't they go full out and describe the creature as the classical depiction? This, too, would, of course, add to the joke hypothesis even more if one was to say they saw a classic regal griffin and not the more flying canine or lion-type creature. Yet, of course, this still does not rule out Chippendale being interconnected with a hoax.

Now assuming that, at the very least, Chippendale's sighting is authentic, what are we to make of it? Well, the most obvious answer would be that this would have to be some sort of cryptid. There's nothing really to indicate any other major categories, such as there's no UFO sighted in connection with the creature as it quite is its own Unidentified Flying Object, so it's safe to take an extraterrestrial angle off the table. Griffins, from a folkloric or mythological view, first appeared primarily in the literature of the Greeks but first appeared in Aristeas’s lost epic poem the Arimaspea in 675 BC and then showed up repeatedly in the works of Greek playwright Aeschylus in his tragedies like Prometheus Bound. Griffins also showed up in Scythian artwork and gold dating from 3000-100BC, implying that these creatures, if real, were well known or prominent in Mediterranean and Asian culture for countless years. Griffin-like creatures are not entirely unknown in the world of cryptozoology; one of the most famous examples would be the 1925 flap of sightings of a creature that has come to be known as the Vermont Awful. This creature terrorized the towns of Berkshire and Richford as it tromped on rooftops, stole milk cans, and stared at residents through their windows. The creature even reached the ears of cosmic horror author H.P. Lovecraft who was so interested in the creature that he went to the area and interviewed the residents who had seen the creature.

A similar creature was reported sometime later, but this time it was lumped into a different cryptozoological identity, and that was the Jersey Devil. In the late 1920s, there was a report of another quadrupedal flying creature that the press were quick to call a "flying lion" that was seen in West Orange, NJ. This encounter led to the creature being chased by several would-be monster hunters who allegedly not only chased the creature away but also found and captured one of the creature's offspring. Yet further information on this case is scant, to say the least. It is interesting, however, to point out that a flying lion is very similar to what was reported in Brentford, as well as in the Griffin lore, the Griffin is half eagle and half lion, so this report might very well be another example of a Griffin sighting. And as a sidebar, note the fifth example, at least to my current knowledge, of a creature from Greek Myth being reported in New Jersey.

Another creature slightly similar to what was reported in Brentford is the Beast of Barrisdale. This tri-legged flying Waterhorse tormented the area of Loch Hourn on the land while a colossal black serpent frolicked in the lake. The Beast of Barrisdale was described as about the size of a horse or ox and with a myriad of similar features to what we see on the Brentford Griffin, such as large wings attached to the shoulders, smooth skin, a long muzzle like feature, pawed hands and a long tail so perhaps they may be the same species or a related one. For more information on the Beast of Barrisdale, definitely check my February 2, 2021 article on the creature.

Now, of course, while all of these creature reports seem to indicate a biological flesh and blood animal, and while there always is the chance something evolved to be like what these creatures seem to be, the problem with this is that we have nothing in the fossil record or known zoological record that matches. Wings are essentially modified arms and hands to allow the capacity of flight with creatures like the Beast of Barrisdale, the Awful, and the Brentford Griffin; this is not what we're seeing, as this would imply that all of these creatures would have evolved with 6 limbs four which evolved like legs and two that were modified as wings. This is something unheard of in vertebrates as it goes against everything we know about how evolution works. The only way something like this could exist is if these creatures were not mammals, birds, or reptiles but instead colossal insects, which totally goes against their descriptions. So, needless to say, there are some problems with the earthbound cryptid theory.

Now the next possibility for the existence of the Brentford Griffin would be if this is an interdimensional entity. This theory is sort of an extension to the cryptid theory, but instead of them coming from our world, these creatures somehow, through some fluke of the universe or dimensions or whatever, somehow end up entering and being seen in our world. This theory could explain just how a creature like this could exist as with multiple dimensions, there are an infinite amount of possible evolutionary lines and "worlds" where a creature like this could exist.

The next possibility seems kind of slim, but it's one that I speculate all the time about with such strange cases, and that is the Fae option. Faeries are a mixed bag of phenomena and involve creatures of an animal nature like the Cu-Sith or Cat Sith as well as the Kelpie and Each Usiage and even the Dobhar-Chu. Now some folklorists and faerieologists will include the Griffin as well as Dragons and Unicorns into the classification of Fae due to the alleged mystical and magical abilities they are said to have and the fact that they occasionally are seen with, in service of, or in some connection to more traditional Fae like Elves or Dwarves. Now with a creature like a Griffin, if this is an example of a faerie beast, they would have some of the same abilities seen with others, like the ability to vanish. Now there's nothing exactly to indicate that with this case, nor is there any direct faerie connection, such as in the case of the Bridgemont Gnome Race where the faerie horses are seen with gnomes.

Now there’s one possibility that seems so off the track for a phenomenon like this but does occasionally become interconnected, and that is the demonic. Irish paranormal investigator Elliot O'Donnell in his book "Dangerous Ghosts," wrote about a curious encounter with a pair of homicidal supernatural griffins from around the 1660s; he wrote the following regarding the incident where a Mr. John Luck encountered the entities:

“(Mr John Luck) a farmer from Raveley, set out on horseback one morning to the annual fair at Whittlesea. On the way he met a friend, with whom he had a drink at a wayside inn. After drinking somewhat heavily Mr. Luck became very merry and perceiving that his friend was getting restless and desirous of continuing on his way to the fair, he said, "let the devil take him who goeth out of this house today ."The more he drank the merrier he grew. Forgetful of his rash saying, he called for his horse and set out for the fair. The fresh air seemed to have a sobering effect, for he had not travelled very far before he remembered what he had said. He was naturally superstitious and became so perturbed that he lost his bearings. He was endeavoring to find the way home- it was getting dusk and far too late to go to the fair- when he espied ‘two grim creatures before him in the likeness of griffins’. They handled him roughly, took him into the air, stripped him, and then dropped him, a sad spectacle, all gory, in a farmyard just outside the town of Doddington. There he found himself lying on the harrows. He was picked up and carried to a house which belonged to a neighboring gentleman. When he had recovered sufficiently to talk he related what had happened to him. Before long, he 'grew into a frenzy', so desperate that the inmates of the house were afraid to stay in the room with him. Convinced that Luck was under evil influences, they sent for a clergyman of the town. No sooner had the clergyman entered the house than Luck, howling like a demon, rushed at him and would have torn him to pieces had not the servants of the house come to his rescue. They succeeded with great difficulty in overcoming Luck and tying him to the bed. No one was allowed to enter his room, the door of which was locked".

The following day Luck was found dead. His body was contorted, and his neck was snapped; he was covered in black and blue marks, and his tongue was dangling from out his gapping maw. A scene not unsimilar to what those seeing Anneliese Michels had seen. Now, this is the only official instance I found of a demonic griffin, but the idea of a mythological creature as a demon is something that has been referenced time and time again by some religious Forteans. So, needless to say, it is a hypothesis we need to include.

With creatures like this, we are left wondering just how could something like this exist in our world. It would be easy to accept the whole series of encounters as hoaxes, but there's so much gray in this encounter that I'm open to saying that there probably was something there, at least in regard to the Kevin Chippendale sightings. Just what this being could be, I have no conclusive idea, but I would lean more towards the cryptid hypothesis seeing as similar creatures have been reported elsewhere, but even then, there's nothing to confirm that hypothesis either. Perhaps the interdimensional route is the more appropriate. I've mentioned that there have been several creatures seemingly ripped from the pages of myth; perhaps there is a dimension where all of these entities originate from, and it is a world where mythology as we know it is reality, yet as with everything this is just speculation. In conclusion, I feel that the story of the Brentford Griffin will continue to be told as long as people still hold mysteries in their hearts and as long as there are researchers to write and keep the story alive, but the answer to this mystery will never truly be discovered.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Mammal/ Bird/ Possible Hoax

Location: Brentford, England

Sighted: Mid 1984-1985

Works Cited:

Encounters With Flying Humanoids By Ken Gerhard

London Urban Legends By Scott Wood

Mysterious Creatures Volume One by George M. Eberhart

Paranormal London By Neil Arnold

Shadows in the Sky: The Haunted Airways of Britain By Neil Arnold

Fortean Times Issue 110, May 1998

Magonia 19, May 1985

Acton Gazette (Ealing, London, England) March 15, 1985

Acton Gazette (Ealing, London, England) August 16, 1985

Ealing Gazette (Ealing, London, England) March 22, 1985

“The Brentford Griffin” Beasts of London.April 6, 2007.http://beastsoflondon.blogspot.com/2007/04/brentford-griffin.html. Accessed May 25, 2022.

“The Brentford Griffin and Other Mysteries”. St. Margarets.7 May 2009. https://stmargarets.london/archives/2009/05/the_brentford_griffin_and_other_mysteries.html. Accessed May 25, 2022.

 

 

The Villa Santina Little Green Men

 Villa Santina Little Green Men

By Cole Herrold

The history of UFOs and extraterrestrial encounters is a bizarre one that diverges at the point of interpretation. There are certainly those of the Ancient Aliens persuasion who will state that UFOs and extraterrestrials have been amongst us from the beginning, but the "official" acknowledgment of the existence of extraterrestrials or UFOs can be pointed to the original report by Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947. After Arnold's sighting, Brazilian Jose Higgins would have the second official UFO sighting on July 23^rd, 1947, a mere 29 days after Arnold's, yet the third official UFO sighting, which happened some 50 days after Arnold's, was perhaps the most interesting and profound for unlike the previous cases which simply involved craft this sighting can possibly be marked as the first official case of a Close Encounter of the Third Kind and its occupants were anything far from the traditional extraterrestrial even though they clearly was the original Little Green Men.

At 9:00 am on August 14, 1947, Professor Rapuzzi Johannis, both an avid artist, writer, and geologist, was out near Villa Santina in Italy. While out searching and studying strange and unusual rock formations and searching for fossils in the Friuli region of Villa Santina in the North of Italy. He was ascending the short valley of the mountain stream known as the chiarso and traversing on a path along the left bank of the stream. When traversing this hill, he was surrounded by various fir trees and large deposits of alluvial rubble and detritus. As he emerged into a clearing from one of these clumps of fir, he noticed a large red lens-shaped object with a low central cupola and a telescoping antenna that was similar to those found on motor cars. The object was about approximately 30 ft wide and about 18ft high near a rocky riverbank that was some 50 yards away. The professor, short-sighted, proceeded to take out his glasses and stare at the object and felt that the craft was made seemingly of some sort of varnished metal, not unlike a child’s toy. The object was not exactly hovering but seemed to be embedded about a quarter of its length in a great transverse cleft in the mountainside and was anchored about 6 meters above the bed of the stream. The professor, completely amazed at what he was seeing and totally unaware of the phenomenon of UFOs, decided to head up and investigate the object but had decided to try and see before the trek towards the mysterious object if there was anyone around that could come help him investigate the strange object.

 The professor began to approach the object reaching about 25 meters, and as he came closer, he noticed two figures which at first he thought were "two boys," near the grove of trees that he had just recently entered from. As he stared at the boys, he began to yell and point toward the object as they seemed completely oblivious to the bizarre object nearby and realized as he looked and approached them that these were certainly not earthbound boys. The beings began to approach him in a slow robotic fashion and kept their hands down at their sides. The beings were about 3ft tall and wore dark blue translucent coveralls with strange red-colored collars and cuffs. They also had a wide red belt. The clothing, however, was not the only strange thing about these beings as they had large heads noticeably larger than a human's, and that a top, these colossal craniums that seemed reminiscent of a cartoon caricature with a brown tight-fitting cap similar to an alpinist’s bonnet a topped them. They appeared to be hairless not only on their heads but also on the rest of their bodies, and that they had green skin similar to the plasticine used by sculptors or a clay dipped in water with long straight noses with fish like mouths that much like a fish was opening and clothing as if this is how it breathed. Their eyes were yellow-green in color and were large hemispherical, and seemed to protrude from the face much like once again a fish. Yet the fish adulation ended there as the pupils of the entities were more akin to a reptile's as they appeared as a kind of slit. These beings also had no eyebrows or eyelashes but strange ring-like lids around the lids of the eyes. Johannis was seemingly paralyzed by the fright of these creatures as they slowly approached him with steady strides, and Johannis watched the beings in horror for some 2-3 minutes. Realizing these were not humans, Johannis eventually was able to overcome the fear of seeing the unknown and began to yell at the creatures to get their attention and to ask them who they were and where they came from. As he did this, he raised his pick that he used for his geological excursions (other sources say his paintbrush/easel, but Johannis would fix this with his follow up in the Humanoids edited by Charles Bowen). As Johannis did this, he raised his hand holding the pickaxe, which he felt, later on, was probably interpreted as a threatening gesture. Upon doing this, the beings wheeled around very quickly. As he watched, one of the two entities proceeded to put their right hand onto their belt, which emitted a thin puff of smoke which he later felt was some sort of ray. During this, Johannis felt that the pickaxe in his hand suddenly was being pulled away and as he watched, the ax flew away; and as this happened, he suddenly found himself crumpled on the ground and that he was paralyzed and felt an electric shock throughout his body, but he could still watch the beings approach the ax. They reached within 6ft of Johannis, and as they got to that point, he was able to roll over on his side and watch as one of the creatures lifted up the pickaxe, examining it; as Johannis stared at the beings, he noted that their hands while having human-like digits had hands that appeared to be clamped almost like claws. In other words, these entities had some 8 digits that were hinged at a certain point; in other words, 4 digits on one side and 4 digits on the other side. These 8 digits seemed jointless but were still noticeable as fingers. The beings observing the pickaxe breathed heavily, and Johannis compared this breathing to a dog's after a long run. Johannis struggled to sit up but was able to eventually do so but needed to firmly plant his arms to the ground to avoid falling over again. As he watched the creatures return to their craft and as he watched he climbed into the object, which rose vertically 15ft above the ground much like the appearance of a gong, and watched as the object attempted to fly away. As the object dislodged from the cliff, several stones fell down to the riverbed. Johannis noted that the object seemed to have problems flying as the object hovered a bit. Johannis, during this time, tried to get up but could not and fell back again, and he watched as the disc-shaped object tipped and unleashed a gust of wind. Johannis was still immobile and was moved when the blast of wind from the craft moved him into a stony riverbed. Then the craft began to do something altogether curious the object began to shrink in size and continued to do this until it eventually and finally disappeared.

Johannis's Original Eyewitness Sketch of the Green Men

Johannis would wait some 2hrs before he finally was able to get ahold of his faculties, and even then, he was exhausted as he during that time slept and upon moving his limbs felt extreme pain as if every bone was broken. Upon being able to move, he noted that all the aluminum objects in his objects were missing; he found that his flask of coffee was shattered but that the metal casing that surrounded it was gone as well as his fork and canister that held his lunch. He found that all of his sketches were stained with coffee and that his lunch was left scattered in the bag as well, which left him having only coffee-infused bread as a meal as he had to throw away the salami and the rest of his intended lunch. Johannis then began, after eating and being able to move to search for his pickaxe but was not able to find it; he was certain that the beings had taken it with them then and later, after learning more about the UFO phenomenon, felt that it was in some extraterrestrial museum being carefully analyzed as the aliens attempted to decipher his name, his mountaineering motto, a pair of alpine flowers and an eagle which were cut into the handle of the ax and he hoped that the beings "rack their brains to a standstill trying to make it out ."This irritated him even further on the return trip as he had used the pickaxe as a kind of walking stick to help traverse the terrain. It was about 2pm by the time he had made it to his room at the inn in Raveo; upon entering the door, the proprietress of the inn, who he had known since he was a boy, saw the banged-up visage of the professor and instantly asked what happened. He responded by saying he fell from a rock, and upon hearing this, the woman said in a rather condescending tone that it served him right and that it was about time that he stopped going around collecting stones. He shrugged her off, went up to his room, and then proceeded in sheer exhaustion to crawl into bed and fall into a deep sleep.

The following day Johannis armed himself with another pick as well as a revolver and went back to the spot. He searched the area and the cleft from where the craft was moored but found nothing, but he was more focused on some hope that the beings did not take his pick and that they left it near where the object was, but of course, he found nothing. Johannis asked later on if others in the area had seen some strange airplane and found that two people, an old man and a little boy from a nearby village had, had told him separately that they had seen a red object that flew up into the sky both at 8:30 and 10 during the day of his sighting. The old man was sitting down in the village square enjoying the day when he noticed a large red globe being 'carried aloft on the wind' behind the mountain on the slope of which the village lies. The boy was with his mother and other people working in a field on the edge of the village when he noticed a red ball “like the ones they have at fairs," which was rising at great speed and proceeded to disappear into the sky.

Attempting to rationalize what he had seen had changed several times since, in the beginning, he nor anyone else in Italy was aware or had any context of UFOs. At first, he thought the craft was some experimental machine of the allied forces, which were during that time occupying the Campoformido aerodrome in the Friuli area. His next thought was that perhaps this was some Russian device. He then wondered about whether this device and the beings were some unknown civilization that remained hidden away in the unexplored regions of our world, such as he felt the Matto Grosso of Brazil. Yet he was not happy with any of these possibilities as the men he encountered were so unusual that they could not have been human. Two months later, he sailed to New York, and during the crossing, he heard about Kenneth Arnold's sighting, and only then did he make the connection to flying saucers and Ufonauts. During the five years while in the USA, he followed the ongoing wave of flying saucer sightings, and in 1950, he decided to come forward with his account, which led to it being initially published in the journal of the Centro Studi Clipeologici, Via San Secondo 15 Torino, May 1964^th edition of the Clypeus issue No. 2-5. As time progressed, Johannis would have some doubts about the beings he encountered; he became unsure as to the position of the vertical pupils or even as to whether they had pupils at all and even then started to question whether the beings were flesh and blood at all and even began to think that chances are that they were more likely to be robots. All of this and a final follow-up would be chronicled for Gordon Creighton for the mandatory Fortean book The Humanoids, edited by Charles Bowen.

Now, this case is extremely fascinating. I have been fascinated with this encounter since I first read about it; for me, the most important thing about this is this is the first official Close Encounter of the Third Kind during a time when not only were extraterrestrials not even thought of but that the UFO phenomenon in general from how we perceive it today was literally just gaining traction. While some out there will point to the ancient aliens' aspect of beings like Quetzalcoatl or other gods being alien races, I must stress that this is an interpretation of data and not the data straight-faced. When looking at the history of UFOs, this is one of the earliest and, therefore, one of the most important. One could argue that this case is revolutionary as it puts the term little green men, not into a context of sarcasm or discredit but as possibly the original origin of the phrase (the same can be said about the Hopkinsville Goblins). So, a quick refresh of the importance of the case, 3^rd documented case of a UFO, 1^st case of a Close Encounter of the Third Kind, 1^st case of a Little Green Men type extraterrestrial which just having those merits surprises me that this case is not more famous than what it is.

Now, of course, breaking down this case, there are actually a few ways to look at this case, yet the element that determines the interpretation is the Green Men themselves. Obviously, there's the extraterrestrial angle; this is perhaps the most popular identity of these beings as they had many features we would associate with a living creature, such as pupils, skin, the use of clothing and tools, as well as a fish-like opening and closing of the mouth. Much of this would indicate a biological creature, and the same would also involve the creature's curiosity and even interpretation of Johannis's waving arm and ax and shouting as a kind of threat. If these creatures were mechanical or something along those lines, unless they were being piloted or controlled, one would not think that they would behave in such a way that seems to be more defensive.

Now while these entities do appear biological, there is always the chance that they are androids or robots. The main indication of this is that the creatures moved in a robot-like fashion and even Johannis, later on, felt that the creatures were something along those lines. There are tons of reasons for why this would be a plausible answer for these entities since if an advanced civilization wanted to learn more about our culture or planet in general, they would send drones to search and investigate the planet. They could serve as data collectors collecting pieces of our culture or tools; the various soil collecting cases could be to see the general makeup of our world or if the atmosphere would be breathable, or if there were some hazardous diseases or microbes that could hinder further contact or conquest.

While there are a lot of indications that these entities are extraterrestrial in origin, and that has since been where most researchers firmly plant them. There are other options that could indicate that what these beings are is something much older and more at home on earth. These creatures could very much have been members of the Faerie kingdom. Now many researchers have drawn comparisons to alien encounters and the fae, but one thing that I've come across in my research is that faerie encounters still to this day occur and that they come in countless forms. One particular variety that pops up across cultures is green-skinned beings, whether it be elemental figures like the Green Man, a figure associated with the changing seasons and the woods, or beings of a more aggressive nature like Jenny Greenteeth, an aquatic faerie hag that drowns those that come too close to her watery lair. Now the Villa Santina Little Green Men behave in many ways like the fae they stole seemingly mundane and shiny objects, something that has been repeated in faerie lore for centuries. They had odd brightly colored clothing with cuffs, something that is also reported in faerie encounters and differs from most extraterrestrial encounters, who mostly are reported wearing robes or skintight diving suit style outfits even though other bizarre fashion choices exist. Another element is that the craft that the beings left in behaved rather strangely as opposed to flying or taking off in a traditional way or simply disappearing as in other UFO cases; this craft began to shrink before ultimately disappearing as though it winked out of existence. This winking out of existence, as well as the shrinking to nothing, is something that has been reported with faerie encounters before. Just how or why the fae do this is clearly anyone’s guess, but I did find it an interesting similarity, to say the least.

Another possibility, of course, venturing off this world and once again into another is the possibility that these beings were interdimensional entities. This is sort of a catch-all possibility, but if these entities have technology and can travel through dimensions, it could explain the overall strange behavior of the craft and that the shrinking could be the manner in which these organisms come in and out of another dimension. Also, needless to say, in another dimension, there are countless evolutionary lines or possibilities as to just how a being like this could exist, but again, there's clearly no definitive answer.

This is perhaps one of the most important cases out there and also one of the most interesting. It amazes me that this case has not been focused on or reached mainstream interest in the same way as, say, the Flatwoods Monster or the Hopkinsville Goblins has. There are so many interesting elements, and I find that it's also one of the most ambiguous in regard to the origin of these beings. I would argue that this is just one of several cases that seem to cross over into faerie encounters, but at the same time, there is that strong extraterrestrial origin for these beings. It's interesting too that these beings, while similar in overall shape to Grays, are clearly not since they have almost reptile-like eyes and a much greener complexion as well as their bizarre 8 digited claw-like hands, so that in itself is just refreshing since greys are so overbearing. Just what these entities are much like in almost any case, we will never come to a conclusion, but that's one of the appeals as well since this is just one of the countless one-off cases out there. These entities, be they from space or earth or another dimension, are fascinating, and who knows what the future might hold perhaps some other alpinist, while out might have a run-in again with these visitors and the only thing I can suggest is to hold onto your pick with your life.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Extraterrestrials, Robots, Faeries

Location: Villa Santina, near Raveo, Carnic Alps, Italy

Sighted: 9:00 am, August 14, 1947

Works Cited:

The Field Guide to Extraterrestrials By Patrick Huyghe

Humanoid Encounters 1930-1949 By Albert S. Rosales

The Humanoids By Charles Bowen

The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters: The Definitive Illustrated A - Z Guide To All Things Alien By Ronald Story

London Flood Troll

 London Flood Troll

By Cole Herrold

In February of 2014, London was starting to prepare itself for the oncoming deluge from Storm Ruth. During this time, the city was hit with a massive onslaught of rainclouds that, on several occasions, seemed to overtake the city. On one of these days, the rain hit hard and resulted in excessive flooding in London as well as the rest of the Southern portion of the country. During this time, many people were active in preparing not to be dislocated during the storm. Apparently, all were not so lucky as a 25-year-old student would find as the storm seemed to of not only affected the people in the area but at least one Fortean beast that had made itself seen during the deluge.

An unnamed 25-year-old student was visiting his parents in a rural area and assumedly was helping in any way to stop any damage to his parent's property or simply to make sure that they were safe and prepared for the incoming storm. He had initially planned to stay with them for a little bit but realizing the possibility of the trains to London being stopped due to the weather decided against it and upon finishing his visit with his parents. Proceeded to head towards the train station to book a train to get back to his home in London. This trip home was a long one, and during the ride, he proceeded to fall asleep several times; and on one occasion of waking from deep sleep, he happened to look out the window and had an almost Twilight Zone-esque surprise that would shock him for the rest of his life. It was getting dark out, and as he began to gather his bearings from waking up once more from a restful nap, he, upon looking out the window to his left, saw a strange dark figure running next to the train at a rather close distance. He at first thought that this figure was a person, but as he stared at the strange runner in the flooded landscape that the train slowly trudged through, he soon realized that this was not the case. As the figure came exceptionally close to the train, he was able to note that the being was an astounding 9-10ft tall and that it was running in a strange erratic fashion, not like how a person normally would. He also noted that the figure was exceedingly large and notably "fat" in form, and the man noticed that the water from the flood barely touched the being’s knees. This, however, was not the strangest part of the creature's appearance; as the man peered closer at the figure, he could see that the creature bore no clothes but was covered in long shaggy hair all over its body with the exception of its face and chest. As he stared at the figure's head, he noted that its eyes reminded him of a gorillas, but this would be the end of any similarity to a primate as the creature also bore two short white horns and had large and long wolf ears. As he stared at this anomalous apparition, he had wondered whether he actually was awake and whether this whole scenario was not some dream within a dream. Yet as he looked over to his fellow passengers, he noted that others had seemingly noted the strange being yet were hesitant to openly draw attention to the being running alongside the train. Even if those who did see the creature spoke up, however, it would be for naught as there was barely anyone on the train, and so it was a secret they all must share.

The 25-year-old witness would, during the event, talk to two other witnesses who were in the same car, a young boy and his mother, but just what they discussed went unreported. As they sat, however, the train started to speed up, and they could tell that this new acceleration was too fast for the creature to keep up with, and so he watched as the creature was left behind to waddle in the flooded mire. When asked about his encounter further and asked why there were no photos, the witness said the following “No, I wasn’t dreaming, mate. I also know what a bear looks like, and it looked more like a troll. Remember, from the Lord of the Rings?...” Well mate, I was quite surprised, like I said. You just don’t have got any time to reach your phone and take a picture. Things happen fast, that’s what people don’t get. So, unless you are a trained journalist or similar…and you are expecting something to happen, you’ve got nothing,… “Friends and other people say it’s rubbish, but I know what I saw,”.

As far as this case goes, this is all we have. None of the others on the train seemed to of come forward with their sighting. There were no photos or any other follow up outside of the initial report, which the anonymous witness had that was later uploaded onto Cryptozoology News. Yet the encounter at least has enough information for us to attempt to break down his sighting. Obviously, starting off skeptically, it could be possible that this was some internet hoax. This is fairly common with creature reports of all kinds, and we see more of this now arguably than ever before. Another reason one might point to the hoax angle is even the description of the creature. The witness said that the creature reminded him of a troll and that it specifically would be reminiscent of one from the Lord of the Rings. Now clearly, as a Tolkien fan, I would at first venture and say that this depiction makes no sense as being compared to trolls or any of really the other creatures in Tolkien's World. The Trolls in the book are more or less giant humanoid creatures that, much like the folklore they’re based on, turn to stone when in contact with sunlight. Other than that, there's not much of an official description, yet early artwork in Tolkien books tends to show them as giant human-like creatures with sharp facial features. In the Peter Jackson films, trolls are hairless, colossal, and have unique, almost pug-like faces. This is very different from the gorilla-furred horned creature reported, and while this could lend credence to an actual sighting, I offer this other option the witness might have gotten the wrong Tolkien creature to describe it as. In the animated sequel to both Rankin Bass's The Hobbit and Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings, Rankin Bass once more returned to the helm and directed The Return of the King. In this animated classic, as well as the original Rankin Bass Hobbit, even though the presence of them is not as prevalent in that one, there are creatures that bear a strong resemblance to the creature seen by the witness; these are the Orcs and Goblins. In the film, they had large bulky gorilla-like forms, they were incredibly fast, they had no hair on their faces with some exception on the top and sides of their heads, and also they had large protruding horns. The only major difference between these creatures and the troll reported in this case is the excessive amount of hair reported, which could have been an extra detail placed to remove the overall fantasy appearance of the creature that it could have been based on.

Top image Orcs From the 1980 Rankin Bass Return of the King

Bottom Image Goblins From the 1977 Rankin Bass The Hobbit

Now while I've really gotten into how this case is possibly a hoax inspired by the classic film adaptations of Tolkien’s work, there is always the chance that what was actually reported in the account did occur. If this is to be the case and not the ramblings of an animated Tolkien fan, then what are we to make of this account. My first thought would be that this creature would be a cryptid as the timing of the sighting and the storm would seem to indicate that this creature might have been displaced by the storm or that the overall storm would increase the creature's activity as it searches for food. Horned sasquatch-type creatures, which would be the closest type of creature that would match the entity reported, do occur, yet oftentimes they are lumped in or misinterpreted as other cryptids. One of the most famous horned cryptids I covered, which gets lumped into the bigfoot category, for example, is the Wood Eating Amish Country Goose Grabber, which is more of a horned Were-lion as opposed to a bigfoot. Yet let's say for argument sake that Sasquatch can get the same or a similar disease as the Shope papilloma virus (SPV). This disease creates growths that one could compare to as horns and is primarily found in certain types of rabbits, and is most likely the inspiration for the lore of Jackalopes. Now we do know that Bigfoot-type creatures are reported in England; there have been several interesting cases and findings primarily in the area of Cannock Chase, so perhaps if SPV is applicable to other species in the same way that Rabies is, then its possible that reports of Goatmen and other horned humanoid cryptids could be examples of bigfoot with SPV. Yet, of course, this is also speculation.

Another possibility in the Cryptid department is that this could be an example of a Goatman with mange or old age. Now Goatmen are a highly debated cryptid, and the phenomena, in general, sits at the tri corners of both the cryptid, Faerie, and Demon categories as there are reports that are reminiscent of each different category. Now when one looks at how a witness describes any phenomenon, it is always important to remember that the witness is putting their encounter together in their words the best way they can, and that does not always mean that what they are describing is 100% accurate hence why we have some issues with descriptions with even famous cases like the Flatwoods Monster where multiple witnesses described the creature as mechanical whereas others felt it was a completely flesh and blood being. So perhaps, in this case, the witness humanized the creature more than it actually was, or perhaps the creature was seemingly more primate-like or human-like, but that this was caused by a disease like mange. This could explain the ultimate lack of hair on the face or chest and the bizarre behavior of chasing a train. Now granted, if that's the case, then this would be the first case, at least to my knowledge, of a Goatman with mange as unlike Sasquatch, where we do have reports with mange, there has never been a Goatman one, so if that's accurate, this is a revolutionary report in the annals of Goatman research.

Now other options for this creature are seemingly lessened as opposed to other cases as this does appear to be a very physical creature, at least from the description. If this is the case, one could always entertain extraterrestrial, but this case does not have a UFO, or any other element that one could point to that would indicate that this entity comes from off-world. There is no history, at least to my current knowledge, of this entity or a similar one being reported with UFO or alien cases, so it's safe to say it does not match that category. I would argue the same for some sort of paranormal entity in the way of a demon or ghost; the fact that this being seemed physical and that it interacted with its environment in a very tangible way does not seem to imply something supernatural in the way that we associate ghosts or spirits with.

With that said, though, there are some other options; the first and, to me, most important is the Faerie category. Now I’ve covered the Fae extensively in other articles, and they are something that constantly keeps coming up with these stranger cases hence why I feel its an option we as researchers need to focus more on but let's say that the witness was not using the word troll as semantics but that the witness either had some insight or knowledge that what he was seeing was from beyond the hidden veil. Now I've covered countless Troll cases from all over the world, and I will say this entity has many features reported in other troll cases, but the horns are new. Trolls typically are described as humanoids of varying sizes and shapes, and they are excessively hairy and are connected to people of a certain pagan origin or the landscapes they are connected with. They have many abilities that involve growth, weather-controlling, disappearing, and that is simply from what has been reported over the years with other cases. Now, as stated, I’ve over the years only found one official case of a Troll with horns, and that involved, interestingly enough, another case where the creature was seen in water, this time in America. So perhaps River or water trolls have this feature; yet again, I will say I have never come across any reference to this outside of modern artwork of Trolls from individuals like Brian Froud or other artists.

Another possibility is that this creature could be from another dimension, Ultraterrestrial or tulpa, as they are sort of the answers which function as the ultimate answer for how any phenomenon could occur. Now, needless to say, there are problems with all of these topics, especially since they are also the most difficult to gather evidence or data of. Also, of them all, the only one that would make sense would be an interdimensional being since on another world or plane of existence, there are countless evolutionary possibilities that are out there, and therefore, it is almost impossible to claim that at least in one of these worlds that one did not create a creature like this. If this is an Ultraterrestrial, it really did not seem to do what the traditional Ultraterrestrial is known for, as the entity did not exactly attempt to generate fear in a more aggressive manner or attempt to confuse or make the witness out to be ridiculous in some insane scenario as how some felt Woodrow Derenberger was made out to in his encounters with Indrid Cold. It just seems that this encounter is purely random and bears no true significance, and that, of course, would be if this entity is an Ultraterrestrial.

This case is interesting on multiple levels, both in not only the analysis of witness testimony but also in general data regarding other Fortean phenomena. Just what this entity is and whether this is a true case or not is obviously debatable. I tend to lean more towards the skeptical on this case simply due to just how the creature was described and the mention and focus of Tolkien in the original testimony, yet that does not obviously mean it's a hoax by any means. The world we live in is stranger than fiction, and so it's very possible that this witness had access to a once-in-a-lifetime experience with the unknown yet just what that being might have been is truly anyone’s speculation.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Mammal. Faerie, Paranormal Entity

Location: Outside London, England

Sighted: February 2014

Works Cited:

Humanoid Encounters 2010-2015 By Albert S. Rosales

“British student comes forward with close-range account of troll-like creature chasing train” Altered Dimension. February 12, 2014. https://www.altereddimensions.net/2014/british-student-reports-troll-creature-chasing-train. Accessed March 22, 2022.

"The Troll of London" UFOlogy and More. April 7, 2014. https://ufohotspot.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-troll-of-london.html. Accessed May 24, 2022.

"Troll Runs After Train in Flooded London" Before Its News. February 13, 2014. https://beforeitsnews.com/paranormal/2014/02/troll-runs-after-train-in-flooded-england-2464210.html. Accessed May 24, 2022.

“Troll Runs Train Flooded England” Cryptozoology News. February 2014. http://cryptozoologynews.com/troll-runs-train-flooded-england/. Accessed March 22, 2022.

“Strange creatures that people report seeing.”. MissionQuest. February 12, 2014. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/missionquestfpb/strange-creatures-that-people-report-seeing-t1176-s220.html. Accessed March 22, 2022.