Black Annis

Black Annis

Black Annis is another version of the crone character in English folklore, in the form of a witch, something like Jenny Greenteeth, however, she does not live in the water. Black Annis resembles the story of a kind of bogeyman, except naturally female. Black Annis lives, according to English legends, in a cave somewhere in the Dane Hills. She mainly haunts the Leicestershire countryside, particularly hungry for the taste of a child’s flesh, but also is known to eat young sheep, or lambs, and other baby farm animals. She is described in stories from the region as being blue, ancient looking and very old, and as having long claws, made out of iron, or iron claws that grew there naturally.

At night, she goes out prowling the glens and farmhouses nearby, searching for food; lambs and children. After Black Annis has eaten the young animal or child, she hangs their skin from a belt around her waist. According to the traditions of the area, the farmhouses in Leicestershire were built with tiny windows. Namely because Black Annis had long arms, or was very tall; she could reach into the homes of farmers, and snatch children right out of their beds. Another legend of the area states the Black Annis’s claws were so sharp, that she was able to climb a sandstone cliff, and hollow out a cave, using her claws to cut away the rock. The cave in the cliff is known as Black Annis’s Bower.

Some sources claim that the legend of Black Annis came from stories that surrounded a hermit from the fifteenth century, known as Agnes Scott. Other sources claim that Black Annis is from older origin, first appearing perhaps in Celtic mythology, as one of several goddesses such as Aine, Annis, Ana, Anu, Dana and Danu. Black Annis, according to the latter sources, is just a demonised version of one of the previously mentioned goddesses.