Author and friend of the show Timothy Renner has a new book out titled, The Keystone Hagstone: Faeries and Other Mysterious Entities of Pennsylvania. In modern times, faeries are often portrayed as tiny, pretty, winged women, dancing from flower to flower. However, our ancestors knew faeries took a vast range of forms–big and small; human-like and bestial; hairy, scaly, feathered, and bald; beautiful and horrifying; helpful and hindering.
These strange beings, bearing names as varied and numerous as their descriptions, have haunted humankind for as long as people have been telling stories. They appear in the wild places, the dark places, and the forgotten places: in forest, field, mine, and cave–and they appear beside us, in the corners of our gardens and the rafters of our homes.
When the various peoples of Europe came to live in Pennsylvania, the faeries, in all their forms, came with them:
• Leprechauns, banshees, and pookas.
• Tommyknockers, kobolds, goblins, and dwarves.
• Will-o-the-wisps, dragons, and phantom black dogs.
You’ll find them all in this book, as much a part of the Keystone State, as they are the Old World. Likewise, you’ll discover other entities, with a particularly Pennsylvanian twist:
• The Eternal Hunter–obliged to forever roam the hills with a pack of spectral dogs.
• Women in Black–mourning spirits and possible portents of doom.
• Hexcats–witches in feline form, leaving curses in their wake.
• The Albatwitch–hairy elf-ape of the Susquehanna riverlands.
Many newspaper articles detailing encounters with these otherworldly beings are reprinted herein–beside a depth of folkloric research spanning hundreds of years. The Keystone Hagstone is a bestiary of the weird, wild, and wonderful spirits, monsters, and strange entities of Pennsylvania.
Big Mike208
sounds like a good read
Tyler H
Timothy Renner books are really good