Jersey Devil
Horns and hooves and hexes, oh my!
In the depths of the Pine Barrens of 18th century New Jersey, a mother of twelve--fittingly known as Mother Leeds--discovered that she would soon be having an additional thirteenth child. Understandably vexed by this revelation and caught up in ribbons of frustration, she cursed the unborn baby! It surely must be the work of devils, perhaps even a manifestation of the Beast itself, right? If only she knew then what we know now...
As the months crawled along, Mother Leeds was gradually worn down. The anxiety of anticipating yet another child and already having to care for such a large family all while in the throes of impoverishment reduced her to a husk of her former self, barely functional. It seemed that maybe she was the cursed one, and those close to her found that they could do frustratingly little to ease her mental burdens.
On a dark and stormy night in 1735, surrounded by friends and family, the cursed child was born. She quickly learned that, true to her irritated anxieties during the heat of a passing moment, the child really was the work of something beyond humanity. Arms gave way to warped wings, legs contorted unnaturally, feet turned to hooves, a forked tail sprouted and whipped while the wild eyes of a goat whirled around the room beneath curled horns! The beast howled and screamed in tune with the wind and cracks of thunder, striking all who dared come near, before fleeing up and away through the chimney. In a flash of lightning, the horror had disappeared into the thick of the pines. The monster was gone, the nightmare fleeting, yet it was still far too much to bear. Already drained beyond sustainability, Mother Leeds passed almost immediately afterwards.
For centuries since, the Jersey Devil has haunted the Pine Barrens, rampaging with otherworldly hate, making all sorts of ruckus, and killing local livestock.
Of course, as is the case with any good folklore, that is only one of many variations of the tale- with some added dramatic flair, courtesy of me! Some alternate takes claim that Mother Leeds was a witch and that an actual devil was the father of Jersey's own, in which case she should hardly have been surprised at the outcome! Whether or not the child was immediately born a monster or rather transformed into one is also up for debate, as is how quickly it might have changed. An almost entirely different origin story places it during the Revolutionary War, claiming that a young girl who fell for a British soldier was cursed by her fellow townsfolk for her treason, of course eventually resulting in her giving birth to the Devil!
Moral of the story? Be careful with your curses! Though I can't help but wonder if curses really have anything to do with the way things went down... Correlated, but not causal. Maybe Mother Leeds, so horrifically burdened and spiritless, simply served as the perfect candidate to host the evil spawn of something even more sinister, incapable of mustering the will to resist or even notice. I suppose we'll never know, unless anyone can get answers from either of the devils themselves!
Last Edited by quasi-phantom on May 27, 2007.
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