Deep in the Richtersveld, where the Orange River cuts through some of the oldest, driest land on Earth, there is a cave the locals call the Bottomless Pit. They say it runs sixty feet straight down before it opens into the dark — and that it is the source of every diamond South Africa has ever surrendered. They also say something guards it. Something forty feet long, with diamonds set in its eye sockets, that leaves a trail three feet wide in the river mud and never, ever leaves the print of a foot.

 

This is the Grootslang — the "great snake" — and tonight we're separating the legend from the legend. Because the elephant-serpent monster you've seen online, the one the gods supposedly split apart at the dawn of creation, isn't the real story. The truth is older, quieter, and far more frightening: a creature that prospectors tried to dynamite out of the rock, that the Khoekhoe and the settlers both feared, and that may have swallowed a real man whole in 1917 — at least, that's who the desert decided to blame.

 

Pour something strong. Mind the water's edge.

 

#FreakyFolklore #Grootslang #SouthAfricanFolklore #Cryptid #Cryptozoology #Folklore #Mythology #Richtersveld #Monster #ScaryStories #Horror #Legends #Paranormal #OrangeRiver #DiamondCurse #Africa #FolkloreHorror #CreatureFeature #UrbanLegend #Eeriecast

 

Tonight, on Freaky Folklore: The Grootslang — South Africa's diamond-hoarding serpent of the Richtersveld. We trace the creature from the prospecting camps of the early 1900s to the cartoon that rewrote its mythology, and we follow the 1917 disappearance of Peter Grayson into the place where folklore is actually made.

F.C. Cornell, The Glamour of Prospecting (firsthand early-1900s account of the "Groot Slang" of the Orange River)

 

EXPLORE MORE SPINE-CHILLING CONTENT:

Freaky Folklore: https://www.eeriecast.com/podcasts/freaky-folklore

Carman's Crypt (Original Horror): https://www.carman-carrion.com/

Deadly Intent (True Crime): https://www.carman-carrion.com/

Destination Terror: https://www.eeriecast.com/podcasts/destination-terror

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Written & narrated by Carman Carrion. Music & sound design: Epidemic Sound. The Grootslang is a creature of folklore; the historical figures named are presented as their legends are commonly told.

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