In American
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
, the axehandle hound (axhandle hound, ax-handle hound, or similar) is a "
fearsome critter" of
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
and
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
. The animal resembles a dog with a body axe-like in shape. It has a head shaped like an axe blade, hence the name, complemented by a handle-shaped body atop short stubby legs. It subsists on a diet consisting entirely on the handles of axes which have been left unattended. A nocturnal creature, the axehandle hound travels from camp to camp searching for its next meal.
Brown, C.E. ''Paul Bunyan Natural History.'' (Madison: self-published, 1935.)
/ref> In Minnesota, there is a canoe-access campground named Ax-Handle Hound after the folklore creature. It can be found on the Little Fork River near Voyageurs National Park
Voyageurs National Park is an American national park in northern Minnesota near the city of International Falls established in 1975. The park's name commemorates the ''voyageurs''—French-Canadian fur traders who were the first European settle ...
and very near the town of Linden Grove.
See also
*Fearsome critters
In North American folklore, fearsome critters were tall tale animals jokingly said to inhabit the wilderness in or around logging camps,Dorson, Richard M. ''Man and Beast in American Comic Legend.'' (Bloomington, IN: Indiana Univ. Press, 1982.) ...
*Folklore of the United States
American folklore encompasses the folklores that have evolved in the present-day United States since Europeans arrived in the 16th century. While it contains much in the way of Native American tradition, it is not wholly identical to the tribal ...
References
*Baughman, Ernest Warren - ''Type and Motif-index of the Folktales of England and North America'', Mouton 1966, page 533.
*Botkin, B. A. - ''The American People: Stories, Legends, Tales, Traditions and Songs'', Transaction Publishers, , page 250.
*Botkin, B. A. - ''The Pocket Treasury of American Folklore'', Pocket Books 1950
*Rose, Carol - ''Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth'', W. W. Norton & Company, , page 32, 119.
External links
Description
(in Italian)
Fearsome critters
Mythological dogs
{{American tall tales