Country file · Europe

Cryptids of Belgium

What cryptids are in Belgium? The best-known is Kludde.

Flanders and Brabant have a rich tradition of night creatures that trick and ride lonely travellers. The best known is Kludde, a shape-shifter that appears as a chain-dragging black dog, a gaunt horse or a tree that grows into the clouds, always with two blue flames floating before it. Reports place it around the Dender river country near Dendermonde and Aalst, and its first written record dates to 1840.

  • 1 cryptid

Cryptids reported in Belgium

Other · 1840

Kludde

Flanders and Brabant, Belgium Kludde, the shape-shifting back-rider of Flemish folklore: a chain-rattling black dog, horse or tree with two blue flames that dunks night walkers. Folklore

The legends of Belgium

Belgium’s other legends, such as Antwerp’s giant trickster Lange Wapper, show how much the Low Countries’ riverside and fogbound landscape fed the imagination.

Hotspots

  • Dendermonde and the Dender valley

    The river country where tellings of Kludde were collected.

Nearby

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