I want to introduce you to Beenderman and Gytrash.
In West Riding folklore, Gytrash is a spectral dog that haunts liminal spaces; roads where town becomes moor, ginnels between streets, thresholds of woods. Gytrash appears in Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre and was a lifelong, unwanted companion to her troubled brother Branwell. Since the dark ages, Gytrash has been firmly on the English Folklore Dangerous Dogs Register, along with cousins Black Shuck, Barghest and Padfoot. But lately Gytrash’s status has been usurped by new, more physical, folk-devil dogs: the clipped eared and docked tailed Akita, Cane Corso and X-L Bully.
Beenderman - Gytrash’s number one pal and a local name for Death - stalks the hills and drystone walls of the the moor between Thornton and Haworth. Thin as a pool cue, skeletal and ancient, he is always looking to take the hapless and the unprepared. He is mostly glimpsed in bad weather and at the darkest times of night. But don't worry! Recent developments in technical walking gear and camping equipment - head torches, waterproof hiking boots and the like - have made him almost redundant around here.
Between X-L Bullies and windbreaker jackets, Beenderman and Gytrash seem to have a lot of leisure time on their hands.
