In Goethe's Faust, the Devil Mephistopheles first appears to Faust in the form of a black poodle which follows him home through a field.His appearance portends the moral degeneration of the human world, when monks and nuns do not behave as they should and humanity has gone astray from ethical livelihood. Led by the god Śakra in the guise of a forester, Mahākanha scares unrighteous people toward righteousness so that fewer people will be reborn in hell. The Mahākanha Jātaka of the Buddhist Pali Canon includes a story about a black hound named Mahākanha ( Pali lit. These characteristics relates them to each other. The jinn likewise is often said to roam around graveyards and eating corpses. The negative depiction of dogs probably derives from their close association with "eating the dead" (relishing bones) and digging out graves. Jinn, although not necessarily evil, but often thought of as malevolent entities, are thought to use black dogs as their mounts. The term is also common in American blues music, such as with Robert Johnson's 1937 song, " Hellhound on My Trail" It is said that, "If you meet the Black Dog once, it shall be for joy if twice, it shall be for sorrow and the third time shall bring death." Pychon in The Connecticut Quarterly, in which it is described as a death omen.
The dog is said to haunt the Hanging Hills: a series of rock ridges and gorges that serve as a popular recreation area. The legend of a hellhound has persisted in Meriden, Connecticut since the 19th century. They are usually said to be either incarnations of the Devil or a shape-changing sorcerer.
The Americas Latin America īlack hellhounds with fiery eyes are reported throughout Latin America from Mexico to Argentina under a variety of names including the Perro Negro (Spanish for black dog), Nahual (Mexico), Huay Chivo, and Huay Pek (Mexico) – alternatively spelled Uay/Way/Waay Chivo/Pek, Cadejo (Central America), the dog Familiar (Argentina) and the Lobizon (Paraguay and Argentina). An alternative name in Welsh folklore is Cŵn Mamau ("Hounds of the Mothers"). The hounds are sometimes accompanied by a fearsome hag called Mallt-y-Nos, "Matilda of the Night". The Cŵn Annwn also came to be regarded as the escorts of souls on their journey to the Otherworld. Some say Arawn only hunts from Christmas to Twelfth Night. Martin, Saint Michael the Archangel, All Saints, Christmas, New Year, Saint Agnes, Saint David, and Good Friday), or just in the autumn and winter. They are supposed to hunt on specific nights (the eves of St. In Wales, they were associated with migrating geese, supposedly because their honking in the night is reminiscent of barking dogs. However, the Annwn of medieval Welsh tradition is an otherworldly paradise and not a hell or abode of dead souls. Christians came to dub these mythical creatures as "The Hounds of Hell" or "Dogs of Hell" and theorized they were therefore owned by Satan. They were associated with a form of the Wild Hunt, presided over by Gwynn ap Nudd (rather than Arawn, king of Annwn in the First Branch of the Mabinogi). In Welsh mythology and folklore, Cŵn Annwn ( / ˌ k uː n ˈ æ n ʊ n/ "hounds of Annwn") were the spectral hounds of Annwn, the otherworld of Welsh myth. In Germany, it was believed that the devil would appear as a black hellhound, especially on Walpurgisnacht. In Lower Brittany there are stories of a ghost ship crewed by the souls of criminals with hellhounds set to guard them and inflict on them a thousand tortures. On mainland Normandy the Rongeur d'Os wanders the streets of Bayeux on winter nights as a phantom dog, gnawing on bones and dragging chains along with it. The dog then vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. The church grew dark as it padded up and down the aisle as if looking for someone. In France in AD 856 a black hound was said to materialize in a church even though the doors were shut. Numerous sightings of hellhounds persist throughout the Czech lands. Dip is pictured on the escutcheon of Pratdip. Like other figures associated with demons in Catalan myth, he is lame in one leg. In Catalan myth, Dip is an evil, black, hairy hound, an emissary of the Devil, who sucks people's blood. In Wallonia, the southern region of Belgium, folktales mentioned the Tchén al tchinne ("Chained Hound" in Walloon), a hellhound with a long chain, that was thought to roam in the fields at night. Oude Rode Ogen ("Old Red Eyes") or the " Beast of Flanders" was a demon reported in Flanders, Belgium in the 18th century who would take the form of a large black hound with fiery red eyes.