Church Grim

Referenced in 1 episode

Definition

A guardian spirit from English and Scandinavian folklore, often appearing as a black dog, said to protect a churchyard from the devil and from grave robbers. Legend holds that the first animal buried in a new cemetery becomes its grim.

Related episodes

S2 Ep37: The Old Man on the Gravestone

Astonishing LegendsOct 6, 2026

Astonishing Legends host Corey recounts a true story from 2000, when he was an overnight Top 40 radio host in Omaha, Nebraska, and a call-in segment about haunted places kept pointing to one private family cemetery. He sent a carload of listeners there on a Friday night to report live on air, and days later the cemetery's caretakers called his boss. From there the story grew stranger, touching on church grims, death figures like the Ankou and the Grim Reaper, and classic apparition research.

FS 6