Boggart
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Creature Type: Shapeshifter, Spirit
Habitat: Household
Mythology: Celtic, English Folklore
A spirit or hobgoblin that can take numerous forms.
Whichever form they take, it is only rarely that they materialise, and therefore only specific Boggarts will have a description.
The Boggarts that take human shape are frequently more vicious than those that materialise as animals.
The Boggart is well known for playing tricks either in the household – where it delights in frightening people by pulling at bedclothes, rapping on and slamming doors or lurking on dark lonely roads or moorland, where it terrorises travellers.
They can, if they are inclined, act much like a brownie and work hard washing, cleaning and doing heavy labour if treated well, though once upset, this spirit will destroy or displace everything in the house and surroundings.
Boggarts, who occur all over Britain, are mischievous brownies who misplace and upset things.
They follow their chosen victims around and make life as difficult as possible – which is perhaps why on certain days, nothing seems to go right.
They are very difficult to get rid of.
A Yorkshire farmer called George Gilbertson got on the wrong side of a boggart which attached itself to his household.
The boggart spread mischief all over the house, snatching food from the children’s mouths, throwing porridge into cupboards – all invisibly.
One day, one of the children discovered an elf-bore a knot-hole in the wood of a cupboard.
He started to play with it, thrusting the point of a shoe-horn into the hole.
Immediately, the shoe-horn popped out and struck him on the forehead.
The boy had discovered the boggart’s hiding place.
Daily the children played this game with their new friend, but the adults found the disorder and upset that the boggart caused about the place too much to bear, so they decided to move.
As they were loading up a neighbour came along to ask why they were moving. ‘I’m forced to because of that damned boggart. It’s worried my good wife nearly to death and that’s why we’re flitting.’ From the depths of a churn upon the cart came an echoing voice, ‘And that’s why we’re flitting!’
It was the boggart.
George started to unload the cart saying to his wife, ‘If I’d have known, we needn’t have gone to all this trouble. Still, better to be tormented in the old house as be tormented in a house we don’t know.’
And so they returned, waiting for the time when the boggart was tired of his tricks.
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Removing or placating a Boggart...
Place a large portion of cream and honey out to placate a boggart.
Actually, removing a Boggart is extremely hard.
Once they settle into your family and home, they stay there.
Best bet is to make sure your home is sparkly clean all the time and your movements are very boring. Maybe then, the Boggart will get bored and move on - highly unlikely though.
Like the old saying goes - be nice to them and they will be nice to you....
XXX
Source & Image - http://mythicalarchive.com/creature/boggart/
