Phantom Felines And Other Ghostly Animals - Gerina Dunwich 2006

The Legend of Black Shuck
Hounds and Hauntings

by Gerina Dunwich

Stories of a strange spectral dog known as Black Shuck abound in the folklore of the British Isles, and especially in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire.

Those who claim to have witnessed this creature describe it as a large black dog, about the size of a calf, with glowing eyes of red, yellow, or green. Sometimes it appears with just a single gigantic eye in the middle of its forehead. It wears a collar of rattling chains around its neck and sometimes is headless. It has been seen running along or leaping across roads and often just vanishes into thin air.

Haunting cemeteries, back roads, misty marshlands, beaches, riverbanks, and the hills around villages, this mysterious phantom canine is believed by some to bring bad luck, madness, or death to any person unfortunate enough to lay eyes upon it or even hear its hellish howling. The curse it sends forth is said to manifest within twelve months. In parts of Devon, it is believed that misfortune befalls those who even speak of the hound. The people in Suffolk, however, believe that Black Shuck is only malevolent to persons who bother it. Some superstitious folks even think it to be the devil in disguise, as he is said to often appear in the form of a black dog.

In The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, Rosemary Ellen Guiley writes, “On stormy nights, Black Shuck’s bone-chilling howls can be heard rising above the wind. His feet make no sounds and leave no prints, but travelers feel his icy breath upon their necks.” She also says it was the Black Shuck legends that inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write his classic novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Black Shuck is known by many other names, including Old Shuck (in Norfolk), Old Shock (in Suffolk), Old Snarleyow, Old Scarfe, Galleytrot, the Churchyard Beast, the Swooning Shadow, the Black Dog of Torrington, and Shug Monkey. It is interesting to note that the names “Shuck” and “Shock” are in fact derived from succa, an Old English word meaning demon.

The true origins of Black Shuck have since been lost in the mists of time. However, some believe the early Viking raiders inspired the legend of this supernatural beast with their tales of the black war hound of their god Odin. Others believe that Black Shuck was spawned by the ancient Welsh myth of Arawn, the ruler of the Underworld, whose “hounds of hell” roamed the night in search of human souls.

Black Shuck sightings have been reported for centuries, and continue in modern times, although not as frequently.