February 21, 2025 • 49 mins
Ya know, its something we should have covered years ago. Luckily, Mike has gather a bunch of cool info on the phenomena of Black Hounds. Are they bringers of death? Are they protectors? Are they are paranormal cab service for drunks? Find out!
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www.patreon.com/thewhatcast
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
What's up everybody, Thanks for listening to the what Cast.
Look at us two weeks in a row, consistency, We're
doing good.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
No, l just jinxed us now that we're not going
to put out an episode for seven months.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
We'll see after summer starts.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I'm getting ready to retire into a cave and not
come out until the sun does. I'm tired of this
cold you were talking earlier, Mike, Yeah, fuck this cold,
Fuck this winter, man. Yeah, I'm just so sick of
this ship.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
This has been.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
And the weird thing is, like I've been so spoiled
with the winters, Like the past few years, we've had
maybe a couple of snowstorms, nothing too bad, we only
got below zero a handful of times. And this winter
has just been kicking my ass all over the place. Man,
A lot of snow, a lot of wind, like crazy wind, ice,
(01:20):
just a bunch of bullshit.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
And I'm fucking sick of it. Man.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I'm with you now, dude, I'm over it. I'm tired
of this shit. Well, besides the weather, we're going to
talk about something that I don't know. Uh, We've should
have covered a long time ago. I don't know why
we haven't covered it, but I kind of do. I
I'd never really read into it as far as uh
being something insanely interesting to study until you find out
(01:47):
how many cultures have almost the same type of entity
in their folklore and their myths. What are we going
to talk about tonight, Mike.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well, tonight we're going to talk about the black dog.
But while this is thing that's kind of been springing
up all over the world, tonight, anyway, I'm going to
be focusing mostly on sightings within England. Maybe in a
future episode I'll do black dog sightings outside of England,
(02:17):
but for tonight, there's enough like there's and I'm only
gonna scratch the surface here because there is. It's like
every little town or hamlet has their own version of
the black dog, right.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
That's the main thing I remember when I did read
stuff about the black dog or black hounds is that.
And they're mostly in Europe is where the stories come from,
And every fucking little place has one.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
There, So for anyone who doesn't know what a black
dog is, it honestly, it depends on where the particular
legend is coming from. It's generally agreed upon that it's
some sort of spectral or supernatural creature, but it differs
in personality from locale to locale. In some places it
(03:04):
acts as a menace, some places it's a guardian or
it's helpful. Sometimes it acts like like the the Banshee
from Irish folklore, where it's like an omen of death.
But it's typically described as being a large black dog
with glowing red or yellow eyes, but sometimes it's depicted
(03:27):
as being a headless dog. A headless dog, yes, a
dog with no head.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
That would be horrific to see.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
It's just like sprinting it out of the woods and
it just stops and kind of.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
There's no head. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
But the legend seems to originate from English folklore, but
it has popped up in other areas of Europe and
even North America and Latin America, but it seems to
be mostly spread through cultures that have their ancestry steeped
(04:05):
in Slavic, Germanic or Celtic origin. For for some reason,
those are the ones that get tied to it the most.
But early early tales of the black dog seem to
they often associated sightings of the black dog with the
(04:28):
devil uh, and it was typically considered to be an
incarnation of some sort of hell hound. But like I
mentioned before, some other times it has ties with death,
not that it's a killer dog, but that it is
like a signal or an omen of death. But most
of the tales of the the Black Dog seem to
(04:50):
center on crossroads or grave mounds, but also places where
executions have taken place, and for some reason it's tied
to these areas. And there's there's some beliefs in some
of these stories and legends that the black Dog is
the ghost of someone who was killed and they'll come
(05:13):
back for either vengeance or to protect somebody, you know. Again,
it depends on the locale. Now, there is one that
we talked about. I can't remember the purpose, Like I
don't remember what the episode was or so if you
(05:33):
wanted to go back in reference, I can't help you.
I'm sorry. But we did talk about the the one
the I think it's like the most famous black dog case,
but it's this dog called the Black Shuck.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Do you remember talking about that at all?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yes, sir?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
All right, So so for anyone who doesn't know the
Black Shuck, I'll give you a little background and I'll
get into his famous story. But the black shuck is
a version of the black dog that originates in East Anglia, England,
and it also black shuck is like the I guess
(06:15):
the local nickname, but it also goes by old Schuck,
old shock, or just plain old shuck. But black shuck
has been described by different people as being friendly, but
other people have described it as being dangerous or something
to be wary of. And the descriptions of black shuck
(06:39):
also seem to vary. So this is something that's kind
of weird because you'll have these sightings within.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
The same area that.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
You know they're attributed to the same thing, called the
same thing, but it looks it's being described completely different.
So it's like the observer has their own unique experience
with this entity. But there's the typical black dog description,
the typical large black dog with glowing eyes. Some people
(07:12):
say it's a large dog. Some people say that it's
a dog the size of a calf, and then others
report it as being a dog the size of a horse,
and it's always has these sharp teeth and glowing eyes.
But there's some reports that have described it as being
(07:33):
a dog with one single giant eye in the middle
of its face that glows red. Oh yeah, super creepy.
But the name shuck because I mean it's kind of
a weird name. There's a purpose behind it. Black because
that's what color the dog is, so it's it's a
descriptive word. But shuck itself that derives from an Old
(07:56):
English word skukka, which means devil or fiend. But there's
some that also think it could be it could be
derivative of the word school, which means to terrify. But
the first printed mention of black Shuck, the name black
Shuck comes from a eighteen fifty edition of the Journal
(08:21):
called Notes and Queries, and it was written by Reverend E. S. Taylor,
and he describes Shuck the dog fiend, and I've got
an excerpt here. What he wrote was this phantom. I
have heard many persons in East Norfolk and even Cambridgeshire
(08:42):
described as having seen a black, shaggy dog with fiery
eyes and of immense size who visits churchyards at midnight.
So churchyards being you know, the cemetery, so again a
tie to death and the dead, whether it be someone
who's haunting the graveyard as a black dog, or maybe
(09:05):
the black dog is guarding the graveyard.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
He doesn't make.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
It clear in his writing, but one of the weird
descriptions come from a nineteen oh one book called Highways
and Byeways in East Anglia by Wa Dutt, and he
describes the black shuck as being an omen of death,
so if you see it.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
It means you're likely going to die.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
But in his book he writes that it takes the
form of a huge black dog and prowls along dark
lanes and losome field footpaths. Although his howling makes the
hearer's blood run cold, his footfalls make no sound. You
may know him at once if you see him by
his fiery eye.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
He has but.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
One, and that, like a 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 would
do well to shut your eyes if you hear him howling.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Shut them.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Even if you are uncertain whether it is a dog
fiend or the voice of the wind that you hear.
Oh yeah, dude, imagine that being your omen of death.
You just see this giant black dog with one flaming
eye like fucking saar.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
On no things. That's terrified. I see.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I'd never heard of this single eye thing. I know,
the glowing eye thing, but not this cyclops dog that's
crazy and anything is big as a horse.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
I've heard them.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Being like almost wearwolf size, but gosh, a cyclops.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Where it sounds like a D and D monster, It
really for sized dog with a flaming eye that can howl,
and its howl causes death. Make a saving thrower die instantly. Yeah,
I'm gonna I'm gonna put him again. It's the party.
The party's gonna have to face the Black Shuck.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
You doomed, doomed.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I don't know if. I don't know if any of
them listened to the show or not. I think cousin
Shane does. I think he's he's a listener, so maybe
maybe he'll get warning ahead of time.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
But the Black Shuck has probably the most famous and
terrifying story told about him. On one day in fifteen
seventy seven, August fourth, to be specific, there were two
events that mirrored each other in two separate churches. So
(11:41):
the first one was in Blithebirg and this at this church,
a large black dog was said to have burst through
the doors of Holy Trinity Church with the sound of
a thunderclap. He ran to the front of the church
and passed the congregation, and as he ran past, a
(12:02):
man and a young boy dropped dead. And it was
said that the mere presence of the black dog in
the church caused the steeple of the church to collapse
through the roof. As the dog left the church, that
left scor scorch marks on the north door, which are
actually still visible on that door.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
But the same day at Saint Mary's Church in Bungay,
it was described by a clergyman named Abraham Fleming, who
was also a prolific writer, and he wrote about the
event that happened at Saint Mary's saying that black dog,
(12:46):
I'll just quote what he wrote, the black dog or
the devil, in such a likeness, running all along down
the body of the church, with great swiftness and incredible
haste among the people. In a visible form and shape.
It passed between two persons as they were kneeling upon
their knees and occupied in prayer, as it seemed he
(13:06):
wrung the necks of both of them at one instant,
pulled their head clean backwards, and that even at a
moment where they kneeled, they strangely died.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
WHOA, that's that's weird.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
And that was a story we talked about on one
of the shows way back. I can't remember why it sounds.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
I remember the dog going into the church. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Remember what we were talking about in that episode.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Maybe it was just devil dogs, maybe it was churches. Sorry,
just we we did a show about church murders and
that was that was an among them, all the murders
at church. Mm hmmm, No, I I really, I know
we talked about it really early on.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
I just don't remember it, but I have no recollection
what it was. So anybody who's a deep.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Diver that that you know, really wants to go it's
probably within the first year or so that we were
doing the show. And enjoy the audio quality pristine.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
It is funny. Someone someone in.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Our discord was talking about when they went back and
listened to the old shows and we started for anyone
who might be new, we started back in twenty thirteen,
and they were commenting on how my voice sounded so
much different. I'm like, my voice hasn't changed at all.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
So just just to see, I went back.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
And I listened to like our third episode or something like,
Holy fuck, dude, my voice has changed considerably.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Isn't that weird? We like, weren't little kids when we started.
We were done.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
No, But you know that's twelve years of smoking, you know,
so I guess that'll do that to you. But it's
I mean, that's the only thing I could attribute it to.
It's not like we started when we were teenagers, and
you know, we were old men when we started, and.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
We're older men now. It's glorious.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, So the blackshok Is is probably the most famous,
but there's so many different variants. There's these dogs called
the Littleport Black Dogs, and folkloris W. H. Barrett told
a story of a huge black dog that rescued a
(15:25):
young girl from this what he described as a lustful
holy man. The story goes that the dog attacked this
friar that was trying to either rape or molest this
girl and killed the friar, but sustained injuries in the exchange,
(15:46):
and the dog ended up dying as well. So the
local men came and they threw the body of the
disgraced friar into a pond. But then they gave the
dog an honorable burial, and from the point of the
burial on, there was a ghost dog that started haunting
this area in Littleport. There's another story that's kind of well,
(16:14):
it's it's kind of the same because it's a black dog,
but it's it's another Actually, what's supposed to be a
ghost of a dog, of a loyal dog, rather than
the ghost of someone who was killed. But this dog
haunts the A ten road between Littleport and Brandon Creek,
(16:35):
or it did. I should say, I'll get to that,
but it did. It haunted the A ten road. And
this particular dog spirit makes itself known by howling on
dark nights, and it would invisibly stalk behind travelers on
the road. So anyone who was walking down the road
at night, they would hear the sound of a dog
(16:56):
approaching behind them, or they would feel hot panting on
the back of their legs and they turn around there'd
be nothing there. But the local legend says that this
is the ghost of a dog who who was waiting
for the return of his owner. Who got into an
accident and drowned in the river Great House in the
(17:17):
early eighteen hundreds. So all throughout the nineteenth century, this
dog had been haunting this stretch of road, as the
story goes, looking for his master, who never came home.
In nineteen o six, there was a local resident that
was driving his car along the A ten and right
(17:41):
next to the spot where this dog's owner was said
to have drowned. He ran into something completely solid but invisible.
There was nothing there, but it fucked his car up,
and that the local police came and investigated. There was
nothing there was. It looked like he literally was just
(18:03):
driving in the road and hit something and now there's
nothing there. But from that point on, the ghost of
this dog was never was never seen again.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Oh wow, So so.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Did he hit the ghost dog or or what's what's
who would have thought that you could hit a ghost
dog with your car.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
It was just an unlucky timing.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
That dog this burst into physical form, like you know,
manifested and was like, oh all right, time to walk
around and grant people's death.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
That was it.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's I don't know, I don't
know what to make of it. But I love these stories.
There's there's actually this story that's been going around the internet.
Just going back briefly if I made to the Black Shuck,
(18:56):
there's there's been some articles out there, and then you're
typical like clickbait memes that you find on social media,
like on this date whatever, some dude found some fucking
thing and this is what happened. Then you click it
and it gives you the article. You know, all that bullshit.
But this particular thing there is it pops up every
(19:21):
couple of years where there has been proof of the
existence of the Black Shuck and archaeological evidence to prove
that the hell Hound existed. Oh yeah, dude, yeah, which
would be fucking awesome if it was true. Oh ah,
(19:45):
it's kind of true. It's kind of true. So the
actual story, because what keeps popping up, and I'll explain
how all that happened, But the actual story is, Uh,
there was an archaeology team called dig Ventures and they
(20:05):
were doing an excavation in the Suffolk countryside looking for
basically just seeing what they could find. They were doing
a dig at Lyston Abbey specifically in twenty thirteen, and
while they were doing this dig They dug down about
(20:27):
twenty inches and they uncovered the skeleton of this huge dog.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
They say that it.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Was likely if it were to stand on its hind legs,
it would be close to seven feet tall and weigh
about two hundred pounds.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
They speculated, holy shit.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Everything else at this same level they found, like pottery fragments.
Everything that was found here at this level would have
dated back to the sixteenth century, which would have been
around the time when the black Shuck was most active
or most seen the most. So they reported all their
(21:09):
findings to local newspapers and it got reported. The initial report,
though the only tie to black Shuck at all was
the headline of the article, which was done in a
tongue in cheek manner like it wasn't being serious, and
(21:32):
the headline asked the question, are these the bones of
devil dog black Shuck? But the entire piece concentrated on
the archaeology and what they were doing, specifically because this
particular dig was being done it was one of the
first archaeological digs that had been completely crowdfunded, so that
(21:57):
was kind of the focus on the story was the
crowdfunding and what they were digging. The time frame that
they were looking for and everything, but the fact that
they found this dog that got picked up by the
Daily Mail, which is like a tabloid in the UK,
(22:18):
and the Daily Mail ran with the headline linking it
to the Black Shuck and they removed the majority of
the things about the dig and what was found and
all that stuff and focused on the fact that these
bones had been found from this huge dog.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
And then they.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Patted the article with different examples of black Shuck stories
and you know, went with the classic legend the church
deaths and then all that other shit. And then from
that point on it had started getting picked up by
(23:00):
all these other places on the internet who ran with
the the part about the the demon dog, and it
just kind of got exaggerated from there. There was there's
one article that it just starts out with saying, the
bones of a seven foot long hound from Hell have
(23:21):
been discovered. Caught my attention, Yeah, it's it's unfortunately so
so it is true they did find the bones, but
the bones that they found were within close proximity to
where the old kitchen would have been, and so they
(23:42):
think that this would have been you know, the dog
that was living there at the time. And was probably
uh loved pet right, that just got buried there and
it wasn't wasn't the black shuck at all.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Unfortunately, Oh that dog is like, no, no, I'm the
black dock.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Fuck that.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Yeah, just doubting him. Now.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Now the ghost of that dog is gonna come back.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah, you're all doom. He thought he was cool.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
But there's there's another story that I got to kick
out of. And actually this story is what prompted me
to actually finally get around to doing this.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
I was watching fuck Man, I don't know, one of.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Those one of those paranormal shows on Netflix where they
talk about I can't remember which one in particular, but
they had a segment on there about a version of
the black dog called Padfoot. And he's called Padfoot because
he most of the time he appears as just a
(24:43):
black dog, but sometimes he'll be invisible, but you can
just hear his his pause hitting the pavement behind someone,
or the rattle of a chain. But the story that
they talked about on this I just had to share
because it's I find it amusing. This drunk guy was
(25:06):
out at night and he sees pad Foot and he
goes to kick it, and he misses it, the dog
runs by, he gets wrapped up in the dog's chain.
The dog drags him through the streets and then drops
him off in front of his house and disappears. Oh
so it just gets fucking dragged with by a ghost
(25:29):
dog who just happens to know where he lives too.
Maybe that was the threat though, because he threw a
kick and he's like, he's like, bitch, I know where
you live. Yeah right, I'm gonna take you home. Let
this be a warning.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Oh yeah, he just let him know he knew exactly
where that dude lived. I want a drunk escort ghost dog.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
It's like like.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
In a video game or something.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
You get a ghost or you get a dog whistle
and you blow it and the dog comes flying through
and whisks you away somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah that's how you found travel in the Woodcast video game.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, Matteo Mateo gets to summon a dog.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
I get. I get abducted by fucking barn owls.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Yeah. They just moved out and grabbed Mike and fly away.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah he gets. He gets man's best friend. I get
fucking man's worst enemy.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, but the catch is I gotta get hammered first though,
so I gotta get hammered.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
And then yeah, you do, you do have to.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
And then he and then the dog shows up and
gets in your way to try to kick it.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
And then yeah, and then you just.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
See me fly away by like something pulling me by
my ankle.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
But the black Dog, man, it's it's all over the place.
And like I said, it's all all these different stuff.
Are all these different things attributed to it. Like there's
one the Black Dog of Newgate, for instance, which is
a dog that haunts specifically Newgate Prison and there's been
reports of this dog haunting the prison for four hundred years.
(26:56):
But the dog will show up before executions and he's
like a herald of death. But according to the legend,
in fifteen ninety six, there was this scholar that was
sent to prison for witchcraft. But before he was brought
to trial, the other prisoners who were starving, because you know,
(27:18):
prison conditions in the fifteen hundreds were they left a
little bit to be desired, so they were hungry. They
ended up killing and eating this guy. So he didn't
even get to stand trial for witchcraft. He was just
killed and eaten. Holy and the dog after his death,
this black dog started to show up and it would
(27:43):
terrify men like it would terrify the other prisoners to
the point that they would literally kill the guards to
escape from this thing.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Holy shit.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
And the legend says that if the black dog was
targetting someone, even if they escaped the prison, the beast
would still hunt them down no matter where they went
and kill them.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
So he is.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Ah, he's a badass one. He doesn't he doesn't take
any He's not only an omen of death. He's saying,
if you're not going to die, then I'm going to
make sure you die, motherfucko.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Damn. I like this one.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
And that there's a there's a few cases where the
black dog is a guardian or or helpful in some way.
There's a story from the Isle of Man where there
was a black dog that was looked at as being
a guardian to this group of sailors. There was this well,
(28:50):
there was a fishing trip planned. A group of sailors
showed up at the Peel Harbor and they were waiting
for the captain to show up. They were planning on
doing a night fishing trip, and the whole crew is
there they're just waiting for the captain. So they're sitting
on board the ship still in harbor, waiting for the captain,
(29:11):
but he never came. In the morning, there was a
sudden storm that nobody expected. It just sprang up and
it likely would have capsized their boat and taken the
entire crew down with them, but because the captain didn't
show up, they never left harbor. So finally the captain
gets rejoined with his crew later in the day and
(29:33):
they asked where the hell were you, and he said
he was on his way there and this huge black
dog blocked him. Every path he would try to take
to get around it, this dog would not let him pass.
And he said, finally he just gave up and turned
around and went home, and the black dog left him
alone once he turned and went home. So he because
(29:57):
this black dog prevented him from getting to the ship,
the ship never left and the entire crew survived. So
this is the guardian of Peel Harbor. He's a black
dog and nobody died that day, so he was the opposite.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Right right, very interesting.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
And then there's the black Dog of Preston, which is
a black dog without a head that is said to
appear at the city gates if the town needs to
be defended, and despite the fact that it has no head,
it can still howl, and those that hear its howl
will be dead shortly after hearing it. But the black
(30:39):
dog would also act like an omen and it would
people who lived inside Preston. It would appear outside their
houses and lay outside their door if there was someone
inside that was about to die.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
That's crazy. That's scary.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Well to me, like I I that seems more like
it's like rather than being like a bringer of death,
that it's there like like hey, like paying its respects,
Like this person's dying, I'm gonna chill here till they're gone.
But if you're attacking the city, it's it's headless formal
howl and make you die.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
Then.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
There's even been stories of black dogs that have led
led someone to riches. What yeah, this this again. If
you see a black dog, try to try to hit it.
Maybe it'll take you home, maybe it'll show you where
there's riches. But there's a farmhouse in Lime Regis that
(31:44):
had been haunted by a black dog and the dog
never caused anybody any harm, but it was an unnerving presence.
And one night the master of the house got drunk,
saw this thing and got pissed off. So he went
to attack it with an iron poker, and he swung
(32:04):
at it and missed, and the dog fled and ran
up to the attic, and then it leaped out of
the attic through the ceiling and disappeared.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
WHOA.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
So he went up and he hit the spot where
the dog disappeared in the ceiling and busted a hole
in the ceiling. But it wasn't through the roof. He
discovered that there was this hidden cash there and in
this little stash area was gold and silver.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Ooh.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
And after this the dog was never seen indoors. But
to this day there's still reportings that it haunts the
lane outside at midnight every night. This lane is called
hay Lane or dog Lane, and said any dogs who
are allowed to stray on this road at night will
(33:00):
mysteriously disappear.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
It almost seems like this might be these areas way
of manifesting, maybe like just a bad spirit, like the
guys in the jail fucking did something horrible, so horrible
shit happened. But then there's like a drunk guy and
he gets taken home. And then with the other guy
who tried to hit the dog with the poker drunk
(33:22):
with maybe maybe the.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Dog he was also drunk. He was also drunk.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
So if you're in the area with with black dogs,
make sure you get all schnockered up and then try
to exert violence upon the dog and it'll either take
you home or give your riches. Right, they're just like
that's or poor tend your death.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Yeah, it's head will fall off and then it'll start
howling and then you're screwed.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
But then there's even weirder stuff with the right. So
there's a lot of tales of these things being shape
shifters or maybe wizards. So there's one called the bar guest.
I think that's how I pronounce it, bar guest. But
this is from Yorkshire and there's stories that it'll prey
(34:14):
on lone travelers in the narrow alleys and cities or
alleyways and streets of York. And during the eighteen seventies
it was said that near Darlington there was a shape
(34:34):
shifting bar guest who would take the form of a
headless man who would vanish into flames. Sometimes you would
take the form of a headless lady, a white cat,
a rabbit, or a black dog.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Wo. And where they all said if you were to.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
No, just the humanoid versions were headless for some reason.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
But if you were to run into this figure, it
was an omen of death and the it There were
a lot of people that would say they would see
the bar guest appear with other dogs and they would
form this kind of funeral procession and they would howl
and bark to foretell the death of a notable person
(35:19):
in the area. And if you were to get in
its way, the bar guess would strike out with its
paws and it would leave a wound on the victim
that would never heal.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
You were marked by the black hound.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Yeah, but this one has some kind of weird folklore
that goes along with it, like like like a vampire.
It wasn't able to cross running water.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
So if you're being if you're being chased by by
the paw that leaves the wound that never heals, then
just find a stream or.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Something that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
There's always like a trick or some type of tax
to beat these things, or at least beat like a
chief safety from them.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Then there's the black Dog of Northorpe and that was
said to be a human, an old man who was
reputed to be a wizard who had the power to
shape shift, and he could turn into a black dog,
and when he would, he would then go and attack
(36:27):
his neighbor's livestock. Hell, so that kind of goes to
like the old werewolf floor.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Yeah, I was gonna say, the wound that doesn't heal
kind of touched on werewolf floor a little bit.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
Huh Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
And then there's I feel like we've talked about the
Capelthwaite before. Does that sound familiar to you? No, I
swear we talked about it before. But it's it's a
version of the black dog. Well it's a kind of
a version from Westmorland, and it's called the Capelthwaite and
(37:01):
it could take the form of any quadruped, but its
preferred form was a large black dog. And so this entity,
its name was Capelthwaite. So it wasn't like a group
of it was considered to be one being, but he was.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
He was actually a helpful one.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
And he would perform services for people, like he would
round up sheep that had gotten away, like he would
act as a shepherd dog anybody in the area, but
outsiders he would act like a trickster. And because of
(37:45):
his the fact that he was a shape shifter and
a trickster, he was eventually banished by the vicar and
and was was forced to leave Westmerland.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
I wonder how he was he just like get out
of here, or did he perform like a magical rite.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Probably like an exorcism sort of deal something like that.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
He was just like a beat it, you're killing all
the livestock, your jerk.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Yeah, well, no, he was helping with the livestock. He
was just he was scaring outsiders. The chances are the
vicar was an outsider and he's like, fuck off, Vicar,
I don't want you here. And he's like, but I
am a holy man, and he says, well, I'm a
devil dog. We don't match.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
Get out of here, Get out.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
And then the Vicar's like, made the power of Christ
compel you, And he's like, oh shit.
Speaker 4 (38:36):
I got a bell.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
He was serious, I'm leaving.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Yeah, yeah, he compelled. He invoked the name of Christ,
and now he is compelling me with that name.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
All right, I'll get out of here.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
I'm powerless. I'm powerless, God damn it.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
But as with all things, I would like to end
this by tying the black dogs to fair if I can.
Speaker 5 (39:01):
Oh, all right, see kind of you know what before
you get into that, Yeah, I think subconsciously that's where
I always put the black hounds and the black dogs,
just because they're mainly in Europe where fairies are from,
and like the whole omen thing and just appearing.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
They always that's the camp I always put.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
Them in, all right, So let me give you some
quick background on the wild hunt because this gets tied
in with a lot.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Of the black dog stuff.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
And so the wild hunt is it's found in folklore
across Europe, primarily like I mentioned earlier with the black
dog stuff, where where it seems to originate. The wild
hunt also seems to come from places that have Celtic,
Germanic or Slavic cultural backgrounds. But what the wild hunt is,
(39:53):
it's like a hunting procession.
Speaker 5 (39:56):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
It typically involves a chase that's les by a mythological
figure and it's escorted by ghostly or a supernatural group
of hunters and the leader of the hunt, whoever's leading
this hunt varies based on the culture, but it will
typically be some sort of legendary or mythological figure or
(40:20):
like a folk hero, or in some instances people have
reported seeing a biblical figure. The hunters that are involved
in the hunt, depending on the culture, are either considered
to be the souls of the dead, ghost dogs, fairies, elves,
(40:40):
or in the Nordic country's valkyries. But what these these
things do, they're they're often it's just like this procession
of hunters blowing their horns, and they're typically accompanied by
black dogs following along with them, and they usually it's
(41:07):
like a prophecy here. They'll they'll portend some sort of
major catastrophe like a war or plague, or they'll act
as an omen of death. But there's also some belief,
depending on the culture or the time frame where they're
seeing the Wild Hunt. But there's also the belief that
(41:28):
the members of the Wild Hunt are fayfolk or fairies,
and that they might abduct witnesses and bring them into
the fairy realm, or they'd pull their souls out and
the souls would would join the hunt. Oh yeah, So,
(41:49):
like like I said, it's it varies based on the area,
so it seems like that the event is shared across cultures,
but who is who is leading the charge so to speak,
and involved in it changes based on where it is.
Like it almost like the phenomena is shaping itself to
(42:12):
be relevant to the culture that it's appearing in. But
I've got a case here specifically from the year eleven
twenty seven in Peterborough, and there was a report concerning
the visit of the abbot Henry of Poto and he
(42:35):
was arriving at Peterborough Abbey, and as soon as he
arrived at the abbey, witnesses all in the area began
to see the wild hunt.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
They were seen.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
They were seen in every park in the town of Peterborough,
as well as the woods that stretched between Peterborough and Stamford.
They were described as the huntsmen themselves were described as
being black, huge and hideous. They were riding on black
horses and giant black goats, and they were running with
(43:11):
a group of black hounds that had glowing eyes the
size of saucers.
Speaker 4 (43:16):
At night.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Monks from a monastery near the woods reported that they
would hear the sounds of hounds every single night, howling
and barking along with the blowing of horns, and these
sightings continued from the time that the abbot showed up,
extended all through the season of Lent, which is forty days,
(43:39):
and ended once Easter was over. So I don't know.
In this case, it doesn't sound like there was any
death that was associated with this, but it makes me
wonder if because the fairy beliefs that was in with
(44:01):
with the Celtic belief system, so the Christian belief system
would probably have done away with that. So I wonder
if maybe these were fairies like showing showing strength in
the face of an abbot, a Christian abbot showing up.
They're like, we're going to show him, and then they
get the burliest, creepiest looking bunch of fairies they could find,
(44:26):
slap them on some giant black goats, sent some black.
Speaker 4 (44:30):
Dogs out in a way they go.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
But I mean, with all things I like, I don't
want to say they're fairies, because I think fairies is
just one way to describe it. But it's it definitely
seems to have even though it takes the form of
a dog, like you said, it does seem to have
that fay feel about it.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
You know, from being a prophetic sort of being to
being uh, an entity that just kind of seems to
thrive on on creating chaos and mischief.
Speaker 4 (45:07):
Yeah, he's uh. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Maybe maybe he's just a puppy at heart and he
just gets put in the in the spirit form of
this creepy dog and really he's just a fucking puppy.
And everybody knows, aside from being cute, puppies are the
biggest assholes. They're destructive, they're annoying, They piss and shit everywhere,
they bite everything, they're pains in the asses.
Speaker 4 (45:31):
And maybe that's what these are there.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
They're they're puppies that died too young and and all
they wanted to be was a big burly dog. And
after they died, their ghost comes back is a big
burly dog. But they still just have the spirit of
a puppy and they just want to play.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
And show you hidden treasures.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Yeah, and look at you with their single cycloptic flaming eye.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
And punish you for cannibal with them.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Yeah yeah, or maybe become a dog because of cannibalism.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
That's the thing, Like everything is, every story is similar,
but different, you know, they they It seems like each
one has their own origin, but in the end it's
the same deal. Like if you see it, chances are
you're about to die.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
And if you're a prisoner who escapes, he will hunt
you down. He will be fucking Liam Neeson. Yeah, and
that's that's that's.
Speaker 4 (46:28):
What he does.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
The black Shuck has a certain a very very specific
set of skills. He will hunt you, He will find you.
Speaker 6 (46:39):
Thank you for listening to The What Cast. You can
find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, iTunes, on YouTube. Enjoy
the podcast, get yourself a what Cast T shirt or
a stick or pack? Who was that dude on that
one episode? Bry The Links and Homies page. All this
and more can be found www dot wacasters dot com.
(47:04):
Thanks again for listening and have a great week.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
Something something
Speaker 4 (48:22):
Something The
What's up everybody, Thanks for listening to the what Cast.
Look at us two weeks in a row, consistency, We're
doing good.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
No, l just jinxed us now that we're not going
to put out an episode for seven months.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
We'll see after summer starts.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I'm getting ready to retire into a cave and not
come out until the sun does. I'm tired of this
cold you were talking earlier, Mike, Yeah, fuck this cold,
Fuck this winter, man. Yeah, I'm just so sick of
this ship.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
This has been.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
And the weird thing is, like I've been so spoiled
with the winters, Like the past few years, we've had
maybe a couple of snowstorms, nothing too bad, we only
got below zero a handful of times. And this winter
has just been kicking my ass all over the place. Man,
A lot of snow, a lot of wind, like crazy wind, ice,
(01:20):
just a bunch of bullshit.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
And I'm fucking sick of it. Man.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I'm with you now, dude, I'm over it. I'm tired
of this shit. Well, besides the weather, we're going to
talk about something that I don't know. Uh, We've should
have covered a long time ago. I don't know why
we haven't covered it, but I kind of do. I
I'd never really read into it as far as uh
being something insanely interesting to study until you find out
(01:47):
how many cultures have almost the same type of entity
in their folklore and their myths. What are we going
to talk about tonight, Mike.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well, tonight we're going to talk about the black dog.
But while this is thing that's kind of been springing
up all over the world, tonight, anyway, I'm going to
be focusing mostly on sightings within England. Maybe in a
future episode I'll do black dog sightings outside of England,
(02:17):
but for tonight, there's enough like there's and I'm only
gonna scratch the surface here because there is. It's like
every little town or hamlet has their own version of
the black dog, right.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
That's the main thing I remember when I did read
stuff about the black dog or black hounds is that.
And they're mostly in Europe is where the stories come from,
And every fucking little place has one.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
There, So for anyone who doesn't know what a black
dog is, it honestly, it depends on where the particular
legend is coming from. It's generally agreed upon that it's
some sort of spectral or supernatural creature, but it differs
in personality from locale to locale. In some places it
(03:04):
acts as a menace, some places it's a guardian or
it's helpful. Sometimes it acts like like the the Banshee
from Irish folklore, where it's like an omen of death.
But it's typically described as being a large black dog
with glowing red or yellow eyes, but sometimes it's depicted
(03:27):
as being a headless dog. A headless dog, yes, a
dog with no head.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
That would be horrific to see.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
It's just like sprinting it out of the woods and
it just stops and kind of.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
There's no head. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
But the legend seems to originate from English folklore, but
it has popped up in other areas of Europe and
even North America and Latin America, but it seems to
be mostly spread through cultures that have their ancestry steeped
(04:05):
in Slavic, Germanic or Celtic origin. For for some reason,
those are the ones that get tied to it the most.
But early early tales of the black dog seem to
they often associated sightings of the black dog with the
(04:28):
devil uh, and it was typically considered to be an
incarnation of some sort of hell hound. But like I
mentioned before, some other times it has ties with death,
not that it's a killer dog, but that it is
like a signal or an omen of death. But most
of the tales of the the Black Dog seem to
(04:50):
center on crossroads or grave mounds, but also places where
executions have taken place, and for some reason it's tied
to these areas. And there's there's some beliefs in some
of these stories and legends that the black Dog is
the ghost of someone who was killed and they'll come
(05:13):
back for either vengeance or to protect somebody, you know. Again,
it depends on the locale. Now, there is one that
we talked about. I can't remember the purpose, Like I
don't remember what the episode was or so if you
(05:33):
wanted to go back in reference, I can't help you.
I'm sorry. But we did talk about the the one
the I think it's like the most famous black dog case,
but it's this dog called the Black Shuck.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Do you remember talking about that at all?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yes, sir?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
All right, So so for anyone who doesn't know the
Black Shuck, I'll give you a little background and I'll
get into his famous story. But the black shuck is
a version of the black dog that originates in East Anglia, England,
and it also black shuck is like the I guess
(06:15):
the local nickname, but it also goes by old Schuck,
old shock, or just plain old shuck. But black shuck
has been described by different people as being friendly, but
other people have described it as being dangerous or something
to be wary of. And the descriptions of black shuck
(06:39):
also seem to vary. So this is something that's kind
of weird because you'll have these sightings within.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
The same area that.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
You know they're attributed to the same thing, called the
same thing, but it looks it's being described completely different.
So it's like the observer has their own unique experience
with this entity. But there's the typical black dog description,
the typical large black dog with glowing eyes. Some people
(07:12):
say it's a large dog. Some people say that it's
a dog the size of a calf, and then others
report it as being a dog the size of a horse,
and it's always has these sharp teeth and glowing eyes.
But there's some reports that have described it as being
(07:33):
a dog with one single giant eye in the middle
of its face that glows red. Oh yeah, super creepy.
But the name shuck because I mean it's kind of
a weird name. There's a purpose behind it. Black because
that's what color the dog is, so it's it's a
descriptive word. But shuck itself that derives from an Old
(07:56):
English word skukka, which means devil or fiend. But there's
some that also think it could be it could be
derivative of the word school, which means to terrify. But
the first printed mention of black Shuck, the name black
Shuck comes from a eighteen fifty edition of the Journal
(08:21):
called Notes and Queries, and it was written by Reverend E. S. Taylor,
and he describes Shuck the dog fiend, and I've got
an excerpt here. What he wrote was this phantom. I
have heard many persons in East Norfolk and even Cambridgeshire
(08:42):
described as having seen a black, shaggy dog with fiery
eyes and of immense size who visits churchyards at midnight.
So churchyards being you know, the cemetery, so again a
tie to death and the dead, whether it be someone
who's haunting the graveyard as a black dog, or maybe
(09:05):
the black dog is guarding the graveyard.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
He doesn't make.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
It clear in his writing, but one of the weird
descriptions come from a nineteen oh one book called Highways
and Byeways in East Anglia by Wa Dutt, and he
describes the black shuck as being an omen of death,
so if you see it.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
It means you're likely going to die.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
But in his book he writes that it takes the
form of a huge black dog and prowls along dark
lanes and losome field footpaths. Although his howling makes the
hearer's blood run cold, his footfalls make no sound. You
may know him at once if you see him by
his fiery eye.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
He has but.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
One, and that, like a 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 would
do well to shut your eyes if you hear him howling.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Shut them.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Even if you are uncertain whether it is a dog
fiend or the voice of the wind that you hear.
Oh yeah, dude, imagine that being your omen of death.
You just see this giant black dog with one flaming
eye like fucking saar.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
On no things. That's terrified. I see.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I'd never heard of this single eye thing. I know,
the glowing eye thing, but not this cyclops dog that's
crazy and anything is big as a horse.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
I've heard them.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Being like almost wearwolf size, but gosh, a cyclops.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Where it sounds like a D and D monster, It
really for sized dog with a flaming eye that can howl,
and its howl causes death. Make a saving thrower die instantly. Yeah,
I'm gonna I'm gonna put him again. It's the party.
The party's gonna have to face the Black Shuck.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
You doomed, doomed.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I don't know if. I don't know if any of
them listened to the show or not. I think cousin
Shane does. I think he's he's a listener, so maybe
maybe he'll get warning ahead of time.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
But the Black Shuck has probably the most famous and
terrifying story told about him. On one day in fifteen
seventy seven, August fourth, to be specific, there were two
events that mirrored each other in two separate churches. So
(11:41):
the first one was in Blithebirg and this at this church,
a large black dog was said to have burst through
the doors of Holy Trinity Church with the sound of
a thunderclap. He ran to the front of the church
and passed the congregation, and as he ran past, a
(12:02):
man and a young boy dropped dead. And it was
said that the mere presence of the black dog in
the church caused the steeple of the church to collapse
through the roof. As the dog left the church, that
left scor scorch marks on the north door, which are
actually still visible on that door.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
But the same day at Saint Mary's Church in Bungay,
it was described by a clergyman named Abraham Fleming, who
was also a prolific writer, and he wrote about the
event that happened at Saint Mary's saying that black dog,
(12:46):
I'll just quote what he wrote, the black dog or
the devil, in such a likeness, running all along down
the body of the church, with great swiftness and incredible
haste among the people. In a visible form and shape.
It passed between two persons as they were kneeling upon
their knees and occupied in prayer, as it seemed he
(13:06):
wrung the necks of both of them at one instant,
pulled their head clean backwards, and that even at a
moment where they kneeled, they strangely died.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
WHOA, that's that's weird.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
And that was a story we talked about on one
of the shows way back. I can't remember why it sounds.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
I remember the dog going into the church. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Remember what we were talking about in that episode.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Maybe it was just devil dogs, maybe it was churches. Sorry,
just we we did a show about church murders and
that was that was an among them, all the murders
at church. Mm hmmm, No, I I really, I know
we talked about it really early on.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
I just don't remember it, but I have no recollection
what it was. So anybody who's a deep.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Diver that that you know, really wants to go it's
probably within the first year or so that we were
doing the show. And enjoy the audio quality pristine.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
It is funny. Someone someone in.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Our discord was talking about when they went back and
listened to the old shows and we started for anyone
who might be new, we started back in twenty thirteen,
and they were commenting on how my voice sounded so
much different. I'm like, my voice hasn't changed at all.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
So just just to see, I went back.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
And I listened to like our third episode or something like,
Holy fuck, dude, my voice has changed considerably.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Isn't that weird? We like, weren't little kids when we started.
We were done.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
No, But you know that's twelve years of smoking, you know,
so I guess that'll do that to you. But it's
I mean, that's the only thing I could attribute it to.
It's not like we started when we were teenagers, and
you know, we were old men when we started, and.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
We're older men now. It's glorious.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, So the blackshok Is is probably the most famous,
but there's so many different variants. There's these dogs called
the Littleport Black Dogs, and folkloris W. H. Barrett told
a story of a huge black dog that rescued a
(15:25):
young girl from this what he described as a lustful
holy man. The story goes that the dog attacked this
friar that was trying to either rape or molest this
girl and killed the friar, but sustained injuries in the exchange,
(15:46):
and the dog ended up dying as well. So the
local men came and they threw the body of the
disgraced friar into a pond. But then they gave the
dog an honorable burial, and from the point of the
burial on, there was a ghost dog that started haunting
this area in Littleport. There's another story that's kind of well,
(16:14):
it's it's kind of the same because it's a black dog,
but it's it's another Actually, what's supposed to be a
ghost of a dog, of a loyal dog, rather than
the ghost of someone who was killed. But this dog
haunts the A ten road between Littleport and Brandon Creek,
(16:35):
or it did. I should say, I'll get to that,
but it did. It haunted the A ten road. And
this particular dog spirit makes itself known by howling on
dark nights, and it would invisibly stalk behind travelers on
the road. So anyone who was walking down the road
at night, they would hear the sound of a dog
(16:56):
approaching behind them, or they would feel hot panting on
the back of their legs and they turn around there'd
be nothing there. But the local legend says that this
is the ghost of a dog who who was waiting
for the return of his owner. Who got into an
accident and drowned in the river Great House in the
(17:17):
early eighteen hundreds. So all throughout the nineteenth century, this
dog had been haunting this stretch of road, as the
story goes, looking for his master, who never came home.
In nineteen o six, there was a local resident that
was driving his car along the A ten and right
(17:41):
next to the spot where this dog's owner was said
to have drowned. He ran into something completely solid but invisible.
There was nothing there, but it fucked his car up,
and that the local police came and investigated. There was
nothing there was. It looked like he literally was just
(18:03):
driving in the road and hit something and now there's
nothing there. But from that point on, the ghost of
this dog was never was never seen again.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Oh wow, So so.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Did he hit the ghost dog or or what's what's
who would have thought that you could hit a ghost
dog with your car.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
It was just an unlucky timing.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
That dog this burst into physical form, like you know,
manifested and was like, oh all right, time to walk
around and grant people's death.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
That was it.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's I don't know, I don't
know what to make of it. But I love these stories.
There's there's actually this story that's been going around the internet.
Just going back briefly if I made to the Black Shuck,
(18:56):
there's there's been some articles out there, and then you're
typical like clickbait memes that you find on social media,
like on this date whatever, some dude found some fucking
thing and this is what happened. Then you click it
and it gives you the article. You know, all that bullshit.
But this particular thing there is it pops up every
(19:21):
couple of years where there has been proof of the
existence of the Black Shuck and archaeological evidence to prove
that the hell Hound existed. Oh yeah, dude, yeah, which
would be fucking awesome if it was true. Oh ah,
(19:45):
it's kind of true. It's kind of true. So the
actual story, because what keeps popping up, and I'll explain
how all that happened, But the actual story is, Uh,
there was an archaeology team called dig Ventures and they
(20:05):
were doing an excavation in the Suffolk countryside looking for
basically just seeing what they could find. They were doing
a dig at Lyston Abbey specifically in twenty thirteen, and
while they were doing this dig They dug down about
(20:27):
twenty inches and they uncovered the skeleton of this huge dog.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
They say that it.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Was likely if it were to stand on its hind legs,
it would be close to seven feet tall and weigh
about two hundred pounds.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
They speculated, holy shit.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Everything else at this same level they found, like pottery fragments.
Everything that was found here at this level would have
dated back to the sixteenth century, which would have been
around the time when the black Shuck was most active
or most seen the most. So they reported all their
(21:09):
findings to local newspapers and it got reported. The initial report,
though the only tie to black Shuck at all was
the headline of the article, which was done in a
tongue in cheek manner like it wasn't being serious, and
(21:32):
the headline asked the question, are these the bones of
devil dog black Shuck? But the entire piece concentrated on
the archaeology and what they were doing, specifically because this
particular dig was being done it was one of the
first archaeological digs that had been completely crowdfunded, so that
(21:57):
was kind of the focus on the story was the
crowdfunding and what they were digging. The time frame that
they were looking for and everything, but the fact that
they found this dog that got picked up by the
Daily Mail, which is like a tabloid in the UK,
(22:18):
and the Daily Mail ran with the headline linking it
to the Black Shuck and they removed the majority of
the things about the dig and what was found and
all that stuff and focused on the fact that these
bones had been found from this huge dog.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
And then they.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Patted the article with different examples of black Shuck stories
and you know, went with the classic legend the church
deaths and then all that other shit. And then from
that point on it had started getting picked up by
(23:00):
all these other places on the internet who ran with
the the part about the the demon dog, and it
just kind of got exaggerated from there. There was there's
one article that it just starts out with saying, the
bones of a seven foot long hound from Hell have
(23:21):
been discovered. Caught my attention, Yeah, it's it's unfortunately so
so it is true they did find the bones, but
the bones that they found were within close proximity to
where the old kitchen would have been, and so they
(23:42):
think that this would have been you know, the dog
that was living there at the time. And was probably
uh loved pet right, that just got buried there and
it wasn't wasn't the black shuck at all.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Unfortunately, Oh that dog is like, no, no, I'm the
black dock.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Fuck that.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Yeah, just doubting him. Now.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Now the ghost of that dog is gonna come back.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah, you're all doom. He thought he was cool.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
But there's there's another story that I got to kick
out of. And actually this story is what prompted me
to actually finally get around to doing this.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
I was watching fuck Man, I don't know, one of.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Those one of those paranormal shows on Netflix where they
talk about I can't remember which one in particular, but
they had a segment on there about a version of
the black dog called Padfoot. And he's called Padfoot because
he most of the time he appears as just a
(24:43):
black dog, but sometimes he'll be invisible, but you can
just hear his his pause hitting the pavement behind someone,
or the rattle of a chain. But the story that
they talked about on this I just had to share
because it's I find it amusing. This drunk guy was
(25:06):
out at night and he sees pad Foot and he
goes to kick it, and he misses it, the dog
runs by, he gets wrapped up in the dog's chain.
The dog drags him through the streets and then drops
him off in front of his house and disappears. Oh
so it just gets fucking dragged with by a ghost
(25:29):
dog who just happens to know where he lives too.
Maybe that was the threat though, because he threw a
kick and he's like, he's like, bitch, I know where
you live. Yeah right, I'm gonna take you home. Let
this be a warning.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Oh yeah, he just let him know he knew exactly
where that dude lived. I want a drunk escort ghost dog.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
It's like like.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
In a video game or something.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
You get a ghost or you get a dog whistle
and you blow it and the dog comes flying through
and whisks you away somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah that's how you found travel in the Woodcast video game.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, Matteo Mateo gets to summon a dog.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
I get. I get abducted by fucking barn owls.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Yeah. They just moved out and grabbed Mike and fly away.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah he gets. He gets man's best friend. I get
fucking man's worst enemy.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, but the catch is I gotta get hammered first though,
so I gotta get hammered.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
And then yeah, you do, you do have to.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
And then he and then the dog shows up and
gets in your way to try to kick it.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
And then yeah, and then you just.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
See me fly away by like something pulling me by
my ankle.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
But the black Dog, man, it's it's all over the place.
And like I said, it's all all these different stuff.
Are all these different things attributed to it. Like there's
one the Black Dog of Newgate, for instance, which is
a dog that haunts specifically Newgate Prison and there's been
reports of this dog haunting the prison for four hundred years.
(26:56):
But the dog will show up before executions and he's
like a herald of death. But according to the legend,
in fifteen ninety six, there was this scholar that was
sent to prison for witchcraft. But before he was brought
to trial, the other prisoners who were starving, because you know,
(27:18):
prison conditions in the fifteen hundreds were they left a
little bit to be desired, so they were hungry. They
ended up killing and eating this guy. So he didn't
even get to stand trial for witchcraft. He was just
killed and eaten. Holy and the dog after his death,
this black dog started to show up and it would
(27:43):
terrify men like it would terrify the other prisoners to
the point that they would literally kill the guards to
escape from this thing.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Holy shit.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
And the legend says that if the black dog was
targetting someone, even if they escaped the prison, the beast
would still hunt them down no matter where they went
and kill them.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
So he is.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Ah, he's a badass one. He doesn't he doesn't take
any He's not only an omen of death. He's saying,
if you're not going to die, then I'm going to
make sure you die, motherfucko.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Damn. I like this one.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
And that there's a there's a few cases where the
black dog is a guardian or or helpful in some way.
There's a story from the Isle of Man where there
was a black dog that was looked at as being
a guardian to this group of sailors. There was this well,
(28:50):
there was a fishing trip planned. A group of sailors
showed up at the Peel Harbor and they were waiting
for the captain to show up. They were planning on
doing a night fishing trip, and the whole crew is
there they're just waiting for the captain. So they're sitting
on board the ship still in harbor, waiting for the captain,
(29:11):
but he never came. In the morning, there was a
sudden storm that nobody expected. It just sprang up and
it likely would have capsized their boat and taken the
entire crew down with them, but because the captain didn't
show up, they never left harbor. So finally the captain
gets rejoined with his crew later in the day and
(29:33):
they asked where the hell were you, and he said
he was on his way there and this huge black
dog blocked him. Every path he would try to take
to get around it, this dog would not let him pass.
And he said, finally he just gave up and turned
around and went home, and the black dog left him
alone once he turned and went home. So he because
(29:57):
this black dog prevented him from getting to the ship,
the ship never left and the entire crew survived. So
this is the guardian of Peel Harbor. He's a black
dog and nobody died that day, so he was the opposite.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Right right, very interesting.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
And then there's the black Dog of Preston, which is
a black dog without a head that is said to
appear at the city gates if the town needs to
be defended, and despite the fact that it has no head,
it can still howl, and those that hear its howl
will be dead shortly after hearing it. But the black
(30:39):
dog would also act like an omen and it would
people who lived inside Preston. It would appear outside their
houses and lay outside their door if there was someone
inside that was about to die.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
That's crazy. That's scary.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Well to me, like I I that seems more like
it's like rather than being like a bringer of death,
that it's there like like hey, like paying its respects,
Like this person's dying, I'm gonna chill here till they're gone.
But if you're attacking the city, it's it's headless formal
howl and make you die.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
Then.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
There's even been stories of black dogs that have led
led someone to riches. What yeah, this this again. If
you see a black dog, try to try to hit it.
Maybe it'll take you home, maybe it'll show you where
there's riches. But there's a farmhouse in Lime Regis that
(31:44):
had been haunted by a black dog and the dog
never caused anybody any harm, but it was an unnerving presence.
And one night the master of the house got drunk,
saw this thing and got pissed off. So he went
to attack it with an iron poker, and he swung
(32:04):
at it and missed, and the dog fled and ran
up to the attic, and then it leaped out of
the attic through the ceiling and disappeared.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
WHOA.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
So he went up and he hit the spot where
the dog disappeared in the ceiling and busted a hole
in the ceiling. But it wasn't through the roof. He
discovered that there was this hidden cash there and in
this little stash area was gold and silver.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Ooh.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
And after this the dog was never seen indoors. But
to this day there's still reportings that it haunts the
lane outside at midnight every night. This lane is called
hay Lane or dog Lane, and said any dogs who
are allowed to stray on this road at night will
(33:00):
mysteriously disappear.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
It almost seems like this might be these areas way
of manifesting, maybe like just a bad spirit, like the
guys in the jail fucking did something horrible, so horrible
shit happened. But then there's like a drunk guy and
he gets taken home. And then with the other guy
who tried to hit the dog with the poker drunk
(33:22):
with maybe maybe the.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Dog he was also drunk. He was also drunk.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
So if you're in the area with with black dogs,
make sure you get all schnockered up and then try
to exert violence upon the dog and it'll either take
you home or give your riches. Right, they're just like
that's or poor tend your death.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Yeah, it's head will fall off and then it'll start
howling and then you're screwed.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
But then there's even weirder stuff with the right. So
there's a lot of tales of these things being shape
shifters or maybe wizards. So there's one called the bar guest.
I think that's how I pronounce it, bar guest. But
this is from Yorkshire and there's stories that it'll prey
(34:14):
on lone travelers in the narrow alleys and cities or
alleyways and streets of York. And during the eighteen seventies
it was said that near Darlington there was a shape
(34:34):
shifting bar guest who would take the form of a
headless man who would vanish into flames. Sometimes you would
take the form of a headless lady, a white cat,
a rabbit, or a black dog.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Wo. And where they all said if you were to.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
No, just the humanoid versions were headless for some reason.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
But if you were to run into this figure, it
was an omen of death and the it There were
a lot of people that would say they would see
the bar guest appear with other dogs and they would
form this kind of funeral procession and they would howl
and bark to foretell the death of a notable person
(35:19):
in the area. And if you were to get in
its way, the bar guess would strike out with its
paws and it would leave a wound on the victim
that would never heal.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
You were marked by the black hound.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Yeah, but this one has some kind of weird folklore
that goes along with it, like like like a vampire.
It wasn't able to cross running water.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
So if you're being if you're being chased by by
the paw that leaves the wound that never heals, then
just find a stream or.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Something that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
There's always like a trick or some type of tax
to beat these things, or at least beat like a
chief safety from them.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Then there's the black Dog of Northorpe and that was
said to be a human, an old man who was
reputed to be a wizard who had the power to
shape shift, and he could turn into a black dog,
and when he would, he would then go and attack
(36:27):
his neighbor's livestock. Hell, so that kind of goes to
like the old werewolf floor.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Yeah, I was gonna say, the wound that doesn't heal
kind of touched on werewolf floor a little bit.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
Huh Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
And then there's I feel like we've talked about the
Capelthwaite before. Does that sound familiar to you? No, I
swear we talked about it before. But it's it's a
version of the black dog. Well it's a kind of
a version from Westmorland, and it's called the Capelthwaite and
(37:01):
it could take the form of any quadruped, but its
preferred form was a large black dog. And so this entity,
its name was Capelthwaite. So it wasn't like a group
of it was considered to be one being, but he was.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
He was actually a helpful one.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
And he would perform services for people, like he would
round up sheep that had gotten away, like he would
act as a shepherd dog anybody in the area, but
outsiders he would act like a trickster. And because of
(37:45):
his the fact that he was a shape shifter and
a trickster, he was eventually banished by the vicar and
and was was forced to leave Westmerland.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
I wonder how he was he just like get out
of here, or did he perform like a magical rite.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Probably like an exorcism sort of deal something like that.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
He was just like a beat it, you're killing all
the livestock, your jerk.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Yeah, well, no, he was helping with the livestock. He
was just he was scaring outsiders. The chances are the
vicar was an outsider and he's like, fuck off, Vicar,
I don't want you here. And he's like, but I
am a holy man, and he says, well, I'm a
devil dog. We don't match.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
Get out of here, Get out.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
And then the Vicar's like, made the power of Christ
compel you, And he's like, oh shit.
Speaker 4 (38:36):
I got a bell.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
He was serious, I'm leaving.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Yeah, yeah, he compelled. He invoked the name of Christ,
and now he is compelling me with that name.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
All right, I'll get out of here.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
I'm powerless. I'm powerless, God damn it.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
But as with all things, I would like to end
this by tying the black dogs to fair if I can.
Speaker 5 (39:01):
Oh, all right, see kind of you know what before
you get into that, Yeah, I think subconsciously that's where
I always put the black hounds and the black dogs,
just because they're mainly in Europe where fairies are from,
and like the whole omen thing and just appearing.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
They always that's the camp I always put.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
Them in, all right, So let me give you some
quick background on the wild hunt because this gets tied
in with a lot.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Of the black dog stuff.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
And so the wild hunt is it's found in folklore
across Europe, primarily like I mentioned earlier with the black
dog stuff, where where it seems to originate. The wild
hunt also seems to come from places that have Celtic,
Germanic or Slavic cultural backgrounds. But what the wild hunt is,
(39:53):
it's like a hunting procession.
Speaker 5 (39:56):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
It typically involves a chase that's les by a mythological
figure and it's escorted by ghostly or a supernatural group
of hunters and the leader of the hunt, whoever's leading
this hunt varies based on the culture, but it will
typically be some sort of legendary or mythological figure or
(40:20):
like a folk hero, or in some instances people have
reported seeing a biblical figure. The hunters that are involved
in the hunt, depending on the culture, are either considered
to be the souls of the dead, ghost dogs, fairies, elves,
(40:40):
or in the Nordic country's valkyries. But what these these
things do, they're they're often it's just like this procession
of hunters blowing their horns, and they're typically accompanied by
black dogs following along with them, and they usually it's
(41:07):
like a prophecy here. They'll they'll portend some sort of
major catastrophe like a war or plague, or they'll act
as an omen of death. But there's also some belief,
depending on the culture or the time frame where they're
seeing the Wild Hunt. But there's also the belief that
(41:28):
the members of the Wild Hunt are fayfolk or fairies,
and that they might abduct witnesses and bring them into
the fairy realm, or they'd pull their souls out and
the souls would would join the hunt. Oh yeah, So,
(41:49):
like like I said, it's it varies based on the area,
so it seems like that the event is shared across cultures,
but who is who is leading the charge so to speak,
and involved in it changes based on where it is.
Like it almost like the phenomena is shaping itself to
(42:12):
be relevant to the culture that it's appearing in. But
I've got a case here specifically from the year eleven
twenty seven in Peterborough, and there was a report concerning
the visit of the abbot Henry of Poto and he
(42:35):
was arriving at Peterborough Abbey, and as soon as he
arrived at the abbey, witnesses all in the area began
to see the wild hunt.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
They were seen.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
They were seen in every park in the town of Peterborough,
as well as the woods that stretched between Peterborough and Stamford.
They were described as the huntsmen themselves were described as
being black, huge and hideous. They were riding on black
horses and giant black goats, and they were running with
(43:11):
a group of black hounds that had glowing eyes the
size of saucers.
Speaker 4 (43:16):
At night.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Monks from a monastery near the woods reported that they
would hear the sounds of hounds every single night, howling
and barking along with the blowing of horns, and these
sightings continued from the time that the abbot showed up,
extended all through the season of Lent, which is forty days,
(43:39):
and ended once Easter was over. So I don't know.
In this case, it doesn't sound like there was any
death that was associated with this, but it makes me
wonder if because the fairy beliefs that was in with
(44:01):
with the Celtic belief system, so the Christian belief system
would probably have done away with that. So I wonder
if maybe these were fairies like showing showing strength in
the face of an abbot, a Christian abbot showing up.
They're like, we're going to show him, and then they
get the burliest, creepiest looking bunch of fairies they could find,
(44:26):
slap them on some giant black goats, sent some black.
Speaker 4 (44:30):
Dogs out in a way they go.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
But I mean, with all things I like, I don't
want to say they're fairies, because I think fairies is
just one way to describe it. But it's it definitely
seems to have even though it takes the form of
a dog, like you said, it does seem to have
that fay feel about it.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
You know, from being a prophetic sort of being to
being uh, an entity that just kind of seems to
thrive on on creating chaos and mischief.
Speaker 4 (45:07):
Yeah, he's uh. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Maybe maybe he's just a puppy at heart and he
just gets put in the in the spirit form of
this creepy dog and really he's just a fucking puppy.
And everybody knows, aside from being cute, puppies are the
biggest assholes. They're destructive, they're annoying, They piss and shit everywhere,
they bite everything, they're pains in the asses.
Speaker 4 (45:31):
And maybe that's what these are there.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
They're they're puppies that died too young and and all
they wanted to be was a big burly dog. And
after they died, their ghost comes back is a big
burly dog. But they still just have the spirit of
a puppy and they just want to play.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
And show you hidden treasures.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Yeah, and look at you with their single cycloptic flaming eye.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
And punish you for cannibal with them.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Yeah yeah, or maybe become a dog because of cannibalism.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
That's the thing, Like everything is, every story is similar,
but different, you know, they they It seems like each
one has their own origin, but in the end it's
the same deal. Like if you see it, chances are
you're about to die.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
And if you're a prisoner who escapes, he will hunt
you down. He will be fucking Liam Neeson. Yeah, and
that's that's that's.
Speaker 4 (46:28):
What he does.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
The black Shuck has a certain a very very specific
set of skills. He will hunt you, He will find you.
Speaker 6 (46:39):
Thank you for listening to The What Cast. You can
find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, iTunes, on YouTube. Enjoy
the podcast, get yourself a what Cast T shirt or
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one episode? Bry The Links and Homies page. All this
and more can be found www dot wacasters dot com.
(47:04):
Thanks again for listening and have a great week.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
Something something
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
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My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.