Black Shuck part four is out today in Prog 1894. Written by us, with pencils and inks by Steve Yeowell, colours by Chris Blythe, and letters by Simon Bowland.
BLACK SHUCK // PART FOUR
Scandinavia, 813 AD. A Viking raid on the settlement of Dunwich in East Anglia led to the warrior
known as BLACK SHUCK being captured. But he has washed up at the court of King Ivar the lone
survivor – what terrible calamity befell the others during the sea crossing? Now Shuck has been
dragged into the war between Ivar’s people and the monstrous Jötnar, thanks to a curse…
Order or download 2000 AD 1894 right now. If you have already read it, join us for some very spoliery extras below.
- Track 4 on the Black Shuck soundtrack: Halv King by Behold! The Monolith
What witchcraft indeed? Well, to be honest, you’ve probably guessed the kind by now. Were-beasts! Men who become monsters. And this is all good Viking age stuff as Sabine Baring-Gould‘s 1865 work The Book of Were-Wolves attests in chapter IV: “The Origin of the Scandinavian Were-Wolf“.
Among the old Norse, it was the custom for certain warriors to dress in the skins of the beasts they had slain, and thus to give themselves an air of ferocity, calculated to strike terror into the hearts of their foes.
Such dresses are mentioned in some Sagas, without there being any supernatural qualities attached to them. For instance, in the Njála there is mention of a man i geitheðni, in goatskin dress. Much in the same way do we hear of Harold Harfagr having in his company a band of berserkir, who were all dressed in wolf-skins, ulfheðnir, and this expression, wolf-skin coated, is met with as a man’s name. Thus in the Holmverja Saga, there is mention of a Björn, “son of Ulfheðin, wolfskin coat, son of Ulfhamr, wolf-shaped, son of Ulf, wolf, son of Ulfhamr, wolf-shaped, who could change forms.”
In like manner the word berserkr, used of a man possessed of superhuman powers, and subject. to accesses of diabolical fury, was originally applied to one of those doughty champions who went about in bear-sarks, or habits made of bear-skin over their armour.
The berserkr was an object of aversion and terror to the peaceful inhabitants of the land, his avocation being to challenge quiet country farmers to single combat. As the law of the land stood in Norway, a man who declined to accept a challenge, forfeited all his possessions, even to the wife of his bosom, as a poltroon unworthy of the protection of the law, and every item of his property passed into the hands of his challenger. The berserkr accordingly had the unhappy man at his mercy. If he slew him, the farmer’s possessions became his, and if the poor fellow declined to fight, he lost all legal right to his inheritance. A berserkr would invite himself to any feast, and contribute his quota to the hilarity of the entertainment, by snapping the backbone, or cleaving the skull, of some merrymaker who incurred his displeasure, or whom he might single out to murder, for no other reason than a desire to keep his hand in practice.
It may well be imagined that popular superstition went along with the popular dread of these wolf-and-bear-skinned rovers, and that they were believed to be endued with the force, as they certainly were with the ferocity, of the beasts whose skins they wore.
Nor would superstition stop there, but the imagination of the trembling peasants would speedily invest these unscrupulous disturbers of the public peace with the attributes hitherto appropriated to trolls and jötuns.
No fact in connection with the history of the Northmen is more firmly established, on reliable evidence, than that of the berserkr rage being a species of diabolical possession. The berserkir were said to work themselves up into a state of frenzy, in which a demoniacal power came over them, impelling them to acts from which in their sober senses they would have recoiled. They acquired superhuman force, and were as invulnerable and as insensible to pain as the Jansenist convulsionists of S. Medard. No sword would wound them, no fire would barn them, a club alone could destroy them, by breaking their bones, or crushing in their skulls. Their eyes glared as though a flame burned in the sockets, they ground their teeth, and frothed at the mouth; they gnawed at their shield rims, and are said to have sometimes bitten them through, and as they rushed into conflict they yelped as dogs or howled as wolves.
It may be accepted as an axiom, that no superstition of general acceptance is destitute of a foundation of truth; and if we discover the myth of the were-wolf to be widely spread, not only throughout Europe, but through the whole world, we may rest assured that there is a solid core of fact, round which popular superstition has crystallized; and that fact is the existence of a species of madness, during the accesses of which the person afflicted believes himself to be a wild beast, and acts like a wild beast.
In some cases this madness amounts apparently to positive possession, and the diabolical acts into which the possessed is impelled are so horrible, that the blood curdles in reading them, and it is impossible to recall them without a shudder.
Dragur? What’s a Dragur? Years and years ago I used to write for an online magazine all about zombies called Revenant. I wrote an article called “The Zombie in Folklore, Myth and Legend” for them which has long since disappeared off the internet. In the piece I wrote a bit about Scandinavian folklore pertaining to the undead:
Aptrgang (meaning “after goer”) is a word from Norse mythology describing the reanimated corpse of a Viking. These creatures (also referred to as draugrs) were said to treat their, often treasure filled, burial mounds (barrows) as a kind of home or base which they protected and resided within most of the time. However, aptrgangs were also fond of wandering and were often encountered out on the road or in the open countryside where they sometimes attacked and killed livestock and unwary travellers. It is not entirely clear if aptrgangs were supposed to be literal undead versions of their previous selves or if they were the product of some supernatural presence that entered the corpse after the prior owner’s essence had gone but, they are often depicted as harbouring feelings of hatred and jealousy towards the living. When mentioned in the Icelandic sagas aptrgangs are often descried as being hel-blár (“black/blue as death”) or ná-folr (“corpse-pale”) with enormous strength.
It is worth noting that Aptrgangs are not the only undead creatures mentioned in Norse mythology, there were also haugbuis (from haugr meaning “howe” or “barrow”), for example; much less bothersome than the draugrs, they remained within the confines of their tombs unless disturbed by trespassers or grave robbers.
The undead were (and are) very real to many people in Scandinavia and certain practices have long been employed to guard against the unwelcome return of loved ones. One such custom is to have a bricked up doorway in one’s home which is opened up only in order for an occupied coffin to pass outward through it. The “corpse door” would then be bricked up again so that, should he or she be re-animated, the deceased could not retrace their final journey and re-enter the house in the same manner they had exited it. To this day coffins are still carried feet first for the same reason; so that the person within may not have a clear view of the path taken to their burial and therefore easily retrace the journey to its source.
(That last paragraph is not really relevant but I left it in just because I though it was quite interesting.)
So then, berserkir and Dragur; make a note, and get ready for Black Shuck part five next week!