In American folklore, the axehandle hound (axhandle hound, ax-handle hound, or similar) is a fearsome critter of Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Description
The animal resembles a dog with a body axe-like in shape. It has a head shaped like an axe blade, hence the name, complemented by a handle-shaped body atop short stubby legs. It subsists on a diet consisting entirely of the handles of axes which have been left unattended. A nocturnal creature, the axehandle hound travels from camp to camp searching for its next meal. According to folklore, the axehandle hound strongly dislikes axe handles made from red oak.
See also
References
- Borges, Jorge Luis (2005). Book of Imaginary Beings. New York: Viking Press. p. 83. ISBN 0-670-89180-0.
- ^ Tryon, Henry Harrington (1939). Fearsome Critters. Cornwall, NY: Idlewild Press. p. 5.
- "Paul Bunyan natural history: describing the wild animals, birds, reptiles and fish of the big woods about Paul Bunyan's old time logging camps | Turning Points in Wisconsin History | Wisconsin Historical Society". www.wisconsinhistory.org.
- Baughman, Ernest Warren - Type and Motif-index of the Folktales of England and North America, Mouton 1966, page 533.
- Botkin, B. A. - The American People: Stories, Legends, Tales, Traditions and Songs, Transaction Publishers, ISBN 1-56000-984-5, page 250.
- Botkin, B. A. - The Pocket Treasury of American Folklore, Pocket Books 1950
- Rose, Carol - Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0-393-32211-4, page 32, 119.
External links
- Description (in Italian)
| American folklore | |
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| Folk heroes | |
| Idiomatic figures | |
| Fearsome critters |
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| Ghosts | |
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| African | |
| Literary folk heroes | |