Black Annis

Lore & Background

Black Annis is described as a blue-faced hag or witch with iron claws who preys on children and lambs, tanning their skins and wearing them around her waist. She is said to have dug her cave out of a sandstone cliff using her iron claws, and the cave is known as Black Annis' Bower Close. She would venture out at night, reach inside houses to snatch people, and hide in the branches of an oak tree to leap upon unsuspecting prey. When she ground her teeth, people could hear her and would bolt their doors; when she howled, she could be heard 5 miles away, prompting cottagers to fasten skins across windows and place protective herbs above them.

Reader's Guide

The earliest known written reference to Black Annis comes from an eighteenth-century title deed referring to 'Black Anny's Bower Close,' with two such deeds dated May 13th and 14th, 1764. The figure has multiple proposed origins: some link her to Celtic mythology (Danu or Anu) or Germanic mythology (Hel); Donald Alexander Mackenzie suggested she derives from an ancient mother goddess who devoured children, comparing her to Kali, the Cailleach Bheare, and others. Ronald Hutton, however, argues the legend was based on a real person named Agnes Scott, a late medieval anchoress or Dominican nun who lived in a cave in the Dane Hills, and that her memory was distorted after the Protestant Reformation. The connection between Black Annis and Agnes Scott was made in an 1842 Leicester Chronicle article. The legend also appears in monstrous cat form, with a local ritual of dragging a dead cat before hounds on Easter Monday, a custom that died out by the end of the 18th century. A play titled 'Black Anna's Bower, or the Maniac of the Dane Hills' was performed in 1837.

Did You Know?

• Black Annis is said to have used her iron claws to dig her cave out of a sandstone cliff.
• Cottages in Leicestershire were purposely built with small windows so Black Annis could only get a single arm inside.
• The earliest known written reference to Black Annis is from a 1790 poem by John Heyrick.

The Hag of the Dane Hills

Black Annis, also called Black Agnes or Black Anna, is a fearsome bogeywoman from English folklore who haunts the Leicestershire countryside. She is envisioned as a blue-faced hag or witch armed with iron claws, with a particular appetite for human flesh—children being her preferred prey. Her dwelling is a cave carved into a sandstone cliff in the Dane Hills, which she allegedly excavated herself using those same iron claws. This home is known locally as Black Annis' Bower Close, marked by a great oak tree at its entrance. At night, she ventures out in search of unsuspecting children and lambs. After devouring her victims, she would tan their skins by hanging them from a tree, then drape them around her waist like a grotesque belt. She was also known to stretch her claws into the windows of houses to snatch sleeping inhabitants. Another telling detail: she would lurk in the branches of her oak tree, waiting to spring upon anyone foolish enough to pass beneath.

How the Villagers Fought Back

The legend of Black Annis left a deep imprint on the daily lives of Leicestershire families, shaping both architecture and household routines. One tradition holds that cottages in the region were deliberately constructed with small windows, a design choice meant to limit her reach so that only a single iron-clawed arm could fit inside. When the hag ground her teeth, the sound served as an audible warning, giving residents precious moments to bolt their doors and stay clear of any window. Her howl was said to carry five miles across the countryside. Upon hearing it, cottagers would quickly fasten animal skins across their windows and hang protective herbs above the frames as a barrier against her intrusion. Beyond these physical precautions, the figure became a powerful tool of parental discipline. Mothers and fathers across Leicestershire would warn misbehaving children that Black Annis would come for them if they did not obey, embedding the bogeywoman's name into the fabric of childhood fear and compliance.

Roots in Myth and Memory

Scholars have long debated the true origins of the Black Annis legend. T. C. Lethbridge traced her to Celtic mythology, linking her to the goddess Danu or Anu, while others saw a connection to the Germanic figure Hel. Donald Alexander Mackenzie, in his 1917 study of Cretan and pre-Hellenic myths, argued the tale stretched back to an ancient European mother goddess conceived as a devourer of children, drawing parallels to the Indic Kali, the Gaelic Muilearteach and Cailleach Bheare, the Greek Demeter, the Mesopotamian Labartu, and the Egyptian Isis-Hathor and Neith. Ronald Hutton offered a very different explanation in The Triumph of the Moon. He proposed the legend grew from the memory of Agnes Scott, a late-medieval anchoress—possibly a Dominican nun who tended a local leper colony—born in Little Antrum, who lived in prayer in a Dane Hills cave and was buried in Swithland churchyard. Hutton suggested her memory was twisted into a monster to frighten children or as part of anti-anchorite sentiment during the Protestant Reformation. By the Victorian era, the name Annis had become entangled with the goddess Anu, a conflation Lethbridge seized upon to cast Annis as the Great Goddess in crone form, sparking interest among Wiccan practitioners.

Echoes in Ritual and Theatre

The Black Annis legend extended well beyond simple storytelling, embedding itself in local customs and even the stage. One tradition held that she also took the form of a monstrous cat, known as Cat Anna, who supposedly dwelt in the cellars beneath Leicester Castle, connected by an underground passage to the Dane Hills. In early spring, a local ritual celebrated the end of winter: a dead cat drenched in aniseed was dragged before a pack of hounds from Annis' Bower to the mayor of Leicester's house. According to Katharine Briggs, this drag hunt took place on Easter Monday, also called Black Monday, and the custom faded by the close of the eighteenth century. On the theatrical front, an 1837 production at the Leicester Theatre titled Black Anna's Bower, or the Maniac of the Dane Hills, cast the bogeywoman in a role reminiscent of the witches in Macbeth, involving the murder of a landlady at the Blue Boar Inn. The earliest written reference to the figure predates all of this: title deeds dated May 13th and 14th, 1764, identified a parcel of land as 'Black Anny's Bower Close,' a mention preserved in the first volume of County Folklore, published by The Folklore Society in 1895.