The Saltwood & Hythe Mothman

Sightings of winged creatures flying through the sky have long been a staple of folklore, mythology and legend across the world and across time and cultures. In the ancient world, Gods and monsters were depicted with enormous, scaled and feathered wings, whilst in modern times, sightings have become more and more diverse, from thunderbirds, to the mysterious Mothman. Three years before the one of the most famous sightings of a mysterious flying creature in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, there was a sighting almost 4,000 miles away, across the Atlantic in a quiet market town in the south-east of England that bore a remarkable resemblance and whilst it caused far less of a stir, it certainly drew just as much confusion. SOURCES

Keel, John (1970) Strange Creatures From Time & Space. London Sphere, London, UK.

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Point Pleasant Register (1966) Couples See Man Sized Bird…Creature…Something! Point Pleasant Register, 16 Nov 1966, p1. VA, USA

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Clarke, David (2016) A New Demonology: John Keel and The Mothman Prophecies. In: Hunter, Jack, (ed.) Damned Facts : Fortean Essays on Religion, Folklore and the Paranormal. Cyprus, Aporetic Press, 54-68.

Arnold, Neil (2023) The Hythe Mothman, Monster, Ghost or UFO? Fortean Times, FT439 Christmas 2023. Diamond Publishing LTD, London, UK.

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