Fearsome Critters

Having done an article a few days ago about the Jackalope, i was transported down the rabbit hole, or should i say jackalope hole, to the weird world of Fearsome Critters.

I had never heard of “fearsome critters” before, although the phrase conjures images of an open prairie through a sepia tinted lens, spoken with the soft steady lilt of a midwestern or southern American accent. And that gut reaction to the term isn’t so far off from the truth of the terms origins. Fearsome critters are the basis of many stories that were told by early lumberjacks in North America. These tall tales were passed around lumber camps in the 20th century as a means to pass the time or to terrify new lumberjacks. The stories included characters known as fearsome critters that were sometimes used to explain disappearances and mysterious happenings in the woods, and some stories of the creatures were just told for their hilarity or strangeness.

The names of these fearsome critters were as strange as the stories themselves: snoligoster, hidebehind, the agropelter, the goofus bird. In the next few days, I’ll be sure to post the interesting stories of these fearsome critters as I read more about the subject.

image via wikimedia commons