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De Ogen

As a Wikipedian, the first thing that strikes me is that that's a terrible article. Not just badly written, but based entirely on a single source. A cursory google search doesn't throw up any results for "deogen" which pre-date the article (created in Dec 2009), or even any results for the cited book, or indeed its author. Almost certainly nonsense, I'm afraid.
 
Steerpike said:
As a Wikipedian, the first thing that strikes me is that that's a terrible article. Not just badly written, but based entirely on a single source. A cursory google search doesn't throw up any results for "deogen" which pre-date the article (created in Dec 2009), or even any results for the cited book, or indeed its author. Almost certainly nonsense, I'm afraid.
Click to expand...

Agreed ... I find it odd that there's no residual record of such a 1937 book having ever been published - not even in any of the Belgian library / archive databases.

In any case, it's never a good sign when 90% of the posted accounts are clearly copied and pasted from a single original text.
 
Wikipedia does flag the entry as reliant on a single source. Four years of flagging and no sign of new information!

It's probably a flimsy attempt to provide a spurious background for a rôle-play game or comic-book. :meh:
 
I'm sure that it will end up in a haunted compendium as an E book written by lazy writers who can't be bothered to look up original material.
 
The Wikipedia article is about to be deleted – hope no-one minds if I preserve the content here, just in case there is something in it after all.

The Deogen, "De Ogen" or The Eyes is a ghost that is said to haunt the Sonian Forest in Belgium, often seen in fog form and followed by smaller shadow figures. The story, which is based on a series of true events, has become more of a campfire tale or urban legend with virtually no sightings in recent years.

Legend
According to the book De Kinderen van Het Bezeten Bos which was written in 1937 the legend of Deogen is said to have begun when area nuns began finding the burned bodies of young children in the Sonian Forest in Belgium, near Brussels. It is said in the book that 80 children were murdered and the bodies dumped throughout in the forest and set ablaze but a more accepted number was only 8. Very little is known of the case excepting that which is found in the book which is believed by many to have been a work of fiction.

Misconceptions
The name Deogen along with numerous other mistakes first appeared in a book titled The Children of the Haunted Forest (De Kinderen van Het Bezeten Bos). The name of the fog was originally "De Ogen" during the first sightings, and was misspelled in the book as Deogen, as it is commonly known today. It was written that over 80 children were killed in the area, but the number otherwise is said to have been only 8: the high number believed by many today is due to a printing error. The book, told from a surviving child's viewpoint, the murderer was said to have committed suicide in the Sonian Forest. In reality the killer was never known or captured and there were no survivors.

Physical description
A greenish ghostlike fog is often seen and small black solid figures are said to dart across the road causing cars to go off the road. A laughing child is often heard as the mist evaporates. On other occasions it is said that bloody palm print is seen on the cars window only to soon disappear as mysterious as it appears. Earlier descriptions of the fog would have it as being gray, orange, or white in color followed by the childish laughter. The term De Ogen, Dutch for "The Eyes" originated from reports that something large was said to be seen staring at witnesses from within the fog.

Explanation
Shadow figures have still been reported seen running in front of cars driving through the forest on very rare occasion, along with the bloody hand of a child on the back side of a car window. Practical jokers have been seen though, touching the windows of cars entering the forest. The shadow figures are believed to be that of wild boar which have been known to roam the forest.

References
  • De Kinderen van Het Bezeten Bos - Myriam Chesner
 
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