Jenny Green Teeth

For one of my first university assignments, I had to write two short stories. They had to contemporise some element of myth, setting it in the now. I chose to write about a lesser known myth called Jenny Greenteeth, which is thought to originate from Midlands. I also wrote about the much better known, Merlin.

I recently got my feedback for the work, and actually did pretty well! And so, I would like to share one with you, the people of the internet!

If you haven’t previously been acquainted, Jenny Greenteeth is an infamous, boggart-like creature that inhabits wild waters. Parents would tell their children not to play too close to ponds or rivers or ‘Jenny’ll get ya!’. She was also allegedly able to travel through any plant life to stalk her victims, even through the tree tops.

This is an interpretation of her story that came out of a complete free-write that has since been boiled and sieved several times. All comments and criticism are happily received!

Fin!

In wondering why monster Jenny might take the children, I thought, what if she was trying to save them? What if she only took little ones who were unhappy or suffered some sort of abuse? In an earlier draft, after she dies several small bundles bob to the surface. Inside them are the perfectly preserved corpses of many ‘missing’ children from over a long period of time, most of them the state were monitoring at the point of their disappearance. Word count and later drafts led to this getting cut from the final submission, but I felt it still worked to retain social worker Jenny and her connection to the other ‘missing’ children.

I hope you enjoyed it! Please feel free to comment below!