Beast of Dean
{{Short description|Folkloric animal said to live in the Forest of Dean}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
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The Beast of Dean is the name of an animal from English folklore that is said to live, or to have once lived, in the Forest of Dean: a large, "Ancient woodland" bounded by rivers in Gloucestershire, England.Nanson, A. (2011). Gloucestershire Folk Tales. United Kingdom: History Press. Despite several attempts to encounter, capture, or kill the beast in the early 19th century, no scientific evidence has been found to support the existence of the Beast of Dean or any similar creature in the Forest of Dean. The Beast is also occasionally mentioned literature related to cryptozoology.
History
Folktales alleging the beast existed in the forest appear to have their origins in the 18th or early 19th century. Farmers from the village of Parkend undertook an expedition to capture and kill the creature in 1802 but did not find anything resembling the creature. The animal they were hunting was reported to be a boar large enough to fell trees and hedges. Large numbers of boars in the forest are reported from other 19th century accounts, and "vast droves" of them were apparently allowed into the forest in autumn to forage around this time.Nicholls, H. G. (1858). The Forest of Dean: an historical and descriptive account. J. Murray. Wild boar can still be found in the Forest of Dean to this day,[https://web.archive.org/web/20080504155956/http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2008/080219b.htm Government supports local communities to manage wild boar]. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. 19 February 2008 but many 20th and early 21st Century references to the creature are made by "cryptozoologists", who presume the beast to be (or have been) a real animal that was unknown (or new) to science. In 2007, the science-fiction television series Primeval, re-imagined the Beast of Dean as a living gorgonopsid that arrived in the present day through a wormhole leading to the Permian Period.{{cite web|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2010183,00.html|title=Saturday night feast of big, big beasts|last1=Flett|first1=Kathryn|date=11 February 2007|website=The Observer|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070219224609/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0%2C%2C2010183%2C00.html|archivedate=19 February 2007|url-status=dead}}
References
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External links
- {{cite web|url=https://www.visitdeanwye.co.uk/explore/history-and-heritage/myths-and-legends/myths-and-legends-of-the-forest-of-dean|title=Myths & Legends of the Forest of Dean|website=Visit Dean Wye}}
- {{cite web|url=https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/celebs-tv/netflixs-witcher-set-gloucestershire-monsters-3842264|title=If Netflix's The Witcher was set in Gloucestershire these are the monsters he would confront|website=GloucestershireLive|date=22 February 2020 }}
Category:English legendary creatures