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The Dorset Ooser

 


A massive wooden head with snapping jaw mechanism, real horns and hair. Photo from 1883-1891. 

The Dorset Ooser has possible connections to the horned costumes sometimes worn by participants in English Mummers plays. The etymology of Ooser is also disputed, with various possibilities available, but I think it's most likely the same as the Oss, a snapping skull paraded around during midwinter. The pronunciation is very similar, and it's simply a way of saying "horse" without pronouncing the h. These teeth-gnashing heads are also known as 'obby 'oss or hobby horse. 

One use of the Dorset Ooser was to strike fear into villagers who were perceived as shameful. Usually the target was an unruly wife who had disobeyed her husband by raising her voice, scolding him, beating him, or cheating on him. A woman who was perceived as a bad wife was forced to ride backwards on a donkey or horse while the angry Ooser snapped his jaw at her and a crowd of villagers beat their cooking pots and pans to make a loud racket and bring everyone's attention to the public humiliation ritual. 

The Dorset Ooser was very big and heavy so it's likely to have required several people to carry it, perhaps held up on a wooden frame with cloth and animal pelts to form the body of the beast. He is thought to have been paraded during midwinter processions, very similar to the continental Krampus. In Gloucestershire there was a Wassail custom with a man dressed as a bull, with the head and horns of the beast. Various folklorists have referred to a bull-horned god of antiquity as the inspiration. The Bible mentions a pagan bull god, and I can imagine this would inspire villagers to construct a bull-horned demon to terrorise the children.


 Krampus is a classic "punisher" figure from folklore, integrated into the Christmas season as a way to enforce morality, blending ancient fear of winter with Christian traditions, and this is exactly what I think the Dorset Ooser would have been. "Masked devils acting boisterously and making nuisances of themselves are known in Germany since at least the sixteenth century while animal masked devils combining dreadful-comic schauriglustig antics appeared in medieval church plays." John J Honigmann, 1977 "The Masked Face" Ethos. 

Krampus appears in the folklore of Austria, Bavaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Northern Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia. Similar figures are recorded in neighbouring areas. Could it be that Britain once had its own version, paraded during Yuletide?

A Saint Nicholas procession with Krampus and other characters, c. 1910




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Location: Dorset, UK

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