BLACK ANNIS

A very tall cannibal hag with blue face and iron claws. She is said to live in a cave in the Dane Hills in Leicestershire, England. There was a great oak tree at the entrance to the cave and Black Annis was said to hide in the tree in order to leap down onto stray children and lambs and devour them. It is also said that she gouged the cave out of the rock with her own claws.

Frightening stories about Black Annis were still told in the early twentieth century. Children were told that you could hear her grinding her teeth as she approached, which gave people just enough time to bolt their doors and step back well away from the windows. It was possible for Annis to get in through windows, and this was why Leicestershire cottages had small windows (or so it was said). Annis could reach in through a window, with her long arms, and snatch a baby.

By ancient custom, on Easter Monday there was a drag hunt from Annis’ Bower to the Mayor of Leicester’s house. The dragged bait was a dead cat doused with aniseed. The drag hunt died out at the end of the eighteenth century. The connection is that Black Annis had a monstrous cat.

Annis may be a late version of Anu, a Celtic mother goddess.

BOANNA

The Boyne River. Angus the Young is the son of the Daghda by Boanna: he is the Irish god of love (see Angus Mac Og). His palace is believed to be at the Newgrange passage grave, which stands beside the Boyne.

Boanna is also the goddess of the river, “She of the White Cows”.

There is a legend about Boanna, who is detained by Nechtan when she questions the power of his sacred spring, which is the source of knowledge.