Black Shuck

[1][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.

[12] The encounter on the same day at St Mary's Church, Bungay was described in A Straunge and Terrible Wunder by Abraham Fleming in 1577: This black dog, or the divel in such a likenesse (God hee knoweth al who worketh all,) running all along down the body of the church with great swiftnesse, and incredible haste, among the people, in a visible fourm and shape, passed between two persons, as they were kneeling uppon their knees, and occupied in prayer as it seemed, wrung the necks of them bothe at one instant clene backward, in somuch that even at a mome[n]t where they kneeled, they stra[n]gely dyed.

The scorch marks on the door are referred to by the locals as "the devil's fingerprints", and the event is remembered in this verse: All down the church in midst of fire, the hellish monster flew, and, passing onward to the quire, he many people slew.

Barrett relates the story of a huge black dog haunting the area after being killed rescuing a local girl from a lustful friar in pre-reformation times,[16][17] while fellow folklorist Enid Porter relates stories of a black dog haunting the A10 road after its owner drowned in the nearby River Great Ouse in the 1800s.

British rock band Down I Go have a song called "Black Shuck" on their 2019 EP 'All Down the Church in Midst of Fire the Hellish Monster Flew, and Passing Onward to the Quire, He Many People Slew'.

[21] The Black Shuck appears in the 2020 video game Assassin's Creed: Valhalla as a mini boss encountered while exploring the countryside of East Anglia.

[22] Black Shuck is a track with 'knot-in-the-stomach insistent strings' on These Feral Lands Volume 1, a 2020 release by musician Laura Cannell, comedian Stewart Lee and others.

[23] Satirical, comedic, theatrical string quartet Bowjangles feature a song about Black Shuck composed by Norfolk-born ensemble member Bertie Anderson in the recording of their stage show Excalibow, in keeping with the overall theme of myths and legends.

Title page of Rev. Abraham Fleming's account of the appearance of the ghostly black dog "Black Shuck" at the church of Bungay, Suffolk: "A straunge, and terrible Wunder wrought very late in the parish church of Bungay: a town of no great distance from the citie of Norwich, namely the fourth of this August, in the yeere of our Lord 1577. in a great tempest of violent raine, lightning, and thunder, the like wherof hath been seldome seene. With the appeerance of an horrible shaped thing, sensibly perceiued of the people then and there assembled. Drawen into a plain method according to the written copye. by Abraham Fleming."