A bogle, boggle, or bogill is a Northumbrian,[ Rambles in Northumberland, and on the Scottish border ... by William Andrew Chatto, Chapman and Hall, 1835] Cumbrian dialect[ The local historian's table book, of remarkable occurrences, historical facts, traditions, legendary and descriptive ballads &c. connected with the counties of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland and Durham. by Moses Aaron Richardson, M. A. Richardson, 1843] used for a variety of related folkloric creatures including ,[ Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border by Walter Scott, Sr.] ,[ Brags,][ the Hedley Kow][ and even giants such as those associated with Cobb's Causeway][ (also known as "ettins", "yetuns" or "yotuns" in Northumberland and "Etenes", "Yttins" or "Ytenes" in the South and South West).][ Northumberland Words – A Glossary of Words Used in the County of Northumberland and on the Tyneside -, Volume 1 by Richard Oliver Heslop, Read Books, 2008, ][Legg, Penny "The Folklore of Hampshire" The History Press (15 June 2010)] They are reputed to live for the simple purpose of perplexing mankind, rather than seriously harming or serving them.
Etymology
The name is derived from the Middle-English Bugge (from which the term Bogeyman is also derived) which is in turn a cognate of the German term word bögge (from which böggel-mann ( "Goblin") is derived)[ Middle English Dictionary by Sherman M. Kuhn, Hans Kurath, Robert E. Lewis, University of Michigan Press, 1958, , p.1212][ Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary, 11th edition, Merriam-Webster, 2003, , p.162] and possibly the Norwegian dialect word bugge meaning "important man".[ The Merriam-Webster new book of word histories, Merriam-Webster, 1991, , p.71] The Welsh Bwg could also be connected,[ Metatony in Baltic, Volume 6 of Leiden studies in Indo-European by Rick Derksen, Rodopi, 1996, , , p.274][ Lexical reflections inspired by Slavonic *bog : English bogey from a Slavonic root?, Brian Cooper 1, Department of Slavonic Studies, University of Cambridge, Correspondence to Department of Slavonic Studies, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DA]
The Irish Gaelic word "bagairt" meaning "threat" could also be related.
Terms such as ettin and yotun are derived from Middle English eten, etend, from Old English eoten (“giant, monster, enemy”), from Proto-Germanic * etunaz (“giant, glutton”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”) and is cognate with Old Norse jötunn.
Usage
One of the most famous usages of the term was by Gavin Douglas, who was in turn quoted by Robert Burns at the beginning of Tam O' Shanter:[ Robert Burns: how to know him by William Allan Neilson, The Bobbs-Merrill company, 1917]
Of Brownyis and of Bogillis full is this Buke.
There is a popular story of a bogle known as Tatty Bogle, who would hide himself in potato fields (hence his name) and either attack unwary humans or cause blight within the patch. This bogle was depicted as a scarecrow, "bogle" being an old name for "scarecrow" in various parts of England and Scotland.[ Seven Scots Stories by Jane Helen Findlater, Ayer Publishing, 1970] Another popular Scottish reference to bogles comes in The Bogle by the Boor Tree, a Scots language poem written by W. D. Cocker. In this ghostly ode, the Bogle is heard in the wind and in the trees to "fricht wee weans" (frighten small children).
In the Scottish Lowlands circa 1950, a bogle was a ghost as was a bogeyman, and a Tattie-Bogle was a scarecrow, used to keep creatures out of the potato fields. All three words were in common use among the children.
It is unclear what the connection is between "Bogle" and various other similarly named creatures in various folklores.[ An analytic dictionary of English etymology: an introduction by Anatoly Liberman, J. Lawrence Mitchell, University of Minnesota Press, 2008
] The "Bocan" of the Highlands may be a cognate of the Norse Puki however,[ A Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language by Malcolm MacLennan, pub. Acair / Aberdeen University Press 1979] and thus also the English "Puck".[ A Midsummer Night's Dream, page xix by William Shakespeare, Ebenezer Charlton Black][ Quoth the maven by William Safire]
The Larne Weekly Reporter of 31 March 1866, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, carried a front-page article entitled Bogles in Ballygowan, detailing strange goings on in a rural area where a particular house became the target for missiles being thrown through windows and on one occasion through the roof. Local people were terrified. The occurrences appeared to have ceased after several months and were being blamed on the fact that the house in question had been refurbished using materials from an older house that was apparently the preserve of the "little people". This is one of the few references in Northern Ireland to "bogles" although the phrase "bogey man" is widely used.
See also
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