1 Comment | Add
Rate & Share:
Related Links:
Info:
Lair of the Beasts: Beware of the Devil Dogs
Hounds of Hell By Nick Redfern
January 23, 2010
"A centuries-old drawing of one of Britain's phantom devil-dogs."
© Nick Redfern
In his absolutely definitive book Explore Phantom Black Dogs, the author and researcher Bob Trubshaw wrote the following: “The folklore of phantom black dogs is known throughout the British Isles. From the Black Shuck of East Anglia to the Mauthe Dhoog of the Isle of Man there are tales of huge spectral hounds ‘darker than the night sky’ with eyes ‘glowing red as burning coals.’ The phantom black dog of British and Irish folklore, which often forewarns of death, is part of a world-wide belief that dogs are sensitive to spirits and the approach of death, and keep watch over the dead and dying. North European and Scandinavian myths dating back to the Iron Age depict dogs as corpse eaters and the guardians of the roads to hell. Medieval folklore includes a variety of ‘Devil dogs’ and spectral hounds.”
One of the most infamous of all black-dog encounters in the British Isles occurred at St. Mary’s Church, Bungay, Suffolk, England, on Sunday, August 4, 1577, when an immense and veritable spectral hound from hell materialised within the church during a powerful thunderstorm and mercilessly tore into the terrified congregation with its huge fangs and razor-sharp claws. In fact, so powerful was the storm that it reportedly killed two men in the belfry as the church tower received an immense lightning bolt that tore through it and shook the building to its ancient foundations.
According to an old, local verse: “All down the church in midst of fire, the hellish monster flew. And, passing onward to the quire, he many people slew.” Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the beast bounded out of St. Mary’s and was reported shortly thereafter at Blythburgh Church, about twelve miles away, where it allegedly killed and mauled even more people with its immense and bone-crushing jaws – and where, it is said, the scorch marks of the beast’s claws can still be seen to this day, infamously imprinted upon the ancient door of the church.
Even more intriguing is the fact that Bungay’s legend of a satanic black hound parallels that of yet another local legend: that of Black Shuck, a giant, spectral dog that haunts the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts. Indeed, such is the popularity of the Bungay legend, that it has resulted in an image of the beast being incorporated into the town's coat of arms - and the Black Dogs is the name of Bungay Town Football Club.
The stark, disturbing and memorable image that the infamous devil dog, or the phantom hound, as described above undoubtedly conjures up is that of a definitively sinister beast that stealthily prowls the towns and villages of ye olde England by nothing more than silvery moonlight or to the accompanying background of a violent, crashing thunderstorm. It is, however, a little known fact outside of dedicated students of the phenomenon that sightings of such creatures continued to surface well into the 20th Century.
Late one evening in the early weeks of 1972, for example, a man named Nigel Lea was driving blissfully across the Cannock Chase when his attention was suddenly drawn to a strange ball of glowing, blue light that seemingly came out of nowhere and slammed violently into the ground some short distance ahead of his vehicle and amid nothing less than a veritable torrent of bright, fiery sparks. Needless to say, Lea quickly slowed his car down to what was a literal snail’s pace. And, as he cautiously approached the approximate area where the light had seemingly fallen, was both shocked and horrified to the absolute core to see looming before him, “the biggest bloody dog I have ever seen in my life.”
Very muscular and utterly black in colour, with a pair of large, pointed ears and huge, thick paws, the creature seemed to positively ooze both extreme menace and overpowering negativity, and had a crazed, staring look in its yellow-tinged eyes. For twenty or thirty seconds or so, both man and beast alike squared off against each other in classic stalemate fashion, after which time the ‘animal’ both slowly and carefully headed for the darkness and the camouflage of the tall, surrounding trees, not even once taking its penetrating eyes off of the petrified driver as it did so.
Somewhat ominously it might be said, and only around two or three weeks later at the most, says Lea, a very close friend of his who he had known since his earliest schooldays was killed in an industrial accident, under very horrific circumstances, in the West Midlands town of West Bromwich; something which, today, Lea firmly believes – after having deeply studied, almost to the point of total obsession, the history of British Black Dog lore and the creature’s associations with tragedy and death – was directly connected with his strange and unsettling encounter on that tree-shrouded road back in 1972.
Keep all the above in mind if you ever come face-to-face with a large and ominous-looking black dog, late one night on a lonely stretch of ancient road.
Nick Redfern is the author of many books on the paranormal. His new book is Contactees: A History of Alien-Human Interaction.
LOGIN
REGISTER
RSS
HOME
Folklore is interesting, but I hope dog lovers will keep in mind that to this day, black dogs are have less of a chance of being adopted than lighter colored dogs.
Did You Know: We are guessing that the general public is not aware of how doomed black dogs are when they are brought to a pound because black dogs, particularly black labs or lab mixes, are euthanized at a horrifying rate at many pounds & shelters because people pass them up for lighter colored dogs. If you are thinking about adopting a dog please don't overlook black dogs because they are just as loving & wonderful as lighter colored dogs! -Martin County Animal Shelter, Fairmont,MN
Please see this website for info about black dogs:
www.blackpearldogs.com/