In recent days, I’ve been seeing the name Jenny Greenteeth pop up in comments on my favourite place on the Internet – the Folk Horror Revival group on Facebook. Why I haven’t taken the time to look into Jenny before I don’t know. The other day, I thought to myself: ‘Eh, she won’t be that terrifying…but I might as well have a look see and read into her a bit.’
How gloriously surprised I was to find that she’s horrific!
With her matted hair, obscenely long-limbs, wicked gaze and pointed teeth, Jenny Greenteeth makes me uneasy. (Hurrah!) The art I’ve found made in honour of her is (mostly) bone-chilling stuff that won’t be easily forgotten.
The threat of Jenny Greenteeth – ‘Watch out! Jenny will get you!’ – has long been used in the North-West of England. Duckweed, one of Britain’s most common water plants, can create what looks like a smooth, green mat over still bodies of water…and all too often children have tried to walk on it. To keep them of harms ways, generations of parents have told young’uns that duckweed is a sign of the presence of Jenny Greenteeth. That she waits just below the surface of the water, ready to grab the ankle of any child who gets that bit too close to the water’s edge.
While Jenny Greenteeth is the name you’ll hear most commonly used, she’s also known as Jinny Greenteeth, Peg Powler, Ginny Greenteeth, Jeannie Greenteeth, Wicked Jenny, Screeching Ginny, Jenny Wi’ the Airn Teeth, Ginny Burntarse, and Nelly Longarms.
My name is Katie Metcalfe and I’m an English author, blogger, poet and songwriter. I have a northern fever and tend to be a bit too wyrd for most people.
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Celebrating the strange and the shadowy, the damned and unseen 