Le Rongeur d'Os

One of the many phantom dogs is the "bone gnawer" Rongeur d'Os of Normandy, France. Considered a legendary Black Dog of doom, as well as loup garou werewolf, hell hound and chained demonic wolf who guards the gates to the underworld. In Cochraune's Foreign Quarterly, Issue 1, it makes a brief reference to the Rongeur d'Os as a very large spectral dog. It "wanders the streets of Bayeux" during the nights of Winter and chews on bones.

This phantom creature has chains around it and looks like the Yorshire barguest, another ghost dog. The dog Rongeur d'Os is not just a phantom but also a monster, for it gnaws on bones of dead animals and humans, wanders the city of Bayeux in Normandy, France, and frightens anyone that comes near it. The hound also emerges from the streets and roams the graves and countryside, snapping at any travelling passer by. The chain indicates a physical guard dog that was so commonly visible in France for the past thousand years. But this dog is a thing of the supernatural.

 In Norse mythology, Fenrir the giant wolf was chained. There are also tales of werewolves that developed in France during the Middle Ages. Some writers have indicated that Rongeur d'Os was a werewolf. Also in the same region of France is the legend of the female white spirits, Dames blanches, beautiful phantom maids in white who haunt footpaths, bridges, river banks, caves, hills and castle ruins. These could be identified as fae, Weisse Frauen, light elves or even Valkyries, as some suggest they're the Disir.

Associated with white ladies (ghosts) are the fearsome hell hounds and black dogs. Yet there are the less talked about phantom white dogs! These spectral demonic white dogs are always chained, and legends about these are found in England, Ireland and Wales and scattered parts of the European continent. France has the story that a werewolf, loup garou is a person who transforms into a white wolf. In Romania, gypsies believe white wolf ghosts linger around graves to destroy the undead and protect the living from stray vampires. The white wolves of Britain are the Cwn Annwn, nicknamed "fairy hounds", who have ruby red eyes. These dogs have been associated with the fae, death and the Wild Hunt. Cwn Anwwn appear in coldest Autumn and Winter nights.  

The northern area of France was much dominated by Viking descendants, the Normans, and stories of heroes, monsters and gods assimilated with the Celtic, Frankish and Gaulish legends.

Sources:
"Cochrane's Foreign Quarterly" (volume 1), by John George Cochrane.
"Beware of werewolf!" by Charles at Histoire Normande.
"Jersey Folklore & Superstitions" (volume 1), by G. J. C. Bois.
Myth & Beasts link.
Wikipedia Dames blaches.
Run with the Hunt link.
(At top is a picture by Max of a wolf with a dame blanche)

Lady of Blue Bell Hill

Blue Bell Hill is in Kent, southern England, along the A229. The landscape is chalk, and is part of the North Downs nature reserve. It's circulated by activity from busy roads, electricity from pylons and a transmitter station. The site has a crematorium and science lab. Archeological digs found a Neolithic long house, while there is an ancient path called Pilgrims Way, a Roman Temple, battles of Hengest and Horsa, the magical White Horse Stone, and the Medway Megaliths. This legendary site is full of history and myth but more famous for it's resident ghost, a white lady who haunts the A229 highway from Maidstone and Rochester.
The first report of the ghost was in 1969 of a spectral pedestrian (two girls and then one in white appeared later) playing with passing cars, only for them to pass through her. In 1974 a strange young woman in white with blonde hair jumped out in front of a car, was hit, and vanished into thin air. Another driver was left in shock after reporting that a girl suddenly appeared in front of his car and stared at him with cold eyes. He had no time to strop and hit her, as she vanished under the car bonnet. He went out of the car to find her but she was gone. He contacted the police, and there was a search made. No injured pedestrian was found. There are a number of stories like these about a phantom female pedestrian that jumps out in front of cars in the area. But this ghost is widely regarded as a road ghost.
In 1977 two men saw a young woman in a white dress hitching a lift. She appeared half asleep and the two men were from outside the area and couldn't help her.
In 1992 she started to play mischief again, jumping out in front of a car and staring at the driver with cold eyes. Again she completely disappeared into thin air. This was followed with another incident weeks later to another driver.
In 1993 a family were driving along the A229 and saw a woman in distress, hunched over and staggering. She slowly walked in front of their car. Suddenly the woman looked at them, stared at them with cold eyes and made a loud "hiss". She threatened them with objects that looked like twigs. The driver sped off and were so traumatised by the event that the police were involved. No woman of the description was found.
It's said that this is the ghost of a young woman who was killed during a car crash on the A229 in November 1965. She was a bride-to-be on her way to a party. Today no one knows what really caused the car crash and another woman also perished. The fact the site itself is drenched in ancient history and pulsating with high frequency electics, with phantom battles occurring there also! One wonders if the phantom hitch-hiker is really that of the dead girl or an entity who's always been there. Originally an eye witness saw two female spirits way back in the 60's a few years after the crash. If it's one of the two women, her spirit might be angry. The most chilling idea is that "she"  might've been something else who was at the scene of a crash in 1965.
The ghost story has been made into a film called "The Ghost of Blue Bell Hill" (2015). The film crew have experienced a sense of evil in the place. 

Review of "Mama"

"Mama" is a Universal Pictures horror film made in 2013 by Andres Muschietti. I'm giving a review to this because I watched it properly this evening in the dark. This is not a film to watch IF you suffer from epilepsy (such as myself, I had to shield away from the flashes of light). The majority of the film is in deep shadow and darkness. Not sure if that's the way it is or it's me. Or my TV. My TV isn't dark set btw. Just I had difficulty seeing anything in the film and was puzzled about what was going on. I felt like I've missed a portion of it and went by the sounds and voices. I didn't like the way it was done, as it was too dark, and might as well of listened to it instead. Darkness aside, the story was basically a paranormal story. It goes like this:

The beginning was outside of a house with a car radio, and a father takes his two small daughters into the car for a trip. The eldest daughter Victoria asks him where they're going. Father puts the breaks on and speeds up along a narrow icy road. The daughter cries "you're going too fast". Father ignores her, and she says it again. He turns round and gives her a mouthful, not paying attention to his driving. The car skids across the ice and falls over a cliff. It lands somewhere below in a forest. All three are alive and uninjured, and they find a strange little house with musical windchimes. Here the father breaks down and picks up a gun, assuming he's about to do something terrible. Then he's attacked by an unseen force. Victoria, who was able to see clearly despite breaking her glasses, noticed a strange woman outside earlier on. The strange woman is the entity that gives the two children a warm fire and cherries to eat over the next five years.  Both girls and their dead father are missing to the outside world.

Victoria and sister Lilly are found in the house, wild and dirty. Lilly, who was a toddler five years earlier, has grown feral, but Victoria remembers her life from before the accident. She's visited by her uncle Lucas, brother of her dad, who's been killed by an entity five years before. He seeks custody of the children after they've been under the care of Doctor Gerald Greyfuss. But aunt Jean, who's the sister of the girls' mother, demands custody allowed only visiting rights on Thursdays. Lucas brings the girls to his new home and they meet his girlfriend, a heavy metal musician called Annabel, and Lilly called her "Mama". Now "Mama" is the name the girls often describe whoever was looking after them in the forest for the last five years when they were missing. Soon the doctor, Annabel and uncle Lucus are finding out that "Mama" is there with them and will never leave them. It's not even a nice spirit, who's own life from the Victorian era was very tragic.

The story doesn't present the mother figure very well. The mother of the two girls is missing (dead) from the beginning of the film, and their foster mother was a very creepy looking ghost, who turned nasty and almost killed Annabel who was looking after them while Lucus was in hospital after being attacked by "Mama". The blood relative aunt was almost uncaring and aloof, determined to call social services on the family just because she didn't want them living there with Lucus and Annabel. And because of the state of the wild children who were not yet fully adjusted to being in a normal life. "Mama" was a very dangerous spirit because all she wanted was to keep the two girls to replace a child she'd lost over 150 years before.

I couldn't physically bare to watch this film again as it was painful during a flash photography scene with Lucus taking pictures of the ghost "Mama". It was mostly filmed in pitch black, so I had to turn off all the lights to see something. The eerie grimness is the only thing that made it a nice creepy ghost fairytale.        

Official link