Jenny Greenteeth a.k.a. Wicked Jenny or Ginny Greenteeth is a figure in English folklore. A river-hag, similar to Peg Powler or a grindylow, she would pull children or the elderly into the water and drown them. The name is also used to describe pondweed or duckweed, 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 and southwest Lancashire. Jenny Greenteeth was often described as green-skinned, with long hair, and sharp teeth. She is called Jinny Greenteeth in Lancashire and North Staffordshire but in Cheshire and Shropshire 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. She is likely to have been an invention to frighten children from dangerous waters, similar in nature to the Slavic Rusalka, the Kappa in Japanese mythology, or Australia’s Bunyip. But one folklorists have seen in her a memory of 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 around Lake Erie, specifically in the urban legends of Erie, Pennsylvania 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.
Appearance List Denham Tracts (1846–1859) by Michael Aislabie Denham, Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders (1879) by William Henderson, British Goblins: Welsh Folk-Lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions (1881) by Wirt Sikes – references, Lancashire Folklore (1867) by John Harland & T. T. Wilkinson, The Denham Tracts (1895, Surtees Society edition), A Dictionary of Fairies (1973) by Katharine Briggs, British Folk-Tales and Legends: A Sampler (1977) edited by Katharine Briggs.
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Description Jenny Greenteeth a.k.a. Wicked Jenny or Ginny Greenteeth is a figure in English folklore. A river-hag, similar to Peg Powler or a grindylow, she would pull children or the elderly into the water and drown them. The name is also used to describe pondweed or duckweed, 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 and southwest Lancashire. Jenny Greenteeth was often described as green-skinned, with long hair, and sharp teeth. She is called Jinny Greenteeth in Lancashire and North Staffordshire but in Cheshire and Shropshire 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. She is likely to have been an invention to frighten children from dangerous waters, similar in nature to the Slavic Rusalka, the Kappa in Japanese mythology, or Australia’s Bunyip. But one folklorists have seen in her a memory of 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 around Lake Erie, specifically in the urban legends of Erie, Pennsylvania 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.
