Wednesday's child is full of woe...

Not that I am today, at all, full of woe. :) It's just cold and rainy and dreary today so it seemed like a good title. It also leads into a topic that I've been meaning to blog about.

I wanted to talk about what a "skryker" is, since it's an obscure bit of folklore. I know it's tempting to think that perhaps my name is S.K. Ryker or something (which would explain why my once reliable user name choice isn't always available-there must be an SK Ryker out there somewhere who likes the same stuff I do!). Nope-I took the word skriker and changed the middle letter, because for some reason, I think that it needs the downward y to balance out the 2 upward ks. Everyone can roll their eyes now, if they like! I do have my little quirks. :D

A skriker or shriker is a spectral black hound, most often associated with England. It goes by many, many other names-Black Shuck, Guytrash, Barghest, Padfoot, Old Shuck are a few of the more common. Check out this site for more about ghostly black dog folklore. In a nutshell, they appear at night, with glowing eyes. Sometimes they are portents of death, but they might guard travelers on the road. Sometimes they are the hounds of the Wild Hunt and so were demonized into Hellhounds by the Christian Church (since they accompanied the Horned God, who was turned into the devil by the church). The Hound Of The Baskervilles is a skriker, as is The Grim in the Harry Potter books-and that's where Sirius Black's nickname of Padfoot comes from.

I've tried for a few weeks now to find a decent picture of a skriker and can't find one that I like. So when I have some more time I'm going to see if I can alter a picture of one of my own hounds into a suitable representation. ;)

I ended up using it because I needed a log in name one day, my usuals being taken already, and my husband suggested I use Skriker. I kept using it (with altered spelling) because it was never already taken anywhere and I liked the look of it, plus I liked the connection with the Horned God. And so it became an alter-ego.

I never gave its meaning much thought until a few months ago (even though I call Fingal Padfoot sometimes). Then it suddenly struck me how very apt it is. Not only did I end up with 2 black hounds of my own, but there's still the Horned God connection, my ancestors came from the area of Britain where the term skriker is used and Winston Churchill called his bouts of depression visits from the black dog or battling the black dog.

It's interesting to me how much names and identities can say about us. More on this later, I think.