Tanith is a 1977 supernatural horror novella by Jack D. Shackleford.
In a cottage in the English woods Virginia Lane is brooding over a recent argument with her novelist husband Richard when she catches a glimpse of a horrific humanoid creature lurking in her garden. At first she dismisses the encounter as a result of stress and too much sun. But as days pass with no sign of Richard, and as a sinister woman named Tanith Rowan begins insinuating herself into her life, Virginia finds herself on a collision course with her own dark past in witchcraft and a potentially deadly future among ancient, eldritch creatures of folklore.
Memorable for its lurid eroticism and a NSFW cover illustration by renowned fantasy artist Chris Achiellos,
◊ Tanith also deserves mention as an imaginative delve into British witchcraft by an author who was himself a practicing witch.
Not to be confused with a British author with a similar name from the same time period.
This work contains examples of the following tropes:
- Affably Evil: Tanith and Selwyn Rowan, and the wood-woses themselves. Despite the wood-woses' horrific appearance, they are not depicted as malicious under most circumstances and normally just try to stay out of human beings' way. The Rowans seem to genuinely like Virginia (Tanith in particular likes her a lot,) and the only reason they do what they do to her is to prevent the wood-woses and Tanith herself from dying.
- Antagonist Title: Tanith is an evil witch responsible for several deaths and out to subject Virginia to ritual rape.
- Attempted Rape: A rogue wood-wose tries it on Virginia but is stopped by his fellows. Unfortunately, a later one is successful.
- Awesome McCoolname: Tanith Rowan. Mrs. Wayne-Johnston remarks that with a name like that it's no surprise that she became a witch.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Tanith Rowan and her husband Selwyn: a pair of Satanic witches who are sacrificing women in an attempt to revive a Dying Race.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Rowans and their wood-wose allies are defeated by the combined efforts of the police and Mrs. Wayne-Johnston's staff, but not before Salor succeeds in raping and impregnating Ginny.
- Book Ends: The story begins and ends with a woman being frightened by the sight of a wood-wose lurking outside a window.
- Casanova Wannabe: Tom Underhill fancies himself a playboy but gets treated like a joke on account of it and Ginny seems quite immune to his charms.
- Child by Rape: Unfortunately the only method by which the wood-wose race can now reproduce.
- Also the case with Tanith, whose mother was mentally ill and may not even have understood what sex was when she was taken advantage of by the family gardener.
- Cool Old Lady: Mrs. Wayne-Johnston is a tough-as-nails ninety-something who inspires fierce loyalty from her staff and isn't afraid to stand up to the supernatural.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The stone-age wood-woses prove to be no match for the fire-wielding villagers.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Virginia experimented with witchcraft once before and it did not go well.
- Depraved Bisexual: Tanith, who is married to a man, has no qualms about seducing an emotionally vulnerable woman as part of her black magic schemes.
- Distressed Damsel: Despite the reawakening of her powers, Virginia still needs a full-on rescue at the climax.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Selwyn is gearing up for an all-out Battle in the Center of the Mind with Virginia, whose magic powers have just returned, only to get kicked to death by a frightened horse before the fight can really get going.
- Dying Race: The wood-woses, who have entered into a bargain with Tanith to reactivate their reproductive cycle.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Selwyn's love for Tanith is admittedly twisted and objectifying, but all the evil acts he commits are purely to protect her.
- Evil Wears Black: If she has to wear clothes at all, Tanith will be seen in either a skimpy black bikini or all-black riding suit.
- Kill It with Fire: The wood-woses are exterminated when the villagers set fire to their habitat.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It is never made clear whether the wood-woses are a supernatural species or just a race of primitive humanoids, and characters seem to alternatingly refer to them in both terms throughout.
- Ms. Fanservice: Both Tanith and Virginia, whose constant appearances in both skimpy clothing and full nudity are described in lengthy detail. Eventually Tanith graphically seduces Virginia.
- No Immortal Inertia: A variation occurs. Tanith is not immortal but her terminal cancer and the wasting that comes with it are held in check by magic. When the ritual that was supposed to cure the cancer once and for all is disrupted the disease immediately catches up to where it is supposed to be, ravaging her body and appearance and killing her in just a few days.
- Our Orcs Are Different: The wood-woses: actual creatures from British legend. In this version they are squat, hideous, muscular humanoids armed with claws and primitive weapons, and believed by some to be creations of Satan.
- Secretly Dying:
- Tanith is motivated by terminal cancer, and is running out of time.
- To outsiders Mrs. Wayne-Johnston presents herself as a tall, imposing woman who might need a cane but is otherwise in no way hampered by being in her mid-nineties. In truth, she is incredibly frail from old age, requires constant assistance from her servants in order to function, and her performances of appearing tough and unhindered by age are excruciating and take more and more out of her.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: There is a subplot with Mrs. Wayne-Johnston sending her servant Ken on a mission to construct a witches' pentacle and obtain a ritual dagger for the battle against Tanith. These items turn out to be of no use whatsoever when Tanith finally confronts her.
- Skinny Dipping: Tanith surprises Virginia by showing up to poolside nude, claiming it's how she normally swims.
- Torches and Pitchforks: The final battle has the townsfolk loyal to Mrs. Wayne-Johnston attacking with torches.
- The Unfought: Neither Big Bad gets in on the action in the end, with Tanith running for the hills once the wood-woses start dying around her and Selwyn getting trampled by a horse before he can contribute.
