Allison Gross

Allison Gross is a literary-folkloric character attested in the Child Ballad corpus (Child 35, Roud 3212). The ballad was collected from a Scottish source (Mrs. Brown / Anne/Anna Gordon of Aberdeen) and first appeared in print in the early nineteenth century (published by Robert Jamieson in 1806). The character originates in that ballad tradition rather than in a named independent cult or ritual lineage; later folk-revival recordings and retellings have preserved and varied the verses, with some renditions truncating or omitting the restorative material.

The ballad repeatedly labels her a hideous figure; one line calls her "the ugliest witch in the north country." Beyond this emphatic description of ugliness, the provided sources give no sustained or detailed physical portrait. Later summaries and recordings echo the ballad's minimal phrasing, portraying her chiefly by her reputed hideousness and her role as an intrusive, coercive suitor.

In the narrative Allison Gross attempts to bribe and court a man with actions and objects (combing his hair; offering a scarlet mantle, a silk shirt with pearls, and a golden cup). When these gifts fail to secure his consent, she performs a curse: she blows a horn three times, swears an oath to make him regret refusal, and strikes him with a silver wand, transforming him into a wyrm (loathly worm / dragon) and binding him to a tree. Her power is potent but not absolute: in versions that include the restorative episode, the Queen of the Seelie Court strokes the wyrm three times and restores him to human form, indicating Allison's acts can be overridden by fairy royalty.