Are hellhounds real? A recent archeological find may prove that some truth may be found in the legends. According to the site Ancient Codes, the remains of a 7-foot tall beast has been uncovered in the ruins of Leiston Abbey in Suffolk and may be connected to a centuries-old legend of a beast known as the Black Shuck.
The name Black Shuck is believed to originate from the old English word for ”black demon”, the beast appeared as a harbinger of death and was described as a ‘giant hellhound with red burning eyes’.
500 years later, archeologists have allegedly uncovered the remains of the Black Shuck in a grave just thirty inches deep and surrounded by pottery. According to initial calculations the remains belong to a “male dog” standing at least seven feet in height and weighing around 200lbs.
According to local folklore the Black Shuck attacked during a brutal storm on August 4, 1577, at Holy Trinity Church in Blythburgh, seven miles from Leiston in Suffolk. The terrified villagers sought shelter inside the church but the Black Shuck managed to breach the massive wooden doors.
According to Reverend Abraham Fleming’s book A Strange and Terrible Wunder:
This black dog, or the devil in such a likeness (God he knoweth all who worketh all) running all along down the body of the church with great swiftness, and incredible haste, among the people, in a visible form and shape, passed between two persons, as they were kneeling upon their knees, and occupied in prayer as it seemed, wrung the necks of them both at one instant clean backward, in so much that even at a moment where they kneeled, they strangely died.”
Radiocarbon testing indicates that the remains of the beast correspond to the time when the Black Shuck was allegedly terrorizing the population of Eastern Anglia.
Hellhounds have long been reported under different names all over the world for centuries including in China, India, Indonesia, Persia, Malaysia, Japan, Cambodia, Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, Spain, France, Sardinia, Germany, Scandinavia, England, Wales, Siberia, Romania, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Lithuania, Russia, Bulgaria, and Hungary. And all have similar traits, the creatures are big, dark, have glowing red eyes and are harbingers of death. The most famous hellhound is the Hound of Baskerville.
The news of the discovery has been reported by multiple news outlets including Daily Mail, Atlas Obscura, and many more.
If the legend of the Black Shuck turns out to truly be real it makes you question what other myths and legends may actually be founded in reality.
