The Jersey Devil lives in, well, New Jersey, and his story begins in the eighteenth century.
Once, in early colonial America, in the colony of New Jersey, a woman named Mother Leeds lived in the woods of the Pine Barrens. She had twelve children, and her husband was a useless, drunken husband. Upon learning that she was pregnant for the thirteenth time, she declared, enraged, that the devil could take this child. (Or, in some variations, "Let it be a devil!")
Nine months later, the child was born. It appeared to be a normal, healthy baby boy... for all of five minutes. Then the baby began to change. It grew into an enormous beast, and sprouted horns, wings, fur, and of course fangs and claws. It viciously attacked and killed Mother Leeds, and then the midwives. It then flew into the next room and attacked the rest of the Leeds family. There were only a few survivors to see the creature that had been their brother escape into the Pine Barrens, where it still roams to this day.
The Jersey Devil legend is one of New Jersey's biggest stories--they even named their Hockey team after it, you may recall. ^^
The Jersey Devil generally has the head and neck of a horse, with a body to match, only it is bipedal, and with two hooves for its feet and great talons for its front "hands." It has huge wings and two horns (sometimes they've been depicted as antlers). And it has a tail, often a forked tail.
This is my interpretation of how the Jersey Devil might look:
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| (Shameless plug for my home blog with my art: http://marydemauro.blogspot.com/) |
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