Boggart

Lore & Background

Boggarts are described in varied forms, from human-like but ugly creatures with bestial attributes to completely beast-like shapes. The 1902 Saga-book of the Viking Club describes one boggart as 'a squat hairy man, strong as a six year old horse, and with arms almost as long as tacklepoles.' Others appear as a calf-sized creature with long shaggy hair and saucer-like eyes, or as a huge horse. At least one Lancashire boggart could take animal forms, and their leader, 'Owd Hob,' had the form of a satyr or devil with horns, cloven hooves, and a tail. The boggart 'Nut-Nan' was said to flit with a shrill scream among hazel bushes near Manchester.

Reader's Guide

Boggarts hold a significant place in northern English folklore, representing a broad category of supernatural beings that could be either domestic or wild. The 1867 book Lancashire Folklore distinguishes 'house boggarts' from other types, and household boggarts were believed to follow families wherever they fled. A key belief, reported in Lancashire, is that a boggart should never be named, as naming it would make it uncontrollable and destructive. The word 'boggart' derives from Middle English 'bugge' (a spirit or monster) with an aggrandizing suffix, making it a close linguistic cousin of 'bogle,' 'bugaboo,' 'bugbear,' and 'bogeyman.' Place names such as Boggart Hole Clough in Manchester, Boggart Stones on Saddleworth Moor, and Boggarts Roaring Holes in Yorkshire attest to the enduring cultural imprint of these spirits. In 2019, folklorist Simon Young launched a survey to test modern understandings of the word 'boggart,' collecting 1,100 accounts.

Did You Know?

• In Lancashire, a skittish or runaway horse was said to have 'took boggarts,' meaning it was frightened by an invisible boggart.
• 'Boggart muck' was a dialect term for owl pellets in much of North West England.
• The Boggart of Hackensall Hall in Lancashire had the appearance of a huge horse.
• A boggart named 'Nut-Nan' was recorded in Lancashire, flitting with a shrill scream among hazel bushes near Manchester.

Identity & Classification in the Folk Tradition

The boggart occupies a deliberately ambiguous space in English folklore, resisting any single fixed definition. Dialectologist Elizabeth Wright characterized it simply as a generic label for an apparition, while folklorist Simon Young framed it as any solitary supernatural spirit carrying an ambivalent or outright evil character. Halifax-based scholar Kai Roberts offered perhaps the broadest reading, suggesting the term could encompass everything from a hilltop hobgoblin to a household faerie, from a headless ghostly figure to what we might now call a proto-typical poltergeist. This wide net explains why the 1867 volume Lancashire Folklore, compiled by Harland and Wilkinson, felt the need to draw a formal line between house boggarts and other varieties. In practice, boggarts could haunt the interior of a dwelling as a domestic spirit or roam the exterior, tethered to a specific stretch of landscape as a genius loci. Their disposition, as recorded across the sources, leans heavily toward malice, making them among the more threatening figures in the northern English supernatural bestiary.

A Kaleidoscope of Forms

No supernatural creature in the English folk tradition presents a more kaleidoscopic visual record than the boggart. Some accounts render it in a vaguely humanoid shape, though one that is squat, hairy, and deeply uncouth. The 1902 Saga-book of the Viking Club, Volume 3, paints a particularly vivid picture: a stocky, hair-covered man whose strength rivaled that of a six-year-old horse and whose arms stretched nearly as long as tacklepoles. At the other extreme, the Boggart of Longar Hede in Yorkshire took the form of a calf-sized beast with long shaggy fur, enormous saucer-like eyes, and a trailing chain that clanked like the baying of hounds. The Boggart of Hackensall Hall in Lancashire resembled a massive horse. At least one Lancashire boggart could shift between animal and more terrifying shapes. The Lancashire boggarts were said to answer to a master called Owd Hob, who appeared as a satyr-like devil with horns, cloven hooves, and a tail. In Moston near Manchester, a boggart known as Nut-Nan flitted through hazel bushes emitting a shrill scream, while in Yorkshire another haunted the limestone cavern at Cave Ha near Giggleswick.

Nocturnal Intrusion, Naming Taboos, and Trickster Tales

The behavioral repertoire of the boggart in recorded folklore is dominated by nocturnal intrusion and deliberate provocation. A common account describes the creature crawling into a sleeper's bed in the small hours, pressing a clammy hand against their face, or yanking the bedclothes free. A household boggart could shadow a family across distances, following them wherever they fled. One of the most persistent folk beliefs, recorded in a Lancashire source, held that a boggart must never be spoken of by name; once given a name, it could no longer be reasoned with or coaxed, and would instead turn wholly uncontrollable and destructive. The Grizlehurst boggart, first published in 1861 by Edwin Waugh, illustrates this dread: an elderly couple described a creature buried beneath an ash tree at a road bend, interred with a cockerel and a stake, yet still capable of banging doors, casting blue candlelight, leaving cloven-hoof marks, and unhitching horses. The Farmer and the Boggart tale from Mumby in Lincolnshire presents a more wry encounter, in which a farmer outwits the squat, hairy, foul-smelling creature twice by choosing crops that leave it with only stubble or bare earth, driving it from the land in fury.

Etymology and a Family of Fearsome Words

The word boggart is far from a stable spelling. Across the northern English dialects it appears as boggard (especially in Yorkshire), baggard, bogerd, boggat, bogard, boggerd, boggert, bugart, bugbard, and buggart, with the form boggart itself representing the typical Lancashire pronunciation. All of these variants trace back to the Middle English word bugge, meaning a spirit or monster, with an aggrandizing suffix tacked on to produce the sense of a great, big bugge. This etymological root makes boggart a close linguistic cousin to a whole constellation of familiar English words: bogle (or boggle in Scots), bugaboo, bugbear, bug, bogeyman, and bogie. The connection may extend even further, to other British and Irish supernatural terms such as bucca, pwca, Puck, and pooka, though scholars have not confirmed this link. In north-western dialects the word also served as a descriptive shorthand: a skittish or runaway horse was said to have took boggarts, meaning it had been spooked by an invisible boggart, and the phrase boggart muck was a common term for owl pellets across much of North West England.

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