Black Goat-Man of Wittingau

The Black Goat-Man of Wittingau (an old name for Třeboň, a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic) is a creature originally derived from the myths of Western Slavs. There is no credible evidence that it has ever existed outside of the local rumors. The creature’s physiology is one of a misshaped goat walking on its hind legs with various other elements; however, no animal related to the goats lives in the presumed area nowadays.

Yet there are many legends and recorded observations from the Renaissance period onwards, which describe the cryptid with a surprising unity suggesting, these can be observations of a real being.

Physiology
The Black Goat-Man of Wittingau resembles at first glance a malformed dwarf with skinny limbs and a hideously large head. Its skull is akin to the goats, hence the popular name. In addition, other features resemble the goat-like creatures, such as thick and always wet black hair covering the whole body, long and curved horns and most importantly the sound of an irritating bleat passing into a hellish laughter, which is a characteristic symbol of this creature according to the legends.

Nevertheless, the Black Goat-Man is not just a bipedal goat. Its skin was sometimes described as one of a lizard or a salamander rather than of a mammal. Many witnesses compare its skin to rotting bark, too. The creature’s upper limbs were characterized by long, sharp claws supplemented by the interdigital webbing.

Area
The creature (sometimes called the forest or bog demon in the myths) has been always assumed to live in densely forested areas of the primordial Europe even before the coming of humans. Thanks to its adaptability it was able to live in any environment from rocky parts of highlands covered by dwarf mountain pines to humid lowland forests in river basins, but it seemed to prefer regions with lower temperatures. The native terrain of the Black Goat-Man was sparsely populated during the Antiquity since its occurrence has been always very rare in the Mediterranean. This changed in the Medieval Ages, when it was forced to withdraw into the swamps and bogs to yield from the contact with advancing humans.

Customs and Habits
There is a plenitude of rumors about the forest demons from the Western Slavic folklore. Although it was not described precisely all the time, leading some to recognize the creature as a mere formless voice or shadow in the depths of woods, many legends claim the Black Goat-Man to behave inimical to humans, probably to save its last territories. This includes everything from scaring lost adults with a horrific bleat and throwing of cones and rocks on them, to kidnapping small children from cradles and raping and drowning virgins to turn humans away from advancing into the marshlands, which were the last shelter for the cryptid.

Connections to Other Mythologies
Many mythological creatures resemble the most common description of the Black Goat-Man: The satyrs from the Greek mythology, the supernatural goats pulling Thor’s chariot, the wood demons known to the peoples of the Carpatian Mountains and many others may have been the alternative interpretation of the same original myth or different tokens of the same cryptid creature from diverse cultures of the old Europe.

There are even allegations of similar creatures from another continents, such as the Jersey Devil reported from swamplands of the south-eastern parts of the USA.

A chapter itself is a projection connecting the Black Goat-Man of Wittingau with the representation of the Devil in Christianity. Many scholars believe the current cultural presentation of the Devil as a horned half-man half-animal is based on ancient depictions of above-mentioned creatures. This should have helped to identify the old gods and demons from various pagan mythologies (including the Black Goat-Man legends) with the ultimate Evil which the Devil stands for.

Concerning the present popular culture, Josef Škvorecký, a famous Czech writer and a well-known H. P. Lovecraft scholar, speculated in his preface to Lovecraftian anthology Podivný pán z Providence that the horror author was influenced by the cryptid tales about the Black Goat-Man of Wittingau when creating the Outer God Shub-Niggurath and its epithet The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young. However, this is dubious since Lovecraft was notorious for his latent xenophobia and considered Czech along with all other East and Central European immigrants not to be worthy of any interest as can be seen in many of his short stories (f. e. The Horror at Red Hook).

Reflection in the Local Legends
The cryptid’s English name is a variation of Old Church Slavic козьлѧ чрънъ (literally the black goat kid) which suggests the creature’s small size in comparison to adult human. It is also referred to as a (goat) kid from swamps in many occult texts and legends.

The common versions of local legends and fairy tales narrated in the swampy area around the South Bohemian town called Třeboň (a modern Czech name for Wittingau) do not speak directly about the Black Goat-Man. However, there are many hidden allusions to the cryptid suggesting that the local inhabitants were always aware of this creature’s activities at least to the point they blended the Goat-Man’s existence with a Christian misinterpretation.

One of the most famous legends from Třeboň narrates about Jakub Krčín of Jelčany and Seldčany, who was a very successful Renaissance fishpond architect and later even the regent of the noble Rosenberg family. Jakub Krčín was in his time so influential that the common folk considered him to be in a bond with the Hell itself. His masterpiece has been Rožmberk Pond, one of the largest fishponds in the whole Europe, which was viewed as impossible to be built in the swampy area. According to the legend, Jakub Krčín had to accept the help of the demons from the marshes to finish the pond and for this vanity, he was punished with an eternal watch around the pond after his death. The most interesting part of the legend is the description of the demons who are very similar to the Black Goat-Man of Wittingau being something like a crossbreed between a goat, a man, and an amphibian. Also, there is the narrative element claiming Jakub Krčín offered human/child sacrifices in exchange for the bog demons’ help.

Another local legend speaks about John Dee, a famous English occultist, who resided for some time in Třeboň as the main alchemist of William of Rosenberg. The legend claims John Dee to be a member of a coven which secretly studied pagan stories about the local bog demon, i.e. the Black Goat-Man. As the legend says the occultists tried to contact the beings from the swamps in dreamy efforts for lust and power, however no-one succeeded because by doing this, they defied the Christian God. Interesting enough, John Dee was in Třeboň at the same time as Jakub Krčín was at the peak of his power. According to modern scholars there were mentions about the Black Goat-Man of Wittingau in the now lost volumes of the Rosenberk Chronicle written by Václav Březan.

Gallery
'' A late Medieval artist's impression of the Devil from "Codex Gigas". Note the similarity with the Black Goat-Man of Wittingau's description.''