What is Black Shuck?
Black Shuck is a giant black dog of the folklore of East Anglia in eastern England (Norfolk, Suffolk and elsewhere). As big as a calf, with fiery red eyes, it is said to appear on night roads, coasts and in graveyards. It has been feared that misfortune comes to anyone who sees it.
The church attacks of 1577
The most famous event took place in August 1577, during a violent thunderstorm. A pamphlet of the time records that a black dog appeared in the churches of Bungay and Blythburgh in Suffolk and attacked worshippers. The door of Blythburgh church is said to still bear scorch-like claw marks left by the dog, and people still visit to see them.
What is Black Shuck really?
The events of 1577 are thought to be damage from violent lightning strikes that came to be told together with the legend of the black dog. Britain has “black dog” legends in many places, and such tales are said to have influenced many stories, including Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.
