Jenny Greenteeth a.k.a. Wicked Jenny or Ginny Greenteeth is a figure in

English folklore English folklore consists of the myths and legends of England, including the English region's mythical creatures, traditional recipes, urban legends, proverbs, superstitions, and folktales. Its cultural history is rooted in Celtic, Christian, ...

. A river-

hag HAG is a Swiss maker of model trains. The company was founded by Hugo and Alwin Gahler on 1 April 1944 in St. Gallen, Switzerland. The Gahler brothers originally manufactured model trains in O scale but due to competition, particularly by Märk ...

, similar to

Peg Powler Peg Powler is a hag and water spirit in English folklore who inhabits the River Tees. Similar to the Grindylow, Jenny Greenteeth, and Nelly Longarms, she drags children into the water if they get too close to the edge. She is regarded as a bogey ...

or a

grindylow In English folklore, grindylow or grundylow is a creature in the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West Engl ...

, she would pull children or the elderly into the water and drown them. The name is also used to describe pondweed or

duckweed Lemnoideae is a subfamily of flowering aquatic plants, known as duckweeds, water lentils, or water lenses. They float on or just beneath the surface of still or slow-moving bodies of fresh water and wetlands. Also known as bayroot, they arose ...

, which can form a continuous mat over the surface of a small body of water, making it misleading and potentially treacherous, especially to unwary children. With this meaning the name is common around

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and southwest

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

Description and name

Jenny Greenteeth was often described as green-skinned, with long hair, and sharp teeth. She is called Jinny Greenteeth in

and

North Staffordshire The federation of Stoke-on-Trent was the 1910 amalgamation of the six Staffordshire Potteries towns of Burslem, Tunstall, Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Fenton and Longton into the single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. An anomaly in the history ...

but in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

and

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

she is called Wicked Jenny, Ginny Greenteeth or Jeannie Greenteeth. She is also described as lurking in the upper branches of trees at night, although this may be a folklorist's confusion with the northern English ''Jinny-hewlet'', a folk name for an owl.

Similar folk figures around the world

She is likely to have been an invention to frighten children from dangerous waters, similar in nature to the Slavic

Rusalka In Slavic folklore, the rusalka (plural: rusalky/rusalki; ; pl, rusałka}) is a typically feminine entity, often malicious toward mankind and frequently associated with water, with counterparts in other parts of Europe, such as the French Melus ...

, the

Kappa Kappa (uppercase Κ, lowercase κ or cursive ; el, κάππα, ''káppa'') is the 10th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless velar plosive sound in Ancient and Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals, has a value o ...

in Japanese mythology, or Australia's

Bunyip The bunyip is a creature from the aboriginal mythology of southeastern Australia, said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds, and waterholes. Name The origin of the word ''bunyip'' has been traced to the Wemba-Wemba or Wergaia ...

. Some folklorists believe the tale recalls sacrificial practices. A similar figure in Jamaican folklore is called the River Mumma (River Mother). She is said to live at the fountainhead of large rivers in Jamaica sitting on top of a rock, combing her long black hair with a gold comb. She usually appears at midday and she disappears if she observes anyone approaching. However, if an intruder sees her first and their eyes meet, terrible things will happen to the intruder. A similar figure known as the Storm Hag (uncommonly also known as Jenny Greenteeth) appears in

American folklore American folklore encompasses the folklores that have evolved in the present-day United States since Europeans arrived in the 16th century. While it contains much in the way of Native American tradition, it is not wholly identical to the tribal ...

around

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

, specifically in the urban legends of

Erie, Pennsylvania Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...

in which sailors use a paranormal being to explain the dangers and shipwrecks in the Erie Quadrangle (lake area around Erie County). The Storm Hag is said to be a green skinned woman with teeth like a shark's but green, as well as piercing yellow eyes, who rests on the bottom of the Lake, off the coast of Presque Isle and sings a song whenever a ship approaches. When the sailors of the ship hear the song, the Storm Hag attacks the ship and crew with violent storms and waves, sinking and devouring them.

In popular culture

Jenny Greenteeth inspired the lake monster Meg Mucklebones in the 1985

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades thr ...

fantasy film ''

Legend A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...

''. Jenny Green Teeth (note the words are separated) is the title character in a book of short stories, ''Jenny Green Teeth & Other Short Stories'', by New Zealand-born English writer and Scholar

Joel Hayward Joel Hayward (born 1964) is a New Zealand-born British scholar, writer and poet. The daily newspaper '' Al Khaleej'' called Hayward "a world authority on international conflict and strategy". '' The National'' newspaper called Hayward "eminent" ...

. Jenny Green Teeth is also the main subject of a poem, "Welsh Maiden", by

in his collection, ''Lifeblood: A Book of Poems'' (2003); and is recalled by

John Heath-Stubbs John Francis Alexander Heath-Stubbs (9 July 1918 – 26 December 2006) was an English poet and translator. He is known for verse influenced by classical myths, and for a long Arthurian poem, ''Artorius'' (1972). Biography and works Heath-Stub ...

in his poem "The Green Man's Last Will and Testament", lamenting the eclipse of "the cruel nymphs/ Of the northern streams,

of the Tees/ And Jenny Greenteeth of the Ribble".C A Duffy ed., ''The Map and the Clock'' (London 2016) p. 506-7 In the novelette "Water Babies" by Simon Brown, Jenny Greenteeth is mentioned as being one of many names for a child-snatching water-demon. In the novella, an Australian police officer investigates a series of drownings that turn out to be predatory attacks by a seal-like creature. She appears in

Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his ''Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first nov ...

's ''

The Wee Free Men ''The Wee Free Men'' is a 2003 comic fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, which takes place in his Discworld setting. It is labelled a "Story of Discworld" to indicate its status as children's or young adult fiction, unlike most of ...

'', attacking the main character, Tiffany Aching, and her brother, Wentworth, near a shallow stream. Jenny Greenteeth appears in a number of ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

'' (5th Edition) adventure modules, including: DDEX01-08 "Tales Trees Tell" (2014), DDAL04-01 "Suits of the Mist" (2016), DDAL04-06 "The Ghost" (2016), and DDAL04-14 "The Dark Lord" (2016). Jenny Greenteeth appears in the story " Something Borrowed" and in the novel '' Summer Knight'', and is mentioned in the novel '' Proven Guilty'', all by

Jim Butcher Jim Butcher (born October 26, 1971) is an American author., He has written the contemporary fantasy ''The Dresden Files'', ''Codex Alera'', and ''Cinder Spires'' book series. Personal life Butcher was born in Independence, Missouri, in 1971. He ...

; and is also mentioned in '' Ink Exchange'' by

Melissa Marr Melissa Marr (born July 25, 1972) is an American author of young adult/urban fantasy novels. Biography Marr, a former university English teacher, currently resides in Arizona. Her first novel was published in 2007, the New York Times bestseller ...

. She also appears in the story "Pretty Jennie Greenteeth" by Leife Shallcross, which won the 2016

Aurealis Award for best young adult short story The Aurealis Awards are presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and WASFF to published works in order to "recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, horror writers". To qualify, a work must have ...

. In the sci-fi video game '' Remember Me'', there is a mutated character named Johnny Greenteeth. She appears in the short comic book story ''The Corpse'' by

Mike Mignola Mike Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comics artist and writer best known for creating ''Hellboy'' for Dark Horse Comics, part of a shared universe of titles including ''B.P.R.D.'', '' Abe Sapien'', '' Lobster Johnson'', '' Wit ...

References

Citations

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