![]() Abraham Fleming of Bungay (modern-day Suffolk) wrote a terrifying account of a hellhound’s attack on the church in 1577 in his essay A Straunge and Terrible Wunder: In the most famous story of a Black Shuck appearance, Rev. Stories of the creature in action reveal the true depths of its terror. Of course, the Black Shuck was scary because of more than just its appearance. Mary’s Church in Bungay, England, site of one reported Black Shuck attack in 1577. Stories Of The HellhoundĪdrian Cable/ St. And if you did catch a glimpse of one, it was believed to be either a protective spirit, according to Modern Farmer, or a portent of death - a family guardian watching over everyone or a warning of certain doom. ”Īnd in addition to the above, perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of the Black Shuck was its eyes, red and big as saucers.įurthermore, these hellhounds were always said to appear suddenly and without warning, then disappear as quickly as they’d arrived. So you will do well to shut your eyes if you hear him howling shut them even if you are uncertain whether it is the dog fiend or the voice of the wind you hear… you may perhaps doubt his existence, and, like other learned folks, tell us that his story is nothing but the old Scandinavian myth of the black hound of Odin, brought to us by the Vikings…. But such an encounter might bring you the worst of luck: it is even said that to meet him is to be warned that your death will occur before the end of the year. “He takes the form of a huge black dog, and prowls along dark lanes and lonesome field footpaths, where, although his howling makes the hearer’s blood run cold, his footfalls make no sound…. They were foaming at the mouth as if deranged, rabid, or ravenously focused on hunting for their next meal.Īccording to one description published in 1901 said: These dogs would supposedly be larger-than-normal with some even as big as a horse. Wikimedia Commons Some stories of Black Shuck encounters describe the mythical hellhound as having a single glowing eye.Īnyone who saw a Black Shuck described a large dog with black, mangy fur. These include Suffolk, Norfolk, East Anglia (Cambridge), Lancashire, Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Lincolnshire, and Leicestershire. Particularly in England, when winds would come howling in from the sea, there were stories of black hellhounds in more than a dozen areas. If someone didn’t flee from the Black Shuck, they could be killed. Winds aren’t nearly as scary as a pack of rabid dogs on the hunt, but the outcome could be same. People were mythologizing their surroundings as a way to warn people to stay indoors. Interpreting howling winds as a pack of hunters would thus make sense. Anyone who didn’t make it inside during the winter could freeze to death. Northern cultures associated wild hunts with the change of the seasons from fall into winter, probably because strong, cold winds came blowing over the landscape and forced people indoors. Stories from across central, western and northern Europe recount loud, spectral wild hunts throughout untamed lands - and they help explain the mythological underpinnings of the Black Shuck. The events of 1127 were also known as a “wild hunt” - and weren’t just an English phenomenon. Witnesses said that around 20 to 30 of these hellish beings stayed in the area through Lent all the way to Easter, a period of about 50 days. 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.” 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. “…it was the Sunday when they sing Exurge Quare o, D – many men both saw and heard a great number of huntsmen hunting. ![]() Immediately after the arrival of Abbot Henry of Poitou to the Abbey of Peterborough, there was quite a ruckus: The first known written text describing a Black Shuck (from the Old English “scucca” or “devil”) in England goes back to 1127 in the town of Peterborough. These are the fearsome legends that still persist today. Wikimedia Commons A rendering of Black Shuck.Ĭlearly, Cujo and the rest of the world’s most fearsome fictional canines have nothing on the mythical Black Shuck.
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