The Devil Dog That Cursed Medieval England - The Black Shuck
Black Shuck, Old Shuck, Old Shock or simply Shuck is the name given to a ghostly black dog who is said to roam the East Anglia coastline and countryside.
The First Official Sighting Of The Black Shuck
The first documented text in England describing a Black Shuck (from the Old English "scucca," or "devil") dates back to 1127 in Peterborough. Immediately after Abbot Henry of Poitou 's arrival at Peterborough Abbey, there was quite a frenzy.
“…it was the Sunday when they sing Exurge Quare o, D – many men both saw and heard a great number of huntsmen hunting. The huntsmen were black, huge and hideous, and rode on black horses and on black he-goats and their hounds were jet black with eyes like saucers and horrible. This was seen in the very deer park of the town of Peterborough and in all the woods that stretch from that same town to Stamford, and in the night the monks heard them sounding and winding their horns.”
Witnesses said about 20 to 30 of these Hellish beings remained in the region all the way to Easter through Lent, a span of about 50 days.
The 1127 occurrences are dubbed The Wild Hunt. That's not just a trend for the English. Stories from all over Central, Western and Northern Europe tell of loud wild hunts across untamed lands.
Particularly in England there were reports of black hellhounds in more than a dozen places when winds would hurl in from the sea. These include Suffolk, Norfolk, East Anglia (Cambridge), Lancashire, Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and others.
Descriptions Of The Black Shuck
Anyone who has seen a Black Shuck has described a large black, mangy fur dog. Allegedly these dogs are always larger-than-normal with some as big as a horse. They foamed at the mouth as if they were deranged, rabid, or ravenously intent on looking for their next meal.
Stories Of The Black Shuck
Of course, it wasnt just the sightings that made the Black Shuck terrifying. The creature's legends and stories show the true depths of the fear it created In society. In the most famous tale of a Black Shuck attack, in his essay A Straunge and Awful Wunder, Rev. Abraham Fleming of Bungay (modern-day Suffolk) wrote an appalling account of a hellhound 's assault on the church in 1577:
“This black dog, or the divel in such a linenesse (God hee knoweth al who worketh all,) running all along down the body of the church with great swiftnesse, and incredible haste, among the people, in a visible fourm and shape, passed between two persons, as they were kneeling uppon their knees, and occupied in prayer as it seemed, wrung the necks of them bothe at one instant clene backward, in somuch that even at a moment where they kneeled, they strangely dyed.”
Modern Accounts/Sightings Of The Black Shuck
As for records of more recent Black Shuck sightings, one man reported in 1905 that a black dog turned into a donkey, and a few moments later disappeared. During World War II, one four-year-old girl saw a big black dog walking around her bed from her window, making eye contact with those famous red eyes and then vanishing before hitting the door. That evening, she didn't sleep well.
Is the Black Shuck just a misinterpreted large dog seen by people that already have the heads filled with fear by the ghastly tales, or were the medieval residents of Peterborough and the surrounding areas seeing such a mythical creature, that's for you to decide.
