Barghest
The Barghest in William Henderson’s 1879 folklore collection, with local accounts and the collector’s interpretations kept separate.
What is the Barghest?
A northern English apparition associated with death. Henderson’s Barguest accounts include a black dog near Leeds and a being with multiple forms near Darlington. These are distinct local reports. Source account.
Source status
This profile uses a historical folklore collection, not evidence that the apparition exists. Its scope is the selected passage, not every tradition attached to the name. No claim of earliest attestation is made. Henderson writes in English; the aliases preserve his spellings rather than translating a foreign creature-name.
- record type
- creature
- tradition
- Northern English folklore
- aliases
- ["Barguest", "Bahrgeist", "Boguest"]
- source scope
- William Henderson, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders, new edition with additional notes (1879), Chapter VII, “Local Sprites,” Barguest discussion.
The source account
Henderson’s Yorkshire informant recalled a frightening procession before Squire Wade’s death: the Barguest led local dogs, howling and barking. The recollection is reported testimony, not Henderson’s own observation.
Appearance and attributed abilities
In the Leeds report, it is a large black dog with fiery, saucer-sized eyes; its paw inflicts wounds that never heal. At Glassensikes, a separate account gives headless human and animal forms. Those transformations should not automatically be assigned to the Leeds apparition.
Source realm
The selected accounts concern waste ground above the Oxwells spring near Leeds and Glassensikes near Darlington. They locate encounters in ordinary geography, not a named supernatural kingdom.
Names and interpretive limits
Henderson conjecturally connects the Barguest with Padfoot and Lancashire’s Boggart. That comparison is the collector’s interpretation, not grounds for merging their profiles. This record also leaves the name’s etymology unresolved.