Bloody Bones

For the Laurell K. Hamilton novel, see Bloody Bones (novel).

Bloody Bones is a boogeyman feared by children, and is sometimes called Rawhead and Bloody-Bones, Tommy Rawhead, or "Rawhead". The term was used "to awe children, and keep them in subjection", as recorded by John Locke in 1693.[1] The stories originated in Great Britain where they were particularly common in Lancashire and Yorkshire,[2] and spread to North America, where the stories were common in the Southern USA.[3] The Oxford English Dictionary cites 1550 as the earliest written appearance as "Hobgoblin, Rawhed, and Bloody-bone".

Bloody-Bones is usually said to live near ponds, but according to Ruth Tongue in Somerset Folklore, "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.” [4]

References

  1. ^ John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, Cambridge University Press, 1902 edition, pg 117.
  2. ^ Wright, Elizabeth Mary, Rustic Speech and Folk-Lore, London:H. Milford, 1913, p. 199.
  3. ^ Frederic Gomes Cassidy, Joan Houston Hall, Dictionary of American regional English, Harvard University Press, 1985, p. 486.
  4. ^ As quoted in Katharine M. Briggs, The Fairies in Tradition and Literature, London:Routledge, 1967, pg. 68.

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