Bloody Bones is a

bogeyman The bogeyman (; also spelled or known as bogyman, bogy, bogey, and, in US English, also boogeyman) is a mythical creature typically used to frighten children into good behavior. Bogeymen have no specific appearances, and conceptions vary drast ...

figure in English and North American

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

whose first written appearance is approximately 1548. As with all bogeymen the figure has been used to frighten children into proper deportment. The character is sometimes called Rawhead, Tommy Rawhead, or Rawhead-and-Bloody-Bones (with or without the hyphens).

Origins

The

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

cites approximately 1548 as the earliest written appearance of "Bloodybone". The term "Raw-Head and Bloody-Bones, and such other Names" was used "to awe children, and keep them in subjection", as recorded by

John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) – 28 October 1704 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.)) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thi ...

in 1693.

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

in his '' Dictionary of the English Language'' (first published in 1755) defined "Rawhead" as "the name of a spectre, mentioned to fright children". The stories originated in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

where they were particularly common in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

,Wright, Elizabeth Mary (1913). ''Rustic Speech and Folk-Lore''. Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press. p. 199.Briggs, Katharine (1976). ''An Encyclopedia of Fairies''. Pantheon Books. pp. 338-339. . and spread to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

where the stories were common in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

Folklore

Bloody Bones is sometimes regarded as a water demon haunting deep ponds, oceans, and old

marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, Clay minerals, clays, and silt. When Lithification, hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. M ...

pits (which often became filled with water to form ponds) where it dragged children into the depths, much like the

grindylow In English folklore, Grindylow or Grundylow is a creature in the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire. The name is thought to be connected to Grendel, a name or term used in ''Beowulf'' and in many Old English charters where it is seen in connect ...

and

Jenny Greenteeth Jenny Greenteeth a.k.a. Wicked Jenny, Ginny Greenteeth and Grinteeth is a figure in English folklore. A river- hag, similar to Peg Powler and derived from the grindylow, she would pull children or the elderly into the water and drown them. T ...

. Children were told to "keep away from the marl-pit or Rawhead and Bloody Bones will have you." Ruth Tongue said in ''Somerset Folklore'' that he "lived in a dark cupboard, usually under the stairs. If you were heroic enough to peep through a crack you would get a glimpse of the dreadful, crouching creature, with blood running down his face, seated waiting on a pile of raw bones that had belonged to children who told lies or said bad words. If you peeped through the keyhole he got you anyway." Old Bloody Bones is a Cornish version of Rawhead-and-Bloody-Bones according to F. W. Jones in ''Old Cornwall''. Old Bloody Bones inhabited Knockers Hole near the village of Baldhu. There was said to have been a massacre in the area, and it is suggested that he was a

ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

or evil spirit attracted by the carnage. In the Southern United States, Rawhead and Bloody Bones are sometimes regarded as two individual creatures or two separate parts of the same monster. One is a skull stripped of skin that bites its victims (Rawhead) and its companion is a dancing headless skeleton (Bloody Bones). In one

cautionary tale A cautionary tale or moral tale is a tale told in folklore to warn its listener of a Risk, danger. There are three essential parts to a cautionary tale, though they can be introduced in a large variety of ways. First, a taboo or prohibition is ...

a gossip loses his head to the monster as punishment for his wicked tongue. Legends about Bloody Bones eventually made their way into

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

tradition as well as spreading to other parts of the United States."Bloody Bones: A History of Southern Scares"
''Deep South Magazine

References

External links

{{Fairies 16th-century neologisms Fictional characters introduced in the 16th century English folklore English legendary creatures Cornish legendary creatures Fairies American legendary creatures Folklore of the Southern United States European ghosts Water spirits Bogeymen Demons