The Black Shuck

 

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Hey, y’all, it’s Weird Wednesday! Where on some Wednesdays, I blog about weird stuff and give writing prompts.

Today: The Black Shuck: English Hell Hound

The Black Shuck is a type of folklore beast called a Hell Hound, which doesn’t really bode well as a name, actually. These doggos are denizens of Down Below, and they like to hang out in suitably goth environments like deserted roads and graveyards. 

Hell Hounds are found all over the world, and their legends inspired the Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles. The Black Shuck (shuck possibly meaning either “devil” or “shaggy”) roams eastern England. And he’s big. Like as big as a horse. In fact, he’s sometimes linked to the Wild Hunt. He also doesn’t always have a head, which does cut down on ear-skritching opportunities.

Check out the blog post for the whole story and some pupper prompts, such as:

* What lies beneath. Hell Hounds are sometimes thought to guard buried treasure, which seems useful in that it shows where treasure is located, but also extremely unhelpful, in that nobody especially wants to fight the horse-sized dog with the glowing red eyes to get a treasure. There is also a type of Hell Hound called a Church Grim, which is the spirit of a dog that guards a graveyard. Often the doggo is buried there himself. It begs the question: what does he guard against? (You can read my free horror story Kirkegrim to find out more.)

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Bonus photo of my Very Good Boy, Link, being his usual dignified self.