The Gytrash: World’s Scariest Cow

Welcome on this Weird Wednesday! Today we’re walking down a lonely country road, looking for a cow whose appearance foretells death. Which is about as weird as anything we do around here.

So say you’re a ways down that country road. It’s late, and the sun’s going down. Your home’s not too far away, but you’re surrounded by trees, so it’s hard to see too far ahead. Then a little distance off, you spy a cow. Of course, cows are common enough in the country. It probably just wandered away from its field. So you decide to be a good neighbor and return it. But the closer you get to the cow, the more something feels…off. As if the cow is friendly, but maybe you don’t want it to be.

Then the cow heads off the road, wandering into the trees, and you have a decision to make: do you follow it, or not?

So what the heck is a Gytrash? Well, that depends on its whims, presumably. It’s alternatively called a Guytrash or Guytresh, where “trash” comes from “thurse,” meaning “goblin” in Middle English. So it’s some sort of spirit or creature that dwells in Northern England and appears as various large domestic mammals: a horse, mule, cow, or dog. But the point is, it’s not a horse, mule, cow or dog. It’s a supernatural shapeshifter. Sometimes that’s kind of obvious, because the animal will be black with glowing red eyes, something it has in common with hell hounds.

And if you thought that was creepy, the Gytrash also occasionally appears in human form…sometimes as a shrunken figure without a head.

So what’s it doing there on that lonely road? Again, that depends. In a grouchy mood, a Gytrash can spell doom, guiding travelers away from the road and out into the wilderness, not unlike other malevolent spirits. In fact, for whatever reason, the cow form specifically is said to be a death omen. (Why the cow? I don’t know, but people do very much like to explain inexplicable deaths. Perhaps somebody a long time ago croaked after seeing a weird cow, and a legend was born.)

But sometimes the Gytrash is having a good day, and in that case, may lead a lost traveler home. I guess the moral of the story is, if you’re already lost, you may as well follow that horse, because what have you got to lose? (Of course, if it’s the cow, you’re already doomed.)

And now for some wandering writing prompts!

Let’s revisit our decision: you’re watching the strange horse, cow, mule, or dog leave the path, and it’s time to make a choice.

What if you don’t follow the Gytrash? Say your character nopes out of playing hide-and-seek with the glowing-eyed mule. Good choice, probably. They’ll end the night sleeping in their own bed and wake up ready for a nice, normal day. Which is great, except that makes for a boring story. So what if it turns out the Gytrash choice is not a choice at all? That is, your character can try not to follow it, but that was only the first attempt of the malevolent spirit trying to catch them. So tomorrow their “normal day” is anything but…

What if you do follow the Gytrash? This is most likely the wrong answer. But rather than wander into the supernatural here, let’s just wander into the woods. There are some pretty weird reasons people go into the wilderness. We’re not talking hikers here, but folks who had no plans to go roaming. Mental illness or injury (like after a car accident), a bad drug trip, a full bladder, or just curiosity can lure someone into the trees. But unfortunately, once the road disappears, it may never be found again. Maybe the Gytrash legend was just another try at solving baffling cases, which make for great stories. And that leads us to…

What if you suspect somebody else followed the Gytrash? The wilderness is an awful place to try to find a missing person. Dense brush or rocky ground can hide a body mere feet away, and animals will scavenge and scatter human remains. But what if your character suspected the supernatural was at fault in this disappearance? If so, it might be possible to counteract it. Perhaps they could contact a magical practitioner to lay a counterspell, or a priest to exorcise evil spirits. Maybe they could even locate a Gytrash-addled victim by scrying or dowsing.

What if you’d like to convince someone else to follow the Gytrash? Say your character’s got an enemy in their village, somebody who drives them nuts on a daily basis. So they start to wonder whether death-by-Gytrash could be considered murder. How would they set somebody up to follow the creepy horse into the woods? Maybe they could tell them a valuable horse ran away to some lonely stretch of forest, offer a reward, and hope for the best. Or maybe your character could try to cast a spell to summon a Gytrash to their enemy’s daily walking path. If it worked, it might just be the perfect crime.

What if the Gytrash follows you? It’s interesting how we always assume the Gytrash has lured someone into the woods and not scared them into the woods. Because if I saw a headless ghost or dog with flaming eyes, I’d run. And sure, I’d try to keep to the path, but how tempting would it be to run into the trees? And after that, the Gytrash might consider its work done, a person is lost in the woods and likely never to be found. But what if it kept up the chase? And what if it caught them?

Thanks for spending your Weird Wednesday here! On the way home, let’s stick to the road.

Want to chat about the blog? Did you use one of the prompts? Hit me up on social media.

If you like stories about mysterious vanishings, you can read my story Devoured for free in Nocturne Horror Literary Magazine. A woman tries to convince her grief-stricken mother to move out of a haunted house.

Sources & further reading:

Maberry, J., & Kramer, D. F. (2009). “Gytrash.” They bite: Endless cravings of supernatural predators. Kensington Publishing Corp. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/6681813

Gytrash: Wikipedia

Thursday Myths & Legends 101: The Gytrash: Tales from the Hollow Tree by Lisa Asanuma and Isabelle Santiago

Jane Eyre and the Legendary Gytrash: Mimi Matthews