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[[Image:Blackdog.jpg|thumb|Artist's impression of the Black Shuck. Commonly described features include large red eyes, bared teeth and shaggy black fur.<ref name=lore/>]]

{{from wikipedia}}

'''Black Shuck''', '''Old Shuck''', '''Old Shock''' or simply '''Shuck''' is the name given to an [[East Anglian]] [[ghost]]ly [[Black dog (ghost)|black dog]] which is said to roam the coastline and countryside of [[East Anglia]], one of many ghostly black dogs recorded in folklore across the British Isles.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Country Life|volume=174|date=1983}}</ref> Accounts of Black Shuck form part of the [[folklore]] of [[Norfolk]], [[Suffolk]], the [[Cambridgeshire]] [[fens]] and [[Essex]], and descriptions of the creature's appearance and nature vary considerably; it is sometimes recorded as an omen of death, but, in other instances, is described as companionable.<ref name=Sherwood/><ref>{{cite book|authors=Jennifer Westwood, Jacqueline Simpson, Sophia Kingshill|title=The Penguin Book of Ghosts|publisher=Penguin|date=2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Enid Porter|title=Cambridgeshire customs and folklore: with Fenland material provided|publisher=Taylor & Francis|date=1969|page=53}}</ref>

According to the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', the name ''Shuck'' derives from the [[Old English]] word ''scucca'' - "devil, fiend", from the root word ''skuh''- to terrify.<ref name=OED>{{cite encyclopedia |title=shuck, n.1 |encyclopedia=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/178985?isAdvanced=false&result=1&rskey=l0TYCg&}}</ref> The first mention in print of "Black Shuck" is by Reverend E.S. Taylor in an 1850 edition of the journal ''[[Notes and Queries]]'' which describes "Shuck the Dog-fiend"; "This phantom I have heard many persons in East Norfolk, and even Cambridgeshire, describe as having seen as a black shaggy dog, with fiery eyes and of immense size, and who visits churchyards at midnight."<ref name="notes and queries">{{cite journal|title=Shuck the Dog-fiend|journal=Notes & Queries|edition=1st Ser. I.|page=468}}</ref>

[[Abraham Fleming]]'s account of the appearance of ''A strange, and terrible wunder'' in 1577 at [[Bungay, Suffolk]] is a famous account of the beast. Images of black sinister dogs have become part of the iconography of the area and have appeared in [[Black dog ghosts in popular culture#Black Shuck|popular culture]].<ref name=lore>{{cite book|authors=Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson|title=The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England's Legends, from Spring-heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys|publisher=Penguin|date=2005|pages=687-688}}</ref> Writing in 1877, [[Walter Rye]] stated that Shuck was "the most curious of our local apparitions, as they are no doubt varieties of the same animal."<ref>{{cite book|author=Walter Rye|title=The Norfolk Antiquarian Miscellany|url=https://archive.org/details/norfolkantiquar02unkngoog|publisher=Miller and Leavins|date=1877}}</ref>

==Descriptions==
Descriptions of Black Shuck vary in both shape and size, from that of a large dog to being the size of a calf or horse.<ref name=lore/><ref name=Sherwood>{{cite web|author=Dr Simon Sherwood|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090323040252/http://nli.northampton.ac.uk/ass/psych-staff/sjs/blackdog.htm|title=Apparitions of Black Dogs|website=University of Northampton Psychology Department|date=2008}}</ref> W. A. Dutt, in his 1901 ''Highways & Byways in East Anglia'' describes the creature thus:
[[File:The Shuck.png|thumb|Artists depiction of the Black Shuck based on W.A. Dutt's description]]
{{quote|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. You may know him at once, should you see him, by his fiery eye; he has but one, and that, like the [[Cyclops]]', is in the middle of his head. 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. 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. Should you never set eyes on our Norfolk Snarleyow<ref>Dutt references [[Frederick Marryat]]'s 1837 novel ''Snarleyyow, or the Dog Fiend'', which tells the tale of a troublesome ship's dog.</ref> 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]] who long ago settled down on the Norfolk coast.<ref>{{cite book|author=W. A. Dutt|title=Highways & Byways in East Anglia|url=https://archive.org/details/highwaysandbywa01duttgoog|publisher=MacMillan|date=1901|page=216}}</ref>}}



Dr Simon Sherwood suggests that the earliest surviving description of devilish black hounds is an account of an incident in the [[Peterborough Cathedral|Peterborough Abbey]] recorded in the [[Peterborough Chronicle]] (one version of the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'') around 1127:
{{quote|Let no-one be surprised at the truth of what we are about to relate, for it was common knowledge throughout the whole country that immediately after [Abbot Henry of Poitou's arrival at Peterborough Abbey] - it was the Sunday when they sing Exurge Quare - 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 the 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, Lincolnshire|Stamford]], and in the night the monks heard them sounding and winding their horns. Reliable witnesses who kept watch in the night declared that there might well have been as many as twenty or thirty of them winding their horns as near they could tell. This was seen and heard from the time of his arrival all through Lent and right up to Easter."<ref name=Sherwood/><ref>{{cite book|author=G McEwan|title=Mystery Animals of Britain and Ireland|publisher=Robert Hale|date=1986|page=122}}</ref>}}
This account also appears to describe the Europe-wide phenomenon of a [[Wild Hunt]].

===Bungay and Blythburgh===
[[File:A Staunge and terrible Wunder.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Title page of Rev. Abraham Fleming's account of the appearance of the ghostly black dog "Black Shuck" at the church of Bungay, Suffolk: "A straunge, and terrible Wunder wrought very late in the parish church of Bongay: a town of no great distance from the citie of Norwich, namely the fourth of this August, in the yeere of our Lord 1577. in a great tempest of violent raine, lightning, and thunder, the like wherof hath been seldome seene. With the appeerance of an horrible shaped thing, sensibly perceiued of the people then and there assembled. Drawen into a plain method according to the written copye. by Abraham Fleming."]]
One of the most notable reports of Black Shuck is of his appearance at the churches of [[Bungay, Suffolk|Bungay]] and [[Blythburgh]] in Suffolk. On 4 August 1577, at Blythburgh, Black Shuck is said to have burst in through the doors of [[Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh|Holy Trinity Church]] to a clap of thunder. He ran up the nave, past a large congregation, killing a man and boy and causing the church [[steeple (architecture)|steeple]] to collapse through the roof. As the dog left, he left scorch marks on the north door which can be seen at the church to this day.<ref>{{cite book|author=John Seymour|title=The companion guide to East Anglia|publisher=Collins|date=1977}}</ref>

The encounter on the same day at [[St Mary's Church, Bungay]] was described in ''A Straunge and Terrible Wunder'' by [[Abraham Fleming]] in 1577:
{{quote|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 mome[n]t where they kneeled, they stra[n]gely dyed.<ref>{{cite book|author=Abraham Adams|title=A strange, and terrible wunder|location=London|date=1577}}</ref>}}

Fleming was a translator and editor for several printing houses in London, and therefore probably only published his account based on exaggerated [[Oral tradition|oral accounts]]. Other local accounts attribute the event to the [[Devil]] (Fleming calls the animal "the Divel in such a likeness"). The scorch marks on the door are referred to by the locals as "the devil’s fingerprints", and the event is remembered in this verse:

{{quote|All down the church in midst of fire, the hellish monster flew, and, passing onward to the quire, he many people slew.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Enid Porter|title=The folklore of East Anglia|volume=1974 Part 2}}</ref>}}

Dr David Waldron and Christopher Reeve suggest that a fierce [[electrical storm]] recorded by contemporary accounts on that date, coupled with the trauma of the ongoing [[Reformation]], may have led to the accounts entering folklore.<ref>{{cite book|authors=Dr. David Waldron and Christopher Reeve|title=Shock! The Black Dog of Bungay: A Case Study in Folklore|publisher=Hidden Design Ltd|date=2010}}</ref>

===Littleport===
{{main|Littleport, Cambridgeshire#Black dog hauntings}}
[[Littleport, Cambridgeshire|Littleport]], Cambridgeshire is home to two different legends of spectral black dogs, which have been linked to the Black Shuck folklore, but differ in significant aspects: local folklorist  W.H. Barrett relates the story of a huge black dog haunting the area after being killed rescuing a local girl from a lustful friar in pre-reformation times,<ref name="TFF01">{{Citation | last = Barrett  | first = Walter Henry | chapter = | date = | editor-last = Porter | editor-first = Enid | title = Tales from the Fens | volume = | publisher = Routledge & Kegan Paul | publication-date = 1963 | isbn = 9780710010544 }}</ref><ref name="CFT01">{{Citation | last = James | first = Maureen | chapter = Of Strange Phenomena: Black Dogs, Will o' the Wykes and Lantern Men | date = | editor-last = | editor-first = | title = Cambridgeshire Folk Tales | volume = | publisher = History Press | publication-date = 2014 | isbn = 9780752466286 }}</ref> while fellow folklorist Enid Porter relates stories of a black dog haunting the [[A10 road (England)|A10 road]] after its owner drowned in the nearby [[River Great Ouse]] in the 1800s.<ref name="CCF01">{{Citation | last = Porter | first = Enid | chapter = | date = | editor-last = | editor-first = | title = Cambridgeshire Customs & Folklore | volume = | publisher = Routledge & Kegan Paul | publication-date = 1969 | isbn = 9780710062017 }}</ref><ref name="MC01">{{Citation | last = Codd | first = Daniel | chapter = The Weird Animal Kingdom: Black Shuck and Other Phantom Animals | date = | editor-last = | editor-first = | title = Mysterious Cambridgeshire | volume = | publisher = JMD Media | publication-date = 2010 | isbn = 9781859838082 }}</ref>

===Leiston Abbey excavation===
In May 2014 a large dog was excavated at [[Leiston Abbey]] by [[DigVentures]] which was noted in the parish newsletter and then in the ''[[East Anglian Daily Times]]'' which ran a tongue-in-cheek article asking whether they were the remains of Black Shuck.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/leiston_are_these_the_bones_of_devil_dog_black_shuck_1_3600768|title=Leiston: Are these the bones of devil dog, Black Shuck?|work=East Anglian Daily Times}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://digventures.com/2014/10/digventures-and-the-bbc-one-show-devil-dog-black-shuck-returns/|title=Black Shuck Returns!|website=DigVentures|access-date=2019-06-05}}</ref> The article in the East Anglian was then picked up by the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' which reported that Black Shuck was {{convert|7|ft}} tall, a figure they also used describing the skeleton which, they said, would have "stood 7ft tall on its hind legs".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2629353/Is-skeleton-legendary-devil-dog-Black-Shuck-terrorised-16th-century-East-Anglia.html|title=Is this the skeleton of legendary devil dog Black Shuck?|date=2014-05-15|website=Mail Online|access-date=2019-06-05}}</ref>{{Better source|date=June 2019}} The ''[[International Business Times]]'' and [[Yahoo! News]] both reported the skeleton to be Black Shuck.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/bones-7ft-hound-hell-black-shuck-discovered-suffolk-countryside-1448864|title=Bones of 7ft Hound from Hell Black Shuck 'Discovered in Suffolk Countryside'|work=International Business Times UK}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://folklorethursday.com/urban-folklore/proof-black-shuck-definitely-not-discovered/|title=Black Shuck: Proof of Existence Finally Found?|date=2016-09-08|website=#FolkloreThursday|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-06-05}}</ref>

DigVentures itself unequivocally denied claims that the dog was Black Shuck, stating that it was {{Convert|72|cm|ft|abbr=}} tall, around the size of a [[mastiff]].<ref name=":0" /> [[Radiocarbon dating|Carbon dating]] of the bones "indicated a date of either 1650-1690, 1730-1810 or post 1920" and the animal "was likely to have been interred when there was no surface trace of the original building remaining".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.digventures.com/leiston-abbey/ddt/micro_view.php?item_key=fea_cd&fea_cd=LA_701|title=Feature LA_701 Leiston Abbey|date=|publisher=Digventures.com|accessdate=16 December 2015}}</ref>

East Anglian poet and songwriter, [[Martin Newell (musician)|Martin Newell]], wrote about the discovery and retold some of the stories he heard from locals while preparing his epic poem, ''Black Shuck: The Ghost Dog of Eastern England'':

{{Block quote|The odd thing is that people today still claim sightings of Black Dog. While researching my own project, I was surprised at how seriously the story was taken, especially in the north of the region. "Ah, you’re writing about that now, are you?" a [[Norfolk]] shopkeeper asked me.  "Well, be careful."}}

{{Block quote|One local woman told me that she’d seen Black Shuck early one summer morning in the 1950s, near [[Cromer]], when returning from a dance.  A [[Suffolk]] man said he’d seen the dog one evening on the marshes near [[Felixstowe]]. I later read an old newspaper story of an encounter in [[Essex]].  The account was given of a midwife who had been cycling home after a delivery during the 1930s. One winter’s night, she claimed, she was followed by the creature through the lanes near [[Tolleshunt D'Arcy|Tolleshunt Darcy]].  She added that the dog was huge and no matter how fast she pedalled it seemed to effortlessly keep up with her.  The apparition, which remained silent throughout, then suddenly vanished.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jardinepress.co.uk/books/Bshuck.html|title=Black Shuck|website=www.jardinepress.co.uk|access-date=2016-11-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161105160935/http://www.jardinepress.co.uk/books/Bshuck.html|archive-date=5 November 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.eadt.co.uk/ea-life/martin_newell_s_joy_of_essex_black_shuck_is_the_hell_hound_legend_that_won_t_lie_down_1_3635449|title=Martin Newell’s Joy of Essex: Black Shuck is the hell-hound legend that won’t lie down|last=Newell|first=Martin|date=9 June 2014|website=East Anglian Daily Times|publisher=Archant Community Media Ltd|access-date=4 November 2016}}</ref>}}

==In popular culture==
British rock band [[The Darkness (band)|The Darkness]] have a song called "Black Shuck" on their 2003 debut album ''[[Permission to Land]]''

British rock band [[Down I Go]] have a song called "Black Shuck" on their 2019 EP 'All Down the Church in Midst of Fire the Hellish Monster Flew, and Passing Onward to the Quire, He Many People Slew'.<ref>https://birthdaycakebreakfast.wordpress.com/2019/07/08/ep-review-down-i-go-all-down-the-church-in-midst-of-fire-the-hellish-monster-flew-and-passing-onward-to-the-quire-he-many-people-slew/</ref>{{better source needed|reason=looks like a blog or self-published source|date=July 2019}}

In June 2019, after being previously crowdfunded on Kickstarter, the graphic novel ''The Burning Black: Legend of Black Shuck'' was published by Renegade Arts Entertainment. The book was written by Mark Allard-Will, with artwork by Ryan Howe and lettering by Elaine M. Will. The graphic novel features Black Shuck as its central antagonist.<ref>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-48544256</ref>

The 2019 movie ''[[Annabelle Comes Home]]'' features a Black Shuck as one of the spirits revived by the demonic doll.<ref>{{IMDb title|8350360}}</ref>

The popular writing collaboration [[SCP Foundation|The SCP Foundation]] has a file on a creature, SCP-023, which is based on the Black Shuck's infamous Bungay incident.{{cn|date=October 2019}}

In modified form, the Black Shuck is described by  [[J. K. Rowling]] in her 1999 novel ''[[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban]],'' where Harry's godfather [[Sirius Black]], who is an [[Animagus]], changes into the shape of a large black dog which, at the beginning of the book, is said to be "The Grim", an omen of imminent death to those who see it.{{cn|date=October 2019}}

==See also==
*[[Barghest]]
*[[Black dog (ghost)]]
*[[Shug Monkey]]

==References==
<reflist/>

[[Category:English legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Mythological dogs]]
[[Category:Mythological canines]]
[[Category:Cambridgeshire folklore]]
[[Category:Essex folklore]]
[[Category:Lincolnshire folklore]]
[[Category:Norfolk folklore]]
[[Category:Suffolk folklore]]