The Black Dogs of Death

There is another famous legend from St. Peter Port where in 1320 a wicked Bailiff, Gaultier de la Salle, attempted to frame a local farmer with a theft charge, the penalty for which was death, in an effort to stealthe farmer’s land after his execution. The attempt was nearly successful but ultimately backfired, and Gaultier de la Salle was himself hung for his trickery. Since then, on occasion, the dragging of chains has been heard in the streets of the town during the dead of night. Those who look out of their windows to investigate see a large black dog with shaggy hair and glowing red eyes wandering the streets below.

Fact or Legend?

Dogs and wolves were nearly always associated with death in medieval times, because of their tendency to linger around graveyards, execution sites, and the bodies of murder and suicide victims… but with what we know today, why should this be regarded as strange? Why would one not expect a carnivorous animal to be attracted to an area which is abundant in poorly buried dead bodies? The medieval dead were not protected by sealed vaults, powerfully built coffins, and deep resting places which were dug by machinery. As such, bodies would occasionally get dug up by animals in those times. The ‘unclean’ dead, like criminals and suicides, would be especially poorly handled. Such corpses were often buried away from churches, in exactly the type of desolate areas which were the sources of many of these stories. Finally, a murderer who just wanted to escape the scene of the crime, likely working quickly and in darkness, would be very unlikely to hide his victim from the keen noses of predators like wild dogs. Such logic has been applied to refute many vampire legends, and may also explain most of the older Black Dog stories.

However, there have been thousands of personal anecdotes concerning Black Dogs over the years, and many of these stories are from recent times. A quick search of the Internet will quickly uncover many sites which feature modern accounts, written by people who seem legitimately traumatized by their experiences. Even if 99% of such encounters can be explained away, the other 1% is cause for wonder, and something to keep in mind while walking the lonely paths of the British Isles on a dark night.