The Beast of Dean is the name of an animal from

English folklore English folklore consists of the myths and legends of England, including the region's Legendary creature, mythical creatures, traditional recipes, urban legends, proverbs, superstitions, Folk dance, dance, balladry, and Folklore, folktales tha ...

that is said to live, or to have once lived, in the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the Counties of England, county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangle, triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and no ...

: a large, " Ancient woodland" bounded by rivers in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

.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 The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...

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, 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.

References

External links

* *{{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 English legendary creatures Gloucestershire folklore Mythological pigs Cryptids