Black Dogs

[Reposted from main Folklore thread]

The thread about "Monster Dogs" reminded me of one of the perennial supernatural creatures of English folklore, the Black Dog, known as "Shuck" in East Anglia.

Mike Burgess has a large collection of information in the "Shuckland" section of his "Hidden East Anglia" website:
https://www.hiddenea.com/shuckland/introduction.htm

David Waldron and Christopher Reeve have written a book about probably the most famous English case, in which a black dog allegedly appeared in the churches of Bungay and Blyburgh in Sussex during a thunderstorm in 1577, and killed several people. A sample chapter is available on the "Hidden Publishing" website:
https://hiddenpublishing.com/
The earliest accounts mention only the thunderstorm, not the black dog. But it's interesting to compare the details with those of the earliest known Black Dog story, also involving an apparition in a church during a thunderstorm, from Trier in Germany in the 9th century, quoted in the sample chapter.

There's another collection of Black Dog reports on Garth Haslam's Anomalies website:
http://anomalyinfo.com/Topics/black-dogs-phantom-hounds-legend-and-life

Mysterious Universe has a short article by Nick Redfern on the tradition of supernatural dogs in England:
https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2019/08/t...ural-kind/

As well as the older examples, he recounts three modern ones. Although he doesn't mention it, two of them were geographically very close to each other. Tamworth, in Staffordshire, is only about 6 miles south-east of Lichfield (and Lichfield is a similar distance south-east of Cannock Chase, which is known as a "paranormal hotspot").