Horrific Folklore – Black Annis the Murderous Hag.
Black Annis - Evil Hag or Goodly Nun?
The Dane Hills can be found in the county of Leicestershire, in the English East Midlands. The area is understood to be so named because it was the site of a Viking encampment around 877 AD. Deep within this windswept countryside lies a lonely cave known as Black Annis’ Bower – a place of grim repute, whispered to be the lair of a witch or hag who goes by that name.
Black Annis, also known as Black Agnes or Black Anna, was not merely a lonely old woman trying to eke out a living on the edge of society. Her reputation was such that there are few other entities within English folklore that are considered as deadly and fearsome.
The unfortunate old time witnesses who claimed to have seen this hideous crone described her as a blue-faced hag with claws of iron and a murderous taste for human flesh – most especially the flesh of children. As with so many terrifying beings of folklore, Black Annis was a sort of bogeyman – or, more precisely, bogeywoman – used to terrify any wayward child into good behaviour.
The isolated residents of the Dane Hills would whisper of her emerging from her cave at night and roaming the hills in search of victims. Usually, this would be cattle left out to pasture, but should she stumble upon a cottage, she was said to reach through the window and drag out her victim, carrying them off to her bower.
The legends state that this bower was dug from the cliff by her own hands, tearing into the sandstone with her iron claws. One piece of folklore stated that when Black Annis ground her teeth, the noise of it would carry for miles on the wind – a sign that she was about her dark business – and cottagers would know to lock their doors, shutter their windows, and bank the flames in the fireplace high. It was rumoured that cottages built close to her lair were given small windows, and that the residents would employ a little folk magic, hanging protective herbs over them to keep the hag at bay.
English historian Ronald Hutton has suggested that the legend might stem from a real person, Agnes Scott, a Dominican nun who cared for a community of lepers in the area. It is thought this devout woman dwelt in the cave, and that, over the centuries, memories of her good deeds became warped and corrupted.
Many of the modern conceptions of Black Annis were popularised in a poem by John Heyrick, given in full in County Folklore (1895), an excerpt of which I give below:
’Tis said the soul of mortal man recoiled
To view Black Annis’ eye, so fierce and wild;
Vast talons, foul with human flesh, there grew
In place of hands, and features livid blue
Glared in her visage, whilst her obscene waist
Warm skins of human victims close embraced.
Not without terror they the cave survey,
Where hung the monstrous trophies of her sway;
’Tis said that in the rock large rooms were found,
Scooped with her claws beneath the flinty ground.
It was also supposed that Black Annis could take the form of a monstrous cat, and this led to a local ritual in early spring, where a dead cat would be dragged before a pack of hounds in front of her bower to celebrate the end of winter.
The earliest known written reference to Black Annis comes from an eighteenth-century title deed that referred to a parcel of land as “Black Anny’s Bower Close”, dated 13th–14th May 1764. There is some debate as to the exact location of Black Annis’ cave, though one of the most widely attributed sites is a cave in woodland close to the village of Scraptoft.
Perhaps you, dear friend, will be brave enough to explore these woods, to seek out the cave and venture into that dark recess in the earth. Perhaps you might share your adventure with us, should you return!
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Until next week - stay spooky.
Links
Sources:
mythologyplanet.com
hiddengemsleics.co.uk
Wikipedia
The Leiscester Chronicle
