El Dip: The Catalan Vampire Hound

In the rural mountainside in Catalonia, Spain, there have long been talk about a vampiric beast of a hound that has tormented the livestock and the unfortunate person walking outside after dark. Could this legend be the one where other iberian vampire legends sprung from?

In the rural villages and grazing lands in Catalonia in Spain, there was a creature feared by shepherds and townsfolk alike for centuries. This being was called El Dip, a spectral dog said to stalk the night with a thirst no water could quench. Unlike ordinary ghosts or eerie shadows, El Dip was a vampiric hound, an otherworldly beast that fed on the blood of livestock and, occasionally, humans.

Read More: Check out all ghostly stories from Spain

Unlike many vampiric myths tied to undead humans, the legend of El Dip springs from a distinctly rural environment between the legends of hellhounds, werewolves and vampires. The legend is particularly significant in Pratdipon village, at the southeastern slope of the Serra de Llaberia, where some believe the village is named after the vampiric legend.

A Vampiric Dog on the Prowl in Catalonia

Villagers described it as a black or ashen color, with eyes that gleaming in the dark. Like many other figures from Catalan myth, the hellhound is said to have a lame leg. The word is probably from the Arabic word for wolf or beast.

At night El Dip roamed the hillsides and grasslands, drawn by the scent of grazing livestock and the heartbeats of sleeping animals. Many shepherds claimed that the creature did not merely chase farm animals as any wild predator would. Instead, it bit deep into their throats, draining life as though it were a vampire.

For villagers whose livelihood depended on cattle, sheep, and goats, such a predator was more than superstition. Blaming an ordinary wolf or jackal did not explain the strange marks or the way some animals were found untouched except for the fatal bite.

According to the legend, sometimes, other prey than the cattle was in danger. Those foolish enough to stay too late in the village taverns, were also in danger to these vampiric beings.

Association With the Supernatural

The legend is very old from the rugged mountain village in Baix Camp where there is ironically, very little livestock today. As mentioned, the legend has a lot of connotation to the village Pratdip. At the entrance to Pratdip there is a monument to this mythological being, but as it is depicted it has a very kind image. According to tradition, the name of the village comes from these dogs, which are said to have disappeared in the nineteenth century.

In the rural mountainside in Catalonia, Spain, there have long been talk about a vampiric beast of a hound that has tormented the livestock and the unfortunate person walking outside after dark. Could this legend be the one where other iberian vampire legends sprung from? — *Pratdip: Llaberia Overlaps (Conca de Barberà) // Image: Source*

Images of these vampire dogs already appear on the altarpiece of Santa Marina de Pratdip, from 1602. According to tradition, young single women who went on pilgrimage to the sanctuary would soon find a husband. The pilgrimage to the hermitage takes place in July.

El Dip also appears in another altarpiece from 1730, cut out on a gold background to replace the old one. This altarpiece is possibly the one about which the least information is available, since it was burned on July 25, 1936 by some anticlerical zealots. The only remains that are preserved are in the parish museum of the church of Pratdip, and it is a small piece. In this work of art the dips were also represented, in the form of sculpture in the lower part of the altarpiece.

The Legend Spurs other Legends

Due to his thirst for blood, the dip served to inspire Joan Perucho who, in his novel The Natural Stories (1960). The book tells the story of Onofre de Dip, a vampire with the ability to transform himself into many animals.

The central part of the play takes place in Pratdip at the beginning of the nineteenth century, in the middle of the Carlist war, and the dip was actually an ambassador of King James who 700 years earlier had gone to the Carpathians on a diplomatic mission and had been attacked there by a noble vampire.

This has perhaps also helped spur further legends about noble men turning vampires, much closer to the modern vampire in Europe. And today, there are stories from fiction books that are now considered a canon folklore tale from older times.

Another legend from Spanish folklore about vampiric beings is the northern Spain’s Guajona or Guaxa, a vampiric witch.

Legacy of the Vampiric Hound

Today belief in el dip as a literal creature has faded, yet the legend remains a vivid part of Catalan folklore, preserved in collections of regional stories and local mémoire. It is one of the oldest tales of a vampire-like creature from Spain and looking at modern pop culture, it seems like a legend that won’t disappear completely anytime soon.

And although Pratdip is not named after the beast but is a place name of pre-Roman origin, the legend of it remains alongside other fantastical tales. Nearby is a mill, the Molí de més Amunt, where, according to legend, a treasure left behind by the French was hidden. And in the holy houses and in the hills and grazing fields where shepherds once watched through the long hours of night, the story of el dip still lingers.

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