Black Annis

Ismene, better known by the title Black Annis, was one of the Firstborn by Oberon and Maeve. Maeve claimed her. She was sister to Luidaeg and Gentle Annie. She was the holder of the Thorn Roads until her death at the hands of one of Titania's children, at an unknown time. She “died as she was rumored to have died, when Conláed hunted her through marsh and fen with fire in his hands and murder in his unthawed heart” (When Sorrows Come).

She is the Firstborn of the Gwragedd Anwwn.

History[]

From Luidaeg's memory:

"She and her sisters were goddesses then, she and Black Annis and Gentle Annie, tending the younger children, roaming the bogs and rivers of the world. Maeve’s Firstborn, pulled from her in blood and screaming while Oberon walked far, far away. But they died one by one at the hands of men and fae, by iron and ash and rowan and fire they died, until the Luidaeg was the last, running, always running, called monster and demon because her blood was so much older and wilder than their own." ^[1]

Mythology[]

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). She is said to haunt the countryside of Leicestershire, living in a cave in the Dane Hills, with an oak tree at its entrance.

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. ^[2]