| “ | There in the forest, where the shadows sway/Lingers Black Annis, closing on her pray/Hands shaped like talons, eyes of smoldering coal/Haunting our nightmares, where she eats them whole. | „ |
| ~ Karliene, " Black Annis" |
So, some more folklore to discuss.
What is the work?[]
English folklore consisting of the many urban legends and mythical beasts beginning from the country's beginnings. Of note, we have a particularly nasty example.
Who is she? What has she done?[]
Black Annis is an ugly hag with a blue face and iron claws as sharp as talons. Black Annis is said to prowl the countryside of Leicestershire where she allegedly lives in a cave somewhere in the Dane Hills. You would know that it would be her home should you see an oak tree in front of it. Annis' history is... sketchy at best. Some scholars believe she originated from a tale about an ancient goddess. Much like other legendary beings like Bloody Mary, some suggest she was based on a real person with the legend becoming expounded upon after their death. Regardless of what her origins her, the one constant is that she is a feared demonic monster who parents tell stories to in order to make them behave.
Annis, as you can imagine, has a taste for human flesh, preferably children. She would steal kids and farm animals, sometimes even reaching into houses to grab her din dins, and after eating the child, she would tan their skins and leave them to dry on an oak tree. After that, she would wear the skins around her waist like she were Buffalo Bill. To add an extra layer of nightmare fuel, some retellings declare that the gnashing of her teeth and her howls could be heard five miles away.
Eventually during the nineteenth-century I assume people finally decided to use their brains to get rid of the old crone: they fill in her cave likely burying her alive. But whether that meant it was the end of Black Annis' terror... I'll leave that to you to decide.
Mitigating factors? Freudian Excuse?[]
While her origins remain unknown, the one constant is Black Annis' sadism and general terribleness. She eats and skins children. There is nothing mitigating or sympathetic about this Bogeyman figure.
Heinous standard[]
Not much to say here; she is a prolific child kidnapper, murderer, cannibal and wears the pelts of her victims after sucking them dry.