Black Annis
Black Annis , also known as Black Agnes , is a bogeyman of British folk tales, traced back to Celtic origins .
Legend
Black Annis is described as a blue-faced old woman with iron-hard claws and a predilection for human, but especially children's, meat. She is also said to have been seen as a cat. She is said to be in particular in Leicestershire , where she lives in a cave in the Dane Hills, a region west of the city of Leicester . The entrance to their den, called Black Annis Bower ("Black Annis' Laube"), is recognizable by an ancient oak. With her iron claws she dug the cave herself. The legend of this cave was first recorded in writing in the 18th century.
During the night, she wanders around in search of unsuspecting children and lambs, which she tears up with her claws and eats, hangs her skin in the trees and later wears them on her belt. It is also said to penetrate houses in order to take prey there. The figure of Black Annis is therefore used by parents as a threatening ghost to make disobedient children obedient.
There is a resemblance to the Welsh Gwrach , the Scottish Gentle Annie and the Irish mythical figures of the Anu , Danu , Banshee and Cailleach . A linguistic connection with Annea , an ancient Gallic mother goddess , is also possible.
However, the historian Ronald Hutton (* 1954) suspects a real person behind the legend, namely Agnes Scott, a medieval hermit and Dominican nun from the Dane Hills, who was reinterpreted as a witch during the Glorious Revolution .
The figure of "Black Annis" was received, among other things, in fiction literature, for example as a figure in the book series The Secrets of Nicholas Flamel .
See also
literature
- Patricia Monaghan: Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines. ABC-CLIO, 2009, ISBN 978-0-313-34989-8 , p. 335. (books.google.at)
- Kate Westwood: Black Annis - Leicester Legend or Widespread Myths? White Dragon, 1998. (whitedragon.org.uk)