Death Omens 2

Ann Ankoù (The Worker of Death) Yn Baase (Grim Reaper)

(pron. ANG-koo, DOO PEAR) Brittany, France. Tall, thin man who wears a black coat, black brimmed felt hat, carries a scyth with a reversed blade, hourglass with black sand, drives a cart (Wheelbarrow of the Dead) with two ghosts on foot to collect the souls of the dead accompanied by a crow. Has long white hair and is sometimes seen as a skeleton with a rotating head that can see in all directions.

In one story, Marie-Louise Daniel —Ploumilliau, he comes on Christmas eve to collect a blacksmith who is still working after midnight [a reminder people died by overwork]. In another he is an uninvited guest at a party. He is god of the dead, ancestor of the Celts, and master of the cosmos. grym: strength [pron GRIM].

In the Saga of Grettir the Strong he is Grim, the forest man, who catches fish, and decapitates Hallmund the god of rebirth with an axe. He stays at Arnarvatn Heath all winter after Hallmund’s death. As Czernobog: Black God, he is the Ahriman of Slavonic dualism. Vladimir Tytla is the artist responsible for animating Tchernobog, the demon, in Fantasia. His rowanberry red aspect is Crom Dubh (13, 176)

Yn Baase (Church Grim) Ghostly black dogs, the size of large retrievers, that guard churchyards from the Devil and hags. Do not speak, stare, or touch as it invites death. In some places the spectral dog is named Shuck and is said to be headless. Black dog types: Mauthe Doog, the Black Dog of Peel Castle in the Isle of Man and the phantom black dog in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles Mauthe means toll in German. Barguest, Shriker, Teurst English goblin with horns, claws, rows of sharp teeth, glowing red saucer eyes and clanking chain. Appears as a donkey, pig, calf, human, or shaggy black dog. (6, 13, 14, 19, 210)