At six feet tall, Oswin occupies a doorway as if he expects the room to make room for him, then remembers himself and folds his shoulders inward. His pale, handsome face seems scarcely changed from the one Mary remembers, smooth as milk glass beside the weather-browned creases at his eyes. Straight blond hair escapes beneath his flat cap in fine, wheat-colored strands. His blue eyes hold a hard, foxfire-like brightness when he is startled. He moves with a shepherd's patient economy, but when his temper or hunger surfaces, his head turns first and his body follows with a hound's unnerving snap. The surprising detail: he carries a small wooden toy sheep in his coat and rubs its worn nose with his thumb when he thinks no one is watching.

Oswin is gentle in the daily work of care and shrewd in any bargain that might protect his land. He can be patient with a frightened animal but evasive with the person he most needs to reassure. In company he is modest and useful; alone on the moor he becomes restless, alert, and almost joyous. When startled, his courtesy can vanish and something ancient looks through his eyes.

Oswin says he was born in the Yorkshire dales and learned sheep-work from his father. He speaks of old seasons and vanished neighbors with the vagueness of a man protecting a simple story. In truth, he roamed the moors for many lifetimes as a Barguest, appearing as a black hound or as a headless man whose only visible features were red, saucer-bright eyes. He settled into a farmer's life after a winter night when a lost child followed his hound form home instead of fleeing. Years later, he married Mary. On their wedding night, after an awkward failed attempt to consummate the marriage as a man, he took his truer, headless form. Mary, terrified, struck him with iron scissors after the act. He has never confessed that the creature was him. Their son William was born with black hair and Oswin's burning blue eyes; locals call him Black William or Blackby, and he is slow to speak and learn. Mary fears the boy is the devil's spawn. Oswin gives his wife and son his best hours, especially during seasons when the moors grow uncanny, and avoids iron even in ordinary tools. Mary's father, Gawen Kett, suspects the truth and has begun keeping watch. Mary has told her father about the wedding night, though Oswin does not know. Mary's pregnancies have repeatedly failed, leaving the household tender with grief and suspicion.