Black Shuck

Artist's impression of the Black Shuck. Commonly described features include large red eyes, bared teeth and shaggy black fur.[1]

In English folklore, Black Shuck, Old Shuck, Old Shock or simply Shuck is the name given to a ghostly black dog which is said to roam the coastline and countryside of East Anglia, one of many such black dogs recorded in folklore across the British Isles.[2][better source needed] 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.[3][4][5]

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the name Shuck derives from the Old English word scucca 'devil, fiend', perhaps from the root skuh 'to terrify'.[6] 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."[7]

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 sinister black dogs have become part of the iconography of the area and have appeared in popular culture.[1] 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."[8]

  1. ^ a b Westwood, Jennifer; Simpson, Jacqueline (2005). The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England's Legends, from Spring-heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys. Penguin Books. pp. 687–688.
  2. ^ Country Life. Vol. 174. 1983. {{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sherwood was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Westwood, Jennifer; Simpson, Jacqueline; Kingshill, Sophia (2008). The Penguin Book of Ghosts. Penguin Books.
  5. ^ Porter, Enid (1969). Cambridgeshire customs and folklore: with Fenland material provided. Taylor & Francis. p. 53.
  6. ^ "shuck, n.1". Oxford English Dictionary.
  7. ^ "Shuck the Dog-fiend". Notes & Queries (1st Ser. I. ed.): 468.
  8. ^ Rye, Walter (1877). The Norfolk Antiquarian Miscellany. Miller and Leavins – via Internet Archive.