KEGRIMS

Grims or Kegrims are animal spirits that most frequently inhabit churches and burial grounds. Though their appearance may alarm the unwary, their presence may be there by device as it is their intention to protect the hallowed ground and not to defile it. It has been commented that as the oldest churches were being built, or before the first body was consigned to a necropolis, an animal was sacrificed and buried in the foundations. It was thus believed that its spirit would rise and protect the grounds from evil and wrongdoers. Alternatively it was believed that the first body to be interred in a graveyard would be claimed by the Devil. Therefore to spare a human whatever torment or servitude lay in store, the carcass of an animal would instead be buried first. Some church spirits however were not invited and not welcome. Such entities were often assumed not to be the actual spirits of animals but instead were Demons or the souls of dead Malefactors that had assumed the guise of a natural creature. Some of these evil spirits proved very difficult to exorcise or remove. In Wales such devilish spirits were most prone to take the form of horrendous black-skinned pigs, but there has been a considerable variety of strange creatures reported haunting hallowed grounds.