Raw Head and Bloody Bones: The Terrifying Monster That Haunted Children.

Raw Head & Bloody Bones enjoying a relaxing afternoon in his well…

The north of England is a place of many natural wonders - scenery guaranteed to take the breath away from any traveller; a place to inspire writers and poets… and also a place where things lurk that inspire a gut-twisting fear.

It is such a thing that I will speak of now - an entity so terrifying that its memory travelled across an ocean and found fertile ground in the southern states of America. A creature that dwells in the shadows, awaiting the moment to seize unwary children… a thing called Raw Head and Bloody Bones.

Raw Head and Bloody Bones is also referred to as Rawhead, Tommy Rawhead, or simply Bloody Bones. The term “bloody bones” can be traced back as far as 1548, according to the English dictionary. However, the figure itself was later recorded by the English physician and philosopher John Locke in 1693. He had the following to say on this gruesome legend:

“…used to awe children, and keep them in subjection.”

The name Raw Head and Bloody Bones gives a fairly clear impression of the sort of chap we are dealing with, a walking skeleton, its bones slick with rivulets of red, sticky blood; its head almost without skin, the raw muscular tissue beneath horribly exposed.

In Yorkshire, he was believed to dwell in pools and wells, dragging small children to a watery doom if they dared approach alone. But his name was not confined to England’s northern regions. As far south as Cornwall, we find the legend of Old Bloody Bones in the village of Baldhu, where he was said to inhabit an old knucker hole, lurking in the shadows and waiting for an unsuspecting traveller to stray too close to his domain…

In Somerset folklore, this supernatural blighter was worse still, for he did not limit his nefarious activities to the outdoors. Here, he was said to dwell in cupboards beneath the stairs. If a child were brave - or foolish - enough to peer through a crack in the door or a keyhole, they might glimpse him, perched upon a pile of bones.

Bones of his former child victims.

Young victims who had been caught lying… or perhaps even worse, using bad words.

As I mentioned earlier, Old Rawhead eventually grew tired of tormenting England’s younger generation and decided to try his luck in the “land of opportunity”. I can only assume he hid in the hold of a ship to get there, as no right-minded individual would have rented him a cabin.

Perhaps weary of the notoriously dreary English weather, he made his home in the southern United States, enjoying the balmy climate while inflicting his particular brand of horror upon the local populace. There, he turned his attentions to those possessing what was described as a “wicked tongue” - a worryingly vague offence. He became a particularly troubling figure in African-American folklore.

Our old friend Raw Head has clearly been used as a cautionary tale - to keep children from wandering too close to dangerous places, and to discourage certain taboos, particularly the use of those most notorious bad words - of which I shall not give an example here, dear reader… you can thank me later.

And so, he is clearly not real.

And yet… my wife has just asked me to fetch the broom from beneath the stairs.

Why, then, does my hand tremble so?

I do hope you did not find today’s blog to gory my friend. If you want to support me please consider picking up a copy of Threads of Shadow - a folkloric horror novel told through short stories, available on Amazon stores worldwide. Links to the UK and US editions are below. Or search P A Sheldon.

Until next week -
Stay spooky.‍

Sources

Wikipedia

Locke, John. Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1902 ed.).

Briggs, Katharine (1976). An Encyclopedia of Fairies

www.scarystudies.com/rawhead-and-bloody-bones-rawhead-rex/