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| Myths of the Grim |
| The legend of the Grim from Harry Potter, as well as other tales of big, black dogs from mythology and folklore. |
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| Also Known As |
| Black Shuck Old Shuck Shucky Dog Shug Monster Shag Dog Padfoot (called so in Staffordshire) Shriker Barguest Yeth Wish Hound |
| Excerpt from Black Shuck by Martin Newell "As big as a calf, with eyes like burning coals, he pads silently beside the traveller on lonely country roads. Always keeping pace, he never drops back but simply seems to melt away. In some parts of the region, they believe that if you see old Shuck, then you or someone in your family will die. But best not to see him." |
| Links |
| Norfolk Myth - Black Shuck - The Ghostly Hound funny enough, the person who took the photos of Shuck on this site, his last name is Potter... A Short Reference of the Black Shuck by BBC An Tiny Encyclopedia Entry Ghostly Black Dogs Black Dogs in Folklore Apparitions of Black Dogs Paranormal Database Paw of the Padfoot - a good overall site ... |
| Excerpt taken from The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter "The Animagus form of a black dog is appropriet to Sirius Black in more than name alone. Magical black dogs appear mysteriously throughout Europe and North America. There have been many sightings in Britain, where they are know by names like Black Shuck (from the Anglo-Saxon scucca, meaning "demon"), Old Shuck, Shucky Dog, the Shug Monster and Shag Dog. The resdents of Staffordshire in centrl Englsand gave it the name Sirius uses: Padfoot. Some say the dogs gaurd churchyards or certain roads; others say they roam the countryside at night. Eyewitnesses say they appear suddenly, sometimes right alongside a person walking alone. the tend to be larger than usual dogs. They vanish in an instant, or slowly fade from view while standing still. Occasionally they appear without heads. Their eyes are almost always described as huge and "blazing." Surprisingly, they tend to be silent. Scholars were once convinced that the black dog was the preffered from of the Devil. even among people with less anxious minds, black dogs are widely feared. Many consider them an omen of death. This is precisely what Professor Trelawney tells Harry his early sightings of Sirius mean. (She refers to the black dog as the Grim, another common name.) The eyewitness reports go back many hundreds of years. One vivid account from 1577 describes the arrival of a black dog in church: 'There appeared in a most horrible form a dog of a black color, togather with fearful flashes of fire which made some in the assembly think doomsday was come. This dog, or the Devil in such a likeness, ran the length of the church with such wiftness and incredible haste, passed between two persons as they were kneeling and wrung the necks of them both at one instant.' That may have been an especially horrible incident. Not every encounter is so aweful. In more recent sightings the black dog seems to have become less malevolent. One scholar says, 'There is rather more evidence that black dogs are friendly (or at least harmless) than that they are dangerous. Indeed the dogs are often positively helpful.' " |
| An Old Ditty "And a dreadful thing from the cliff did spring, And its wild bark thrill'd around, His eyes had the glow of the fires below, Twas the form of the Spectre Hound." |