The Legend Of The White Hart

[AgProv]

Question: this is a genuinely "known" sort of animal and there is absolutely no doubt it exists in the world. The Fortean and the "cryptozoological" comes from the mythology and the legend surrounding it. So this story may not belong here but i'm stuck as to where to put it....

The White Hart, in mediaeval legend, is the rarest of creatures, and to hunt it has mythological overtures: depending on the particular myth you read, to hunt and bring down this extremely rare creature means you either acquire wisdom/magical ability/supernatural powers, or else are cursed to the ends of the Earth.

Sadly, one recently had to be killed in Bootle, Merseyside; the police said they "had no alternative".

questions arise.

As it was a stag, does the mythology still apply?

And will Bootle be either blessed or cursed?
What will happen to the police marksman who killed the beast? has he succeeded in his own (unwitting) Grail Quest?

albino deer killed in uban Bootle

 

[Mythopoeika]

I think killing it was totally unnecessary and Bootle will be cursed.

 

[Frideswide]

As it was a stag, does the mythology still apply?

I don't understand - aren't harts male? Or am I thinking of hind?

 

[Nosmo King]

I don't understand - aren't harts male? Or am I thinking of hind?

A hart is a Male red deer, a hind is a female.

"A hart is a male red deer, synonymous with stag and used in contrast to the female hind; its use may now be considered mostly poetic or archaic"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_(deer)

 

[flannel]

Colin Brazier interviewed a game keeper on GB News who said it wasn't a White Hart (an albino) but a white fallow deer that is the least common of the colours but not that rare. However, he said that Hertfordshire (iirc) call both White Harts.

 

[maximus otter]

Colin Brazier interviewed a game keeper on GB News who said it wasn't a White Hart (an albino) but a white fallow deer that is the least common of the colours but not that rare. However, he said that Hertfordshire (iirc) call both White Harts.

“Fallow deer have four main variations of coat:

• Common – tan/fawn, with white spotting on flanks and white rump patch outlined with black horseshoe shaped border. Coat fades to a general grey colour during the winter
• Menil – paler colouration with white spots year-round and a caramel horseshoe shape on rump
• Melanistic – black, almost entirely black or chocolate coloured
• White – white to pale sandy-coloured turning increasingly white with age (this is a true colour and not albino).”

https://www.bds.org.uk/information-advice/about-deer/deer-species/fallow-deer/

“The British Deer Society regularly receives queries about white deer and how rare they might be.

In most cases, the white deer are usually fallow, a species that is widely distributed across much of the UK and for which white is a recognised colour variety. White fallow are not seen as often as the other three main colour types (common, menil and black), but where they are present they tend to stand out more obviously against other members of a herd or when in cover.

Fallow are unusual in that they occur in so many different colour varieties, a tendency which can be attributed to selective breeding in the deer parks where they were once kept before becoming feral in the UK.

What Causes a Deer to be White?

Fallow of the white variety are not albinos but have normal eye pigmentation, although their hooves and noses might be somewhat paler than the other colour varieties. Unusually pale coats in any deer are usually a result of under-production of melanin, the chemical responsible for skin pigmentation (over-production results in darker than normal coats). True albinos have pink eyes and a complete lack of body pigment.”

https://www.bds.org.uk/2021/08/13/how-rare-are-white-deer/

maximus otter

 

[Bullseye]

Lazy bloody journalists ,got the whole of the interwebs and still get stags and bucks wrong. It was a Fallow so it's a buck.

WhiteHart in this part of Sussex is usually meant to be a white Roe buck. So many pubs,streets, house's named after them.

I like to go and watch the Fallow bucks in the rutting season (coming up now). Get to the woods at sunrise and listen for the bellow/belch of the bucks, or the clash of antlers. Must admit I'm getting a bit old for it now, creeping quietly on belly to get as near as possible. great sense of achivement if you can get to about 30 meters of them.

Sure I've mentioned before my favorite buck,not the biggest but watched him for a couple of years, dark chocolate brown legs and flanks with jet black back,neck and head. Beautiful creature.

Round here we do have a lot of colour variation even though they are all very wild deer, possible semi-tamed many years ago.