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Black Annis, also known as Black Agnes, is a bogeyman figure in English folklore. She is imagined as a blue-faced crone or witch with iron claws and a taste for humans (especially children).〔Briggs, Katharine Mary (1976) ''An Encyclopedia of Fairies'', Pantheon Books, ISBN 978-0-394-73467-5, p.24〕 She is said to haunt the countryside of Leicestershire, living in a cave in the Dane Hills, with an oak tree at its entrance.〔Alexander, Marc (2002) ''A Companion to the Folklore, Myths & Customs of Britain'', BCA, p.23〕 She supposedly goes out onto the glens at night looking for unsuspecting children and lambs to eat, then tanning their skins by hanging them on a tree, before wearing them around her waist.〔 She would reach inside houses to snatch people. Legend has it that she used her iron claws to dig into the side of a sandstone cliff, making herself a home there which is known as Black Annis's Bower. The legend led to parents warning their children that Black Annis would catch them if they did not behave.〔 ==Origins== It is thought that the earliest written reference to Black Annis was from the eighteenth century, from which a title deed referred to a parcel of land as "Black Anny's Bower Close".〔 The Black Annis figure has several possible origins. Some have claimed, as Lethbridge did, that the origin can be found in Celtic mythology, based on Danu (or Anu),〔 or it may derive from Germanic mythology (see Hel).〔(Black Annis – leicester legend or Widespread Myths )〕 Donald A. McKenzie in his 1917 book ''Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe'' suggested the origin of the legend may go back to the mother-goddess of ancient Europe, which he contends was thought of as a devourer of children.〔MacKenzie, Donald A. (1917) ''Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe'', Kessinger, pp. 111–122〕 and he identified Black Annis as being similar to the Indic ''Kali'', Gaelic ''Muilearteach'' and ''Cailleach Bheare'',〔 the Greek ''Demeter'', the Mesopotamian ''Labartu'', the Egyptian ''Isis-Hathor'' and ''Neith''.〔 It has been suggested that the legend may derive from a popular memory of sacrifice to an ancient goddess.〔Spence, Lewis (1972) ''The Minor Traditions of British Mythology'', Ayer, ISBN 978-0-405-08989-3, p.29〕 It is thought that offerings of children may have been made to the goddess that inspired the legend in the archaeological Hunting Period, the oak tree at the cave's entrance also a common site of local meetings.〔 Annis was also represented in cat form and the legend led to a local ritual in early spring, when a dead cat would be dragged before a pack of hounds in front of her bower, to celebrate the end of winter.〔Turner, Patricia & Coulter, Charles Russell (2001) ''Dictionary of Ancient Deities'', Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-514504-5, p.102〕 Ronald Hutton however disagrees with such theories, in his book ''The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft'', suggests that the Black Annis of Leicestershire legend was based on a real person, Agnes Scott, a late medieval anchoress (or by some accounts a Dominican nun who cared for a local leper colony), born in Little Antrum, who lived a life of prayer in the cave in the Dane Hills, and was buried in the church yard in Swithland.〔Hutton, Ronald (2001) ''The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft'', Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-285449-0, pp. 274–275〕〔(BBC – h2g2 – Black Annis – Legend of Leicester )〕 Hutton suggests that the memory of Scott was distorted into the image of Black Annis, either to frighten local children, or due to the anti-anchorite sentiment that arose from the Protestant Reformation.〔 In Victorian times, the story of Agnes Scott, or Annis, became confused with the similarly named goddess Anu. Thomas Charles Lethbridge made this connection and went on to claim that Annis was the personification of the Great Goddess in crone form, leading to interest from Wiccan groups.〔 Her legend resembles the Black Lady of Bradley Woods. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Black Annis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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