Hell-Hound or Black-Shuck/The Story Behind the Folklore

Hell-hound or Black-Shuck Folk-lore

The Black Dog sign in Bungay

A couple of months ago, I celebrated a milestone birthday with members of my family. We took a day trip to Southwold pier where we had a posh meal of fish and chips, and some amazing pics. There was also loads of hilarity with the comical, body-changing mirrors fixed onto the rear of a shop, still keeping on the pier - the ones that make you look like the model you've always wanted to be or a completely weird and distorted human being, which the photo below of my dad, daughter, and son demonstrates.

Sorry guys', it had to be done!!

The next couple of photos are of my lovely mother and me, and if you look in the background you can see my daughter (Lucy) and dad (Mike) taking a selfie.

Preparing!!

The shot is taken....What a laugh!!

One of the reasons we came to this part of the coast was due to it's vicinity to the village of Blythburgh and its Church which has a folklore that stems right back to 1577. This folk-lore inspired the Hell-hounds in my first book and they will also appear in my second novel, The Book of souls - Truth. We find  Maya and Sam being attacked by the hounds whilst getting lost on their walk, unfortunately, one of them leaves its venom coursing through Sam's veins. 
I've waited several years to visit this church to physically see the scorch marks which were left in the north door when the Hell-hound or Black-Shuck escaped the building during a storm in 1577. 

Just a couple of days ago, I found an article written in the Mail-online http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2629353/Is-skeleton-legendary-devil-dog-Black-Shuck-terrorised-16th-century-East-Anglia.html

Is it him? The bones are believed to date back to the 16th century, when 
the legendary hell-hound, Black-Shuck (pictured here in an artist's impression) 
was rumored to roam East Anglia. They show the dog was a 'large male' 

• According to folklore, Black Shuck terrorised East Anglia in the 16th century.
• He towered at seven feet tall, with flaming red eyes and shaggy black hair.
• Now, remains of legendary hound may have been unearthed during a dig. 
• Bones found by archeologists among ruins at Leiston Abbey in Suffolk.
• They belong to 'male dog', standing at seven feet tall and weighing 200 lbs
• Experts are currently carrying out radiocarbon dating tests on remains

Discovery: These remains of a giant dog were found during a dig among the ruins of Leiston Abbey in Suffolk

Yesterday, 500 years after Black Shuck first went on the prowl, archaeologists were examining the skeleton of a 7 ft long dog unearthed in the remains of an ancient abbey.

It was discovered a few miles from two churches where Black Shuck is said to have killed worshippers during an almighty thunderstorm in August 1577.

What’s more, it appears to have been buried in a shallow grave at precisely the same time as Shuck is said to have been on the loose, primarily around Suffolk and the East Anglia region

Experts will subject the bones and surrounding material to 21st-century dating techniques.

But first, the legend. The beast’s most celebrated attack began at Holy Trinity church, Blythburgh. A clap of thunder burst open the church doors and a hairy black ‘devil dog’ came snarling in.

It ran through the congregation, killing a man and boy and causing the church steeple to fall through the roof. Scorch marks still visible on the church doors are reported to have come from Shuck’s claws as it fled.

Local verse records the event thus: ‘All down the church in the midst of fire, the hellish monster flew, and, passing onward to the quire, he many people slew.’

Next stop was 12 miles away in Bungay, where two worshippers were killed at St Mary’s church. One was left shriveled ‘like a drawn purse’ as he prayed.

In his 1577 pamphlet A Straunge And Terrible Wunder, the Rev Abraham Fleming told how the Satan-like beast came ‘running all along down the body of the church with great swiftnesse and incredible haste, among the people, in a visible fourm and shape’, wringing the necks of two parishioners as they knelt.

Spookily, a later work reveals: ‘Although his howling makes the hearer’s blood run cold, his footfalls make no sound.’

Subsequent appearances of Shuck – a name believed to derive either from an old English word for a demon or from local dialect meaning ‘shaggy’ – have immortalised it. 

An image of Black Shuck is incorporated in Bungay’s coat of arms, and the nickname for equally legendary Bungay Town FC is the Black Dogs.

Here are some photos of Blythburgh Church 

which we took on our visit.

 

At the top of the groove you can feel
how it's been dug in like a claw!

The Nave

These angels run all along the Nave peering
down at the congregation.

Please continue and follow the link if you wish to learn more about this folklore.

The Book of Souls- Justice

What's been happening to The Book of Souls- Justice? Well, it is finally available both as a printed book and also a Kindle on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, as well as iTunes - please look at the links at the bottom of the post. 

I am in the process of writing the second book to this series which will be titled, The Book of Souls - Truth and in this novel, you will get a chance to enter the character's of Sam, Leo, Bazriel and of course Maya. Already the characters' are causing me many sleepless nights with all the terrifying twists and turns that are arising in the plot-line (please don't assume I actually know what I'm writing about, because the character which I'm writing for at the time, takes me on their journey, and I'm just going along for the ride, so to speak.) But of course, you've got to read 'The Book of Souls - Justice' first.     

My book displayed at the London Book Fair.