Jenny Greenteeth
Water HagEnglish FolkloreDangerousRiver SpiritDrowning
Lore
Jenny Greenteeth is a Fae water-hag said to haunt slow rivers, ponds and backwaters. In the field she presents as a chill presence at the edge of standing water: the air carries a musty green smell of pondweed and wet earth with a faint metallic tang, the water answers with soft gurgling like breath and a high, sing-song voice that can mimic a child, and the temperature around her is unnaturally cold and clammy, as if the bank itself exhales. Visually she is remembered as a slick, green-skinned figure with dark, water-hung hair and a wide, toothy mouth—an impression best treated as warning rather than invitation.
Origin: English • Lancashire / Northern England
Classification: Fae (Water Hag)
Profile & Cultural Role
Affinities
Freshwater, Algae, Moss, Stagnation, Children (prey)
Offerings
None
Taboos
Allowing children to play unsupervised at ponds after dusk, Reaching into still water for a gleaming object or 'teeth'
Field Notes
Observations
- A still, darker patch of water ringed by green scum and trailing tendrils of weed, paired with the sound of soft, childlike singing from beneath the surface.
Encounter Advice
- avoidance: Keep a safe distance from murky banks, never lean or reach over still water alone, supervise children and animals closely near ponds and slow streams. Use bridges or cleared paths; treat any quiet, green-ringed pool as hazardous.
- defense: If someone is pulled toward the water, do not enter without rescue equipment. Use a long pole, rope, or branch to break contact and haul them back; shout and make noise to disturb the water and draw help. In an encounter with the hag herself, maintain distance, avoid responding to coaxing voices, and withdraw to solid ground—priority is preservation, not confrontation.
- offering: No reliable appeasement is recorded; local lore sometimes mentions leaving small tokens at the bank (a coin or a scrap of cloth) but such practices are inconsistent and never a substitute for caution.
Abilities
- Green-Teeth LureReveals a flash of mottled green teeth and a childlike, mossy voice that irresistibly draws small children and the unwary to the water's edge.
- Bog-GraspConjures adhesive strands of algae and cold, rootlike tendrils from the pond to hook limbs and haul victims beneath the surface with supernatural weight.
- Algal CamouflageRenders herself indistinguishable from floating logs or clumps of pond‑scum until she strikes, allowing ambushes from the waterline.
Weaknesses
- Sunlight ExposureBecomes weakened and less able to manifest her lures or grasp when forced into full daylight or drying sun.
- Iron WardsRepelled and disrupted by iron or forged warding placed at a pond's edge, which breaks her hold on victims and prevents approach.
- Dry GroundLoses most of her strength and cannot maintain her bog-tendrils or camouflage away from stagnant freshwater.