In England there is a legend about a huge black dog called the Black Shuck. The name Shuck is believed to derive from either the local dialect "shucky", meaning shaggy (shaggy), or the Old English word "scucca," meaning demon.
There is various information about Shaq's appearance: in different legends he is the size of a "very large dog", then a "horse or cow", but it is almost always noted that the monster has shaggy black fur, huge red eyes "the size of a saucer" and sharp bared teeth. Folklorist Walter Rue wrote in 1877 that the Black Shack "is the most curious of our local phenomena, since all the messages, no doubt, tell of the same animal."
The stories of the Black Shak are part of the folklore of the English counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex. As they say, for the first time this monster appeared on August 4, 1577 during a terrible thunderstorm at the Church of the Holy Trinity, in the village of Blitburg (Suffolk County).
The villagers were hiding from the thunderstorm in the church, when there was a deafening thunderclap, the doors flew open, and a roaring dog, more like a fiend of hell, burst inside. He swept through the crowd, killing a man and a boy on the way, and then the church spire fell through the roof. Local legend describes what happened in the following way: “Everything in the church collapsed in the midst of a fire, a monster flew in from hell, and, rushing forward into the kliros, he killed many people”.
After that, the dog fled, leaving scorch marks on the door of the church from its claws, which are still visible there. Later that day, while the storm was still raging, Shaq reappeared 12 miles away, killing two parishioners while serving at St. Mary's Church in Bangui. One of them shriveled up "like an empty bag" right during prayer.
It is believed that the clergyman, Rev. Abraham Fleming, described the appearance of this legendary Cerberus in a pamphlet written in 1577 entitled "A Strange and Terrifying Miracle." The monk wrote: “This black dog, or the devil (only the Lord knows, who created all that exists), ran in the flesh throughout the church with great agility among people, climbed between two parishioners, kneeling and completely absorbed in prayer, twisted both necks so soon that they were still on their knees when they died."
The English historian W. A. Dutt also wrote about Shaq in his 1901 book Roads and Lanes of East Anglia: “He takes the form of a huge black dog and prowls the dark alleys and deserted paths in the fields, where, although his howl makes the blood of a casual listener freeze in his veins, but his step is completely silent."
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Sometimes the Black Shaq is described as a killer or a harbinger of death, sometimes just as an emerging animal. At the same time, in some legends, Shaq was described as a kind creature helping single women safely get home. Interestingly, a similar creature is mentioned in Mansi mythology: the Mansi believed that dogs were associated with the world of the dead and that disease was the work of “dog-like demons of the lower world”.
The legend of Shaq became so popular that images of the black dog can be seen throughout the city of Bangui. There's a club called the Running Black Dog, an antique shop called Black Dog, and the city's soccer team is called Black Dogs.
The legend of the Black Shak even penetrated into popular culture: the British rock band The Darkness released a track with the following words: “In one city in the east, a curious beast visited the parishioners. His gaze blazed like the sun and promised the immediate loss of everything that was so dear to you."
However, one thing is always missing from the many stories about the dog-like entity and its sinister appearances in the eastern English plains - just one fact. Now, perhaps, this situation will change when the question is answered: is this creature just a fairy tale … or was it made of flesh and blood?
In May 2014, several centuries after Shaq went hunting for the first time, British archaeologists spoke about the skeleton of a dog found in the ruins of an ancient abbey, the length of which should have reached seven feet (2.13 meters!) In life. It was discovered a few miles from the very two churches where Shaq murdered parishioners in August 1577.
The skeleton of a huge dog found in Suffolk
Moreover, he appears to have been buried in a shallow grave around the same time that the legendary Shaq was prowling East Anglia and, most notably, Suffolk. It will be more precisely known after the analysis of the bones (at the time of this writing, there is no data yet).
The bones were discovered in the ruins of Leiston Abbey, Suffolk, by the Dig Ventures archaeological group in 2013. Calculations indicate that the animal should have weighed over 14 stones (44.45 kg) and reached 7 feet (2.13 meters) in height when standing on its hind legs.
The grave was less than 20 inches (half a meter) deep, without any markings. The pottery fragments found at the same level date from the same time that Shaq, according to legend, terrorized the area.
Radiocarbon dating will show the exact age of the bones, and this result will either prove the stories of the shaggy killer are true, or, quite possibly, confirm the version that the beloved old hunting dog of the abbot, who lived here in the 16th century, lies in the grave.
