Speaker 1: Happy Saturday after we name dropped the Rugaroo and are
Speaker 1: behind the scenes for our Werewolf of Bedburg episode. We
Speaker 1: are replaying our episode on Hellhounds, which is where the
Speaker 1: Rugaroo made a past appearance on the show. This originally
Speaker 1: came out on October twenty eighth, twenty twenty and if
Speaker 1: you're listening to this episode on the day we publish it,
Speaker 1: or even the day after, the rugaroofest that we mentioned
Speaker 1: at the end is going on right now. If that
Speaker 1: sounds fun and interesting. The place to get more information
Speaker 1: is still at Rugaroofest dot org. Who wouldn't want to
Speaker 1: be in the New Orleans and Homa, Louisiana area right now,
Speaker 1: but hopefully you'll check it out. Enjoy. Welcome to Stuff
Speaker 1: You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frye and I'm
Speaker 1: Tracy V. Wilson. Crazy. It's almost Halloween. I know it's
Speaker 1: the best week of the year, so this seems like
Speaker 1: a really good time to talk about sort of a
Speaker 1: version of something that I think we've been tiptoeing around
Speaker 1: for a while, which is dogs, specifically demon dogs. I
Speaker 1: swear I do want to do a domestication of dogs
Speaker 1: episode at some point, but there's a lot and they're
Speaker 1: constantly finding new things, so I keep getting scared off. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and a weird coincidence. This morning, I tweeted something about
Speaker 1: how basically needing to do an episode about something lighter,
Speaker 1: even though my episodes lately have been pretty fun, just
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of stress and chaos happening in
Speaker 1: the world right now, and somebody replied that maybe we
Speaker 1: could do a history of puppies, and I'm like, this
Speaker 1: is almost that kind of and right, I want to
Speaker 1: acknowledge it. For some people, dogs are just scary. Not
Speaker 1: everybody likes dogs, but there's a reason for that, right.
Speaker 1: This is a fear that has been part of many
Speaker 1: cultures for centuries, including dog from the nether World, which
Speaker 1: go all the way back to the three headed Cerberus
Speaker 1: who guarded the gates of the underworld in Greek mythology.
Speaker 1: But today, as we inch closer to Halloween, I thought
Speaker 1: it would be fun to talk about three of the many,
Speaker 1: many supernatural canines and hell hounds that have lengthy histories
Speaker 1: in our collective storytelling. And the first two of these
Speaker 1: are very closely related. They're both based in England, and
Speaker 1: really the second of them makes up the bulk of
Speaker 1: the episode. Now the last one is a North American creature,
Speaker 1: and it's just incredibly charming and fun. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: it's a little bit thematically different than the other two,
Speaker 1: but I thought it would be a good upbeat place
Speaker 1: to land, particularly, you know, these are fraught times. It's
Speaker 1: been a rough year. I love Halloween and creepiness and
Speaker 1: being scared as much as anyone, but gosh, it's also
Speaker 1: great to laugh if we can, so we'll try for
Speaker 1: a little bit of that. And there are of course
Speaker 1: loads more demon dog myths throughout the world, so odds
Speaker 1: are really really good that this is the start of
Speaker 1: a perhaps a Halloween series, and next Halloween will do
Speaker 1: more and perhaps more geographically and culturally varied. I have
Speaker 1: a list started already for that. But if you have
Speaker 1: stuff you want to send us, you can do it.
Speaker 1: But right now we're going to talk about some hell hounds.
Speaker 1: Sounds like a potential Halloween version of Crampus and Friends,
Speaker 1: which has been a winter holiday staple. That is kind
Speaker 1: of the thinking nice. So first up is the bar
Speaker 1: gest the dog that is part of Northern England's folklore
Speaker 1: tradition and is normally associated with Yorkshire, sometimes described as
Speaker 1: a goblin or a ghost, and I wanted to mention
Speaker 1: the bar Guest in part because of an interesting coincidence
Speaker 1: that happened recently on the show. So I was already
Speaker 1: working on this episode for a while, and when I
Speaker 1: started working on our recent bram Stoker episode, I had
Speaker 1: already been kind of doing prelium work on this, and
Speaker 1: then unexpectedly the bar Guest showed up while I was
Speaker 1: doing bram Stoker research. In that episode, we mentioned that
Speaker 1: a ship that had run aground near Whidby had served
Speaker 1: as the inspiration for the ship that transported Dracula from
Speaker 1: Transylvania to London. And one of the details which we
Speaker 1: mentioned that was shared by locals with bram Stoker when
Speaker 1: he was doing his research was that a black dog
Speaker 1: had emerged from the hold of directship and run off,
Speaker 1: and that dog was believed by some people in the
Speaker 1: community to have been the bar guest. So the bar
Speaker 1: Guest is described as a huge dog and its teeth
Speaker 1: are large and prominent. There are a couple of things
Speaker 1: that set him apart from another so called hell hound
Speaker 1: that we are about to talk about. The bar guest
Speaker 1: is not always described as being black. Sometimes he's gray.
Speaker 1: But beyond that, this dog sometimes is described as a
Speaker 1: shape shifter, including sometimes appearing headless. If you see a
Speaker 1: bar guest, that means you are going to die soon.
Speaker 1: If you only catch a glimpse of it, your death
Speaker 1: might take a little longer to arrive. Yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: like this would create a whole community of people that
Speaker 1: hear dog noise and clamp their eyes shut. But in
Speaker 1: terms of the written record, a lot of the more
Speaker 1: persistent qualities of the bar guest story and its legend
Speaker 1: seemed to come from the book Notes on the Folklore
Speaker 1: of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders. That
Speaker 1: book was written by William Henderson in eighteen seventy nine,
Speaker 1: and in this collection of folk tales that he kind
Speaker 1: of gathered oral recollection from people and wrote it down,
Speaker 1: Henderson shares more details about the bar guest as a
Speaker 1: harbinger of death. So he writes, quote on the death
Speaker 1: of any person of local importance in the neighborhood, the
Speaker 1: creature would come forth a large black dog with flaming
Speaker 1: eyes as big as saucers, followed by all the dogs
Speaker 1: of the place, howling and barking. If anyone came its way,
Speaker 1: the bar guest would strike out with its paw and
Speaker 1: inflict on man or beast a wound which would never heal.
Speaker 1: My informant, a Yorkshire gentleman lately deceased, said he perfectly
Speaker 1: remembered the terror experienced when he was a child at
Speaker 1: beholding this procession before the death of a certain Squire
Speaker 1: Wade of new Grange. Henderson also put in writing some
Speaker 1: details about the bar guests shape shifting that have persisted,
Speaker 1: writing quote, A friend informs me that glasen Zykes, near Darlington,
Speaker 1: is haunted by a bar guest, which assumes at will
Speaker 1: the form of a headless man who disappears in flame,
Speaker 1: a headless lady, a white cat, rabbit or dog, or
Speaker 1: a black dog. So many things. The bar guests can
Speaker 1: be whatever it wants. The bar guest legend is popular
Speaker 1: enough that you might have bumped into it before if
Speaker 1: you've read Roald Dalls the Witches, or played the Witch
Speaker 1: or video game or Forgotten Realms or Dungeons and Dragons,
Speaker 1: or engaged with any number of other entertainment options you
Speaker 1: might have crossed paths with mentions of it. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it comes up in the Lord of the Rings
Speaker 1: game online. The bar guest is everywhere part of it.
Speaker 1: It's because it's just a fun word to say. But
Speaker 1: the bar guest is also hardly the only hell dog
Speaker 1: of Great Britain. There have been many, many names for
Speaker 1: very similar beings. So there's the capaldweight, trash striker or
Speaker 1: shriker you'll sometimes see. There's the Welsh counanon and the
Speaker 1: Isle of Man's mouta d'Or. But perhaps the most famous
Speaker 1: alternate to the bar guest name is the iteration of
Speaker 1: this English hell hound that we are going to talk
Speaker 1: about next, and who actually started this episode because I
Speaker 1: love saying this name black shuck. Yes. So. In fifteen
Speaker 1: seventy seven, Abraham Fleming wrote an account of an event
Speaker 1: at the parish church in a town near Norwich that
Speaker 1: created a version of this English legend that still persists
Speaker 1: until today. That account was titled and just Buckle Up
Speaker 1: because it is one of the one of those one
Speaker 1: of the titles we love so much. The title was
Speaker 1: a strange and terrible wonder wrought very late in the
Speaker 1: parish church of bon Game, a town of no great
Speaker 1: distance from the city of Norwich, namely the fourth of
Speaker 1: this August, in year of our Lord, fifteen seventy seven,
Speaker 1: in a great tempest of violent rain, lightning and thunder,
Speaker 1: the like whereof hath been seldom seen, with the appearance
Speaker 1: of an horrible shaped things sensibly perceived of the people
Speaker 1: then and there assembled drawn into a plain method according
Speaker 1: to the written copy by Abraham Fleming, in addition to
Speaker 1: the length art, just all the delightful spellings that are
Speaker 1: coming on. I even cleaned that up a little bit
Speaker 1: to make it easier. We've taught. We did our whole
Speaker 1: episode about you know, grammar and spelling and how things evolve.
Speaker 1: And this is a case where Fleming had his own flourish,
Speaker 1: particularly when it came to vowels. There's actually some comparative
Speaker 1: writing in other pieces where people are trying to f
Speaker 1: you're out if it's Fleming and they start talking about
Speaker 1: he kind of does that same weird spelling here. This
Speaker 1: might be the same right here, because those things were
Speaker 1: not codified yet. So this pamphlet with that incredibly long
Speaker 1: name actually tells the tale of two appearances of a
Speaker 1: large black dog The first is at Saint Mary's Church
Speaker 1: in Bongay on a day during services when there was
Speaker 1: an intense thunderstorm, and in the pamphlet it is written
Speaker 1: that the quote whole church was so darkened yeay, with
Speaker 1: such palpable darkness that one person could not perceive another.
Speaker 1: Then during this storm their quote appeared in a most
Speaker 1: horrible similitude and likeness, a dog of a black color.
Speaker 1: This dog, according to Fleming's story, was so terrifying that
Speaker 1: it made the parishioners think that Doomsday had arrived. The
Speaker 1: dog ran between two people who were praying and wrung
Speaker 1: both of their necks, but killed them while they were praying.
Speaker 1: The dog also bit another man, leaving scorch marks. That
Speaker 1: man survived. The steeple of the church was struck by lightning,
Speaker 1: and the mysterious dog disappeared, leaving behind only claw marks
Speaker 1: in the pavers and the door of the church. But
Speaker 1: this was, as we mentioned, only one church that experienced
Speaker 1: a terrifying canine visit that day. The dog also appeared
Speaker 1: at Holy Trinity Church about seven miles away in a
Speaker 1: town called Blitheburg. Fleming described it this way, quote the
Speaker 1: like thing entered in the same shape and similitude, where
Speaker 1: placing himself on a main bulk or beam, whereon sometime
Speaker 1: the rude did stand. Suddenly he gave a swing down
Speaker 1: through the church, and there also, as before, slew two
Speaker 1: men and a lad, and burned the hand of another
Speaker 1: person that was among the rest of the company, of
Speaker 1: whom divers were blasted. This mischief thus wrought, he flew
Speaker 1: with wonderful force to not little fear of the assembly
Speaker 1: out of the church in a hideous and hellish likeness. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So in both cases, giant, terrifying black dog arrives, kills
Speaker 1: a couple of people, injures some others, and vanishes. And
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the way that this story
Speaker 1: took on a life of its own in just a moment.
Speaker 1: But first we will pause and have a sponsor break.
Speaker 1: Fleming's write up about the fiendish dog who attacked the
Speaker 1: churches is the start of a century's long tradition of
Speaker 1: stories about that dog, who was eventually named black Shuck
Speaker 1: as the story was passed down. We'll talk about the
Speaker 1: first time that name appears in writing in a moment.
Speaker 1: When Fleming wrote this account, he was an editor and
Speaker 1: publisher who went on to become an ordained minister. And
Speaker 1: this document, which has come to be known sort of
Speaker 1: casually as the Wonder Pamphlet, is just as much a
Speaker 1: sermon as it is a report of a dog attack.
Speaker 1: It includes passages early on in it about this whole
Speaker 1: thing being a warning not to stray from fate. He wrote, quote,
Speaker 1: God warneth by signs from heaven, by fiery appearances from
Speaker 1: the air, by wonders wrought on earth, strange and unusual.
Speaker 1: There is also language in the pamphlet about how man
Speaker 1: has engaged in all manner of ungodly behaviors, and then
Speaker 1: it tells these dog stories, and then it concludes with
Speaker 1: a prayer. So this appears to be a scenario where
Speaker 1: Fleming is reporting these events based on news that someone
Speaker 1: else had relayed to him for when there's no way
Speaker 1: he could have been in both of those churches where
Speaker 1: the appearances happened one after the other for another. His
Speaker 1: first printing of the Wonder Pamphlet, and the detail of
Speaker 1: the church door being marked by the beast's clause was
Speaker 1: attributed to the wrong location, and he corrected it later
Speaker 1: on in subsequent printings. Because Fleming later became a minister.
Speaker 1: It seems that when people have referenced his work, there's
Speaker 1: been some timeline confusion, and they characterized the writer as
Speaker 1: a clergyman who was working at one of these churches
Speaker 1: where it allegedly happened. He was not a clergyman at
Speaker 1: all yet at the time, definitely not one working at
Speaker 1: one of these churches. No, he was a publishing man
Speaker 1: living in London. What did happen though, was that this
Speaker 1: pamphlet was put into circulation very soon after the thunderstorm
Speaker 1: of August fourth, fifteen seventy seven, which was a real
Speaker 1: thunderstorm that's documented. I mean, it was a very popular pamphlet.
Speaker 1: It seems a lot of people believed those stories in
Speaker 1: it about the dog attacks, and while still working in publishing,
Speaker 1: so before he became ordained, Fleming had the second part
Speaker 1: of this story published in the Holland Shed Chronicles, with
Speaker 1: one notable exception which we'll talk about in just a moment,
Speaker 1: so for context. Holland Shed's Chronicles was a large collaborative
Speaker 1: history of the British Isles that was initiated as a
Speaker 1: project by printer Rayner Wolf in the late fifteen forties.
Speaker 1: The multi volume work was first published in fifteen seventy seven.
Speaker 1: Then in fifteen eighty seven a much and an update
Speaker 1: was published under the stewardship of Abraham Fleming. So even
Speaker 1: a decade after this first writing, Fleming was still writing
Speaker 1: about that thunderstorm. Additionally, by this point Fleming had plenty
Speaker 1: of clout he was considered an expert on that particular storm.
Speaker 1: Hollandshed's Chronicles was considered an important source of historical information,
Speaker 1: and it was famously used as a source by writers
Speaker 1: like Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. So you might think
Speaker 1: that the inclusion of the black dog story in this
Speaker 1: chronicle is really going to cement it as sort of
Speaker 1: settled history at the time, But in fact there is
Speaker 1: no mention of the dog in this account. So this
Speaker 1: is the version as it appears in Hollandshed's On Sunday,
Speaker 1: the fourth of August, between the hours of nine and
Speaker 1: ten o'clock in the forenoon, whilst the minister was reading
Speaker 1: of the Second Lesson in the parish church of Blithsburg,
Speaker 1: a town in Suffolk, a strange and terrible tempest of
Speaker 1: lightning and thunder strike through the wall of the same
Speaker 1: church into the around a yard deep, drove down all
Speaker 1: the people on that side above twenty persons, then renting
Speaker 1: the wall up to the vestra, cleft the door, and
Speaker 1: returning to the steeple, rent the timber, break the chimes,
Speaker 1: and fled toward Bongay, a town six miles off. The
Speaker 1: people that were stricken down were found groveling more than
Speaker 1: half an hour after, whereof one man more than forty
Speaker 1: years and a boy of fifteen years were found stark dead.
Speaker 1: The other were scorched. The same or like flash of
Speaker 1: lightning and cracks of thunder that rent the parish church
Speaker 1: of Bongay, nine miles from Norwich, rung as under the
Speaker 1: wires and wheels of the clocks, and slew two men
Speaker 1: which sat in the belfry when the other were at
Speaker 1: the procession of suffrages, and scorched another which hardly escaped.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting that the deaths and injuries are mentioned here,
Speaker 1: but they're attributed simply to lightning strikes and not the
Speaker 1: sudden appearance of a hellish dog. And there are records
Speaker 1: that indicate that those deaths and injuries did in fact happen.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's totally within the realm of possibility that
Speaker 1: if lightning strikes the steeple of a church, people inside
Speaker 1: may be killed, but there's just no reference at all
Speaker 1: to a dog causing them, So maybe the decision was
Speaker 1: made to remove that flourish of the Hellish canine In
Speaker 1: later years, and again going to the church records, there
Speaker 1: is a mention that there was a payment made to
Speaker 1: a professional dog whipper named John Hines quote for whipping
Speaker 1: dogs out of the church at prayer time on the
Speaker 1: day of the storm. This was actually a profession. People
Speaker 1: would bring their dogs and sometimes the dogs would get unruly,
Speaker 1: and they would keep professional dog whippers on hand. This
Speaker 1: sounds horrible and I don't like it, but they would
Speaker 1: get the dogs out of the church so that the
Speaker 1: proceedings could go on. So it's possible that the original
Speaker 1: write up of the story, again probably relayed to Fleming
Speaker 1: by someone else not witnessed by him, conflated some events,
Speaker 1: that there was an unruly dog in the church that
Speaker 1: had to be forcibly removed, and that separately lightning strikes
Speaker 1: killed several people and injured others. Despite that change in
Speaker 1: the later version of the story that Fleming edited the
Speaker 1: legend of the Suffolk appearances of the dog, which might
Speaker 1: have been a demon, was established, and that story persisted.
Speaker 1: So to be clear, this was certainly not the first
Speaker 1: account in England of a terrifying black dog that was
Speaker 1: characterized as supernatural. Dating back to some time between the
Speaker 1: eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Anglo Saxon Chronicle included the
Speaker 1: sighting by multiple witnesses of a pack of black dogs
Speaker 1: quote with eyes like saucers and horrible running through the woods.
Speaker 1: In this case, the dogs weren't alone, but they appeared
Speaker 1: to be on a hunt that was led by mysterious men. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's another version of the story, these wild hunts. So
Speaker 1: the name black shuck first appeared in the eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: and then it seems to have been applied retroactively to
Speaker 1: a lot of these stories. It first came up in
Speaker 1: writing by Red and E. S. Taylor in eighteen fifty,
Speaker 1: and he wrote about it in the periodical Notes and Queries,
Speaker 1: Quote this phantom. I have heard many persons in East
Speaker 1: Norfolk and even Cambridgeshire described as having seen a black,
Speaker 1: shaggy dog with fiery eyes and of immense size, and
Speaker 1: who visits churchyards at midnight. One witness nearly fainted away
Speaker 1: at seeing it, and on bringing his neighbors to see
Speaker 1: the place where he saw it, he found a large
Speaker 1: spot as if gunpowder had been exploded. There. A laine
Speaker 1: in the parish of Overstrand is said is called after
Speaker 1: him Shuck's Lane. The name appears to be a corruption
Speaker 1: of shag as Shucky is the Norfolk dialect for shaggy.
Speaker 1: Is not this a vestige of the German dog fiend?
Speaker 1: The other frequently cited mention of black Shuck is one
Speaker 1: that was written in nineteen oh one, and this time
Speaker 1: the legend kind of gets another upgrade this go around,
Speaker 1: in the form of black Shuck's appearance being important of death.
Speaker 1: Our guest had been associated with as a death porton,
Speaker 1: but this is where black Shuck kind of comes in
Speaker 1: with that same association. This was written by William Dutt
Speaker 1: in a book that was titled Highways and Byways in
Speaker 1: East Anglia. And this is kind of a lengthy excerpt,
Speaker 1: so because I want to include all of the ways
Speaker 1: that he kind of solidifies this legend. So Tracy and
Speaker 1: I are going to take turns with it. So it
Speaker 1: starts quote, if this were a stormy night instead of
Speaker 1: a stormy day, the old fisherfolk of the coast would
Speaker 1: say it were just the time for black Shuck to
Speaker 1: be abroad, for he revels in the roaring of the waves,
Speaker 1: and loves to raise his awful voice above the howling
Speaker 1: of the gale. He takes the form of a huge
Speaker 1: black dog and prowls along dark lanes and lonesome field footpaths,
Speaker 1: where although his howling makes the hearers blood run cold,
Speaker 1: his footfalls make no sound. That's such a great turn
Speaker 1: of phrase. This passage goes on. You may know him
Speaker 1: at once, should you see him by his fiery eye.
Speaker 1: He has but one, and that, like the cyclops, is
Speaker 1: in the middle of his head. But such an encounter
Speaker 1: might bring you the worst of luck. It is said
Speaker 1: that to meet him is to be warned that your
Speaker 1: death will occur before the end of the year. So
Speaker 1: this ends quote. So you will do well to shut
Speaker 1: your eyes if you hear him howling. Shut them, even
Speaker 1: if you are uncertain whether it is the dog fiend
Speaker 1: or the voice of the wind you hear. Should you
Speaker 1: never set eyes on our norfolk snarl yaw, you may
Speaker 1: perhaps doubt his existence, And like other learned folks tell
Speaker 1: us that his story is nothing but the old Scandinavian
Speaker 1: myth of the black Hound of Odin, brought to us
Speaker 1: by the Vikings who long ago settled down on the
Speaker 1: Norfolk coast. Scoffers at black Shuck there have been in plenty,
Speaker 1: but now and again one of them has come home
Speaker 1: late on a dark stormy night, with terror written large
Speaker 1: on his ashen face, and after that night he has
Speaker 1: scoffed no more. Such a good little write up. As
Speaker 1: the years have gone on, things have kind of reached
Speaker 1: a point, or at this point, you could go to
Speaker 1: any number of towns and communities in England and find
Speaker 1: an assortment of location specific sightings of black Shuck that
Speaker 1: are part of local lore. Just kind of scrolling around
Speaker 1: through the Internet, I found so many that are, like, yes,
Speaker 1: black Shuck visits this one bridge in our town, every
Speaker 1: you know, fortnite or whatever, Like every town seems to
Speaker 1: have some variation of it. Coming up, we will talk
Speaker 1: about some modern developments of the black Shuck legend, but
Speaker 1: first we will hear from some of the sponsors that
Speaker 1: keep Stuffy missed in history class going. There are, as
Speaker 1: we mentioned before the break, some interesting modern events in
Speaker 1: the Black Shuck story, including one that started in twenty
Speaker 1: fourteen with the announcement of an archaeological find. Now this
Speaker 1: news broke via the UK paper The Daily Mail, which
Speaker 1: is known to publish some less carefully vetted stories. On
Speaker 1: May fifteenth, twenty fourteen, it ran a story with the
Speaker 1: headline is this the skeleton of legendary devil dog black Shuck,
Speaker 1: who terrorized sixteenth century East Anglia. Folklore tells of seven
Speaker 1: foot hellhound with flaming eyes. I was curious and I
Speaker 1: went to see if we had talked about this in
Speaker 1: the twenty fourteen edition of Unearthed. We had not, probably
Speaker 1: because I don't source Unearthed from the Daily Mail. I
Speaker 1: checked as well, and I was I had the exact
Speaker 1: same thought process. It's like this would never show up
Speaker 1: in Tracy's notes. So this story leads the reader to
Speaker 1: the possibility that this archaeology team may have found the
Speaker 1: remains of this legendary hellhound. It includes the following text quote.
Speaker 1: It was discovered a few miles from two churches where
Speaker 1: black Shuck is said to have killed worshippers during an
Speaker 1: almighty thunderstorm in August fifteen, seventy seven. What's more, it
Speaker 1: appears to have been in a shallow grave at precisely
Speaker 1: the same time as Shuck is said to have been
Speaker 1: on the loose, primarily around Suffolk and the East Anglia region.
Speaker 1: This article then goes on to mention that testing of
Speaker 1: the remains will determine if they are indeed from the
Speaker 1: correct time period to ascertain whether it is the dog
Speaker 1: from Fleming's Tail. And of course this got picked up
Speaker 1: by other news outlets and it's spread really really quickly,
Speaker 1: and it is fun to think about the possibility that
Speaker 1: there's physical evidence for something that has only been legend.
Speaker 1: But if you've ever wondered what happens to the archaeologists
Speaker 1: involved when a story like this breaks, here is your
Speaker 1: chance to find out. Brendan Wilkins, the project director at
Speaker 1: the group dig Ventures that conducted the dig, wrote a
Speaker 1: post on the dig Venture site about the experience and
Speaker 1: the sensationalism of the work that he and his team
Speaker 1: did in October. He wrote it in October. Their team
Speaker 1: was doing work earlier, but the post that he wrote
Speaker 1: was published in October twenty fourteen. So that post begins
Speaker 1: like this quote. As I scanned the headlines that fateful morning,
Speaker 1: I felt a chill go down my spine and my
Speaker 1: blood run cold. I read, re read, then read it again,
Speaker 1: shaking with disbelief as a terrifying and sinister thought began
Speaker 1: to emerge. They were talking about us. We were in
Speaker 1: the Daily Mail. As an archaeological projects director, I pride
Speaker 1: myself on being on the right side of what's loftily
Speaker 1: known as the public understanding of science. So reading about
Speaker 1: the quote seven foot hell hound with flaming eyes we
Speaker 1: had apparently discover at Lyston Abbey knocked me for six
Speaker 1: How on earth did this happen? How could we contain it?
Speaker 1: And was this the end of any shred of archaeological
Speaker 1: credibility I would ever have. It was very illuminating to
Speaker 1: read his very honest account of his reaction. That find,
Speaker 1: as he mentioned, happened at Lyston Abbey, which is a
Speaker 1: bit less than seven miles from the second church that
Speaker 1: was terrorized in the Fleming account from fifteen seven twenty seven. Specifically,
Speaker 1: these remains were found while they were excavating what had
Speaker 1: once been a monastery kitchen building there. The dog's burial
Speaker 1: definitely postdated the monastery's use, although when that burial happened
Speaker 1: was unclear, but in his post Wilkins states that he
Speaker 1: never thought these were the bones of black shuck, and
Speaker 1: that really the more exciting finds of archaeology are not
Speaker 1: in the dig but in the analysis later. He then
Speaker 1: shares what he learned about this dog. It was seventy
Speaker 1: two centimeters tall at the shoulder, that's very roughly about
Speaker 1: two and a third feet. He compares it to the
Speaker 1: size of a Great Dane or a mastiff, and because
Speaker 1: the dog had worn teeth and an arthritic ankle, it
Speaker 1: appears to have lived for a long life. They weren't
Speaker 1: able to conclusively date the sample. They got three different
Speaker 1: date ranges as possibilities, all of them well after fifteen
Speaker 1: seventy seven. They were between sixteen fifteen and sixteen ninety.
Speaker 1: Seventeen thirty and eighteen ten are sometime after nineteen twenty.
Speaker 1: Wilkins writes that quote, far from being the final resting
Speaker 1: place of a bloodthirsty hell hound, it was clear that
Speaker 1: our dog skeleton had been laid to rest with care
Speaker 1: and consideration. So the more likely scenario here is that
Speaker 1: it was a working dog that was essentially retired, and
Speaker 1: unlike many working dogs, it was lovingly cared for long
Speaker 1: after this dog would have been able to do its job.
Speaker 1: Wilkins states things very plainly quote, were these the bones
Speaker 1: of a seven foot hell hound with flaming eyes? Unequivocally no.
Speaker 1: Though dig venture may not have found the infamous Suffolk
Speaker 1: hell hound, there have been some efforts to track the
Speaker 1: black dogs, not just of England but throughout Europe. In
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, as part of a project called Public Archaeology
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, researcher Nick Stone started plotting out a map
Speaker 1: of the various sightings of black Shuck, the Barguest, and
Speaker 1: other manifestations of this black dog myth. The Public Archaeology
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen project's mission to quote undertake a year of
Speaker 1: public engagement, led equally by archaeologists and non archaeologists, aimed
Speaker 1: solely at the creation of public engagement with archaeology, where
Speaker 1: the definitions of all central terms remain open to debate
Speaker 1: for the duration of the project. So they didn't want
Speaker 1: to necessarily like end up with a bunch of papers
Speaker 1: at the end, but they wanted to get people interested
Speaker 1: in how archaeology worked and how it could be something
Speaker 1: that everyone engages with. So participants submitted proposals for projects.
Speaker 1: Twelve were chosen, six by non archaeologists and six by archaeologists,
Speaker 1: and this was one of those projects. Stone's map is
Speaker 1: interactive and when you click on one of the points,
Speaker 1: a pop up of the story linked to that spot appears.
Speaker 1: They sorted the sightings by color, with singular dogs represented
Speaker 1: with red, wear creatures in blue, shape shifters that fall
Speaker 1: outside of the werewolf moon myth as purple, and wild
Speaker 1: hunt dogs in dark green. So looking at this map,
Speaker 1: it does seem like the idea of the singular demon
Speaker 1: dog roaming the country is most popular in Britain and Ireland,
Speaker 1: and other types spread throughout Europe. It's very fun, and
Speaker 1: that is based on oral history. It's not like doing
Speaker 1: the dig down of like, was this a plausible story? Oh? Sure,
Speaker 1: collected stories. Yeah. So. Our last entry, as we mentioned
Speaker 1: at the top of the episode, is a little bit
Speaker 1: of a departure from Blackshuck and the Bar Guest, and
Speaker 1: it is in southern Louisiana because Cajun culture has its
Speaker 1: own version of a scary kind of using air quotes. There,
Speaker 1: folklore canine figure the rugaroo is similar to a were wolf,
Speaker 1: usually depicted with a human body and a doghead. And
Speaker 1: this name, of course, if you speak French or into folklore,
Speaker 1: probably sounds familiar, but not quite what you've heard before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's because the French word for were wolf is loo garoo.
Speaker 1: Loop means wolf, and while the origins of the word
Speaker 1: garoo may have suggested that it can change forms, most
Speaker 1: modern translations just punt it straight to werewolf, even without
Speaker 1: the loop part in front of it. It is most
Speaker 1: likely that the story of the werewolf traveled with people
Speaker 1: from France and Acadia as they move south and then
Speaker 1: over time and with usage, the l at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the word became an R. At this point, both
Speaker 1: of these are considered acceptable in the area. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: could hear it said either way. And the origin of
Speaker 1: the rugaroo, like so much folklore, has its roots in
Speaker 1: keeping people in line, and this has grown into a
Speaker 1: number of different legends to scare different groups of people
Speaker 1: with unpleasant consequences for inappropriate behavior. So possibly the oldest
Speaker 1: version of the rugaroo myth is related to lent. The
Speaker 1: story goes that the rugaroo hunts down Catholics who don't
Speaker 1: observe lent or who fall short in their promises to
Speaker 1: give up their vices during that time. According to Jonathan Foray,
Speaker 1: executive director of South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center, there's even
Speaker 1: a tale that if you fail in your lent observances
Speaker 1: for seven consecutive years, you will become a rugaroo yourself.
Speaker 1: And of course, a dog man from the swamps is
Speaker 1: the perfect figure to scare children into doing as they're told.
Speaker 1: Bad behavior equals the rugaroo will come and eat you up.
Speaker 1: Adults and children both have also been encouraged to do
Speaker 1: right by the people in their community lest they be
Speaker 1: cursed and turned into a rugaroo through magic. If that happens,
Speaker 1: the only way to fix it is to transfer that
Speaker 1: curse to someone else, and to do that you would
Speaker 1: have to trick them into cutting you so that your
Speaker 1: rugaroo blood is drawn. But here's why the rugaroo is
Speaker 1: more fun than scary. The best ways to avoid the
Speaker 1: rugaroo making a stop at your house, other than good behavior,
Speaker 1: those always involve math. The rugaroo struggles with counting, but
Speaker 1: is also simultaneously compelled to do it. This idea crops
Speaker 1: up in like vampire mythology. Sometimes so and apparently he
Speaker 1: can count to twelve but not higher than twelve. So
Speaker 1: if you leave thirteen pennies on your doorstep, he'll stop
Speaker 1: and try to count them before he comes in, but
Speaker 1: he'll get superplexed as he tries to make sense of
Speaker 1: how many there are, So you can he just will
Speaker 1: never enter the home because that thirteenth penny just throws
Speaker 1: him for a loop. Just keep starting over. Yeah, it's like, wait,
Speaker 1: I didn't get this right one. I love this story
Speaker 1: so much. If you don't want to stack pennies, you
Speaker 1: can also leave a calender out on your doorstep, because
Speaker 1: apparently the rugaroo will try so hard to count the
Speaker 1: holes in that calender, but of course he loses his
Speaker 1: place every time. Not only are there too many, but
Speaker 1: they're like in a big circle, and keeps starting over
Speaker 1: until he just wanders off at frustration. It seems like
Speaker 1: maybe all of those decades of living in the swamp
Speaker 1: have given him some interesting peccadillos and behaviors. Yeah, as
Speaker 1: far as I I know, I am not a rugaroo,
Speaker 1: but I think I would become frustrated and wander off
Speaker 1: if I tried to count the holes in a colander.
Speaker 1: I would be like, I need a sharpie. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: section this out. If you are as fascinated by the
Speaker 1: rugaroo as i am, you can also attend the annual
Speaker 1: Rugaroo Fest that takes place every year in home A, Louisiana,
Speaker 1: which is just a little bit southwest of New Orleans,
Speaker 1: where storytellers continue to pass on this story through oral
Speaker 1: tradition of the rugaroo, and all proceeds from this festival
Speaker 1: go to the South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center. It is
Speaker 1: normally the last week of October, so happening now as
Speaker 1: we publish this episode, although of course this year in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, things have changed a bit due to the pandemic.
Speaker 1: So there are some fun online activities and if you're
Speaker 1: in the area on Fridays, what they've been doing because
Speaker 1: it is Louisiana, there is delicious food at that festival normally,
Speaker 1: so they started doing a pop up drives through would
Speaker 1: pick up on Fridays of some of the goodies that
Speaker 1: you would normally get at the festival. This Friday, the
Speaker 1: thirtieth is your very last chance. If you are anywhere
Speaker 1: in the area. You can look up the info on
Speaker 1: their website, which is rugaroofest dot org. That's r o
Speaker 1: U g A r o U f E s T
Speaker 1: dot org. I have a friend who loves loves loves
Speaker 1: werewolf myth and legend, and she and I are already
Speaker 1: plotting to attend this next year if it happens, because
Speaker 1: it sounds like the most fun time ever. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just I love it. I love that this is like
Speaker 1: a fun version of a werewolf story. To end, are
Speaker 1: are Halloween programming with because we all need a little
Speaker 1: more fun. Think about that poor rugaroo counting. Part of
Speaker 1: me wants to bring him some flash cards and upgrade
Speaker 1: his knowledge. That's the GARO. Thanks so much for joining
Speaker 1: us on this Saturday. Since this episode is out of
Speaker 1: the archive, if you heard an email address or a
Speaker 1: Facebook RL or something similar over the course of the show,
Speaker 1: that could be obsolete now. Our current email address is
Speaker 1: History podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You can find us
Speaker 1: all over social media at missed Inhistory, and you can
Speaker 1: subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Stuff
Speaker 1: you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.