The basic premise of the show Supernatural (Click for my new promo!) is two brothers driving through the back roads of the United States... Saving people, hunting things -- the family business. (I swear that phrase will be seared into my soul from every time they repeat it on the recaps!)
While the story has expanded into one of the more dynamically mythologically-heavy television series in the last 3 seasons that sets it far off in its own little corner of entertainment genres, the basis of the story is still in tact -- The writers use everything from ancient pagan gods to the localized legends of America. Lately, (as usual for the hellatus), I've been wondering what the heck is coming up for us in the next season. Of course Spoilertv has provided plenty of tidbits here and there for me to snack on until the main course on September 23rd, and one of these little bits of information is that season 7 will be the scariest season of
Supernatural yet. Now, the monsters/demons/angels are all formidable and freaky, and interesting in their own right, but aside from certain monsters over the past few years, very few have been very scary. I think season 1 milked the scary angle the most until the plot for the YED picked up and they went in another direction. There's been great, great amounts of gore, and freaky stuff all along, but how often have they taken the time to make something different and ourageously scary? Now that it seems like that's the plan for season 7, and also that season 7 is primarily focused on the events of earth rather than Heaven, Hell, or purgatory...I would assume this means we will hopefully be getting some good American folklore every week. I honestly think the best standalones are the ones that have that extra twist of local lore rather than the broadly known monsters like werewolves and vampires...I want something like a rugaru, or a tulpa... The djinn have been great in their respective episodes, and the man-eating ghouls were a nice touch. However, there's still an untapped well of folklore out there waiting to be mined!
Digging into Georgia's Past
Just today, I was looking into folklore around where I live. There's all kinds of stories about Mahayley Lancaster, (the witch of Roosterville, GA that helped the police locate a body in the 1940s) and her gravesite. There's stories of elusive black panthers just outside the view of most people, living in the deep woods of Georgia. There's the strange stonehenge-like monument that was left on top of Stone Mountain. The hauntings of Blood Mountain are apparently horrific, and the case Bleeding house of Atlanta is still unsolved to this day. (Random widespread blotches of blood appeared all through the house, even behind and under furniture, out of reach...Scientists confirmed the blood but it was inconclusive as to how it got there...)
These stories are all generally good for entertaining some ghost stories, but there was one I found that was just an outstanding and wild story...
The Nodoroc
Winder, Georgia: A small town that is not really notable for any reason. Except it's the site of the Georgia Volcano. Wait...there's no volcanoes in Georgia you say -- and you'd be right. No one has ever been able to tell what exactly the GA volcano is, but it is established that it is a small area of thick bluish mud, in the middle of nowhere, where the forest doesn't grow very well. There's a constant sluggish smoke that comes from the mud, and towards the center of the lake of mud, it appears to bubble and boil.
This is something you can go visit. Of course, it has diminished greatly in size over the past 200 years, and is very small compared to before. In the time of the Native Americans, this area was 4 acres wide, and known as the Nodoroc. It was said that this was an eternal place of torment that people were sentenced to be abandoned for the worst of crimes. It is said that a woman once murdered and devoured her own child, and she was thrown to the Nodoroc for her crime.
It is said that throughout the area people can hear her cries of terror, followed by the sound of cheering children. Not exactly a comfortable bedtime story. But I've not even gotten to the good part yet.
The Wog
They don't throw you to the Nodoroc because they expect the weird blue swamp-like pseudo-volcano to kill you. No, that's what the Wog was for. The Wog is a mysterious creature that roamed the Nodoroc and the adjacent areas. It is described as a large, jet-black wolf-like creature with a long forked tongue and overwhelming huge red eyes. It is the size of a
horse, a head reminiscent of a bear, with huge commanding front legs, and an undersized back with small legs. It is said that just seeing this thing emerge from the shadows had scared natives to death. It had a huge bushy black tail, with tufts of white fur at the end. The tail was described as something in constant motion. It never stopped waving around or twitching. The Nodoroc sometimes burned hotter and more noticeable and this frightened the locals into thinking that the Wog was angry. For fear of the wog appearing in the town, they ritually sent prisoners and criminals to the Nodoroc for sacrifice.
The preferred meal of the Wog was said to be dead things. Apparently it was commonplace to come across a dug-up grave and have the body be missing. It is said that the earliest native stories of the wog told of an extremely frightening aberration that systematically fed on people and livestock in the area, however over time it seems as though the wog had settled down and instead of actively seeking humans, it would find a grave or the corpse of an animal and consume that instead.
Here's an excerpt from the Nodoroc.com's description of the wog:
His tail was very large, all the way of the same size, and at the end of if there was a bunch of entirely white hair at least eight inches long and larger in diameter than the tail itself. Whether sitting, standing, or walking this curious appendage was in constant motion from side to side, not as a dog wags his tail, but with a quick upward curve which brought it down with a whizzing sound that could be distinctly heard at least when twenty-five or thirty steps distant. But the most distinguishing feature of this horrid tail was that it revealed the presence of the monster in the dark – the only time he ventured to go abroad. His great red eyes were very repulsive, but not so much so as his forked tongue, the prongs of which were thought to be eight inches long and sometimes played in and out of his mouth like those of a mad snake. Really the meanest feature about the beast as that his bear-like head contained a set of great white teeth over which his ugly lips never closed.
The Indians told the first white emigrants that so long as the Wog was left undisturbed he would not molest any one – that he would sometimes visit their houses – go around them – if a light were inside, poke his tongue through any opening he could find between the logs, and then go away. Pioneers were not only quick to learn this lesson, but also carefully followed the instruction.
Other Things on The Nodoroc
I've read related stories of a Native "princess" who was on the run from someone who hid a "priceless" bracelet in the Nodoroc. I've also heard that a small town nearby the Nodoroc one day simply sank into the ground. All of these stories I find would be a great standalone episode for Supernatural. It got me thinking about local lore and what ammo we could possibly find that would be great for the brothers to hunt? I mean, c'mon...the wog seems like a scary enough monster don'tcha think? I'll bet there are other things that each of you know of (or could easily research) about your hometown/state that is mostly unknown to the world. Perhaps this could be a place that the writers of Supernatural come across in their own search for ideas of future episodes?
Your Turn
So what monster/haunting/myth/event has taken place in your own back yard that could serve as a really creepy episode of
Supernatural?
Sources:
horse, a head reminiscent of a bear, with huge commanding front legs, and an undersized back with small legs. It is said that just seeing this thing emerge from the shadows had scared natives to death. It had a huge bushy black tail, with tufts of white fur at the end. The tail was described as something in constant motion. It never stopped waving around or twitching. The Nodoroc sometimes burned hotter and more noticeable and this frightened the locals into thinking that the Wog was angry. For fear of the wog appearing in the town, they ritually sent prisoners and criminals to the Nodoroc for sacrifice.
