As there are legends of the elder sister in the plateau, the stories of the witchy woman in the woods - the ghost mother, the vengeful bride that looks in your window for her baby - abound across all of Appalachia.
Amongst the eastern band of the Cherokee she might be mistaken for one of the Raven Mockers, twisted witches that lay in the way of darkness, prepared to steal away the livers and lives of the sick and the dying.
Why over in Pikeville, Kentucky, they might tell you she’s Miss Octavia Hatcher who was buried alive and haunts the land her body sleeps in, hands all bloody from raking at the inside of her casket. In the Cumberland Gap, they’d warn you of the pale and hungry mother who wanders the hills like an old blind wolf and would eat you right up with all her mouths if you went too far into the wrong woods.
These yarns were spun to teach you to stay safe and mind common sense - and most importantly, your mama. The stories that get lost, though, the ones hardly nobody ever lived to tell, were often just blunt and simple warnings: there is darkness here. Fear it. Trust those who can see through it, and you might live to see the dawn. Or then again, maybe not.
Old Gods of Appalachia / Episode 12: The Other Queen
