The Black Shuck
Legend and Folklore
Throughout East Anglia, there has been widely speculated accounts of a ghostly beast named Black Shuck, Old Shuck, Old Shock or simply Shuck roaming the coastline and countryside. These accounts form part of the folklore of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire fens and Essex.
The name Shuck may derive from the Old English word scucca meaning 'demon', or possibly from the local dialect word Shucky meaning 'shaggy' or 'hairy'.
According to records across the British Isles, there are more ghostly black dogs than just Black Shuck. The beast is sometimes recorded as an omen of death; if it were to be seen by an observer, their demise was either immediate or foretold to occur before the end of the year; by others, sometimes it is seen as a more benign companionable animal, accompanying lone women home under a role of protector rather than a portent of ill omen. It is also said that there were accounts that some black dogs helped lost travellers find their way home and are more often helpful than threatening.
For centuries, inhabitants of England have told tales of a large black dog. There are varying accounts of the animal's appearance; malevolent flaming eyes that are red or alternatively green; or a single eye like that of a cyclops; the size from a dog to as large as a horse; or as having appeared headless; or floating on a carpet of mist. Images of black sinister dogs have become part of the iconography of the area and have appeared in popular culture.
According to folklore, the spectre haunts the landscapes of East Anglia, primarily coastline, graveyards, sideroads, crossroads, bodies of water and dark forests. W. A. Dutt, in his 1901 Highways & Byways in East Anglia describes the creature thus:
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 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.
The most famous of accounts was the appearance in 1577 at Bungay and Blythburgh church, where it tore out the throats of two of the congregation, and with a roar, brought the steeple crashing through the roof. Known as the Cathedral of the Marshes, it’s said that Blythburgh church still bears the scorch marks left by Black Shuck’s claws on its door, and in 2013 it was even speculated that the dog’s 7ft skeleton had been unearthed at Leiston Abbey.
Black Shuck to Hellhound
Demons in general have always been associated with Hell in many folklore, myths and legends throughout the centuries, even in other cultures but under different names. They are the embodiment of evil, a vassal for which the devil can act upon the living world. But in our world, Dawn of the Awakening, they are lesser demons bred by their masters to do their bidding.
The dead souls with which roam the Underworld of Morgas under Azal's rule, have learned to capture and control them, using the Hellhounds as trustworthy companions against their original masters.
For Dawn of the Awakening, we used Black Shuck as inspiration for the Hellhounds in Morgas (the Underworld). They are very similar to each other in many respects; the Hellhounds adopting the size mostly, and have two glowing red eyes.
The Hound is described in the book as to being waist high (about the size of a pit pony), with a long black coat and red eyes that felt they could see through to your very soul. Their feet are unlike the paws of a dog, but more like human hands with razor-sharp claws, able to scale trees and buildings with ease.
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