The Grim, Church Grimm or Kyrkogrim is a spectre in Scandinavian and British folklore that is said to haunt Graveyards. Each Grim would have its own graveyard because it was the spirit of a dog who would have been the first being to be buried there. This was done because of the belief that the soul or spirit of the first being buried in a graveyard would stay there to protect it from the devil. Instead of the soul of a person being made to linger eternally an animal, usually a dog, was buried instead.
It was once a common rural belief that churchyards were guarded against the devil by the church grim, a spirit that sometimes materialised as a black dog [2]
There are many different variations of this belief and they often blend and mix with other folklore and folk tales about black dogs and hell hounds.
1. Image source: SpookHound
2. A companion to the Folklore, Myths and Customs of Britain
