Today's blog is about the story of Black Shuck (Old Shuck) the legendary East Anglian spirit dog. The tales of Black Shuck are told around the East Anglian counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex although I have found mention of a Black Shuck story as far west as Bedfordshire, where I live.
Black Shuck is a large black hound whose sightings were associated with bad luck but also in some cases good luck. Shuck is described as being an exceptionally large dog with shaggy black fur. He has large red glowing eyes often described as being as large as saucers. He is often pictured baring his fang like teeth. He is said to howl as well as bark. Tales of Black Shuck date back centuries and were collected together in the 18th and 19th Century when there was a real interest in folklore and tales of the paranormal. The stories about Black Shuck take a number of themes which I will explore below.
A photo of Venta Icenorum in Norfolk - the Roman city of the Iceni, the tribe Boudicca lead. It is found in the heart of Black Shuck country - taken on family visit in January 2012
Possibly the most notorious mention of Black Shuck is the tale of the demon hound of Bungay. It is told that on 4th August 1577 the church of St Mary in Bungay was struck by lightening during a storm. Members of the congregation reported that as the lightening struck a black hell hound appeared and ran in a crazed frenzy about the church attacking parishioners, in some reports killing two. Then the black dog ran off to the church at Blythburgh (about 12 miles away) where it is said that the black hound attacked and killed more people and left scorch marks on the church door. The town of Bungay has adopted a black dog as it's town emblem!
St Edmunds Church at Venta Iceenorum - January 2012
The earliest mention of Black hell hounds in East Anglia is found in the Chronicle of Peterborough (part of the Anglo Saxon Chronicles.) The tale recorded in 1127 says that Monks and the Abbot of Peterborough Abbey witnessed a strange and frightening hunt taking place in the deer park in Peterborough. The huntsmen were huge and rode large black horses. They were accompanied by wild black dogs of an enormous size with red glowing saucer eyes. The hunt was witnessed by many witnesses and made its way from Peterborough deer park and woodland towards Stamford.
River Tas - January 2012
East Anglia still has many wild and desolate places. With it's flat relentless landscape often including marsh and water meadow there is a kind of eeriness to the landscape you don't find elsewhere in the British Isles. The coastline is eroding, and particularly in the past it would have been hard for even locals to navigate through what may appear like flat, uninterrupted land which in reality can hide treacherous marsh land, water ditches or flooded fields. It's a place where water and land mix and mingle, a quality the old Celtic tribes were fascinated with. Many offerings have been found in the rivers and marshland of East Anglia.
I wrote a poem about this landscape back in 2013 when I was doing the challenge to write a poem every day:
A land sodden, submerged
The boundary between earth and water blurred
Trees emerge from the sky's reflection
Islands of mud break up rippling fields
There's an unnerving, unravelling of reality
In this quivering world of water
Where our ancestors would give up offerings
Swords and precious jewels, cast into rivers
That swelled and sought out land
Where the two realms link
And can be reached
Where spirits of earth and water mix.
Walberswick beach Suffolk - January 2012
It was said that if you saw black shuck whilst out walking this was a portent of your own death or the demise of someone close to you. So understandably many feared the sight of Black Shuck. At the coast however many said that seeing Black Shuck foretold a bad storm and boats would not set out after a sighting of the hound.
Later in the tales of Black Shuck during Victorian and more modern times sightings of Black Shuck did not spell doom. In fact a number of women travelling alone claimed that Black Shuck had saved them form getting lost or had scared off men attempting to attack them. I like this side of Black Shuck. I think he may be misunderstood! He warns sailors not to go out to sea and helps lone women in distress. I think Shuck is mellowing in his old age.
Looking across the north sea - January 2012
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