Extraordinary Beasts

This is a family-friendly selection of tales from my book Hellhounds and Hero Horses: Beasts of Myth and Legend (ebook and print). The 205 stories, anecdotes and incidents demonstrate that animals are not, as is often assumed, less than human: they’re just other, a property that is magnified and exaggerated in the accounts of legendary and mythical beasts. Some stories probably report actual occurrences that were interpreted and pre-judged according to the witnesses’ cultural background and beliefs. Topics include death-presaging urcos of Galicia, benevolent Black Dogs of England, the Moddey Dhoo of the Isle of Man, kelpies of Scotland, pucas of Ireland, heroic horses of legend, monstrous cats, helpful birds, mostly friendly wolves, shape-shifters and shape-changers, saints and animals, and a miscellaneous menagerie of creatures of myth, legend and folklore, and supposedly factual accounts.