Raw Head and Blood Bones

Along with worrying whether my feet were hanging over the edge if the bed or not, I had this deep ceded fear that something was going to grab my ankles when I descended the stairs to my grandmother’s basement.  She used to do a lot of canning and she would send me down for a jar of tomatoes or apple sauce or even venison.  Thank god her body-size freezer was in her kitchen or would have had to go down their much more often.

I would slowly open the basement door.  You know, just in case there was something there.  I’d turn the light on and crane my neck around to see if something was lurking in the shadows.  When I was satisfied that I had done all I could do, I would hold my breath and run as fast as I could down the steps.  I was lucky I didn’t fall and break my pathetic coward neck.  I think I did this into my teens.

Raw Head and Bloody Bones (one person, not a deadly duo) is an English Nursery Bogey.  He takes a humanoid figure with blood dripping down his face.  He sits on a pile of the bones of children who have told lies or said bad words.  In some stories he lurks in stagnant ponds or under the stairs.  Yes, folks, it’s not just Harry Potter living under the stairs.   Raw Head and Bloody Bones waits, biding his time to snatch up a misbehaving child.

I’m so thankful that I didn’t know this story as a child or I would have never gone down into the basement. 

I think this will be my Halloween costume this year.  I’ll wear a tag that says:

HELLO 

MY NAME IS

Raw Head and Bloody Bones

No one is going to get it.  I think I’ll wear a hat.  Raw Head and Blood Bones needs a hat. 

Black Annis

Medusa Head -- Istanbul. 

Not relevant but a pretty nifty photo.

On another Halloween a few years later, I dressed up as Medusa. I know. I see the pattern here as well – my unnatural obsession with mythological characters.  Not to mention the two day hangover that followed both Halloweens.  It’s possible this is why I don’t like Halloween parties anymore.  I don’t look forward to the recovery time.  Heaven forbid I go to a party dressed like a normal Naughty Kitty and sip Diet Coke.  I digress. 

Oh, Medusa made me think Gorgon and that made me think Hag.  Mythology is full of Crones and Hags and generally unpleasant woman.  Take the story of Hansel and Gretel (witch that wanted to bake with them, literally), Snow White (the witch/Queen, not Snow White), Sleeping Beauty (again, witch not Sleeping Beauty.)   What do all of these stories have in common?  A horrible bitch that wants to ruin their lives. 

I can think of one that easily tops those three.

Black Annis is the demon hag from Danes Hills, outside Leicester in England.  It has been theorized that she derived for the goddess Danu.  Hmm, mother goddess to horrible old woman?  It wouldn’t be the first time a goddess is turned Hag.  Funny it usually coincides with conversion to Christianity.  Threatened much?

This hag has long iron claws, yellow fangs and a horrible blue face.  She’s not just ugly, she’s really ugly.  She lives in cave that she dug out with her own claws called the Black Annis Bower.  She likes to prey on children that stray too close to Danes Hills.  She skins them and eats them and drinks their blood.  She hangs their skin in trees to dry. 

Yes, a truly unpleasant woman.