Sightings seem to never be more than a few miles inland from the East Coast, and range from mainly marshy, wet places in Maldon and around East Anglia, up as far as York (Viking Jorvik), where he is known as the barghuest. Other names include Galleytrot, Padfoot, Old Shug and others. There has been a theory that maybe he is the remnant of a fylga (fetch) sent to clear the coastal paths for raiding Vikings. Of course, it is speculation, but personally I find it at least possible - the locations all fall within the old Danelaw area.
The name Shuck is believed to be of Anglo Saxon origin, 1000 years before the Bungay & Blythburgh incidents. It is thought to derive from the word scucca, meaning demon. The term is also used to describe Grendel and his mother in the Anglo Saxon poem Beowulf. They are two monsters who dwell in marshland, have glowing eyes, and Dr Sam Newton has pointed out that the East Anglian dialect word grindle, which is preserved in some Suffolk place names means a drainage ditch or wet place, so this could be the origin of the name Grendel, as a creature who lives on the marsh.
Back in the 1970s, an elderly chap used to visit the Butley Oyster pub in Suffolk, where I used to go for singing sessions on Sunday nights. He arrived as white as a sheet one weekday night, and said that he had been pushing his bike downhill, on the way to the pub, when he had encountered a large spectral dog. Being generally afraid of dogs he had just kept going (and not stared in its eyes) but the beast went straight through him. Another old chap bought him a brandy to settle his nerves. This was commented upon afterwards of proof of how ill he looked - his benefactor had never been known to ever buy a drink for anyone else before!
Some say he is a hound of Wotan's Wild Hunt, (or Anglo Saxon herlathing) who can be heard howling on the wintry winds and seeking lost souls at the darker time of year. Monks at Peterborough commented upon it in 1132, and believed it was a response to the appointment of a bad abbot. Another 12th century writer, Walter Map also describes the herlathing, which he related to a real person, mistaking a nickname for Odin / Wotan for a leader called Herle. (Thing denotes a group of people in Old English.) St Guthlac, who lived as a hermit on an island in the fens at Crowland in the early 8th century, not far from Peterborough, was also beset by spectral creatures attacking him, after upsetting them by singing Christian psalms. This is the same sort of reason that was blamed for Grendel attacking the hall in Beowulf, and yet more evidence linking the poem with an East Anglian origin. (See the Dr. Sam Newton book for a full investigation of that.)
Of course, there are other legends of supernatural hunters around Britain, from Herne at Windsor to the Gabriel Hounds of the West Country and further afield across Europe. I love the Danish legend of a hunt pursuing Slattenpat, an ugly old woman whose name translates as ‘wobbly boob.’ She throws her breasts over her shoulders to escape! Whatever the truth, a film maker called Will 'Rev' Wright made a short movie 'Wild Hunt' in Suffolk about a man on a quest to investigate the myths. I am featured in the film, which was premiered at Ipswich Film Theatre on Halloween, 2006. You can also hear a song about Black Shuck on the Lowestoft band Darkness' album. Unfortunately they were only able to find one word to rhyme with his name, and it wasn't luck! Great act though. There was also a Border Morris side named after him, who were brilliant, but now sadly disbanded. More recently, I took part in filming a documentary, which should be shown on BBC4 in early summer, 2009; 'Beowulf & Anglo Saxon Poetry' is presented by Michael Wood, and includes contributions by Dr. Sam Newton, Brian Glover and myself.
Long after my own original
researches, I found a wonderful new book on the subject. It even quotes
me!
"Explore Phantom Black
Dogs" (Heart of Albion Press, 2005, 152 pages) is edited by Bob Trubshaw,
and contains chapters by various authors including Alby Stone. It is pretty
comprehensive, and includes analysis of the psychology of the phenomena
as well as the folklore and detailed bibliography. You can obtain it direct
via www.hoap.co.uk ISBN 1-872883-78-8
"The Origins of Beowulf and the Pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia" (Boydell & Brewer, 1993, 182 pages) by Dr. Sam Newton. ISBN 0859914720
"Wild Hunt" film by Will 'Rev' Wright (Film Tribe, 2006, 24 minutes) can be seen for free at http://www.vimeo.com/2029339
For a wider view of sources of wild hunt legends across
Europe and elsewhere see
“The Folklore of the Wild Hunt and the Furious
Host” by Kveldulf Hagen Gundarsson, from Mountain Thunder, Issue 7,
Winter 1992. Available at http://www.vinland.org/heathen/mt/wildhunt.htm