The Baker's Wife and the Witch in the Wood

Once there was a clearing just at the river's edge. A trading post, some men decided, would suit perfectly there. Titania agreed and gave the people her blessings. Little by little, house by house, the trading post grew. At the edge, atop a hill, where the wind could be caught the best, the Baker would reside. With home and workshop established, the baker and his wife moved in. But plague spares no one. Plague took the townspeople one by one until the remaining abandoned the settlement. 
The Baker and his wife were not able to escape, the woman too far along with child. Though they were given support by Titania, the baker fell ill and died shortly after their daughter's birth. So too did the daughter pass. The Baker's Wife was left alone, lost in grief. Then, the whispers came. Quiet at first, fueling her grief, offering comfort in the darkness. As the whispers grew stronger, they began to make promises. The Baker's wife clung to those promises and false hopes and began to do the bidding of the demon.
Tanyval, an older fae man who sympathized with the wife's loss, visited often, providing her food and company. She slew him and carved him up like an animal, feeding his remains into the knot hole of a dead tree behind her house. The darkness trapped inside the tree grew and grew, feasting off the fading energy of Tanyval. 
Next, the Baker's wife lured in Tanyval's young nephew, who went looking for him. She took him to the tree and before the young man could recognize the faint energy seeping from the tree it was too late. The tainted roots ensnared him and dragged him to the tree, binding him to the bark as it fed off his very life force. For ten days it fed upon him, his body sunk deeper and deeper into the tree, until he too disappeared into the hollow center. 
Bolstered by the magic and life of two fae, the whispers grew stronger. The demon within formed a full pact with the widow, granting her use of it's magic. The witch practiced and practiced, drawing off the life force of living things fed to the tree. She wove an illusion, restoring her home to it's former glory and filled it with the sounds of a crying child. She lived within her illusory world for decades, feeding fae who drew too near to her demon patron and entraping any men or small girls who wandered to her home within her illusions. When ever one broke from her illusions, she would kill them and feed them to the demon once more.

Summary

A young woman fell deep into her grief at the loss of her husband and child. A demon of unknown origin preyed upon her grief to entice her into feeding it and making a pact bond with it. The woman was driven mad and used the demon's powers to correct her life by trapping visitors within her spells. Once they broke free from her charms, she slaughtered them and fed them to her demon counterpart to then wait for the next victims to cross her.

Historical Basis

The events catalogued in the myth are based on true events, though exaggerated with the amount of murders.

Spread

This myth is well known among the Elvalon, Agaland, and Gyrmania kingdoms.